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● did not seem real：不像是真的，不知道怎么过去的。
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● bench：这里不作“长凳”解，而是“工作台”。Singer是个银器刻花匠，已见前文。
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● More than anything：比什么都要紧。照一般语法书规定，anything后应跟else。
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● jerk：抽动。nervously：神经失常地。在梦中“说话”，手不知不觉动起来了。
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Singer tried to think of the time before he had ever known his friend. He tried to recount to himself certain things that had happened when he was young. But none of these things he tried to remember seemed real.
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Singer recalled that, although he had been deaf since he was an infant, he had not always been a real mute. At the school he was thought very intelligent. He learned the lessons before the rest of the pupils. But he could never become used to speaking with his lips. When he was twenty-two he had come South to this town from Chicago and he met Antonapoulos immediately. Since that time he had never spoken with his mouth again, because with his friend there was no need for this.
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● recount：详细地说一遍。这里有“回忆”的意思。
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● intelligent：聪明，尤其指“读书、学习”方面的聪明。
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● before：指学得比别人快。used在这里是过去分词，不是finite verb。to后接动名词speaking。他不惯用嘴唇说话，还是做手势方便。有了这位哑巴朋友之后，他就用不着再开口了。
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Nothing seemed real except the ten years with Antonapoulos. In his half-dreams he saw his friend very vividly, and when he awakened a great aching loneliness would be in him. Occasionally he would pack up a box for Antonapoulos, but he never received any reply. And so the months passed in this empty, dreaming way.
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● vividly：生动地，活生生地。
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● aching 是动词ache的现在分词，作“疼痛”解。loneliness（寂寞）本来只是一种空泛的感觉，今以aching来形容，则心头烦恼，化为身上疼痛，虽仍未着形象，然而隐者显，虚者实，触之宛然如在矣。
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● pack up a box：包好一盒（礼物送去）。
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● empty：空虚的。dreaming：梦幻似的。此两字应本段开首Nothing seemed real一句。未认识Antonapoulos之前，所经所历，似无一实在之事；今Antonapoulos已走，触目空虚，如梦似幻，生命又复虚度而已。
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● 前文有句曰：The weeks that followed did not seem real at all，本段又曰：the months passed in this empty, dreaming way，生活空虚如旧，而weeks已延长为months矣。
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Each evening the mute walked alone for hours in the street. Sometimes the nights were cold with the sharp, wet winds of March and it would be raining heavily. But to him this did not matter. His gait was agitated and he always kept his hands stuffed tight into the pockets of his trousers. Then as the weeks passed the days grew warm and languorous. His agitation gave way gradually to exhaustion and there was a look about him of deep calm. In his face there came to be a brooding peace that is seen most often in the faces of the very sorrowful or the very wise. But still he wandered through the streets of the town, always silent and alone.
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● gait：走路的姿态。stuffed：塞。手塞在裤袋里面，哑巴的手，本来就是他的嘴。听他说话的人既然已经不在了，手是可以塞起来了。
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● languorous：闷人的（天气）。gave way…to：原意是“让开路，让别人走”，或是“撤退了，让别人前进”。His agitation gave way gradually to exhaustion：他的激动渐渐地消失而疲竭之感继起。
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● there was a look about him of deep calm=there was a look of deep calm about him。
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● brooding：沉思的。peace：平和的气象。the very sorrowful和the very wise中的两个形容词，都当名词用——有大悲哀的人和有大智慧的人。望之穆然深思者，大抵其人非为哀伤已极，即已参透人生。今Singer脸上之表情即此类也。
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现代英文选评注 The Last Puritan最后一个清教徒
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George Santayana (1863—1952)
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美国早期的移民，很多是英国来的清教徒，因此清教徒主义（Puritanism）也是美国立国基本精神之一。清教徒所过的是一种严肃的生活，以天理制人欲，培养独立自尊的人格，除了相信上帝这一点以外，他们的理想，大致和宋儒传统下的中国士大夫相仿。桑塔耶那在《最后一个清教徒》（1935）里描写一个典型的清教徒Oliver Alden，下面几段讲的是那位“清教徒”幼年时候所受的教育，由此我们知道：一个严肃的（可是也是拘谨狭仄的）生活是怎么开始的。
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