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She was cut off from the main lawn of the house by a semicircular bank of azaleas and guelder-rose, so that she could not see the figures of her daughters and the three young men. She did not think she had ever been allowed to shriek like that as a girl. It irritated her exactly as if someone had started to fire off rockets in midafternoon.
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● main lawn：（园里的）大草坪。azalea：杜鹃花。guelder-rose：绣球花。花树密集，种在半圆形的土堆（bank）之上，她视线被阻，因此看不见草地上是什么情形了。figures：身形。daughters就是上段的Melanie和Fay，笑声无疑也是这群青年男女所发出来的。
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● had been allowed（过去完成式，被动语态）：她做小姑娘的时候，大人不许她这样尖声怪叫的。
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● rockets：火箭（一种焰火）。下午三点钟左右（midafternoon）放焰火，使人难受，今他们的笑声恼人，亦复如此。
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“I shall have to stop it. I shall go and speak to them. I won’t have that sort of thing.”
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Then she remembered that going to speak to them would be awkward because she had suggested croquet herself. She had remembered, after lunch, the old croquet box in the stable loft. It struck her as being just the sort of quiet and companionable game that did not require energy on hot afternoons and she thought that perhaps it would keep them out of mischief.
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● I shall have to stop it中之have to解作“非……不可”。
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● going to speak中之going为动名词，作从句的主语。awkward：怪不好意思的，因为打槌球还是她自己建议的。
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● croquet box：盛槌球用具的盒子。stable loft：马厩的阁楼。连用两个过去完成式的动词had suggested和had remembered，把时间推前了两三个钟头。这一段都是倒叙午饭甫罢以后的事，不是她在摇椅里的所见所闻了。
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● It代表croquet。struck：忽然使她觉得。这个动作的发生也在午饭方罢之时，动词似乎也应该用过去完成式，为什么这里用简单过去式呢？这一点可以这样说明：过去完成式本是用来同过去式比先后的，表示“过去的前面还有过去”，当这种对比的需要已经不复存在，事情又是顺着次序讲下去了，就不必再用这种念起来很别扭的时态了。这里用了两个过去完成式动词之后，时间已经表示明白，接着再用简单过去式，也不致引起误会。以下几段大多倒叙，时态过去完成与简单过去杂用，请注意。
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● 她那时忽然想起了槌球这种游戏很安静，可以使大家一起来玩（companionable），热天下午玩起来，也不大需要多少精神；她还这样想：她们有了这个玩也免得去淘气（out of mischief）了。她怕她们淘气，无形中还当她们是小孩子。
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For the same reason she had invited three young men to lunch instead of two. That was also companionable. She wanted her daughters to have companions. She was not after all so very old herself, not so very far removed from the time when those things filled your head. But children grew up so quickly. They flashed through childhood. They whisked through adolescence into young womanhood and you did not know where you were. You felt you did not know at times what was best for them.
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● For the same reason之reason 即本段第二句：That was also companionable，人多了更宜于社交。
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● after all：此一成语作为“话得说回来”或“说来说去”。“话得说回来了，她自己也不好算很老。”removed（过去分词）：离开得远。those things：男女社交之事。your head之your泛指一般人。人在青春时期，脑筋里所想的总是这些事情，她自己的年龄距青春也还不远。
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● 下面几句是母亲的感慨：孩子们的童年过得太快了，青春发育时期（adolescence）很快过去（whisked），转瞬便成少妇；做母亲的真有点摸不着头脑之感（you did not know where you were）。她也不知道该怎么办才算是对她们最合适的。
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Before lunch Melanie, for instance, had made a great fuss about wearing a dress from last summer. Mrs. Fairfax thought it an enchanting dress; she thought it made her daughter look like a young fresh flower. There was something budlike and tender about it, but the child had suddenly thrown an exhausting tantrum up in her bedroom and said she wouldn’t be seen dead in it for her or anybody.
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“You will wear it and like it,” Mrs. Fairfax said. “Don’t be so tiresome. It fits just as well as ever. You haven’t grown a scrap.”
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“Fay had a new one on. You bought it for her. If Fay can, why can’t I?”
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“Fay’s that much older than you. She’s grown out of hers. That’s why.”
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● for instance：孩子们已经长大，举个例来说吧。Before lunch：这两个字提得也很妙，上面才说过有男朋友来共进午膳，那两位小姐在进餐之前，难免要打扮一番。made a great fuss：小题大做；空发脾气。a dress from last summer：去年夏天穿过的一件衣服。
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● enchanting：迷人的。something：某种性质或情调，后随两个形容词，budlike（含苞未放的）和tender（温柔的）。母亲以为女儿穿了很好看，可是这孩子（在母亲心目中，她总是个孩子）在卧室里大发脾气。tantrum：一阵脾气。这阵脾气是掀起来（thrown up）的。exhausting：此字第二次出现，大约并不是作者爱用这个字，他只是描写Mrs. Fairfax的心理，这位太太的脑筋里恐怕常出现这个字。
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● she wouldn’t be seen dead in it for her or anybody是间接陈述法，直接陈述法当是：I wouldn’t be seen dead in it for you or anybody（不论是为她母亲或是为别人，她死了也不愿意让人看见穿这身衣服）。
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● You haven’t grown a scrap：你一点也没有长大。
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● Fay had a new one on之on表示“穿着”。
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● Fay’s that much older than you：姐姐就比你大那么一点。that为副词，形容much。谁是姐姐，谁是妹妹，到这里才完全说明。
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