1705000666 ● 年年种的番茄，都在春天冻死，她已记不起哪一年的番茄是种活的。末一句是Sara自己问自己，上一回是什么时候，番茄苗（they）长得又高，结得又满；寒冷不来侵犯（hold off=keep at a distance）而有收获呢？

1705000667

1705000668 Like a vain dream, Sara began to have thoughts of the spring and summer. At first she thought only simply, of the colors of green and red, the smell of the sun on the ground, the touch of leaves and of warm ripening tomatoes. Then, all hidden as she was under the quilt, she began to imagine and remember the town of Dexter in the shipping season. There in her mind, dusty little Dexter became a theatre of almost legendary festivity, a place of pleasure. On every road leading in, smiling farmers were bringing in wagonloads of the most beautiful tomatoes. The packing sheds at Dexter Station were all decorated—no, it was simply that the May sun was shining. Mr. Perkins, the tall, gesturing figure, stood in the very centre of everything, buying, directing, waving yellow papers that must be telegrams, shouting with great impatience. And it was he, after all, that owned their farm now. Train after train of empty freight cars stretched away, waiting and then being filled. Was it possible to have saved out of the threat of the cold so many tomatoes in the world?

1705000669

1705000670 ● 这一段是回忆五月间收购番茄时的盛况（就是番茄有收成的那一年），运用视觉（colors）、嗅觉（smell）、触觉（touch）的描写，正同上文凄凉寒夜作一对照。

1705000671

1705000672 ● all hidden as she was under the quilt=though she was all hidden under the quilt。

1705000673

1705000674 ● Dexter在密苏里州。shipping season：装运的季节。注意：shipping只是“装运”，水路旱路均可，这里是指装火车。

1705000675

1705000676 ● theatre：场合。legendary festivity：如传说般的盛大庆祝。

1705000677

1705000678 ● leading in：通到Dexter城去的。a wagonload是装满一马车那么多，这里用的是复数。bring in的in是副词。

1705000679

1705000680 ● packing：（给番茄）装箱或装篓子。sheds：专作此用的帐棚。decorated：装饰起来，但是作者（或者可以说是Sara）又修正自己的话，并没有装饰，只是阳光照耀得灿烂夺目而已。

1705000681

1705000682 ● 下面接着描写Mr. Perkins：一个高大而装腔作势的人（figure：人的形状，Sara所记得的是这个人的形状）；directing：在指挥别人；waving yellow papers that must be telegrams：手里拿着一叠黄纸在舞，这叠黄纸，据Sara猜想起来，一定是电报。四个现在分词buying、directing、waving和shouting（叫喊），都是形容主语Mr. Perkins（with great impatience：很不耐烦地）。

1705000683

1705000684 ● after all=all things considered：总而言之。

1705000685

1705000686 ● Train：列车。freight cars：货车。stretched away：长长地延伸出去。

1705000687

1705000688 ● 末一句Sara还是很奇怪：怎么可能从寒冷的威胁下救出这许多番茄来？saved的宾语是tomatoes。

1705000689

1705000690 Sara, weightless under the quilt, could think of the celebrations of Dexter and see the vision of ripe tomatoes only in brief snatches, like the flare-up of the little fire. The rest of the time she thought only of cold, of cold going on before and after. She could not help but feel the chill of the here and now, which was not to think at all but was for her only a trembling in the dark.

1705000691

1705000692 ● weightless：觉得自己很轻（因此更冷）。vision：景象。

1705000693

1705000694 ● in brief snatches：短短的片刻之中。flare-up：突然发光。这一个譬喻把过去同现在，或者说，把回忆同当前的感觉联结了起来。又把读者带回到她屋子里来了。

1705000695

1705000696 ● could not help but feel：不能不感觉到。the here and now：此地此时。这种寒战的感觉不好算是思想（to think），对于她只算是黑暗中的一阵战栗（trembling）。

1705000697

1705000698 She coughed patiently and turned her head to one side. She peered over the quilt just a little and saw that the fire had at last gone out. There was left only a hulk of red log, a still, red, bent shape, like one of Jason’s socks thrown down to be darned somehow. With only this to comfort her, Sara closed her eyes and fell asleep.

1705000699

1705000700 ● coughed：咳嗽。patiently：有耐心地。

1705000701

1705000702 ● peered：窥视。at last：最后总算灭了——Sara一直期待着它会灭的。

1705000703

1705000704 ● a hulk of red log：木柴烧红成为炭。log这个字上文已经见过, 我们很可以猜想，炉子里就只有这么一块柴，这块柴烧完了，火也灭了。（hulk：原意是废船的空壳子。）

1705000705

1705000706 ● shape是hulk的同位语。那块木柴成了一个静止的、红色的、弯曲的形体，就像她丈夫的一只袜子（sock），掷给她叫她织补（darn）的。somehow：用某种方式（随便她怎样织补）。

1705000707

1705000708 ● 从火炉里的余烬联想到家政。Sara心平气和，心理描写至此可以告一段落，Sara也入睡了。

1705000709

1705000710 Every hour it was getting colder and colder. The moon, intense and white as the snow that does not fall here, drew higher in the sky, in the long night, and more distant from the earth. The farm looked as tiny and still as a seashell, with the little knob of a house surrounded by its curved furrows of tomato plants. Cold like a white pressing hand reached down and lay over the shell.

1705000711

1705000712 ● getting（联系动词）=becoming。

1705000713

1705000714 ● intense：强烈的。“月色皎洁如雪”，但是那个地方是从来不下雪的，全篇叙事均用过去式，此处忽出现现在式does not fall，这是表示常理，并不限于故事发生的那一段时间里。

1705000715

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