“我是在俱乐部里认识他的。听说他是个靠国内寄钱过日子的人。” “是呀，我想是的。在这儿这种人可不少。” “他桥牌打得不错。”
11 \who was the best bridge player I ever met. I suppose you never came across him in London. Lenny Burton he called himself. I believe he'd belonged to some very good clubs.\ “这种人一般都玩得不错。去年这里有一个人，凑巧还和我同姓，我从来没有遇到过一个桥牌打得那么好的高手。我想你在伦敦没有碰见过他。他说他叫伦尼·伯顿。我相信，他加入过一些相当高级的俱乐部呢。”
12 \
13 %uncanny. I used to play with him a lot. He was in Kobe for some time.\ 14 Burton sipped his gin fizz.
“嗯，我实在不记得这个名字。”
“他称得上是桥牌高手。好像对牌有一种本能似的，简直神了。我那会儿常和他一起玩牌。他在神户住了一段时间。” 伯顿抿了一口杜松子汽酒。
15 \rather a funny story,' he said. 'He wasn't a bad chap. I liked him. He was always well-dressed and smart-looking. He was handsome in a way with curly hair and pink-and-white cheeks. Women thought a lot of him. There was no harm in him, you know, he was only wild. Of course he drank too much. Those sort of fellows always do. A bit of money used to come on for him once a quarter and he made a bit more by card-playing. He won a good deal of mine, I know that.\
“说来也是件有趣的事，”他说。“他人不坏。我挺喜欢他。他总是衣冠楚楚，样子挺帅。长得也算英俊，蜷曲的头发，两颊白里透红。女人都对他着迷。你知道，他没有什么害人之处，就是野了点。自然，他酒喝得太凶了。这种人总是这样。他每个季度收到一小笔钱，靠打牌再赚一点。他赢了我不少钱，这我可知道。”
16 Burton gave a kindly chuckle. I knew from my own experience that he could lose money at bridge with a good grace. He stroked his shaven chin with his thin hand; the veins stood out on it and it was almost transparent. 伯顿和善地咯咯一笑。我的处世经验告诉我，他打桥牌输起钱来时一定是大大方方的。他用瘦小的手摸了摸剃得光光的下巴；手上青筋鼓起，手白得几乎透明。
17 \namesake of mine. He came to see me in my office one day and asked me for a job. I was rather surprised. He told me that there was no more money coming from home and he wanted to work. I asked him how old he was.
“大概就是因为这个，当他落得一文不名的时候，就来找我了，再说他和我同姓。有一天，他到我办事处来见我，要我给他个差使。当时我颇为惊讶。他告诉我说家里不再给他寄钱了，他要干活儿了。我问他多大年纪。 18 \
19 \ 20 \ 21 I couldn't help laughing.
22 \
thirty-five years, and I'll see what I can do.' “?35，?他说。
“?你一直都干什么来着？?我问道。 “?嗯，没怎么干过事。?他说。 “我禁不住笑了。
“?眼下恐怕不能帮你忙了，?我说。?你再过35年来找我，到时候我再看看能帮些什么忙。?
23 \he had had bad luck at cards for some time. He hadn't been willing to stick to bridge, he'd been playing poker, and he'd got trimmed. He hadn't a penny. He'd pawned everything he had. He couldn't pay his hotel bill and they wouldn't give him any more credit. He was down and out. If he couldn't get something to do he'd have to commit suicide.
“他没有动弹，脸色变得相当苍白。他犹豫了一会儿，然后对我说，这一阵子他牌运一直不好。原来他不甘心老打桥牌，便赌起扑克来，结果输了个精光。他一个子儿也没有，所有的东西都拿去当了。他连酒店的账都付不出，人家也不肯再赊账给他。他已经山穷水尽。要是找不到点事干，他只好自杀。
24 \more than usual and he looked fifty. The girls wouldn't have thought so much of him if they'd seen him then.
“我瞧了他一会儿。我能看出他已经完全垮了。这一阵子他酒喝得比以前更凶，看上去足有50岁。姑娘们当时要是瞧见他，准不会对他那么着迷了。
25 \ 26 \ 27 \
28 \ 29 \
“?嗯，你除了打牌以外，难道什么也不会干吗？?我问他。 “?我会游泳，?他说。 “?游泳！?
“我几乎以为自己听错了呢；这种回答听起来简直是牛头不对马嘴。 “?我读大学时曾经代表学校参加游泳比赛。?
30 \little tin gods at their university to be impressed by it.
31 \ 32 \
33 Pausing in his story, Burton turned to me.
“我听出了一点他话里的意思。上大学时自以为了不起的人我见得多了，我才不吃这套呢。
“?本人年轻时也是个游泳好手，?我说。 “突然，我有了个想法。” 伯顿停了下来，看着我。
34 \
35 \
36 \
the beacon and landed at the creek of Tarumi. It's over three miles and it's rather difficult on account of the currents round the beacon. Well, I told my young namesake about it and I said to him that if he'd do it I'd give him a job. “你对神户熟悉吗？”他问。
“不熟悉，”我说，“从前有一次路过那里，只呆了一个晚上。”
“那么，你不会知道盐谷俱乐部吧。我年轻的时候，曾经从那里出发，游过灯塔直到垂水小溪上岸。一共3英里多路，灯塔一带有激流，游起来挺费劲。于是，我把这事告诉了那位与我同姓的年轻人，并对他说，要是他能游过去，我就给他一个差使。 37 \ 38 \
39 \
40 \nodded.
41 \ “我看得出，他吓了一跳。
“?你不是说你是游泳好手吗？?我说。 “?我现在身体状况不太好，?他回答说。
“我什么也没说，只是耸了耸肩。他望了我一会儿，然后点了点头。 “?好吧，?他说了，?你要我什么时候游呢？? 42 \
43 \swim shouldn't take you much over an hour and a quarter. I'll drive round to the creek at half past twelve and meet you. I'll take you back to the club to dress and then we'll have lunch together.'
44 \
“我看了看表。刚过十点。
“?你游这段距离大概要花一个钟头零一刻多一些。我到12点半开车到小溪那里去接你，带你到俱乐部换衣服，然后一起吃午饭。? “?就这样吧，?他说。
45 \morning and I only just managed to get to the creek at Tarumi at half past twelve. But I needn't have hurried; he never turned up.\
46 \
“我们握了握手。我祝他好运，他就走了。那天上午我有好些事要办，到12点半总算勉强赶到了垂水小溪。其实我根本用不着这么赶，他压根儿就没露面。” “他临阵脱逃了？”我问。
47 \drink and dissipation. The currents round the beacon were more than he could manage. We didn't get the body for about three days.\
“没有，他没有临阵脱逃。他确实出发了。当然喽，他喝酒作乐早把身体搞垮了。灯塔周围的激流他对付不了。大约有三天，我们都没找到尸体。”
48 I didn't say anything for a moment or two. I was a trifle shocked. Then I asked Burton a question.
49 \
50 He gave a little mild chuckle and he looked at me with those kind and candid blue eyes of
his. He rubbed his chin with his hand.
51 \
我好一会儿什么话也没说。我感到有些震惊。然后我问了伯顿一个问题。 “你提出给他差使的时候，是不是知道他准会淹死？”
他轻轻地咯咯一笑，用那双和善又坦率的蓝眼睛望着我。他用手摩挲着下巴。 “哦，那时我的办事处可没有空缺呀。”
Unit 6
Text A:
Old Father Time Becomes a Terror
Richard Tomkins
1 Once upon a time, technology, we thought, would make our lives easier. Machines were expected to do our work for us, leaving us with ever-increasing quantities of time to waste away on idleness and pleasure.
时间老人成了可怕的老人
理查德·汤姆金斯
从前，我们以为技术发展会使我们的生活变得更安逸。那时我们觉得机器会替代我们工作，我们则有越来越多的时间休闲娱乐。
2 But instead of liberating us, technology has enslaved us. Innovations are occurring at a bewildering rate: as many now arrive in a year as once arrived in a millennium. And as each invention arrives, it eats further into our time.
但技术发展没有把我们解放出来，而是使我们成为奴隶。新技术纷至沓来，令人目不暇接：一年涌现的技术创新相当于以前一千年。而每一项新发明问世，就进一步吞噬我们的光阴。
3 The motorcar, for example, promised unimaginable levels of personal mobility. But now, traffic in cities moves more slowly than it did in the days of the horse-drawn carriage, and we waste our lives stuck in traffic jams.
比如，汽车曾使我们希望个人出行会方便得让人难以想象。可如今，城市车辆运行得比马车时代还要慢，我们因交通堵塞而困在车内，徒然浪费生命。
4 The aircraft promised new horizons, too. The trouble is, it delivered them. Its very existence created a demand for time-consuming journeys that we would never previously have dreamed of undertaking -- the transatlantic shopping expedition, for example, or the trip to a convention on the other side of the world.
飞机也曾有可能为我们拓展新天地。问题是，飞机提供了新的天地。其存在本身产生了对耗时的长途旅行的需求，这种旅行，如越洋购物，或远道前往地球的另一半参加会议，以前我们是根本无法想象的。
5 In most cases, technology has not saved time, but enabled us to do more things. In the home, washing machines promised to free women from having to toil over the laundry. In reality, they encouraged us to change our clothes daily instead of weekly, creating seven times as much washing and ironing. Similarly, the weekly bath has been replaced by the daily shower, multiplying the hours spent on personal grooming. 在大多数情况下，技术发展并未节省时间，而是使我们得以做更多的事。在家里，洗衣机可望使妇女摆脱繁重的洗衣劳作。但事实上，它们促使我们每天，而不是每星期换一次衣服，这就使熨洗衣物的工作量变成原来的
相关推荐：
loading