【連載】提供《高級英語教程》

海外逸士

高級英語教材第20課

先讀課文﹕
A Tale of Two Cities 雙城記
by Charles Dickens

Chapter I      The Period
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom;
it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief; it was the epoch
of incredulity; it was the season of Light; it was the season of Darkness;
it was the spring of hope; it was the winter of despair. We had everything
before us; we had nothing before us; we were all going direct to Heaven;
we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far
like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted
on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of
comparison only.
There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the
throne of England; there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a
fair face, on the throne of France. In both countries it was clearer than
crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things
in general were settled for ever.
It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five
(1775). Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured
period, as at this. Mrs. Southcott had recently attained her five-and-twentieth
blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private in the Life Guards had heralded
the sublime appearance by announcing that arrangements were made for the
swallowing up of London and Westminster. Even the Cock-lane ghost [1] had
been laid only a round dozen of years, after rapping out its messages, as
the spirits of this very year last past (supernaturally deficient in originality)
rapped out theirs. Mere messages in the earthly order of events had lately
come to the English Crown and People, from a congress of British subjects
in America: which, strange to relate, have proved more important to the human
race than any communications yet received through any of the chickens of
the Cock-lane brood.
France, less favoured on the whole as to matters spiritual than her sister
of the shield and trident [2], rolled with exceeding smoothness down hill,
making paper money and spending it. Under the guidance of her Christian
pastors, she entertained herself, besides, with such humane achievements
as sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with
pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the
rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks which passed within his
view, at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards. It is likely enough that,
rooted in the woods of France and Norway, there were growing trees, when
that sufferer was put to death, already marked by the Woodman, Fate, to come
down and be sawn into boards, to make a certain movable framework with a
sack and a knife in it, terrible in history. It is likely enough that in
the rough outhouses of some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent to Paris,
there were sheltered from the weather that very day, rude carts, bespattered
with rustic mire, snuffed about by pigs, and roosted in by poultry, which
the Farmer, Death, had already set apart to be his tumbrils of the Revolution.
But that Woodman and that Farmer, though they work unceasingly, work silently,
and no one heard them as they went about with muffled tread: the rather,
forasmuch as to entertain any suspicion that they were awake, was to be
atheistical and traitorous.
In England, there was scarcely an amount of order and protection to justify
much national boasting. Daring burglaries by armed men, and highway robberies,
took place in the capital itself every night; families were publicly cautioned
not to go out of town without removing their furniture to upholsterers'
warehouses for security; the highwayman in the dark was a City tradesman
in the light, and, being recognised and challenged by his fellow-tradesman
whom he stopped in his character of "the Captain," gallantly shot him through
the head and rode away; the mall was waylaid by seven robbers, and the guard
shot three dead, and then got shot dead himself by the other four, "in consequence
of the failure of his ammunition:" after which the mall was robbed in peace;
that magnificent potentate, the Lord Mayor of London, was made to stand
and deliver on Turnham Green [3], by one highwayman, who despoiled the illustrious
creature in sight of all his retinue; prisoners in London gaols fought battles
with their turnkeys, and the majesty of the law fired blunderbusses in among
them, loaded with rounds of shot and ball; thieves snipped off diamond crosses
from the necks of noble lords at Court drawing-rooms; musketeers went into
St. Giles's [4], to search for contraband goods, and the mob fired on the
musketeers, and the musketeers fired on the mob, and nobody thought any of
these occurrences much out of the common way. In the midst of them, the
hangman, ever busy and ever worse than useless, was in constant requisition;
now, stringing up long rows of miscellaneous criminals; now, hanging a housebreaker
on Saturday who had been taken on Tuesday; now, burning people in the hand
at Newgate [5] by the dozen, and now burning pamphlets at the door of Westminster
Hall; to-day, taking the life of an atrocious murderer, and to-morrow of
a wretched pilferer who had robbed a farmer's boy of sixpence.
All these things, and a thousand like them, came to pass in and close upon
the dear old year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Environed
by them, while the Woodman {Fate] and the Farmer {Death] worked unheeded,
those two of the large jaws [kings of England and France], and those other
two of the plain and the fair faces [queens of England and France], trod
with stir enough, and carried their divine rights with a high hand. Thus
did the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five conduct their Greatnesses,
and myriads of small creatures--the creatures of this chronicle among the
rest--along the roads that lay before them.

1) 生詞自查。
2) 作者介紹﹕Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 -- 9 June 1870)
was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian
period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous
author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible
for some of English literature's most iconic novels and characters.
3) 小說介紹﹕A Tale of Two Cities (1859) is a novel by Charles Dickens,
set in London and Paris before and during the French Revolution.  It ranks
among the most famous works in the history of fictional literature. The
novel depicts the plight of the French peasantry demoralized by the French
aristocracy in the years leading up to the revolution, the corresponding
brutality demonstrated by the revolutionaries toward the former aristocrats
in the early years of the revolution, and many unflattering social parallels
with life in London during the same time period. It follows the lives of
several protagonists through these events. The most notable are Charles
Darnay and Sydney Carton. Darnay is a French once-aristocrat who falls victim
to the indiscriminate wrath of the revolution despite his virtuous nature,
and Carton is a dissipated British barrister who endeavours to redeem his
ill-spent life out of his unrequited love for Darnay's wife, Lucie Manette.
4) 註釋﹕[1] The Cock Lane ghost attracted mass public attention in 18th-century
England. In 1762 an apartment in Cock Lane, a short road adjacent to London's
Smithfield market and a few minutes' walk from St Paul's Cathedral, was
the site of a reported haunting centred around three people: William Kent,
a usurer from Norfolk, Richard Parsons, a parish clerk, and Parsons' daughter
Elizabeth. Following the death during childbirth of Kent's wife, Elizabeth
Lynes, he became romantically involved with her sister, Fanny. Canon law
prevented the couple from marrying, but they nevertheless moved to London
and lodged at the property in Cock Lane, then owned by Parsons. Several
accounts of strange knocking sounds and ghostly apparitions were reported,
although for the most part they stopped after the couple moved out, but
following Fanny's death from smallpox, and Kent's successful legal action
against Parsons over an outstanding debt, they began again. Parsons claimed
that Fanny's ghost haunted his property, and later his daughter. Regular
seances were held to determine "Scratching Fanny's" motives, and Cock Lane
was often made impassable by the throngs of interested bystanders.
The ghost appeared to claim that Fanny had been poisoned with arsenic, and
Kent was publicly suspected of being her murderer, but a commission whose
members included Samuel Johnson concluded that the supposed haunting was
a fraud. Further investigations proved the scam was perpetrated by Elizabeth
Parsons, under duress from her father. Those responsible were prosecuted
and found guilty; Richard Parsons was pilloried and sentenced to two years
in prison. The Cock Lane ghost became a focus of controversy between the
Methodist and Anglican churches and is referenced frequently in contemporary
literature. Charles Dickens is one of several Victorian authors whose work
alluded to the story and the pictorial satirist William Hogarth referenced
the ghost in two of his prints. [2] Dickens' reference to England as France's
"sister of the shield and trident" makes use of a symbol of Englishness specifically
associated with currency at the time A Tale of Two Cities appeared. Moreover,
Britannia appeared on English coins, which retain a closer association
to precious metals (and thus a gold or silver standard) than paper money,
which France began to print in great quantities (and without sufficient
reserves of gold to assure its value) in the years before the French Revolution.
[3] Turnham Green is a public park situated on Chiswick High Road, Chiswick,
London. It is separated in two by a small road. [4] The St Giles's Roundhouse
was a small roundhouse or prison, mainly used to temporarily hold suspected
criminals. It was located in the St Giles area of present-day central London,
which - during the 17th and 18th centuries - was a 'rookery' notorious
for its thieves and other criminals. [5] Newgate at the west end of Newgate
Street was one of the historic seven gates of London Wall round the City
of London and one of the six which date back to Roman times.
5) 狄更斯的“雙城記”當然是世界名著。以排比句開始故事的敘述也是一個特點。
所以說﹐小說的開端最好有個特殊的切入點﹐如以前提到過的“傲慢與偏見”的開
頭。本人在美出版的小說“功夫大師”開頭也採用這種寫法﹕It was pitch dark,
ink dark, coal dark, a night without the moon--the fluorescent lamp of the
sky, not even the stars--the blinking eyes of Heaven. The overcast sky threatened
with a heavy downpour.

海外逸士

高級英語教材第21課

先讀課文﹕
Sister Carrie 嘉莉妹妹
By Theodore Dreiser

Chapter I
THE MAGNET ATTRACTING--A WAIF AMID FORCES
When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for Chicago, her total
outfit consisted of a small trunk, a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel,
a small lunch in a paper box, and yellow leather snap purse, containing
her ticket, a scrap of paper with her sister's address in Van Buren Street,
and four dollars in money. It was in August, 1889. She was eighteen years
of age, bright, timid, and full of the illusions of ignorance and youth.
Whatever touch of regret at parting characterised her thoughts, it was certainly
not for advantages now being given up. A gush of tears at her mother's farewell
kiss, a touch in her throat when the cars clacked by the flour mill where
her father worked by the day, a pathetic sigh as the familiar green environs
of the village passed in review, and the threads which bound her so lightly
to girlhood and home were irretrievably broken.  
To be sure there was always the next station, where one might descend and
return. There was the great city, bound more closely by these very trains
which came up daily. Columbia City was not so very far away, even once she
was in Chicago. What, pray, is few hours--a few hundred miles? She looked
at the little slip bearing her sister's address and wondered. She gazed at
the green landscape, now passing in swift review, until her swifter thoughts
replaced its impression with vague conjectures of what Chicago might be.

When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either
she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the
cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse. Of an intermediate balance,
under the circumstances, there is no possibility. The city has its cunning
wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human tempter. There
are large forces which allure with all the soulfulness of expression possible
in the most cultured human.  
The gleam of a thousand lights is often as effective as the persuasive light
in a wooing and fascinating eye. Half the undoing of the unsophisticated
and natural mind is accomplished by forces wholly superhuman. A blare of
sound, a roar of life, vast array of human hives, appeal to the astonished
senses in equivocal terms. Without a counsellor at hand to whisper cautious
interpretations, what falsehoods may not these things breathe into the unguarded
ear! Unrecognised for what they are, their beauty, like music, too often
relaxes, then weakens, then perverts the simpler human perceptions.  
Caroline, or Sister Carrie, as she had been half affectionately termed by
the family, was possessed of a mind rudimentary in its power of observation
and analysis. Self-interest with her was high, but not strong. It was, nevertheless,
her guiding characteristic. Warm with the fancies of youth, pretty with
the insipid prettiness of the formative period, possessed of a figure promising
eventual shapeliness and an eye alight with certain native intelligence,
she was a fair example of the middle American class--two generations removed
from the emigrant. Books were beyond her interest--knowledge a sealed book.
In the intuitive graces she was still crude. She could scarcely toss her
head gracefully. Her hands were almost ineffectual. The feet, though small,
were set flatly. And yet she was interested in her charms, quick to understand
the keener pleasures of life, ambitious to gain in material things. A half-equipped
little knight she was, venturing to reconnoitre the mysterious city and
dreaming wild dreams of some vague, far-off supremacy, which should make
it prey and subject--the proper penitent, grovelling at a woman's slipper.

"That," said a voice in her ear, "is one of the prettiest little resorts
in Wisconsin."  美國中部北面一個州。伊利諾州在它南面﹐嘉莉妹妹要去的芝加
哥城就在伊利諾州裡。
"Is it?" she answered nervously.  
The train was just pulling out of Waukesha. 城名﹐在Wisconsin州裡。估計火
車是由北向南開 For some time she had been conscious of a man behind. She
felt him observing her mass of hair. He had been fidgetting, and with natural
intuition she felt a certain interest growing in that quarter. Her maidenly
reserve, and a certain sense of what was conventional under the circumstances,
called her to forestall and deny this familiarity, but the daring and magnetism
of the individual, born of past experiences and triumphs, prevailed. She
answered.  
He leaned forward to put his elbows upon the back of her seat and proceeded
to make himself volubly agreeable. 這詞小說裡經常用﹐意思是討人喜歡
"Yes, that is a great resort for Chicago people. The hotels are swell. You
are not familiar with this part of the country, are you?"  
"Oh, yes, I am," answered Carrie. "That is, I live at Columbia City.哥倫
比亞城在印地安那州﹐印州在伊州東面。從印州去芝加哥是不需要經過Wisconsin州
的。不知作者為什麼這樣描述。 I have never been through here, though."  
"And so this is your first visit to Chicago," he observed.  
All the time she was conscious of certain features out of the side of her
eye. Flush, colourful cheeks, a light moustache, grey fedora hat. She now
turned and looked upon him in full, the instincts of self-protection and
coquetry mingling confusedly in her brain.  
"I didn't say that," she said.  
"Oh," he answered, in a very pleasing way and with an assumed air of mistake,
"I thought you did."  
Here was a type of the travelling canvasser for a manufacturing house--a
class which at that time was first being dubbed by the slang of the day
"drummers." He came within the meaning of still newer term, which had sprung
into general use among Americans in 1880, and which concisely expressed
the thought of one whose dress or manners are calculated to elicit the admiration
of susceptible young women--a "masher." His suit was of a striped and crossed
pattern of brown wool, new at that time, but since become familiar as a
business suit. The low crotch of the vest revealed a stiff shirt bosom of
white and pink stripes. From his coat sleeves protruded a pair of linen
cuffs of the same pattern, fastened with large, gold plate buttons, set with
the common yellow agates known as "cat's-eyes." His fingers bore several
rings--one, the ever-enduring heavy seal--and from his vest dangled a neat
gold watch chain, from which was suspended the secret insignia of the Order
of Elks [1]. The whole suit was rather tight-fitting, and was finished off
with heavy-soled tan shoes, highly polished, and the grey fedora hat. He
was, for the order of intellect represented, attractive, and whatever he
had to recommend him, you may be sure was not lost upon Carrie, in this,
her first glance.  
Lest this order of individual should permanently pass, let me put down some
of the most striking characteristics of his most successful manner and method.
Good clothes, of course, were the first essential, the things without which
he was nothing. strong physical nature, actuated by a keen desire for the
feminine, was the next. A mind free of any consideration of the problems
or forces of the world and actuated not by greed, but an insatiable love
of variable pleasure. His method was always simple. Its principal element
was daring, backed, of course, by an intense desire and admiration for the
sex. Let him meet with a young woman once and he would approach her with
an air of kindly familiarity, not unmixed with pleading, which would result
in most cases in a tolerant acceptance. If she showed any tendency to coquetry
he would be apt to straighten her tie, or if she "took up" with him at all,
to call her by her first name. If he visited a department store it was to
lounge familiarly over the counter and ask some leading questions. In more
exclusive circles, on the train or in waiting stations, he went slower.
If some seemingly vulnerable object appeared he was all attention-- to pass
the compliments of the day, to lead the way to the parlor car, carrying
her grip, or, failing that, to take a seat next her with the hope of being
able to court her to her destination. Pillows, books, a footstool, the shade
lowered all these figured in the things which he could do. If, when she reached
her destination he did not alight and attend her baggage for her, it was
because, in his own estimation, he had signally failed.  
A woman should some day write the complete philosophy of clothes. No matter
how young, it is one of the things she wholly comprehends. There is an indescribably
faint line in the matter of man's apparel which somehow divides for her
those who are worth glancing at and those who are not. Once an individual
has passed this faint line on the way downward he will get no glance from
her. There is another line at which the dress of a man will cause her to
study her own. This line the individual at her elbow now marked for Carrie.
She became conscious of an inequality. Her own plain blue dress, with its
black cotton tape trimmings, now seemed to her shabby. She felt the worn
state of her shoes.  
"Let's see," he went on, "I know quite a number of people in your town.
Morgenroth the clothier and Gibson the dry goods man."  
"Oh, do you?" she interrupted, aroused by memories of longings their show
windows had cost her.  
At last he had a clew to her interest, and followed it deftly. In a few
minutes he had come about into her seat. He talked of sales of clothing,
his travels, Chicago, and the amusements of that city.  
"If you are going there, you will enjoy it immensely. Have you relatives?"

"I am going to visit my sister," she explained.  
"You want to see Lincoln Park," he said, "and Michigan Boulevard. They are
putting up great buildings there. It's a second New York--great. So much
to see--theatres, crowds, fine houses--oh, you'll like that."  
There was a little ache in her fancy of all he described. Her insignificance
in the presence of so much magnificence faintly affected her. She realised
that hers was not to be a round of pleasure, and yet there was something
promising in all the material prospect he set forth. There was something
satisfactory in the attention of this individual with his good clothes. She
could not help smiling as he told her of some popular actress of whom she
reminded him. She was not silly, and yet attention of this sort had its
weight.  
"You will be in Chicago some little time, won't you?" he observed at one
turn of the now easy conversation.  
"I don't know," said Carrie vaguely--a flash vision of the possibility of
her not securing employment rising in her mind.  
"Several weeks, anyhow," he said, looking steadily into her eyes.  
There was much more passing now than the mere words indicated. He recognised
the indescribable thing that made up for fascination and beauty in her.
She realised that she was of interest to him from the one standpoint which
a woman both delights in and fears. Her manner was simple, though for the
very reason that she had not yet learned the many little affectations with
which women conceal their true feelings. Some things she did appeared bold.
A clever companion--had she ever had one-- would have warned her never to
look a man in the eyes so steadily.  
"Why do you ask?" she said.  
"Well, I'm going to be there several weeks. I'm going to study stock at
our place and get new samples. I might show you 'round."  
"I don't know whether you can or not. I mean I don't know whether I can.
I shall be living with my sister, and----"  
"Well, if she minds, we'll fix that." He took out his pencil and a little
pocket note-book as if it were all settled. "What is your address there?"

She fumbled her purse which contained the address slip.  
He reached down in his hip pocket and took out a fat purse. It was filled
with slips of paper, some mileage books, a roll of greenbacks. It impressed
her deeply. Such a purse had never been carried by any one attentive to
her. Indeed, an experienced traveller, a brisk man of the world, had never
come within such close range before. The purse, the shiny tan shoes, the
smart new suit, and the air with which he did things, built up for her a
dim world of fortune, of which he was the centre. It disposed her pleasantly
toward all he might do.  
He took out a neat business card, on which was engraved Bartlett, Caryoe
& Company, and down in the left-hand corner, Chas. H. Drouet.  
"That's me," he said, putting the card in her hand and touching his name.
"It's pronounced Drew-eh. Our family was French, on my father's side."  

She looked at it while he put up his purse. Then he got out letter from
a bunch in his coat pocket. "This is the house I travel for," he went on,
pointing to a picture on it, "corner of State and Lake." There was pride
in his voice. He felt that it was something to be connected with such a
place, and he made her feel that way.  
"What is your address?" he began again, fixing his pencil to write.  
She looked at his hand.  
"Carrie Meeber," she said slowly. "Three hundred and fifty-four West Van
Buren Street, care S. C. Hanson." [care here means in care of]
He wrote it carefully down and got out the purse again. "You'll be at home
if I come around Monday night?" he said.  
"I think so," she answered.  

海外逸士

How true it is that words are but the vague shadows of the volumes we mean.
Little audible links, they are, chaining together great inaudible feelings
and purposes. Here were these two, bandying little phrases, drawing purses,
looking at cards, and both unconscious of how inarticulate all their real
feelings were. Neither was wise enough to be sure of the working of the
mind of the other. He could not tell how his luring succeeded. She could
not realise that she was drifting, until he secured her address. Now she
felt that she had yielded something--he, that he had gained a victory. Already
they felt that they were somehow associated. Already he took control in
directing the conversation. His words were easy. Her manner was relaxed.

They were nearing Chicago. Signs were everywhere numerous. Trains flashed
by them. Across wide stretches of flat, open prairie they could see lines
of telegraph poles stalking across the fields toward the great city. Far
away were indications of suburban towns, some big smokestacks towering high
in the air.  
Frequently there were two-story frame houses standing out in the open fields,
without fence or trees, lone outposts of the approaching army of homes.

To the child, the genius with imagination, or the wholly untravelled, the
approach to a great city for the first time is wonderful thing. Particularly
if it be evening--that mystic period between the glare and gloom of the
world when life is changing from one sphere or condition to another. Ah,
the promise of the night. What does it not hold for the weary! What old
illusion of hope is not here forever repeated! Says the soul of the toiler
to itself, "I shall soon be free. I shall be in the ways and the hosts of
the merry. The streets, the lamps, the lighted chamber set for dining, are
for me. The theatre, the halls, the parties, the ways of rest and the paths
of song--these are mine in the night." Though all humanity be still enclosed
in the shops, the thrill runs abroad. It is in the air. The dullest feel
something which they may not always express or describe. It is the lifting
of the burden of toil.  
Sister Carrie gazed out of the window. Her companion, affected by her wonder,
so contagious are all things, felt anew some interest in the city and pointed
out its marvels.  
"This is Northwest Chicago," said Drouet. "This is the Chicago River," and
he pointed to a little muddy creek, crowded with the huge masted wanderers
from far-off waters nosing the black-posted banks. With a puff, a clang,
and a clatter of rails it was gone. "Chicago is getting to be a great town,"
he went on. "It's wonder. You'll find lots to see here."  
She did not hear this very well. Her heart was troubled by kind of terror.
The fact that she was alone, away from home, rushing into a great sea of
life and endeavour, began to tell. She could not help but feel a little
choked for breath--a little sick as her heart beat so fast. She half closed
her eyes and tried to think it was nothing, that Columbia City was only
little way off.  
"Chicago! Chicago!" called the brakeman, slamming open the door. They were
rushing into a more crowded yard, alive with the clatter and clang of life.
She began to gather up her poor little grip and closed her hand firmly upon
her purse. Drouet arose, kicked his legs to straighten his trousers, and
seized his clean yellow grip.  
"I suppose your people will be here to meet you?" he said. "Let me carry
your grip."  
"Oh, no," she said. "I'd rather you wouldn't. I'd rather you wouldn't be
with me when I meet my sister."  
"All right," he said in all kindness. "I'll be near, though, in case she
isn't here, and take you out there safely."  
"You're so kind," said Carrie, feeling the goodness of such attention in
her strange situation.  
"Chicago!" called the brakeman, drawing the word out long. They were under
a great shadowy train shed, where the lamps were already beginning to shine
out, with passenger cars all about and the train moving at a snail's pace.
The people in the car were all up and crowding about the door.  
"Well, here we are," said Drouet, leading the way to the door. "Good-bye,
till I see you Monday."  
"Good-bye," she answered, taking his proffered hand.  
"Remember, I'll be looking till you find your sister."  
She smiled into his eyes.  
They filed out, and he affected to take no notice of her. lean-faced, rather
commonplace woman recognised Carrie on the platform and hurried forward.

"Why, Sister Carrie!" she began, and there was embrace of welcome.  
Carrie realised the change of affectional atmosphere at once. Amid all the
maze, uproar, and novelty she felt cold reality taking her by the hand.
No world of light and merriment. No round of amusement. Her sister carried
with her most of the grimness of shift and toil.  
"Why, how are all the folks at home?" she began "how is father, and mother?"

Carrie answered, but was looking away. Down the aisle, toward the gate leading
into the waiting-room and the street, stood Drouet. He was looking back.
When he saw that she saw him and was safe with her sister he turned to go,
sending back the shadow of a smile. Only Carrie saw it. She felt something
lost to her when he moved away. When he disappeared she felt his absence
thoroughly. With her sister she was much alone, a lone figure in a tossing,
thoughtless sea.  

1) 生詞自查。
2) 作者介紹﹕Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (August 27, 1871 -- December
28, 1945) was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school.
His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives
despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely
resemble studies of nature than tales of choice and agency. Dreiser's best
known novels include Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925).
3) 內容簡介﹕Sister Carrie (1900) is a novel by Theodore Dreiser about a
young country girl who moves to the big city where she starts realizing
her own American Dream by first becoming a mistress to men that she perceives
as superior and later as a famous actress. It has been called the "greatest
of all American urban novels."
4) 註解﹕ [1] Order of Elks 是指 The Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks (BPOE; also often known as the Elks Lodge or simply The Elks) is an
American fraternal order and social club founded in 1868. It is one of the
leading fraternal orders in the U.S., claiming nearly one million members.
5) 美國作家德萊賽的“嘉莉妹妹”也屬世界名著。大家看看美國作家的文筆與英國
作家的文筆有什麼不同。據本人一位師執前輩說﹐要作家寫好英文﹐要找一本自己
喜歡的世界名著﹐作精讀本﹐把自己的寫作文筆儘量向之靠攏﹐再讀些其他作家﹐
參考別家的文筆﹐最後形成自己的。

海外逸士

高級英語教材第22課

先讀課文﹕
TOO DEAR FOR THE WHISTLE
by Hunter
When I was a child of seven years old, my friends, on a holiday, filled
my pockets with coppers. I went directly to a shop where they sold toys
for children; and being charmed with the sound of a whistle, that I met
by the way in the hands of another boy, I voluntarily offered and gave all
my money for one. I then came home, and went whistling all over the house,
much pleased with my whistle, but disturbing all the family. My brothers,
and sisters, and cousins, understanding the bargain I had made, told me
I had given four times as much for it as it was worth; put me in mind of
what good things I might have bought with the rest of the money; and laughed
at me so much for my folly, that I cried with vexation; and the reflection
gave me more chagrin than the whistle gave me pleasure.This, however, was
afterwards of use to me, the impression continuing on my mind; so that often,
when I was tempted to buy some unnecessary thing, I said to myself, "Don't
give too much for the whistle"; and I saved my money. As I grew up, came
into the world, and observed the actions of men, I thought I met with many,
very many, "who gave too much for the whistle." When I saw one too ambitious
of court favor,sacrificing his time in attendance on levees, his repose,
his liberty, his virtue, and perhaps his friends, to attain it, I have said
to myself--"This man gives too much for his whistle." When I saw another
fond of popularity, constantly employing himself in political bustles, neglecting
his own affairs, and ruining them by that neglect, "He pays, indeed," said
I, "too dear for his whistle. " If I knew a miser, who gave up every kind
of comfortable living, all the pleasure of doing good to others, all the
esteem of his fellow-citizens, and the joys of benevolent friendship, for
the sake of accumulating wealth--"Poor man," said I, "you pay too dear for
your whistle." When I met a man of pleasure, sacrificing every laudable improvement
of the mind, or of his fortune, to mere corporeal sensations, and ruining
his health in their pursuit--"Mistaken man," said I, "you are providing
pain for yourself, instead of pleasure; you are paying too dear for your
whistle." If I see one fond of appearance or fine clothes, fine houses,
fine furniture, fine equipages, all above his fortune, for which he contracts
debts, "Alas," say I, "he has paid dear, very dear for his whistle." In
short, I conceive that a great part of the miseries of mankind are brought
upon them by the false estimate they have made of the value of things, and
by their giving "too much for their whistles."

1) 生詞自查。
2) 這是一篇非常有趣的短文。我在開始學英文時讀過。現在記起來﹐找來與大家共
賞。

宛城卧龙

这里的选文都非常好  但有一个缺点  就是注解工作不足，这样就产生了阻碍了一些学习者的理解问题
几点意见
1 每篇文章可选五段长难句来进行断句分析，这个牵扯语法问题。我前一段和我的同班同学，一位教大一英语精读的教师谈过，他很有兴趣，可以让他做一下看看效果。

2 重点词汇的注释工作，每篇文章可以选取一些重点词汇进行注释，

3  每篇文章，可以考虑针对每篇文章提几个问题，可考虑用英文写成，供读者联系文章进行思考，加深理解，

4 因为不知道海老是否将这个教程做成课本式的？假如如此，还要考虑全文进行翻译，

以上几点，暂时提下意见出来，等三月中旬，我的个人事情全部忙完。可以具体在商讨一下。一些注释的工作我可以和我教书的同学在业余时间来一起做，
主要是注释很繁杂，但是对于我们自身也是一个学习的过程。

海外逸士

臥龍的意見很好﹐但我沒有很多時間做這些事。如果有人肯協助﹐很感謝。如果有出
版社要作為大學英語課外閱讀材料出版﹐可以考慮再多化些時間。我只是心血來潮﹐
把我以前讀過的材料翻出來﹐希望有助于有志于進一步提高英語的人。有人肯做輔
助工作﹐對他英語提高會有幫助。如對課文有問題﹐可在這裡提出討論。

海外逸士

高級英語教材第23課

先讀課文﹕
The Merchant of Venice威尼斯商人
by William Shakespeare莎士比亞

最精彩一幕 [最好先讀後面的介紹]
SHYLOCK ﹕
My deeds upon my head! I crave the law,
The penalty and forfeit of my bond.
PORTIA ﹕
Is he not able to discharge the money?
BASSANIO ﹕
Yes, here I tender it for him in the court;
Yea, twice the sum: if that will not suffice,
I will be bound to pay it ten times o'er,
On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart:
If this will not suffice, it must appear
That malice bears down truth. And I beseech you,
Wrest once the law to your authority:
To do a great right, do a little wrong,
And curb this cruel devil of his will.
PORTIA ﹕
It must not be; there is no power in Venice
Can alter a decree established:
'Twill be recorded for a precedent,
And many an error by the same example
Will rush into the state: it cannot be.
SHYLOCK ﹕
A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel [聖經中的聖人]!
O wise young judge, how I do honour thee!
PORTIA ﹕
I pray you, let me look upon the bond.
SHYLOCK ﹕
Here 'tis, most reverend doctor [指法官﹐見下面介紹], here it is.
PORTIA ﹕
Shylock, there's thrice thy money offer'd thee.
SHYLOCK ﹕
An oath, an oath, I have an oath in heaven:
Shall I lay perjury upon my soul?
No, not for Venice.
PORTIA ﹕
Why, this bond is forfeit;
And lawfully by this the Jew may claim
A pound of flesh, to be by him cut off
Nearest the merchant's heart. Be merciful:
Take thrice thy money; bid me tear the bond.
SHYLOCK ﹕
When it is paid according to the tenor.
It doth appear you are a worthy judge;
You know the law, your exposition
Hath been most sound: I charge you by the law,
Whereof you are a well-deserving pillar,
Proceed to judgment: by my soul I swear
There is no power in the tongue of man
To alter me: I stay here on my bond.
ANTONIO ﹕
Most heartily I do beseech the court
To give the judgment.
PORTIA ﹕
Why then, thus it is:
You must prepare your bosom for his knife.
SHYLOCK ﹕
O noble judge! O excellent young man!
PORTIA ﹕
For the intent and purpose of the law
Hath full relation to the penalty,
Which here appeareth due upon the bond.
SHYLOCK ﹕
'Tis very true: O wise and upright judge!
How much more elder art thou than thy looks!
PORTIA ﹕
Therefore lay bare your bosom.
SHYLOCK ﹕
Ay, his breast:
So says the bond: doth it not, noble judge?
'Nearest his heart:' those are the very words.
PORTIA ﹕
It is so. Are there balance here to weigh
The flesh?
SHYLOCK ﹕
I have them ready.
PORTIA ﹕
Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge,
To stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death.
SHYLOCK ﹕
Is it so nominated in the bond?
PORTIA ﹕
It is not so express'd: but what of that?
'Twere good you do so much for charity.
SHYLOCK ﹕
I cannot find it; 'tis not in the bond.
PORTIA ﹕
You, merchant, have you any thing to say?
ANTONIO ﹕
But little: I am arm'd and well prepared.
Give me your hand, Bassanio: fare you well!
Grieve not that I am fallen to this for you;
For herein Fortune shows herself more kind
Than is her custom: it is still her use
To let the wretched man outlive his wealth,
To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow
An age of poverty; from which lingering penance
Of such misery doth she cut me off.
Commend me to your honourable wife:
Tell her the process of Antonio's end;
Say how I loved you, speak me fair in death;
And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge
Whether Bassanio had not once a love.
Repent but you that you shall lose your friend,
And he repents not that he pays your debt;
For if the Jew do cut but deep enough,
I'll pay it presently with all my heart.
BASSANIO ﹕
Antonio, I am married to a wife
Which is as dear to me as life itself;
But life itself, my wife, and all the world,
Are not with me esteem'd above thy life:
I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all
Here to this devil, to deliver you.
PORTIA ﹕
Your wife would give you little thanks for that,
If she were by, to hear you make the offer.
GRATIANO ﹕
I have a wife, whom, I protest, I love:
I would she were in heaven, so she could
Entreat some power to change this currish Jew.
NERISSA ﹕
'Tis well you offer it behind her back;
The wish would make else an unquiet house.
SHYLOCK ﹕
These be the Christian husbands. I have a daughter;
Would any of the stock of Barrabas [1]
Had been her husband rather than a Christian!
Aside
We trifle time: I pray thee, pursue sentence.
PORTIA ﹕
A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine:
The court awards it, and the law doth give it.
SHYLOCK ﹕
Most rightful judge!
PORTIA ﹕
And you must cut this flesh from off his breast:
The law allows it, and the court awards it.
SHYLOCK ﹕
Most learned judge! A sentence! Come, prepare!
PORTIA ﹕
Tarry a little; there is something else.
This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood;
The words expressly are 'a pound of flesh:'
Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh;
But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed
One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods
Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate
Unto the state of Venice.
GRATIANO ﹕
O upright judge! Mark, Jew: O learned judge!
SHYLOCK ﹕
Is that the law?
PORTIA ﹕
Thyself shalt see the act:
For, as thou urgest justice, be assured
Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desirest.
GRATIANO ﹕
O learned judge! Mark, Jew: a learned judge!
SHYLOCK ﹕
I take this offer, then; pay the bond thrice
And let the Christian go.
BASSANIO ﹕
Here is the money.
PORTIA ﹕
Soft! [意思是慢來]
The Jew shall have all justice; soft! no haste:
He shall have nothing but the penalty.
GRATIANO ﹕
O Jew! an upright judge, a learned judge!
PORTIA ﹕
Therefore prepare thee to cut off the flesh.
Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more
But just a pound of flesh: if thou cut'st more
Or less than a just pound, be it but so much
As makes it light or heavy in the substance,
Or the division of the twentieth part
Of one poor scruple, nay, if the scale do turn
But in the estimation of a hair,
Thou diest and all thy goods are confiscate.
GRATIANO ﹕
A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!
Now, infidel, I have you on the hip.
PORTIA ﹕
Why doth the Jew pause? take thy forfeiture.
SHYLOCK ﹕
Give me my principal 本金, and let me go.
BASSANIO ﹕
I have it ready for thee; here it is.
PORTIA ﹕
He hath refused it in the open court:
He shall have merely justice and his bond.
GRATIANO ﹕
A Daniel, still say I, a second Daniel!
I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word.
SHYLOCK ﹕
Shall I not have barely my principal?
PORTIA ﹕
Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture,
To be so taken at thy peril, Jew.
SHYLOCK ﹕
Why, then the devil give him good of it!
I'll stay no longer question.
PORTIA ﹕
Tarry, Jew:
The law hath yet another hold on you.
It is enacted in the laws of Venice,
If it be proved against an alien
That by direct or indirect attempts
He seek the life of any citizen,
The party 'gainst the which he doth contrive
Shall seize one half his goods; the other half
Comes to the privy coffer of the state;
And the offender's life lies in the mercy
Of the duke only, 'gainst all other voice.
In which predicament, I say, thou stand'st;
For it appears, by manifest proceeding,
That indirectly and directly too
Thou hast contrived against the very life
Of the defendant; and thou hast incurr'd
The danger formerly by me rehearsed.
Down therefore and beg mercy of the duke.
GRATIANO ﹕
Beg that thou mayst have leave to hang thyself:
And yet, thy wealth being forfeit to the state,
Thou hast not left the value of a cord;
Therefore thou must be hang'd at the state's charge.
DUKE ﹕
That thou shalt see the difference of our spirits,
I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it:
For half thy wealth, it is Antonio's;
The other half comes to the general state,
Which humbleness may drive unto a fine.
PORTIA
Ay, for the state, not for Antonio.
SHYLOCK ﹕
Nay, take my life and all; pardon not that:
You take my house when you do take the prop
That doth sustain my house; you take my life
When you do take the means whereby I live.
PORTIA ﹕
What mercy can you render him, Antonio?
GRATIANO ﹕
A halter gratis; nothing else, for God's sake.
ANTONIO ﹕
So please my lord the duke and all the court
To quit the fine for one half of his goods,
I am content; so he will let me have
The other half in use, to render it,
Upon his death, unto the gentleman
That lately stole his daughter:
Two things provided more, that, for this favour,
He presently become a Christian;
The other, that he do record a gift,
Here in the court, of all he dies possess'd,
Unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter.
DUKE ﹕
He shall do this, or else I do recant
The pardon that I late pronounced here.
PORTIA ﹕
Art thou contented, Jew? what dost thou say?
SHYLOCK ﹕
I am content.
PORTIA ﹕
Clerk, draw a deed of gift.
SHYLOCK ﹕
I pray you, give me leave to go from hence;
I am not well: send the deed after me,
And I will sign it.
DUKE ﹕
Get thee gone, but do it.
GRATIANO ﹕
In christening shalt thou have two god-fathers:
Had I been judge, thou shouldst have had ten more,
To bring thee to the gallows, not the font.
Exit SHYLOCK

1) 生詞自查。
2) William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564; died 23 April 1616) was
an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in
the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often
called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon". His surviving works,
including some collaborations, consist of about 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two
long narrative poems, and several other poems.
3) 劇情介紹﹕The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare,
believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. In the 16th century,
the city of Venice in Italy was one of the richest of the world. Among the
wealthiest of its merchants was Antonio. Bassanio, a young Venetian, of
noble rank but having squandered his estate, wishes to travel to Belmont
to win the beautiful and wealthy heiress Portia. He approaches his friend
Antonio for three thousand ducats needed to subsidise his travelling expenditures
as a suitor for three months. Antonio agrees, but he is cash-poor; his ships
and merchandise are busy at sea. He promises to cover a bond if Bassanio
can find a lender, so Bassanio turns to the Jewish moneylender Shylock and
names Antonio as the loan's guarantor. Shylock hates Antonio because Antonio
undermines Shylock's moneylending business by lending money at zero interest.
Shylock proposes a condition for the loan: if Antonio is unable to repay
it at the specified date, he may take a pound of Antonio's flesh. Bassanio
does not want Antonio to accept such a risky condition; Antonio is surprised
by what he sees as the moneylender's generosity (no interest is asked for),
and he signs the contract. With money at hand, Bassanio leaves for Belmont
with his friend Gratiano, who has asked to accompany him. Gratiano is a
likeable young man, but is often flippant for Belmont and Portia. At Venice,
Antonio's ships are reported lost at sea. This leaves him unable to satisfy
the bond. Shylock has Antonio arrested and brought before court.
At Belmont, Portia and Bassanio have just been married. Bassanio receives
a letter telling him that Antonio has been unable to return the loan taken
from Shylock. Shocked, Bassanio and Gratiano leave for Venice immediately,
with money from Portia, to save Antonio's life by offering the money to
Shylock. Unknown to Bassanio and Gratiano, Portia has sent her servant,
Balthazar, to seek the counsel of Portia's cousin, Bellario, a lawyer, at
Padua. The climax of the play comes in the court of the Duke of Venice.
Shylock refuses Bassanio's offer of 6,000 ducats, twice the amount of the
loan. He demands his pound of flesh from Antonio. The Duke, wishing to save
Antonio but unwilling to set a dangerous legal precedent of nullifying a
contract, refers the case to a visitor who introduces himself as Balthazar,
a young male "doctor of the law", bearing a letter of recommendation to
the Duke from the learned lawyer Bellario. The "doctor" is actually Portia
in disguise, and the "law clerk" who accompanies her is actually Nerissa,
also in disguise. Portia, as "Balthazar", asks Shylock to show mercy in
a famous speech, but Shylock refuses. Thus the court must allow Shylock to
extract the pound of flesh. Shylock tells Antonio to "prepare". At that
very moment, Portia points out a flaw in the contract: the bond only allows
Shylock to remove the flesh, not the "blood", of Antonio. Thus, if Shylock
were to shed any drop of Antonio's blood, his "lands and goods" would be
forfeited under Venetian laws. Further damning Shylock's case, she tells
him that he must cut precisely one pound of flesh, no more, no less. Defeated,
Shylock concedes to accepting Bassanio's offer of money for the defaulted
bond, first his offer to pay "the bond thrice," which Portia rebuffs, telling
him to take his bond, and then merely the principal, which Portia also prevents
him from doing on the ground that he has already refused it "in the open
court." She then cites a law under which Shylock, as a Jew and therefore
an "alien", having attempted to take the life of a citizen, has forfeited
his property, half to the government and half to Antonio, leaving his life
at the mercy of the Duke. The Duke immediately pardons Shylock's life.
4) 註釋﹕[1] Barabbas or Jesus Barabbas (literally "son of the father" or
"Jesus, son of the father" respectively) is a figure in the Christian narrative
of the Passion of Jesus, in which he is the insurrectionary whom Pontius
Pilate freed at the Passover feast in Jerusalem.
5) 莎士比亞的“威尼斯商人”也是莎翁的名劇之一。是用Blank verse形式寫的。
凡是長度到底的句子一般都是五音步抑揚格﹐不押韻。

海外逸士

高級英語教材第24課

先讀課文﹕
King Midas and the Golden Touch

Many years ago there lived a king named Midas. King Midas had one little
daughter, whose name was Marigold. King Midas was very, very rich. It was
said that he had more gold than any other king in the world. One room of
his great castle was almost filled with yellow gold pieces.
At last the King grew so fond of his gold that he loved it better than anything
else in all the world. He even loved it better than his own little daughter,
dear little rosy-cheeked Marigold. His one great wish seemed to be for more
and more gold. One day while he was in his gold room counting his money,
a beautiful fairy boy stood before him. The boy's face shone with a wonderful
light, and he had wings on his cap and wings on his feet. In his hand he
carried a strange-looking wand, and the wand also had wings. 這是希臘神話
中MERCURY的形象
"Midas, you are the richest man in the world," said the fairy. "There is
no King who has so much gold as you."
"That may be," said the King. "As you see, I have this room full of gold,
but I should like much more; for gold is the best and the most wonderful
thing in the world."
"Are you sure?" asked the fairy.
"I am very sure," answered the King.
"If I should grant you one wish," said the fairy, "would you ask for more
gold?"
"If I could have but one wish," said the King, "I would ask that everything
I touch should turn to beautiful yellow gold."
"Your wish shall be granted," said the fairy. "At sunrise to-morrow morning
your slightest touch will turn everything into gold. But I warn you that
your gift will not make you happy."
"I will take the risk," said the King.
The next day King Midas awoke very early. He was eager to see if the fairy's
promise had come true. As soon as the sun arose he tried the gift by touching
the bed lightly with his hand.
The bed turned to gold. He touched the chair and table. Upon the instant
they were turned to solid gold. The King was wild with joy. He ran around
the room, touching everything he could see. His magic gift turned all to
shining, yellow gold. The King soon felt hungry and went down to eat his
breakfast. Now a strange thing happened. When he raised a glass of clear
cold water to drink, it became solid gold. Not a drop of water could pass
his lips. The bread turned to gold under his fingers. The meat was hard,
and yellow, and shiny. Not a thing could he get to eat. All was gold, gold,
gold. His little daughter came running in from the garden. Of all living
creatures she was the dearest to him. He touched her with his lips. At once
the little girl was changed to a golden statue. A great fear crept into
the King's heart, sweeping all the joy out of his life. In his grief he
called and called upon the fairy who had given him the gift of the golden
touch.
"O fairy," he begged, "take away this horrible golden gift! Take all my
lands. Take all my gold. Take everything, only give me back my little daughter.
"
In a moment the beautiful fairy was standing before him.
"Do you still think that gold is the greatest thing in the world?" asked
the fairy.
"No! no!" cried the King. "I hate the very sight of the yellow stuff."
"Are you sure that you no longer wish the golden touch?" asked the fairy.
"I have learned my lesson," said the King. "I no longer think gold the greatest
thing in the world."
"Very well," said the fairy, "take this pitcher to the spring in the garden
and fill it with water. Then sprinkle those things which you have touched
and turned to gold."
The King took the pitcher and rushed to the spring. Running back he first
sprinkled the head of his dear little girl. Instantly she became his own
darling Marigold again, and gave him a kiss.
The King sprinkled the golden food, and to his great joy it turned back
to real bread and real butter. Then he and his little daughter sat down
to breakfast. How good the cold water tasted! How eagerly the hungry King
ate the bread and butter, the meat, and all the good food!
The King hated his golden touch so much that he sprinkled even the chairs
and the tables and everything else that the fairy's gift had turned to gold.

1) 生詞自查。
2) 故事來源介紹﹕The Golden Touch is a Walt Disney Silly Symphony cartoon
made in 1935. The story is based on the Greek mythology of King Midas, albeit
with a medieval setting rather than Greek.
3) 這也是篇有名和有趣的神話故事﹐諷刺人們的貪心不足。

海外逸士

高級英語教材第25課

先讀課文﹕
The Bible----King James Version
Old Testament--Genesis

Chapter 1
1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face
of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from
the darkness.
5. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the
evening and the morning were the first day.
6. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and
let it divide the waters from the waters.
7. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the
firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning
were the second day.
9. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto
one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
10. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the
waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
11.  And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed,
and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself,
upon the earth: and it was so.
12.  And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his
kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind:
and God saw that it was good.
13. And the evening and the morning were the third day.
14. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to
divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons,
and for days, and years:
15. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light
upon the earth: and it was so.
16. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and
the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the
earth,
18. And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light
from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19. And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature
that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament
of heaven.
21. And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth,
which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged
fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the
waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
23. And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his
kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind:
and it was so.
25. And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after
their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind:
and God saw that it was good.
26. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and
let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the
air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he
him; male and female created he them.
28. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply,
and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish
of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that
moveth upon the earth.
29. And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which
is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit
of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to
every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have
given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31. And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.
And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Chapter 2
1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.

2. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested
on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
3. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it
he had rested from all his work which God created and made.
4. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were
created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens,
5. And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb
of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain
upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
6. But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of
the ground.
7. And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into
his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

1) 生詞自查。
2) 聖經介紹﹕The Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, is divided into three parts: (1)
the five books of the Torah ("teaching" or "law"), comprising the origins
of the Israelite nation, its laws and its covenant with the God of Israel;
(2) the Nevi'im ("prophets"), containing the historic account of ancient
Israel and Judah focusing on conflicts between the Israelites and other nations,
and conflicts among Israelites -- specifically, struggles between believers
in "the LORD God" and believers in foreign gods, and the criticism of unethical
and unjust behavior of Israelite elites and rulers; and (3) the Ketuvim
("writings"): poetic and philosophical works such as the Psalms and the
Book of Job.
The Christian Bible is divided into two parts. The first is called the Old
Testament, containing the (minimum) 39 books of Hebrew Scripture, and the
second portion is called the New Testament, containing a set of 27 books.
The first four books of the New Testament form the Canonical gospels which
recount the life of Jesus and are central to the Christian faith.
3) 聖經連不懂英文的人都知道﹐但是有多少學英文的人讀過聖經﹖當然﹐不是虔誠
教徒或牧師是不會去讀全部聖經的﹐就像本人那樣。但學英文的人讀點英文聖經還
是應該的。所以我介紹了開頭的一點。據說最初的聖經是希伯萊文HEBREW的。後來
譯成英文。聖經的版本是很多的﹐已譯成多國文字。據說中文的聖經還有譯成中國
方言的。聽說有用寧波話譯的聖經。文革前﹐有人要介紹我到一位教會老修女那裡
去學希伯萊文。我想這也可算奇貨可居。後因文革開始﹐此事不果。

海外逸士

高級英語教材第26課

先讀課文﹕
King Arthur and his Knights
by Howard Pyle

Chapter First﹕How Sir Kay did Combat in a Great Tournament at London Town
and of How He Brake (break) His Sword. Likewise, How Arthur Found a New
Sword For Him

It happened that among those worthies who were summoned unto London Town
by the mandate of the Archbishop as above recounted, there was a certain
knight, very honorable and of high estate (status), by name Sir Ector of
Bonmaison - surnamed (nicknamed) the Trustworthy Knight, because of the
fidelity with which he kept the counsel of those who confided in him, and
because he always performed unto all men, whether of high or low degree,
that which he promised to undertake, without defalcation as to the same.
So this noble and excellent knight was held in great regard by all those
who knew him; for not only was he thus honorable in conduct but he was,
besides, of very high estate, being possessed of seven castles in Wales
and in the adjoining country north thereof, and likewise of certain fruitful
tracts of land with villages appertaining thereunto, and also of sundry
forests of great extent, both in the north country and the west. This very
noble knight had two sons; the elder of these was Sir Kay, a young knight
of great valor and promise, and already well renowned in the Courts of Chivalry
because of several very honorable deeds of worthy achievement in arms which
he had performed; the other was a young lad of eighteen years of age, by
name Arthur, who at that time was serving with good repute as Sir Kay's
esquire-at-arms.
   Now when Sir Ector of Bonmaison received by messenger the mandate of
the Archbishop, he immediately summoned these two sons unto him and bade
them to prepare straightway for to go with him to London Town, and they
did so. And in the same manner he bade a great number of retainers and esquires
and pages for to make them ready, and they likewise did so. Thus, with a
very considerable array at arms and with great show of circumstance, Sir
Ector of Bonmaison betook his way unto London Town in obedience to the commands
of the Archbishop.
   So, when he had come thither he took up his inn in a certain field where
many other noble knights and puissant lords had already established themselves,
and there he set up a very fair pavilion of green silk, and erected his
banner emblazoned with the device of his house; to wit, a gryphon, black,
upon a field of green.
   And upon this field were a great multitude of other pavilions of many
different colors, and over above each pavilion was the pennant and the banner
of that puissant lord to whom the pavilion belonged. Wherefore, because
of the multitude of these pennants and banners the sky was at places well-nigh
hidden with the gaudy colors of the fluttering flags.
   Among the great lords who had come thither in pursuance to the Archbishop'
s summons were many very famous kings and queens and noblemen of high degree.
For there was King Lot of Orkney, who had taken to wife a step-daughter
of Uther-Pendragon, and there was King Uriens of Gore, who had taken to
wife another step-daughter of that great king, and there was King Ban, and
King Bors, and King Ryance, and King Leodegrance and many others of like
degree, for there were no less than twelve kings and seven dukes, so that,
what with their court of lords and ladies and esquires and pages in attendance,
the town of London had hardly ever seen the like before that day.
   Now the Archbishop of Canterbury, having in mind the extraordinary state
of the occasion that had brought so many kings and dukes and high lords
unto that adventure of the sword and the anvil, had commanded that there
should be a very stately and noble tournament proclaimed. Likewise he commanded
that this contest at arms should be held in a certain field nigh to the
great cathedral, three days before that assay should be made of the sword
and the anvil (which same was to be undertaken, as aforesaid, upon Christmas
day). To this tournament were bidden all knights who were of sufficient
birth, condition, and quality for to fit them to take part therein. Accordingly,
very many exalted knights made application for admission, and that in such
numbers that three heralds were kept very busy looking into their pretensions
unto the right of battle. For these heralds examined the escutcheons and
the rolls of lineage of all applicants with great care and circumspection.
   Now when Sir Kay received news of this tournament he went to where his
father was, and when he stood before his face he spake (speak) in this wise:
"Sire, being thy son and of such very high condition both as to birth and
estate as I have inherited from thee, I find that I have an extraordinary
desire to imperil my body in this tourney. Accordingly, if so be I may approve
my quality as to knighthood before this college of heralds, it will maybe
be to thy great honor and credit, and to the honor and credit of our house
if I should undertake this adventure. Wherefore I do crave thy leave (consent)
to do as I have a mind."
   Unto these Sir Ector made reply: "My son, thou hast my leave for to enter
this honorable contest, and I do hope that God will give thee a great deal
of strength, and likewise such grace of spirit that thou mayst achieve honor
to thyself and credit to us who are of thy blood."
   So Sir Kay departed with very great joy and immediately went to that
congress of heralds and submitted his pretensions unto them. And, after
they had duly examined into his claims to knighthood, they entered his name
as a knight-contestant according to his desire; and at this Sir Kay was
filled with great content and joy of heart.
   So, when his name had been enrolled upon the list of combatants, Sir
Kay chose his young brother Arthur for to be his esquire-at-arms and to
carry his spear and pennant before him into the field of battle, and Arthur
was also made exceedingly glad because of the honor that had befallen him
and his brother.
   Now, the day having arrived when this tourney was to be held, a very
huge concourse of people gathered together to witness that noble and courtly
assault at arms. For at that time London was, as aforesaid, extraordinarily
full of nobility and knighthood, wherefore it was reckoned that not less
than twenty thousand lords and ladies (besides those twelve kings and their
courts and seven dukes and their courts) were assembled in the lists circumadjacent
to the field of battle for to witness the performance of those chosen knights.
And those noble people sat so close together, and so filled the seats and
benches assigned to them, that it appeared as though an entirely solid wall
of human souls surrounded that meadow where the battle was to be fought.
And, indeed, any knight might well be moved to do his uttermost upon such
a great occasion with the eyes of so many beautiful dames and noble lords
gazing upon his performances. Wherefore the hearts of all the knights attendant
were greatly expanded with emulation to overturn their enemies into the
dust.
   In the centre of this wonderful court of lords and ladies there was erected
the stall and the throne of the lord Archbishop himself. Above the throne
was a canopy of purple cloth emblazoned with silver lilies, and the throne
itself was hung all about with purple cloth of velvet, embroidered, alternately,
with the figure of St. George in gold, and with silver crosses of St. George
surrounded by golden halos. Here the lord Archbishop himself sat in great
estate and pomp, being surrounded by a very exalted court of clerks of high
degree and also of knights of honorable estate, so that all that centre
of the field glistered with the splendor of gold and silver embroidery,
and was made beautiful by various colors of rich apparel and bright with
fine armor of excellent workmanship. And, indeed, such was the stateliness
of all these circumstances that very few who were there had ever seen so
noble a preparation for battle as that which they then beheld.
   Now, when all that great assembly were in their places and everything
had been prepared in due wise, an herald came and stood forth before the
enstalled throne of the Archbishop and blew a very strong, loud blast upon
a