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● Phoebe的话说明小牛是怎么上来的：它嗅到了香味，从梯道大门进来找苹果的。
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● flashlight：手电筒。hammering：原意是“锤击”，此处亦作“怦怦地跳”。insanely：（似乎是）疯狂地。swinging：摆动。
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The low, oak-beamed ceiling and thick stone walls of the stable made a warm, cozy cave, and in it the heifer hung crazily upside down, her head and one foreleg wedged between two treads of the heavy, ladder-like stairs. The wedged foreleg was broken, bone thrusting through the skin. In the lantern light her eyes rolled whitely, blindly, and the helpless, rasping cries grew steadily fainter.
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● 第一句描写楼下马厩中所见。马厩不高，顶上橡木作梁（oak-beam），周围石砌厚墙，处身其间，温暖舒适（cozy），犹如洞穴。
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● crazily：荒唐地。牛头倒悬空中，为反常之事，犹如疯人所为。
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● wedged：卡住。foreleg：前腿。treads：梯级。ladder-like stairs：ladder是可搬动之梯，stairs是楼梯。但马厩里的stairs 比之ladder亦相差无几。
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● 在灯光之中，可以看见牛的眼睛在转，然而白多黑少（whitely），眼珠失神（blindly），已是奄奄待毙之状。其鸣声粗沙（rasping）凄婉（helpless），亦渐趋微弱矣。
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“If we could saw the stair!” Phoebe cried in anguish. “Wouldn’t that free her?”
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“It’s no use,” Joe said. “The weight of her fall would snap her back, Phoebe, you’d better get the gun.”
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● saw：锯断。anguish：极端痛苦，然而深度尚不如agony。牛之将死用agony（见前文），哀怜同情之人，其心虽十分痛苦，然到底比身受者还差一筹，故用anguish。受anguish之苦者，表面上可能很少反应；受agony之苦者，必定辗转挣扎也。
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● snap：折断。梯子锯断了，牛摔下来要把背脊摔断的。
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The heifer bawled again, a hopeless choking cry, and in the lantern light her free leg kicked futilely in the air. “She’s suffering, Phoebe. Get the gun.”
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● 牛鸣本趋微弱，现忽又吼叫，然而气息壅塞（choking），临终绝望之哀鸣也。free leg：未被卡住之腿。
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Phoebe had turned blindly, and was rushing out the door when Joe called, “Phoebe, bring a knife, too, the sharp knife in the kitchen.” For a moment she didn’t understand, and then she turned back whimpering in horror. “No, no, we can’t, I won’t!” Across the shadowy stable Joe’s voice rose in furious torment. “Get the knife! You know we can’t waste food.” He stared at her relentlessly. “We wanted a farm, didn’t we? To make our own life, our own food? We’ve eaten meat all our lives, now we’ve got to earn it.”
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● Phoebe奔出去拿枪，要结束这条牛的痛苦了。Joe 叫她把厨房里的刀拿来。她起初还不懂，后来想起来了——Joe要先流其血然后宰而食之！
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● whimper亦是一种呜咽，与前文moan相比，则whimper之声断续而moan之声细长，whimper可能含愠抱怨，而moan则纯是忧伤凄楚也。
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● 她已跑到门口，Joe在里面发脾气，内外之间，有一段距离，所以说：他的声音“越过了幽暗的马厩”（across the shadowy stable）。
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● Joe’s voice rose：提起了嗓子说话。furious：盛怒的。torment较anguish略轻，Joe决定忍心杀牛，心里也必非常痛苦，然而比之Phoebe的anguish究还差一筹。此字带一点“烦躁”的意思。
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● stared：瞪目而视。relentlessly：惨酷无情地，不稍宽待地。waste：糟蹋。牛打死了，他舍不得不吃。
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● earn：凭本事去赚。
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● 最后两句问话的意义：我们买下这座农场来，本来是靠着它吃的。
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Phoebe laid the knife, the gun and cartridges beside Joe and turned away. She was well away from the stable when she heard the shot. She stopped then, and for a long moment she stood quiet, shaking in the cold.
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After her tears Phoebe slept, but she woke early. She lay quietly in bed, her body aching, her mind calm but filled with a clear despair.
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● cartridges：子弹。clear despair：清明的绝望。她觉得人生没有意义了，
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可是心头还是清清楚楚的，并不昏沉。
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