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● If the prospect…had arisen：这样一个机会假如在她十八岁时候发生的话，她会死掉的。这是一句很标准的假定句子，请注意动词的形式。（prospect并不解释作“机会”，这里为凑中文的方便，勉强译作“机会”。）
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● some twenty years：约摸二十年。about to：将要。the dream made flesh：这是一个nominative absolute phrase，made是过去分词，flesh是subjective complement。梦想实现，梦中人将以血肉之躯和她相见了。
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She had no idea that anyone she knew would actually know Gavin Douglas, least of all her son. But she didn’t need to think twice to know where and how her son had met him.
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During the past summer Ralph had had his first job. He had been assistant stage manager at a summer theater on the Cape, as a kind of apprenticeship for the work that he thought he wanted to take up later. He was eighteen but he was interested in the theater as a business. And that is how he must have met Gavin Douglas; the Cape playhouse was famous for its guest-stars, though these were usually tired or retired actors, stars of the past rather than the present. Odd that Ralph had never mentioned him before; but how could he have known what it would mean to his mother? He was too young to appreciate the name and fame of the great matinée idol of twenty and thirty years ago, the star who had been an idol of hers when she was Ralph’s age.
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● 她不知道，任何她所认识的人，会真的认识这位名伶；她尤其不能（least of all）相信，她儿子会认识他。
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● didn’t need to think twice：用不着想两遍，一猜就中。
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● the past summer：过去的夏季，可能仍旧是今年。his first job：美国学生暑假期间多有做短工赚钱的。
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● assistant stage manager：助理舞台经理。注意前面不用冠词the，冠词最为难用，不容易用规则来概括说明。大抵predicate nominative（主语之补足词）的名词，前面可以不加the，如Wordsworth的名句：
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The Child is father of the Man.
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此句中的father前面就没有冠词。又，职位前面，常有无需冠词the者，如Queen of England，headmaster of a school等，这里的manager这个字，既然用在动词had been之后，是个主语补足词，又是一个职位的名称（经理），不加the，并不是一种奇怪的用法。但这种用法并不是一定的规则，读者还得于读书时随时留意为要。
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● summer theater：美国的夏季是戏剧季节，平常不大演戏的小城小镇，到了夏天就会有剧团租场演出，这种戏院就叫做summer theater（恐怕是为吸引避暑游客而设的）。the Cape：cape原意是海岬。这篇小说的背景大约是美国东北部一带，所指海岬恐怕是麻萨诸塞州的避暑胜地Cape Cod。
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● a kind of apprenticeship：一种实习。这位青年希望干戏剧活动（the theater），暑假里先实习起来。
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● He was eighteen：十八岁。请参照本段最后一句：when she was Ralph’s age。人不就是年龄，可是中间可以用动词was。
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● guest-stars：客串明星。tired or retired actors：厌倦舞台生涯或业已退隐的伶人，广东话有个较能传神的说法：过气老倌。（tired和retired两个字连用，很巧妙。）那些小剧院所能请到的大明星，无非是些过时人物。
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● Odd：当系It was odd的简略，“这是很奇怪的。”
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● what it would mean：这个人的名字有什么意义呢？
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● appreciate：欣赏，了解。matinée idol：舞台名伶，尤其是拥有女性观众的男明星。在英美各国看下午上演的matinée“日戏”观众，过去以女性占大多数。故她们的舞台偶像称为matinée idols。
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● 文章写到这里，一个是母亲，一个是儿子，已经说得明明白白了。
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Idol was not the word. She had fallen in love with him. And it was not too much to say that she had never really fallen out of love. Her love had never been requited or fulfilled, had never even been communicated. Gavin Douglas had been unaware of her very existence—except as a pair of clapping hands among all those other clapping hands that had become routine to him.
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● 说他是她的偶像，还不完全对。她不仅是像普通女学生那样崇拜这位大明星而已，她是真“爱”他的。
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● it was not too much to say：说这样的话也不算过分，事实的确如此。她于二十年前陷入情网，迄今犹未自拔。
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● requited：得到报答。“单恋”是unrequited love。fulfilled：圆满实现。communicated：表达出来。这一句里三个动词用得都很有劲。
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● unaware of her very existence：根本不知这天下有她这么一个女人。very是形容词。
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● 她虽然盲目痴恋，台上人只知道台下纷纷鼓掌，在掌声雷动之中，有她这么一双手掌，他怎么能分别出来呢？假如他知道有她这么一个人，也无非是知道台下有一双手掌而已。
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● other：这个字在逻辑上是说得通的。among=in or into the midst of。在许多“其他”手掌之间，她的那双也在鼓掌。routine：习以为常的事情，“家常便饭”。
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