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● The shadows were lengthening：影子拉长，时间更晚。flush：霞光。faintest：极淡的。premonitory：预示的（预示黑夜来临）。
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● puffs of white cloud：朵朵白云。霞光自地平线上发出，照到在天空中的白云。toward=near。
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● he would be going home比he would go home更强调go的动作。
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● dwelling on it：长时间地想它。painfully：痛苦地。这字前面加了副词almost，分量已大为减轻。但是作者为什么要用“痛苦地”这样一个字呢？本段末一句中，隐约说明。illiterate：文盲。他并非文盲，故动词用虚拟式的were。extort：用力逼出来或找出来。
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● the pleasure shining on his…face和the good coat riding…on his shoulders都是nominative absolute phrase。riding on=hanging from，但用riding更见活泼。
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● 最后他想起学生问他的那句话；为了这句话，他撒了一次谎，他想起这件事，心里不免难过。据作者所描写，这个学生只是一个天真活泼的大孩子。但是他的天真活泼，似乎反惹教授之厌。他的活力与自信（前面本文里连用两次confident），似乎是给教授的一种威胁。他的不假思索地假定教授青年时期的生活，是同他自己的一样逍遥快乐，是给苦读出身的教授的一种讽刺。教授不愿向学生示弱，至少也不愿使学生失望，就随随便便地答应一声。等到他发现自己已经撒了一回谎的时候，他当然恨自己，而且很难避免地、连带地更讨厌那个不知不觉中逼他说谎的人。Tom无意中已经得罪了教授，而且很伤教授的心，这是Tom所绝对想象不到的，作者描写的精微（subtlety）也在此。人和人之间真是这样难处吗？人的心理真是这样变幻莫测吗？所谓写实主义作者像Warren恐怕相信真是这样的。浪漫主义作家笔下的人生就比较单纯，好人坏人也判然易分。这篇小说的主人公，快要自食其言，非但不去帮助那学生，而且要去破坏他了。我们看完了后觉得他是不是个坏人呢？（或者，凭了那几句话，教授对于学生的个性真有新认识了吗？）
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Professor Millen let the circular slip from his lap to the floor. Then, decisively, he reached into the drawer of his desk and took out a sheet of paper. He wrote rapidly in his large, firm script:
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GENTLEMEN:
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I have been asked to recommend Mr. Thomas Howell to you for a scholarship for study in France. As you will observe from a transcript of his academic record, with which no doubt you have been provided, he has made the grade of A in all of his work in the English department of this institution, and I understand that his grades in French (his major subject) have been very high. This achievement, of course, deserves consideration, but candor compels me to say that a superficial facility and cleverness seem to characterize his mind. I do not wish to prejudice the committee against his case, and I may be wrong in my estimate; certainly, I hope that the committee will consider him very carefully. But I do feel that he lacks solidity of character, the spirit of patient inquiry, and what might be termed the philosophical bent.
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Very respectfully yours,
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ROY MILLEN,
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Professor of English.
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● slip：滑下去。lap：衣兜。
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● decisively：已经有了决定了。drawer：抽屉。
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● firm：笔力坚挺。script：字体。
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● have been asked：被动语态，可不必明言是谁托他写这封信的。
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● academic record：成绩单。transcript：重抄的副本，正本留校。with which no doubt you have been provided：成绩单谅必业已达览。with which应该连到provided后面去，“无疑人家已经把那个东西给你们了”。institution：指该大学。
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● This achievement：这种成就，指成绩皆列入甲等。deserves consideration：值得考虑。candor=honesty in giving one’s opinion，相当于中文的“良心”。compels me：迫使我。superficial：肤浅的。facility：做事太容易，不肯认真。cleverness：此字本来有坏的意义，指“小聪明”。characterize his mind=be the characteristics（特征）of his mind。
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● prejudice（动词）：使（人）发生偏见。case：他来申请奖学金的这件事。estimate：判断。
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● solidity of character：性格上的稳重。the spirit of patient inquiry：耐心探求的精神。最后一个noun clause的意思是：他还缺一种素质。这种素质，无以名之，姑名之曰philosophical bent：研究哲理的倾向（或兴趣）。
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Without looking up, he addressed an envelope hurriedly, the pen making a dry, scratching sound. Then he blotted and stamped the envelope, inserted the sheet, put the letter into his pocket, picked up his hat, and left the office. He would, he remembered, pass a postbox on his way home.
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● addressed：写地址。dry：墨水不足故干。scratching sound：笔尖抓纸的声音。blotted：用吸水纸（blotting-paper）来吸。stamped：贴上邮票。inserted：将（信纸）放入信封。
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● postbox：邮箱。对于Tom很不利的一封推荐信（？）就此要寄给奖学金委员会了。
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