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● 有一点我们是敢断定的（certainly），他们的确是依从（fall in with）老百姓的意志而行事的。
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● perform their public functions：执行公务（如接见外国使节、主持国庆大典等）。traditional：传统的。state and dignity：这两个字连用时，意义上没有多大分别。state有“庄严”之意。
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● when these are over=when these functions are over：公务执行完毕。
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● differ in no essentials：其主要之点并无分别。that of their subjects：他们“子民”的家庭生活。
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In Belgium and England the story is different because there the traditions of aristocratic society and court life are still alive. The British royal children are privately educated; the queen of England does not go out unattended and the Belgian king rarely does; there are courtiers and splendor. Yet even in England royal life has modified a great deal. An English princess will now dine out with friends without a lady in waiting in attendance. The little Duke of Cornwall is beginning his education not at home under the care of a tutor but at a school. It seems possible, too, that when he is older he may become the first heir to the British throne to attend a public school. Altogether the English royal family today leads a life which, while retaining many of its old forms, is growingly democratic in spirit.
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● story原意是“故事”。the story is different是成语，与“故事”无关，只是“情形是不一样的”。
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● aristocratic society：贵族社会。alive这个字是可以形容traditions的。are still alive当然比still exist来得好。
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● privately educated：请“太傅”教授。
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● does not go out unattended：没有侍从跟随，是不出门的。unattended形容主语queen。…rarely does：比利时国王出门，难得没有侍从跟随。
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● there are…：宫廷供奉之臣和宫廷生活的华丽，迄今犹存。
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● modified：改变，程度减轻。
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● will dine out的will是表示“习惯”。a lady in waiting：侍从宫女。in attendance：从旁侍候。
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● Duke of Cornwall：就是现在英国的王子Charles。英国太子的封号是Prince of Wales，当时这个王子，尚未正式册封为Prince of Wales。
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● under the care of a tutor：受私人教师指导。
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● heir to the throne：储君。public school：英国的public school，不是“公立学校”，只是“公众可以就读的学校”。以前英国的储君，从来没有上学校念书的。
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● a life which：这句话的重心是在which…这个定语从句上。a life可以说没有什么意义，它的意义借“which”clause而完成。这种生活虽然（while）旧日规模仍旧保持不少，可是在精神上，已是日益民主了。同样的句法，见于上一段之末句：a home life的意义亦是借“which”clause而完成的。
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现代英文选评注 A Professor in Retirement退休教授
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Jean Stafford (1915—1979)
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珍·斯塔福是美国当代名女作家，她的第一部长篇小说Boston Adventure于1944年出版，一举成名。后来，她又写了The Mountain Lion，The Catherine Wheel等长篇，以及短篇小说多种。珍·斯塔福是个很精细的作家，描写不厌其详，可是笔触轻灵，同情的态度中还略带讽刺。美国当代作家，文字风格的差别很大，有极端的粗犷，也有极端的细腻。珍·斯塔福是用精细的手法，来表现她对世界的看法的。
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本文原题“A Reasonable Facsimile”，刊于1957年8月3日The New Yorker杂志。讲一个老教授和一个青年人的故事。这里选录几段，读者虽不能观全豹，但是她的英文还是可以叫人喜欢的。
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Far from withering on the vine from apathy and loneliness after his retirement as chairman of the Philosophy Department at Nevilles College, Dr. Bohrmann had a second blooming, and it was observed amongst his colleagues and his idolatrous students that he would age with gusto and live to be a hundred. He looked on the end of his academic career—an impressive one that had earned him an international reputation in scholarly quarters—as simply the end of one phase of his life, and when he began the new one, he did so with fresh accoutrements, for, as he had been fond of saying to his students, “Change is the only stimulus.”
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● 第一句相当长，但是内容也丰富。读者试把第一句里所讲的事情，一一列出，然后再把这些事情，集在一句句子里面，这句句子读起来，又要流利漂亮，你就会发现：不要说写篇好文章是件难事，写一句好句子也是不容易的。
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● 这位Bohrmann博士，是Nevilles College的哲学系主任，现在因年老退休了，但是他的精神老而弥健。这一句分前后两节，两节以and联系。
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