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● The woman：我们猜想一男一女在赶路，果然有一个女人，我们大约是猜对了。（下文Ring said，Ring是那男人的名字。）clamp：作名词用，解作“螺钉夹”；作动词用，解作“像螺丝钉那样地夹着”。这里是过去分词，作形容词用。
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● It hurt her：她并不觉得好受。可是她已筋疲力尽，非咬紧牙关，无法再继续前进，咬痛嘴唇，在所不惜了。
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● one behind the other=one foot behind the other foot。
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● mile after mile：天没亮就在赶路，可能是他们刚刚出门，但是由这一段文章看来，他们已经赶了不少路了。
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● whimpered：低声呜咽。
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At the top of the hill, they came face to face with the sun. It was a quarter of the way up, cut like a knife by the treeless horizon. Down below them was a valley lying under a cover of mist that was rising slowly from the earth. They could see several houses and farms, but most of them were so far away they were almost indistinguishable in the mist. There was smoke rising from the chimney of the first house.
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● 第一段第一句里说slowly up the road，看到这里，我们知道他们原来是在登山。
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● a quarter of the way up：太阳尚未全部露面，只有四分之一升在地平线上。地平线上没有树，太阳好像被刀切似的。脚下有谷，谷中雾气冉冉上升，把山谷盖了起来。
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● so far away：后面照语法规矩应接that一字，但近代作家有把这个that省掉的。indistinguishable：房屋农田在雾中看不清楚。
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● smoke：景物朦胧，单提出“炊烟”一事，引起下面文章。the first house：最接近他们的那座房屋。
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Ruth looked at the man beside her. The red rays of the sun began to color his pale face like blood. But still his eyes were tired and lifeless. He looked as if he were balancing himself on his two feet with great effort, and as if the next moment he might lose his balance and fall to the ground.
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● 女人的名字叫做Ruth，在这里点出。
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● color是动词不定式：着色，初升的阳光，把男人苍白的脸照得血红。
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● balancing himself：费了好大的劲，两条腿才站得稳。lose his balance：失掉平稳，脚站不住。the next moment：现在虽然勉强站稳，但是似乎一不小心，随时都可以倒下地去。
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“We’ll be able to get a little something to eat at that first house,” she said, waiting minute after minute for him to reply.
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“We’ll get something there,” she said, answering for him, “We will.”
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● 上一段已经描写那男人面色苍白，双目无神，步履不稳，这一段里他连口都不开了。女人提议到前面那家人家去讨些东西吃。她等了好久（minute after minute），男人默不作声。最后还是女人自己替他回答（answering for him）。
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● We will：我们“一定”讨得到东西的。这个will应该重读（有些语法家主张这里应该用shall的）。
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The sun came up above the horizon, fast and red. Streaks of gray clouds, like layers of wood smoke, swam across the face of it. Almost as quickly as it had risen, the sun shrank into a small fiery button that seared the eyes until it was impossible to look at it any longer.
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● streaks：丝，条。layers：层。wood smoke：柴木的烟。shrank：缩小。太阳升离地平线以后，很快地就显得缩小了，现在看上去只像是一颗“火一般的小钮子”。seared：炙伤。until：这一个字表示他们两人一直在看着太阳，刚才那个男的不理会女人的说话，大约是看太阳看得出神了，但是现在阳光炽烈，他们不能再看了。
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“Let’s try, anyway,” Ruth said.
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Ring looked at her in the clear daylight, seeing her for the first time since the sun had set the night before. Her face was paler, her cheeks more sunken.
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● anyway：不管怎样。
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● Ring不看太阳，望望他身边的女人。since the sun had set：昨晚日落以后，他还没有仔细看过那女人的脸。可能他们两人已经赶了一夜的路——可是为什么呢？他们要往哪儿去呢？这是个闷葫芦，作者故弄玄虚，要到最后方始把谜底揭穿。读者的兴趣已被引起，非往下读不可，这也是小说家的手法。
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Without words, he started forward down the hill. He did not turn his head to see if she was following him, but went down the road drawing one foot from behind and hurling it in front of him with all his might. There was no other way he could move himself over the ground.
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