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● harder用以加强hard。他的用功之苦，比之波士顿孳孳为利的商人，也许有过之而无不及。
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● everyone是夸大的说法，即“很多人”。大家都去买他的书，作为圣诞礼品送人。买的人所以如此之多，因为作者为人很可爱，平日人缘很好，至于书写得好不好，大家并不关心。
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● cronies：好朋友。此人平日并不读书（not a reader）。
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● while有“虽然”之意。大家都看出来这是一部好书，但是到底好得怎么样，那些买书的人没有人知道。当时有资格评定这部书的优劣者，全世界仅有（scarcely）十二人而已。
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● electoral returns：各地选举的开票结果。这里并没有谁在举行选举，作者只是借用一个成语，表示各地的好评源源不断而来。
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● a classic：名著，不朽之作。这是个subjective complement：一出版就成了名著。
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It was a conquest of personality. Prescott was a first-rate human being, exuberant, gallant, wilful, firm, devoted, far removed from the clerkly sort of scholar, painstaking but wanting in vigour and sinew, who, in a world in which the most virile types adopted careers of enterprising action, ruled over the sphere of books.
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● It：本书的成功。conquest of personality：个性之征服。如上文所叙，Prescott个性外向，爱同朋友来往，参加热闹的社交宴会。他不像是个潜心著作的史学家。他超越了自己的个性，才能写出这部不朽名著来。
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● a first-rate human being：第一流的人物。exuberant：精力充沛。gallant此字有勇敢、高贵之意，相当于中文的“潇洒不群”。wilful：任性行事。firm：意志坚定。devoted：对朋友极为忠诚，当然也极有可能献身于一己的事业。
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● the clerkly sort of scholar：在书本世界里过日子的那种学者。clerkly：像个书呆子或小书记似的，没有见解，没有气魄。普氏绝不是这一类人。painstaking：治学非常小心。可是体力（vigour and sinew）稍差。sinew：筋络，转作“体力”。who代表主语the clerkly sort of scholar。它的动词是ruled。在那时的美国，凡是以体魄胜人（virile）的那一种人，都去从事（adopted：采用）于带点冒险性（enterprising）的事业了，如经商、航海、从军等，剩下那些体力不如人的学者，只好在书堆里称王（统治了书本的领域）。普氏精力充沛，原是第一类型的人，却能克服自己的个性，成为一个大史学家。
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He did not like to get up in the morning and had to instruct his servant, the faithful Nathan, to pull away his bed-clothes. He did not like to work. He had to make bets with his secretary that he would write a certain number of pages or carry out some other resolution. He was always making resolutions, never too old to make them; and he was never old enough to keep them.
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● 普氏既非读书型，早晨懒得起床，非得吩咐忠仆Nathan不可，叫他把被子掀掉。
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● make bets：赌东道。他的决心（resolution）常常不能付诸实行（carry out），他不得不同他的秘书打赌，规定自己要写多少页书，或者干些别的什么事情；为了怕输东道，只好硬着头皮苦干了。
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● was always making resolutions：常常在下决心，定计划。never too old to make them：自己从来不觉得老，所以计划（them代替resolutions）层出不穷。假如自己承认老朽，那么也许就得过且过，不再下什么决心了。
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● never old enough to keep them：老人自觉岁月所余无多，心上如有未了之事，总希望在生前把它做掉。这种人可说是old enough to keep their resolutions了。可是普氏并不觉老之将至，也不想偿宿债，还宿愿。
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The refractory horse makes the most mettlesome charger. Prescott had a formidable will, and he had bridled and harnessed his indolent nature. Every morning, in the dead of winter, to wind himself up for the day, he mounted his horse and rode to Jamaica Plain, to see the sun rise from a certain hill. As for his blindness, which was never total, he made an advantage of it. One might have thought that blindness was a blessing. He could not read for more than ten minutes,—an hour or two a day at the best of times. And how could a blind man write a history, based on unpublished documents, in two or three foreign languages?
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● 第一句用现在时，表示一般情形。凡顽劣不驯（refractory）之马，如经名手训练，常成为最刚健之良驹（charger：战马，用以冲锋陷阵者）。
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● formidable will：坚强的意志。他用毅力驾御了自己懒惰的个性。bridled：替马装上羁勒。harnessed：替马装上马具，备驾车之用。indolent：习惯性的懒惰，怕吃力，喜悠闲。这里把他的个性比作一头马，所以可以bridled又可以harnessed。
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● in the dead of winter：是成语；三九严冬。dead作名词用，解作“死气沉沉的时候”。万籁寂静的深夜，可以译成at dead of night。to wind himself up：替自己“上发条”；振作精神，准备一天的工作。Jamaica Plain：波士顿附近的地名。这样一个懒得起床的人，冬晨居然能骑马到郊外山头看日出，精神自是不凡。
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● which was never total：盲虽盲，但从未完全失明。which代替blindness。As for his blindness：至于他的瞎眼吧……。made an advantage of it：他把短处转化成为长处；本来不利于自己的缺陷，反而转变成为对自己有利的优点。
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● One might have thought：我们几乎可以这么说；虚拟语气，隐含这么一个conditional clause，假如我们能够看见他这么用功的话。
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● a blessing：天赐恩典。
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● based on unpublished documents：他这部历史所根据的是些未经发表的文献（如书札、日记、手稿之类），这些东西是用两三种外国文字写成的。他双目不灵，一天顶多只能读上一两钟头的书，每读十分钟就要休息，他怎么能披阅这许多未经整理的原始史料，写出这么一部伟大的历史呢？
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He made his ears do the work of his eyes, with the aid of a friend and a sister and later of a competent secretary. Blindness had always favoured contemplative habits. Had not Malebranche closed his shutters in order to drive the sunlight out? Had not Democritus, as the legend said, blinded himself deliberately to stimulate his thinking? Blindness was good for invention, as many poets proved, from Homer to Milton. The blind were famous for their patience, especially for their feats of memory.
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● 他用耳代目——使耳朵做眼睛的工作。他是请人把书读给他听的，先是请一位朋友和自己的姊妹，以后又找到了一位很能干（competent）的秘书。of a competent secretary的of连前面的with the aid。
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