1705034065
rafters, the sloping timbers of the roof of a house.
1705034066
1705034067
Was there sense in stripping the coat off one’s back to feed one’s belly? If Farmer Liu did not feed his belly （stomach）, he would starve to death; if he stripped the coat off his back and sold the clothes for money to buy food for his belly, he would freeze to death from the cold. Farmer Liu thought that it was more sensible for him to keep his clothes on and try to get food by some other means, by killing his starving buffalo, for example. So he killed the animal.
1705034068
1705034069
faces set, faces took on a hard expression, became motionless as in death.
1705034070
1705034071
last, utmost; extreme; supreme; greatest.
1705034072
1705034073
down the river . What river must this be that flows by great cities ?
1705034074
1705034075
his own father, his neighbor’s own father.
1705034076
1705034077
hard, hard-hearted; not easily influenced emotionally; unfeeling.
1705034078
1705034079
cold. Two meanings: cold in the sense of low temperature, for in winter the ground is actually very cold; cold in the emotional sense, in that the earth was not sympathetic, was unfeeling, unmoved, apathetic.
1705034080
1705034081
shrimps， 虾．
1705034082
1705034083
dysentery， 赤痢—a disease of the bowels, with inflamed mucous membrane and intestinal glands, griping pains, and mucous and bloody evacuations.
1705034084
1705034085
sprouting dandelions, dandelions which were beginning to put forth shoots, to grow. The dandelion is a yellow-flowered composite plant with widely toothed leaves. It grows wild, especially in well-kept lawns, where it is a pest. Sprouting dandelions show that spring was coming.
1705034086
1705034087
heavily, sadly; despondently; dolefully; melancholicly.
1705034088
1705034089
as a leaf tossed upon the flood . This is a mode of expressing abstract （not concrete） ideas by words which suggest pictures or images and is known as a figure of speech . This particular figure of speech that we give here is a simile , which is an imaginative comparison between objects essentially unlike, except in certain aspects, and declares that A is like B, or, “he felt helpless as a leaf tossed upon the flood.” A simile may be condensed into a metaphor , which imaginatively identifies one object with another, and ascribes to the one qualities of the other. A metaphor assumes that A is B, or, “he was a leaf tossed upon the flood.” A metaphor may usually be expanded into a simile.
1705034090
1705034091
he could be grateful for nothing . Why could he be grateful for nothing? Why was he comforted by nothing? Why did tears come now when they had not even come when he buried his old mother?
1705034092
1705034093
Questions
1705034094
1705034095
1. How did Farmer Liu know that spring was coming? In other years what signs could he have pointed to?
1705034096
1705034097
2. What had seemed to him “the last sacrifice”?
1705034098
1705034099
3. What further sacrifices did he have to make?
1705034100
1705034101
4. Summarize all that the winter’s famine had taken?
1705034102
1705034103
5. Why the title “Barren Spring”?
1705034104
1705034105
参考译文
1705034106
1705034107
【作品简介】
1705034108
1705034109
《贫瘠的春天》一文选自赛珍珠所著《第一任妻子和其他故事》，纽约约翰·戴出版公司1933年出版，279—283页。
1705034110
1705034111
【作者简介】
1705034112
1705034113
赛珍珠（1892—1973），美国小说家，因其父母曾在中国传教而生长于中国。她的首任丈夫卜凯曾任金陵大学（现南京大学前身）农业经济学教授。赛珍珠在其1935年出版的为母亲所写的传记《流亡者》中提及了自己的这段早年经历。是年，她与卜凯离婚，并嫁给后来的丈夫，约翰·戴出版公司的所有人理查德·沃尔什。她以赛珍珠的笔名创作的小说《大地》1931年获普利策奖，被评为当年在美国出版的最佳小说，也被认为是赛珍珠关于中国的小说中最出色的一部。
1705034114
[
上一页 ]
[ :1.705034065e+09 ]
[
下一页 ]