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● back yonder：很多年前。yonder本代表空间之“远”，此处代表时间之“远”。thick：因人数多，密集而成“厚”。patch：一块地。种黑莓之地上，鸟雀常群集，当年吉卜赛人（gipsies）人数众多，亦复类彼。straggling：三三两两地走过。maybe是副词，may与be之间不分。
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● pink：石竹（花名）。dogwood pink恐为pink之一种，入春怒放；而吉卜赛人于春季亦突然大群出现，如石竹花焉。
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● it was April and falling rain：此从句插入以说明时间，与全句结构无关。cowshed：牛棚。Fairybell：母牛名。had a new little calf：新添一犊。corn-shucks：玉蜀黍外面的包壳，是牛的饲料。twisting：辗转反侧，临盆前阵痛之象。
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● would I bring a light：照语法书上规定，应作whether I would bring a light。
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● who had sent me：定语从句，刚才差我走的（那个女人）。hollering：大声叫喊的。red：初生婴儿的颜色。holding upside down by its feet：握着脚，倒提着。milking：挤奶。
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● wash和wrap都是infinitives，前面的to省略。在help之后，infinitive的to常常省略。warm milk：才挤出来的奶，故温暖。scarf：围巾。
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“Now I am going to give you a gift by teaching you a rhyme. It was a rhyme about evergreen bark, dragonfly fern—and all the other things we come here in the woods to find: Boil till dark and pure if you want a dropsy cure. In the morning they were gone; I looked for them in the fields and on the road; there was nothing left of them but the rhyme in my head.”
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● rhyme：韵文，口诀。吉卜赛老妪为谢其照料之恩，乃授以药方口诀。第一句是吉卜赛人语，用现在式，第二句又是Dolly本人的口气了，用过去式。
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● fern：羊齿植物。dragonfly fern为羊齿植物之一种。we come here…to find：定语从句。草药的其他成分，Dolly秘而不宣，即以all the other things概括。
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● 斜体字为口诀之一部分，注意pure与cure押韵。采得各种药草之后，加水煮沸，煎到色呈乌黑，杂质去尽为止。dropsy：水肿病。cure：特效药。
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Calling to each other, hooting like owls loose in the daytime, we worked all morning in opposite parts of the woods. Towards afternoon, our sack fat with skinned bark, tender, torn roots, we climbed back into the green web of the China tree and spread the food. There was good creek water in a mason jar, or if the weather was cold a thermos of hot coffee, and we wadded leaves to wipe our chicken-stained, fudge-sticky fingers. Afterwards, telling fortunes with flowers, speaking of sleepy things, it was as though we floated through the afternoon on the raft in the tree; we belonged there, as the sunsilvered leaves belonged, the dwelling whippoorwills.
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● owls：猫头鹰。它们的叫鸣英文称为hoot。loose（形容词）：飞出来了。
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● skin（动词）：剥皮。skinned bark：剥下的树皮。tender（鲜嫩的）和torn（撕断的）都是形容roots。green web：楝树枝叶繁茂，如绿色之网。
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● jar：缸。mason jar是玻璃所制，本为贮藏蔬菜鲜果之用，这里盛水（mason是纪念发明人的名字）。creek：溪涧。thermos：暖瓶，即俗称热水瓶。a thermos跟句首there was而来。if the weather was cold是状语从句。wadded：捏成小块。sticky：粘性的。wipe：抹拭。
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● telling fortunes with flowers：用花算命（通常是数花的花瓣，是种消遣）。speaking of sleepy things：讲些叫人打瞌睡的事情。可能话没有说完，就会睡着了的。
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● floated through the afternoon：一下午就这么飘荡过去了。假如就时间言，through不过是“整个下午这么过去”的意思。但是细看文意，作者似乎要把时间化成空间，afternoon是一个海，他们是在乘桴浮海，through简直就是“渡过”的意思。
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● sunsilvered：因阳光照耀色如镀银。as the sunsilvered leaves belonged=as the sunsilvered leaves belonged there：树叶和树不可分，彼此是一家；他们三人同树叶一样，也是属于这棵树的。dwelling：住在那边的。whippoorwills：怪鸱，和主语we同位。他们三人，高踞树巅，食于斯，寝于斯，就像三只怪鸟。
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现代英文选评注 Two Mutes两哑巴
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Carson McCullers (1917—1967)
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本文节录自长篇小说《心是个寂寞的猎者》（The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter，1940）的第一章。全书以聋哑人John Singer为主角，充满怜悯与同情心。作者卡森·麦克乐斯女士出生于美国乔治亚州，其文章作风之朴素率直与同情心之深厚，论者比之于英国的D. H. Lawrence与十九世纪俄国作家Dostoyevsky。本文句法均甚简单平稳，值得学者效法。
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In the town there were two mutes, and they were always together. Early every morning they would come out from the house where they lived and walk arm in arm down the street to work. The two friends were very different. The one who always steered the way was an obese and dreamy Greek. In the summer he would come out wearing a yellow or green polo shirt stuffed sloppily into his trousers in front and hanging loose behind. When it was colder he wore over this a shapeless gray sweater. His face was round and oily, with half-closed eyelids and lips that curved in a gentle, stupid smile. The other was tall. His eyes had a quick, intelligent expression. He was always immaculate and very soberly dressed.
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● 第二句的动词would come… and walk…中的would表示过去的习惯。
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● steered the way：领路。两哑巴之中，一个个性较强，已于此句点明。obese：肥硕的。Greek：美国各国移民都有，此人乃希腊人。
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