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“But do you ever hug your mother like that? And of course it would be very wrong not to love her ever so much more than you love me, because she is your mother.”
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● 他同家庭教师之间是说惯德文的，但是当时的感情，他非但用德文说不出来，就是用英文也说不出来。and even his English前后两逗点（,）的功用好像括弧一般不影响主词German的number，所以动词还是用单数的“was”。
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● inadequate：不够；frame：形成。
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● hug：拥抱。not to love her=if you did not love her；ever=very（此解根据《简明牛津字典》）；so也是用以加强much。比较级的形容词（或副词），如more等，前面加ever so much三个字来加强语气，是很普通的用法。
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Somewhat slowly and absent-mindedly Oliver let go: he certainly never hugged his mother like that. It was all rather discouraging. Irma felt this too, and gradually ceased to take him on her lap. “You are such a big boy now,” she would say. “You must sit up in your high chair.”
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● absent-mindedly：心不在焉地。let go：松手。
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● discouraging：扫兴的。小孩子喜欢他的家庭教师，而且把这种感情天真自然地流露出来，本来也很正常。可是清教徒认为感情的流露是可耻的，Oliver从来没有向他的母亲亲热过，以后也不会再同家庭教师亲热了。家庭教师渐渐地也不去抱他了。lap：大腿。
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One day Fräulein unsuspectingly mentioned at table the urgent need of a cushion for Oliver’s chair. Mrs. Alden let her talk on; but after a little pause pursed her lips and said: “I don’t think little boys ought to be brought up to sit on cushions. It is effeminate. The chair comes from the very best makers in Great Falls. I paid a particularly high price for it, and I’m sure it must be quite right as it is—much cooler and healthier in summer than sitting on a stuffy cushion, which is always slipping about and getting tumbled and making one restless. If only Oliver wouldn’t fidget, but keep his clothes properly pulled down under him, he would be perfectly comfortable, and wouldn’t need to find fault with what is provided for him.”
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● unsuspectingly：没有猜想到会产生什么后果地；脱口而出地。（德国小姐以为座椅质地太粗，有伤小孩的嫩皮肤，所以主张要用垫子，想不到她这种主张竟大受女主人的反对。）at table：用膳之时；urgent：迫切的。
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● pursed her lips：把嘴唇缩起来，不大以为然的样子。女主人也是清教徒，涵养功夫到家，虽然话听不入耳，可是还是等人家说完了，再停一停之后（after a pause），然后发表她的高见。
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● brought up：教养成人。（cushions一字应重读。）
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● effeminate：太娘儿们气了。
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● Great Falls：地名，在康涅狄克州，为女主人娘家所在地。makers：制家具的。
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● as it is：照它现在的样子（就很好）。stuffy：不透气的。slipping about：滑来滑去（about=here and there）。getting tumbled：坐伤了，压破了，或是翻过来了。restless：神志不安。
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● fidget：乱摸乱动。under him：坐在他身体下面。
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● find fault with：找错。what is provided for him：（家里）替他准备好的东西。注意：他们家里资财百万，并不是为了省钱才不给小孩子买（或做）一个垫子的。照清教徒的想法，任何不舒服的事情都该忍受，何况大人替小孩子所设想的，决不会有错。所以垫子就用不着了。
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现代英文选评注 The Great Fire of 1945一九四五年大火记
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Margaret Shedd (1900—1986)
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本文选自《1947年奥·亨利奖金得奖小说集》（Prize Stories of 1947, The O. Henry Awards）。《奥·亨利奖金得奖小说集》由专家评选，自1919年起，每年刊行一本，为一有历史地位之著名短篇小说选集。本文作者玛格丽特·谢特为美国女作家，有长短篇小说多种问世。
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原题《一九四五年大火记》，文中叙一巨宅被焚之时，宅中女主人仓皇逃出（她已与其夫别居，其子战死，生活本甚孤寂），今身处火场之外，目睹火势蔓延，巨屋被毁，勾起种种回忆。本文于火景描写之中，参以心理活动，勾勒深刻，描写生动。此处所录，因篇幅所限，略加节删（如关于其儿子之处，均已节去），但大体俱在，仍不失为一短篇杰作也。
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Standing on the high ground behind the house, she saw that one small flame had separated itself from the matrix of fire within the house and was gliding up the wall. It licked the shingles nimbly and delicately, and, still only a golden tongue, found the window of her room. She herself had left that window open and leaned out of it helplessly calling help before she ran from the room down the hot stairs out of the house to the earth never more friendly than then.
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● 女主人于小说开幕时，已站立在屋后高地，全篇小说描写，即由此观点出发。
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● matrix：母体，模型，原体。从它那里，别的东西可以分化出来的。matrix of fire within the house：屋内之火，本是浑然一体，今有一小股火焰，离母体而独立，缘壁而上。这股火焰，作者比之为“金黄色的舌头”。它的动作是“舔”（licking），而且舔得轻巧（delicately）灵活（nimbly）。
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