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● apathy：麻木，尤其指对于痛苦的麻木。pain：痛苦。痛苦与麻木之间，她挑选了一样。把手镯带出去，过去的一切悲喜哀乐，又要在她心头重演，这是所谓“痛苦”。让火把手镯给烧了，把过去都毁灭了，这是所谓“麻木”。两者之间，她早已经决定了采取一样。as between这一phrase，是从as for（至于）化出来的。这里的as不可省。
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As if to test that decision, the fire peeled off one wall of the house, and the room she had just left opened up before her. There was no distortion; the fire illumined and had not begun to destroy the room which she suddenly realized was dear to her. There was the Provencal dressing table, bought for a white-plastered bedroom they had had in a house in the Berkeley hills.
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● peeled off：剥去。屋子有一面的墙已经烧去，但是烧得很快，干净利落，好像剥去一层皮似的。
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● 墙剥去以后，她的卧室赫然在目，好像要考验（test）她所下的决心似的：到底她真是麻木呢，还是痛苦。she had just left是定语从句。
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● 她的卧室还没有烧坏，还没有走样（distortion）。illumined：照亮。火还没有把房间毁了，只是把它照亮了，使她看得更清楚。realized：觉悟。
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● 盛手镯的梳妆台就在眼前。她想起了这只梳妆台还是以前住在别所房子的时候所买，后来搬来的。white-plastered：四周墙壁和天花板涂白灰的。
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Now she saw the fire whirl up in a rotating gesture to snatch the clock and the vase with its white flowers, and, as if that were the signal for holocaust, the room was blotted out in a dance of up-prancing, laughing, clapping flames and the dressing table writhed in their grip. I never saw the bed, she thought, nor the curtains, the fabrics I loved. Now they were gone and, again to her surprise, she was grieved; she had thought she was immune to simple emotions like nostalgia or the faint sadness of having old friends depart who forget to say good-by.
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● whirl up：回旋而上。in a rotating gesture：以旋转之势。snatch：抢走，攫取。形容火势之迅速。
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● holocaust原意为“燔祭”，烧全牛全羊以祭神，转为“彻底毁灭”，尤其是用火来烧毁的。signal：信号。火把台钟和花瓶一烧去，好像是一声信号似的，立刻火势大作。blotted out：涂没。满室是火，房间都看不见了。
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● 形容flames的三个形容词都很有力量：prancing原意为马用后脚站起来跳，借作“跳跃”。up-prancing：往上跳的。laughing, clapping：火焰会笑，会鼓掌吗？这三个形容词都和前面的名词dance呼应。
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● writhed：辗转反侧，受煎熬之状。in their grip：在火焰的魔掌之中。盛手镯的梳妆台终于不保了。
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● she thought的前后是没有加引号的直接引语。从墙壁被剥去，到卧室被毁，只有很短的时间，她来不及周览全室，很多东西已经不可复见了。床没有见到，帐子幕帘等也没有见到，而这些编织物（fabrics）是她所喜欢的。fabrics是curtains的同位语。
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● again to her surprise：又是使她惊奇的。她历经沧桑，自以为已经磨炼得心如铁石，冷酷无情。不料今晚大火一起，所见所思，无不触目惊心，甚至悲从中来，她自己也觉得惊奇起来了。
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● immune（形容词）：有力抗拒，不受支配或伤害。其所以“支配”或“伤害”的东西放在介词to（或from或against）之后。她本来以为（had thought）她可以不受简单情感的支配。简单的情感有两个例子，一是思乡病（nostalgia），一是当老朋友远行忘了来辞行时所感觉到的那种“淡淡的轻愁”（faint sadness）。这一类的情感，她自以为是不能支配她的了。现在床和帐子被焚，其最后一瞥，她竟亦未能见到，直如老友之不辞而别，心中难免怅然耳。
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Someone was walking that way, hailing her. “They’ve got here at last, Mrs. James. They may be able to save some of the things downstairs.”
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“It’s all right.” She did not try to compete with fire and hose roar and the bells of rescuers arriving.
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“What?” the voice shouted to her. “What did you say?”
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“Never mind.”
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● hailing：高声招呼。
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● they指来救火的人。compete：竞争。hose：（救火车上的）水管。火声、水声、警钟声，一片喧哗，讲话很费力，她没有提起嗓子说话，“她不想同那些声音竞争”。rescuers：解救的人。
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● 来人没听清楚她说什么，所以嚷着问：What？她根本没有注意来人是谁，她只听见有个声音同她说话而已，故曰：the voice shouted to her，而不说the man shouted to her。
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“They’ve already got out some of the papers from Mr. James’study, and they’ve started on the furniture. That brocade settee.“The shouting voice was triumphant, an achievement boasted. It was an achievement, men risking their lives to extract furniture from a burning house. She tried to remember if they had ever used that settee. Yes, there had been a time, and she was forgetting it on purpose…. The last time she had seen of Mr. James, she was sitting on the brocade settee….
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● papers：文件。study：书房。started：开始（抢救）。brocade：锦缎。settee：沙发似的长椅子。boasted（过去分词）：夸耀。achievement：（救火的）成绩。extract：取出。
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● if用来引起一个名词从句时=whether。
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● on purpose：故意地。过去的事情想起来太痛苦，她故意地要忘了它。
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