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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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● The last time三个字连起来当conjunction用。这一类表示时间的所谓group conjunction常用的有the moment、every time、by the time等等。为什么这只椅子所引起的回忆是痛苦的呢？因为最后一次她同她丈夫吵架的时候，她就是坐在这张椅子上。
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The fire had blown to statuesque grandeur. It had taken hold of the house trees, which were now dying. The three tall sentinel firs made their pyre apart, but the others, among them the maple outside her window, were meeting common death with the house they shaded. This was a great fire, the biggest in these parts for twenty years. The firemen drew back to safer distances. The rescued settee, which had not been carried out far enough, began to smolder, and no one would brave the heat to rescue it again.
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● blown：膨胀。statuesque：像雕像似的。grandeur：雄伟。
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● firs：枞树。sentinel：哨兵。枞树三棵，本耸立守卫，犹如哨兵，今均焚去。pyre：火葬堆。apart与common death相对照，三棵枞树分三处烧，别的树同屋子一起烧去。maple：枫树。they shaded是定语从句。they=the trees：屋本居树荫之下。
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● drew back：向后撤退。火势太大，救火人员都不敢再走上前去了。
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● smolder：焚化（火不冒出来的）。长椅本已着火，抢救出来后，没有搬多远，现在它自己烧起来了。brave（动词）：冒，犯，敢去碰。
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The fire chief, village druggist disguised in a helmet, came up to comfort her and apologize, “It’s a pity, Mrs. James, we couldn’t save anything to speak of. The way the draft carried the flame you’d have thought that house was built to be burned. Excuse me, ma’am, I guess you’re feeling bad enough.”
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● druggist：卖药的，药剂师。乡间守望相助，救火会亦为村民所组成。disguised：化装。helmet：（铜）盔。
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● to speak of：值得一提的（东西）。draft：气流，风。The way也是一个group conjunction，这里的意思好像是From the way：从火随风走这种情势看来，你会以为那屋子是造来专给火烧的。
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She had no idea what words he expected from her, so she pointed toward the fire, as much as to say, What is there to say? But he thought she was indicating the settee, now smoking like a Christmas pudding, and he felt guilty about it.
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“I know,” he said humbly. “I thought we sure had it out far enough.”
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● idea后有一介词of省去：她不知道他期待她怎样答复。
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● What is there to say?前后引号省去：还有什么可说的呢？这句话并没有说出来，可是从她的姿势看来，效果上是等于说了（as much as to say）。
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● Christmas pudding：圣诞布丁。面粉、鸡蛋、牛脂、葡萄干、梅干等调制而成，食时热气蒸腾。guilty：自责，内疚（自觉救火不力）。
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● sure当副词用。I thought we had…用过去式：“我起初还以为……”，现在才知道那张长椅子搬出来得还不够远。
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“Throw it back into the fire.” She heard her own harsh, unkempt voice and she hadn’t meant to offend the druggist-fireman, who backed off hurriedly, disconcerted by her ferocity; it was just that she could not help voicing exactly what was in her mind…because she had decided to throw into the fiery furnace every shred of her life that she could lay hands on.
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● harsh：粗声粗气的。unkempt：随便的，不检点的。offend：得罪。backed off：向后走开。disconcerted：弄得很窘。ferocity：凶狠之状。
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● it was just that：句子这样开头往往用来说明上文“事实只是这样”。could not help：不得不。voice当动词用，解作“表达出来，形诸语言”，这里是动名词。
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● furnace：炉，是暗喻（metaphor），指焚烧中的房子。shred原意是极细的布条。生命里的“一丝一缕”，她都要掷到火里去，那张长椅子也不必说了。that she could lay hands on：定语从句，“凡是她的手所拿得到的”。
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But the house burned brightly enough, as fine a fire as hell.
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It was hell, nor more nor less. It tore at her eye-balls, and looking at it was more than looking because it had already begun to devour her.
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● 照基督教传说，地狱里不断地烧着火。一个在基督教传统里长大的人，看见大火，很容易联想起地狱（hell）。
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