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● over her arm：挽在臂上。bedclothes：被褥，包括枕头。
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Everything was white, and everything looked vast and extensive to them as they walked over to the frozen field. Stooping over the little plants, Jason and Sara touched them and touched the earth. For their own knowledge, by their hands, they found everything to be true—the cold, the rightness of the warning, the need to act. Over the sticks set in among the plants they laid the quilts one by one, spreading them with a slow ingenuity. Jason took off his coat and laid it over the small tender plants by the side of the house. Then he glanced at Sara, and she reached down and pulled her dress off over her head. Her hair fell down out of its pins, and she began at once to tremble violently. The skirt was luckily long and full, and all the rest of the plants were covered by it.
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● stooping：俯身。For their own knowledge=for all they knew：据他们所知。For=regarding，so far as concerns：就……而言（《简明牛津字典》）。
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● 破折号后三个名词，都是everything的同位语，found的宾语。“他们发现这些都是真的：冷是真的，发警报真有理由，他们也真该行动。”警报的“正当性”（rightness）和行动的需要（need）都是真的。抽象名词在中国语法习惯里用得较少。中文常用形容词或动词的地方，英文可以用抽象名词来表达，这是学英文的人所应该注意的。
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● set是过去分词。over the sticks形容laid。他们把被单一层一层地铺在插在番茄秧间的小竿上。ingenuity：灵巧。
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● Jason把自己的外套（可能是大衣）脱下了，铺在番茄上，再对Sara一望（glance），这一望使得Sara也非脱不可。她的女式衣服（dress），像运动背心一样，穿上要从头上套进去，脱下也得要过头。脱衣服的时候，把发针（pins）弄松了，头发披了下来。
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● 末句luckily一字用得最为沉痛。上面刚说到：衣服脱掉，冷得发抖；这里接着说：亏得（或幸喜）衣服的下幅（skirt）长而肥大，把没有盖到的番茄秧统统盖上了。真是luckily吗？这里用这样一个反语（irony），胜过许多慷慨激昂的牢骚。
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Then Sara and Jason stood for a moment and stared almost idly at the field and up at the sky.
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There was no wind. There was only the intense whiteness of moonlight. Why did this calm cold sink into them like the teeth of a trap? They bent their shoulders and walked silently back into the house.
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● teeth of a trap：捕鼠（兽）机的刀齿。
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The room was not much warmer. They had forgotten to shut the door behind them when the whistle was blowing so hard. They sat down to wait for morning.
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● had forgotten：刚才他们出去抢救番茄的时候，忘了关门了，寒气进了屋，屋里一样的冷。
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Then Jason did a rare, strange thing. There long before morning he poured kerosene over some kindling and struck a light to it. Squatting, they got near it, quite gradually they drew together, and sat motionless until it all burned down. Still Sara did not move. Then Jason, in his underwear and long blue trousers, went out and brought in another load, and the big cherry log which of course was meant to be saved for the very last of winter.
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● 这时候这对老夫妻的情形是：火炉里的火灭了（见前文），被褥衣服都给番茄秧盖上了，自己身上反而没有盖的了，天还不亮，屋子里同外面一样冷，该怎么办呢？
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● kerosene：火油。kindling：引火柴。squatting：蹲着。
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● underwear：内衣。another load：又是一堆（小木片，引火柴）。cherry log：樱桃树木柴。saved：节省；“这是预备省下来，度过这个冬天的”。last=end。
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The extravagant warmth of the room had sent some kind of agitation over Sara, like her memories of Dexter in the shipping season. She sat huddled in a long brown cotton petticoat, holding onto the string which went around the waist. Her mouse-colored hair, paler at the temples, was hanging loose down to her shoulders, like a child’s unbound for a party. She held her knees against her numb, pendulant breasts and stared into the fire, her eyes widening.
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● 把最后一块大木柴烧掉了，该怎么办呢？作者所描写的这对老夫妇，差不多是没有思考作用的，他们像动物一样，只有感觉和简单的反应。对于这种可怜的人，冷应该更加可怕。
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● agitation：（心理上的）激动。注意：这里的sent的意义和平常不同。her memories…：请参阅上文。
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● huddled：蜷缩，过去分词，形容主语。petticoat：衬裙，不连上身的。
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● holding，现在分词，仍是形容主语。onto=on to，手捏牢这根绕腰而过的带子（string）。
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● temples：太阳穴。a child’s=a child’s hair。party：宴会。小（女）孩子参加宴会时，有时把头发解松了，披在肩上，算是一种打扮。
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● numb：麻木的。pendulant：下垂的。
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At last every bit of the wood was gone. Now the cherry log was burned to ashes.
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And all of a sudden Jason was on his feet again. Of all things, he was bringing the split-bottomed chair over to the hearth. He knocked it to pieces…. It burned well and brightly. Sara never said a word. She did not move….
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