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● alumni是alumnus（校友）的复数形式。返校参观毕业典礼的校友，声音很吵闹。polished, expectant looking fathers and mothers：家长们服装很整洁，神态上若有所待。eager black-gowned graduates：毕业生穿着黑袍，亟盼参加典礼。
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When they saw her, they smiled broadly, looking slowly down her, from the stiff top of her cap with its ridiculous displaced tassel, to her shoes, just showing from beneath the gown. Then they were kissing her and saying the things she had known they would say.
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● smiled broadly：虽然是微笑，可是笑得很明显，“笑容可掬”。英文也有a broad smile这样的成语。looking slowly down her：慢慢地把她从头到脚地看。（这里是从头上的帽子看到脚下的鞋子。）注意：looking down her和looking down upon her（瞧不起）不同。stiff：僵硬的。ridiculous：可笑的。displaced tassel：放错了地方的丝穗。showing：学士服长可掩足，鞋子只露出一点来。beneath the gown是个“介词短语”，但是这个短语又是介词from的宾语（从学士服下面显露出来）。这种用法很普通，如The cat came out from under the table。
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● they were kissing her：动词进行式，使动作显得特别生动。“他们现在吻起她来了。”
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● the things she had known they would say：她早知道他们会说出来的那些话。
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● 本文的句子大多拖得很长，该断的地方不断，再加上许多字去补充说明前面的话。如本段第一句：they smiled broadly照语法结构，句子断于broadly亦无不可，但作者在后面加上looking…这么一个分词短语；到to her shoes，句子也可停住了，但作者另加just showing…这么另外一个分词短语。这种句法，修辞学上称为loose sentence。善用loose sentence者，修饰描写，不厌其详，必定使句子内容更为丰富，而且句子尾巴拖得很长，欲尽不尽，回味无穷。loose sentence读起来有种懒洋洋的感觉，好处是宽舒平易，和“戛然而止”斩钉截铁式的periodic sentence不同。本文这位小姐百无聊赖，面临喜事而兴趣索然，多用loose sentence，和全篇小说的情调也是很调和的。
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They had their breakfast in the big oak-paneled dining room of the Union, but no one was very hungry. Her parents simply kept shaking their heads and looking curiously, proudly, about the big room. And for Anne, she did not know what there was for her to say to her parents—but they did a good deal of talking themselves.
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● oak-paneled：不是普通泥灰墙，墙上精镶橡木板——很讲究的房间，才有这种装饰。
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● no one was very hungry：真不饿乎？抑因精神兴奋而无暇进食乎？或因心事重重而食不下咽乎？
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● kept shaking their heads：不断地摇头（叹为观止的神情）。the big room：大学招待所竟有如此富丽堂皇的餐厅，而女儿就在这所大学毕业，父母看来，既觉得新奇，又觉得得意。what there was：“有”什么话可说的。did a good deal of talking：女儿虽不开口，他们自己却说了很多话。（themselves用以加强主语they。）
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“You know, Anne, what a great day this is for us—our own daughter graduating. We want you to know how proud it is for us.” Her father laid his cool, old hand over her perspiring one, then passed it swiftly, lightly over her cheek.
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“Yes, Pa, I know, I know.”
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● how proud it is for us：proud在这里解作“值得骄傲的”。
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● her perspiring one：她的出汗的手。passed it中的it代替his hand。pass the hand over有“抚摸”之意。
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● 第二个I know的I重读。语气中有不耐烦的神气。
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She left them there, indicating the building to which they were to go and arranging to meet them again at the Union for lunch. So she stood in line with the others, under the blazing sun, her head throbbing beneath the cap—and watched their figures moving toward the doorway of Blane Auditorium. Then the procession started and she felt nothing except the burning of the sun through her gown, the hot pavement through the soles of her thin summer shoes.
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● indicating：用手指点。the building：大礼堂。arranging：约定。
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● stood in line：排队。blazing sun：火热的太阳。throbbing：（胸口，太阳穴等处）反常的、剧烈的跳动。
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● their figures：父母的身影。Blane Auditorium：这座大礼堂大约是纪念一个叫做Blane的人的。
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● procession：毕业生列队进入大礼堂了。pavement：不一定是马路边上的人行道，这里只是指铺过（水泥、柏油或石板等）的路。soles：鞋底。队伍行进时，除了身上脚下热以外，别的什么都感觉不到。
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She was grateful that, in the huge auditorium, with the visitors all sitting behind the graduates, she could not see the faces of her parents or hear their murmured wonder and pride when the honors were announced.
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● grateful：来宾都坐在毕业生的后面，她因此看不见父母的脸，听不到他们低声赞叹（wonder）和得意的话，心里好受得多。她对于这样的安排，心里是感激的。
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● when the honors were announced：发表优秀学生名单时。她自己也在优秀之列，可是她自己并不觉得得意，她也不愿意看见父母得意的样子。honors：优异的学业成绩。此字此义永远是用复数形式的。
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Then, at last, they were singing the Alma Mater—and she sobbed as if she were a slobbering old alumnus at a reunion dinner who had too much to drink.
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● they：泛指全体师生来宾。the Alma Mater：拉丁文原义是“鞠我育我的母亲”，转作“母校”。这里是“校歌”。
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