J_00795_ch20601

Lesson Six
The Beauty of Britain
J. B . Priestley
 Learning Guide
　　学习英语的人一定希望有朝一日能到英语的发源地英伦三岛走走。实现这个愿望之前，你不妨先从语言大师的文字图画里领略一下那里的风光。与文化渊源相同的美国相比，英国幅员远非辽阔。但它的景物也是气象万千，山川、平原、河流、湖泊样样俱全，令人流连忘返；此外你还可以欣赏众多文学名著所描绘的田园景色；更可贵的是，你会发现在工业高度发达的英国，自然与人工之间达到了巧妙的平衡。与此同时，你也会对作者文字的优美赞叹不已。
1.①The beauty of our country — or at least all of its south of North Scotland — is as hard to define as it is easy to enjoy. Remembering other and larger countries, we see at once that ②one of its charms is that it is immensely varied within a small range. ③We have here no vast mountain ranges, no boundless plains, no miles of forest, and are deprived of the grandeur that may accompany these things. But we have superb variety. ④A great deal of everything is packed into little space. ⑤I suspect that we are always faintly conscious of the fact that this is a smallish island, with the sea always round the comer. We know that everything has to be neatly packed into a small space. ⑥Nature, we feel, has carefully adjusted things — mountains, plains, rivers, lakes — to the scale of the island itself. ⑦A mountain 12,000 feet high would be a horrible monster here, as wrong as a plain 400 miles long, a river as broad as the Mississippi. ⑧In America the whole scale is too big, except for aviators. There is always too much of everything. There you find yourself in a region that is all mountains, then in another region that is merely part of one immense plain. You can spend a long, hard day in the Rockies simply travelling up or down one valley. ⑨You can wander across prairie country that has the desolating immensity of the ocean. Everything is too big; there is too much of it.


　　① The beauty of our country-or at least all of its south of North Scotland-is as hard to define as it is easy to enjoy. 
　　　我们国家的美，至少北苏格兰以南所有的地方之美，欣赏容易，描绘难。 
　　　The beauty of our country is easy to enjoy, but difficult to describe. 
　　② …one of its charms is that it is immensely varied within a small range. 
　　　我们明显的魅力之一就是幅员虽小，但景象万千。 
　　　One of its charms is that it is a small country , but has varied geographical features. 
　　③ We have here no vast mountains…and are deprived of the grandeur that may accompany these things. 
　　　我们这里没有连绵的山脉，没有一望无际的平原，没有延绵数百英里的森林，当然也就没有与之相适应的那份雄伟。 
　　　…as everything is small, you will miss the beauty that is connected with size.
　　④ A great deal of everything is packed into little space. 
　　　Nature has miraculously crowded many things into a small place.
　　⑤ I suspect that we are always faintly conscious of the fact that this is a smallish island, with the seas round the corner . 
　　　我想我们总是隐隐约约地意识到，这是个相当小的岛国，无论我们在何处，大海都近在咫尺。 
　　　We know that this is a small island and sea is not far away.
　　⑥ Nature , we feel, has carefully adjusted things-…to the scale of the island itself.
　　　我们感到大自然按照这个小岛的尺寸精心地调整了岛上的山峦、平原、河流、湖泊的规模。 
　　　Nature has intentionally reduced the size of mountains, lakes, rivers and plains to adapt them to the size of the island.
　　⑦ A mountain 12,000 feet high would be a horrible monster here, as wrong as a plain 400 miles long, a river as broad as the Mississippi.
　　　一座12，000英尺高的大山，在这里就会成为一个庞然大物，就像连绵400英里的平原，与密西西比一样宽的河流在此不协调一样。 
　　　A mountain 12,000 feet high would be too high; a plain 400 miles long too long and a river as wide as the Mississippi too wide here. They are not harmonious to the surroundings in such a small island.
　　⑧ In America the whole scale is too big, except for aviation.
　　　在美国整个比例都太大，当然对飞行员来说是个例外。 
　　　America is too big, of course, not for pilots flying airplanes high in the sky.
　　⑨ You can wander across prairie country that has the desolating immensity of the ocean. 
　　　你可以在荒芜人烟、海洋般辽阔的大草原上漫步。 
　　　You can wander across the prairie that is as vast and desolating as the immense sea.
2.Though the geographical features of this island are comparatively small, and there is astonishing variety almost everywhere, ①that does not mean that our mountains are not mountains, our plains not plains. Consider that piece of luck of ours, the Lake District. ②You can climb with ease — as I have done many a time — several of its mountains in one day. Nevertheless, you feel that they are mountains and not mere hills — as a correspondent pointed out in The Times recently. This same correspondent told a story that proves my point. A party of climbers imported a Swiss guide into the Lake District, and on the first morning, surveying the misty peaks before him, he pointed to a ledge about two thirds of the way up one of them and suggested that the party should spend the night there. ③He did not know that that ledge was only an hour or two's climb away and that before the light went they would probably have conquered two or three of these peaks. He had not realised the scale of the country. ④He did not know that he was looking at mountains in miniature. What he did know was that he was certainly looking at mountains, and he was right, for these peaks, some of them less than 3,000 feet high, have all the air of great mountains.


　　① …that does not mean that our mountains are not mountains, our plains not plains. 
　　　…that does not mean that our mountains are mere hills, or our plains are small stretches of land. 
　　② You can climb with ease --as I have done many a time-several of its mountains in one day.
　　　你可以在一天之内轻松地在该地区爬好几座山，我多次这么干过。 
　　　You can climb its mountains several times without difficulty in one day-as I have done many times. 
　　③ He did not know that the ledge was only an hour or two's climb away and that before the light went they would probably have conquered two or three of these peaks. 
　　　He did not realize that it only took them one or two hours to climb to the top of two or three of these mountains.
　　④ He did not know that he was looking at mountains in miniature.
　　　他并不知道那地方离山脚只有一两个小时的路程，天黑之前，这样的山峰他们可以征服两三个。 
　　　He was impressed by the peaks and thought they were high. He did not realize that everything in our small island was small within its range.
3. ①With variety goes surprise. Ours is the country of happy surprises. You have never to travel long without being pleasantly astonished. It would not be difficult to compile a list of such surprises that would fill the next fifty pages, ②but I will content myself with suggesting the first few that occur to me. If you go down into the West Country, among rounded hills and soft pastures, ③you suddenly arrive at the bleak tablelands as if the North had left a piece of itself down there. But before you have reached them you have already been surprised by the queer bit of marshland, as if a former inhabitant had been sent to Cambridge and had brought his favourite marshland walk back from college with him into the West.


　　① With variety goes surprise. Our is the country of happy surprises. 
　　　与气象万千的地貌并存的是奇异的景物。我们国家的奇观巧妙而自然。
　　　Traveling in the country you will often come across many unexpected scenes. (The harmony of our country's landscape with the surroundings makes people feel pleasantly astonished.) 
　　② …but I will content myself with suggesting the first few that occur to me. 
　　　Here I would just mention a few that came into my mind, which can prove that our is the country of happy surprises. 
　　③ You suddenly arrive at the bleak tablelands as if the North had left a piece of itself down there. 
　　　You suddenly come to the desolate tablelands as if these were part of the North.
4.The Weald is another of them. ①East Anglia has a kind of rough heath country of its own that I for one never expect to find there and am always delighted to see. ②Then, after the easy rolling Midlands, the dramatic Peak District, with its genuine steep slopes, never fails to astonish me, for I feel that it has no business to be there. ③A car will take you all round the Peak District in a morning. It is nothing but a crumpled green pocket handkerchief. Again, there has always been something surprising to me about those cone-shaped hills that suddenly pop up in Shropshire and along the Welsh border I have never explored this region properly, and so it remains to me a country of mystery, with a delightful fairy-tale quality about its cone-shaped hills. ④Nevertheless, we hear of search parties going out there to find lost travellers. I could go on with this list of surprises, but perhaps you had better make your own.


　　① East Anglia has a kind of rough heath country of its own that I for one never expect to find there and I am always delighted to see. 
　　　东英格兰自身竟有这么一片崎岖不平的荒野之地。以我为例，看到它我既感到惊诧不已，又感到欣喜万分。 
　　　As for one example I never expect to find that in the highly developed industrial East Anglia there is a rough heath, but when I see it I am always delighted. 
　　② Then, after the easy rolling Midland, the dramatic Peak District, with its genuine steep slopes, never fails to astonish me, for I feel that it has no business to be there. 
　　　看过平缓起伏的米德兰之后，突然映入眼帘的是那引人注目的、山坡陡峭的皮克区，它总是让我惊诧不已，因为我真不知道它在此处有何贵干。 
　　　On a rolling plain, you might suddenly see very steep mountains. Whenever I go there, I am surprised to see them, for I think there shouldn't be steep mountains close to the plains. 
　　③ A car will take you all round the Peak District in a morning. It is nothing but a crumpled green pocket handkerchief. 
　　　乘车一个上午就能让你逛完皮克区，它只不过是一块皱皱巴巴的绿手帕。 
　　　Peak District is only a small region of rough land.
　　④ Nerveless, we hear of search parties going out there to find lost travelers. 
　　　可是，听说还是有搜索队到那里去寻找迷路的旅行者。 
　　　Though our country is very small, it has varied geographic features. Travelers often lose their way there.
5.①Another characteristic of our landscape is its exquisite moderation. ②It looks like the result of one of those happy compromises that make our social and political plans so irrational and yet so successful. It has been born of a compromise between wildness and tameness, between Nature and Man. ③In many countries you pass straight from regions where men have left their mark in every inch of ground to other regions that are desolate wilderness. ④Abroad, we have all noticed how abruptly most of the cities seem to begin; here, no city; there, the city. ⑤With us the cities pretend they are not really there until we are well inside them. ⑥They almost insinuate themselves into the countryside. ⑦This comes from another compromise of ours, the suburb. ⑧There is a great deal to be said for the suburb. ⑨To people of moderate means, compelled to live fairly near their work in a city, the suburb offers the most civilised way of life. ⑩Nearly all Englishmen are at heart country gentlemen. The suburban villa enables the salesman or the clerk, out of hours, to be a country gentleman. (Let us admit that it offers his wife and children more solid advantages. )⑾A man in a newish suburb feels that he has one foot in the city and one in the country. As this is the kind of compromise he likes, he is happy.


　　① Another characteristics of our landscape is its exquisite moderation. 
　　　Another striking feature of our landscape is that everything is within its reasonable limits and there are no extremes. 
　　② It looks the result of one of those happy compromises that make our social and political plan so irrational and yet so successful.
　　　自然风光的适度看起来就好像是恰到好处的折衷的结果，正是这种折衷使得我们的社会和政治问题的规划决策似乎不尽合理，却又十分成功。 
　　　The moderation in our landscape seems to come from a combination of extremes. Many such combinations make our seemingly unreasonable social and political plans successful.( Britain is a highly developed capitalist country, and one of the greatest economic powers in the world, but it keeps its monarchism. That's why the author says the irrational social and political plan is successful) 
　　③ In many countries you pass straight from regions when men have left their mark in every inch of ground to other regions that are desolate wilderness. 
　　　在许多国家，你从在每一寸土地上都留下了人类痕迹的地区直接来到没有人烟的荒原。 
　　　In many countries the city and the countryside are distinctly cut off from each other. There is no transition from civilization to wilderness.
　　④ Abroad, we have all noticed how abruptly most of the cities seem to begin; here no city; there, the city.
　　　在国外，我们都注意到了多数城市突然出现在眼前，这儿没有一点儿城市的迹象，那儿一下就是城市了。 
　　　In other countries we notice that most of the cities seem to appear suddenly. 
　　⑤ With us the cities pretend they are not really there until we are well inside them.
　　　在这里，我们是不知不觉地踏入城市，蓦回首，发现早已在其中。 
　　　In our country you find yourself already in the city without realizing you have entered it. 
　　⑥ They almost insinuate themselves into the countryside.
　　　他们又好像是悄悄地、不动声色地溜进了乡村。 
　　　The cities seem to extend gradually into the countryside until they completely disappear.(You may not notice the difference between the city and the countryside)
　　⑦ This comes from another compromise of ours, the suburb.
　　　这种情况起因于我们另一种折衷现象——郊区。 
　　　The suburb is a harmonious combination of the city with the countryside. The existence 
　　⑧ There is a great deal to be said for the suburb. 
　　　郊区实在是值得大书特书。 
　　　There is every reason to have suburbs. The suburbs have many advantages. 
　　⑨ To people of moderate means, compelled to live fairly near their work in a city, the suburb offers the most civilized way of life. 
　　　对于中等收入水平，不得不住在离市区工作单位相当近的人来说，住在郊区使他们能过上最文明的生活。 
　　　The suburb offers many advantages to the people with average income., for one reason it is near a city where they work, and for another, life in the suburb is both pleasant and not too expensive. 
　　⑩ Nearly all Englishmen are at heart country gentlemen. 
　　　几乎每个英国人实质上都是乡村绅士。 
　　　Almost all Englishmen, in his real nature, like to live a life of country gentlemen. 
　　⑾ A man in a newish suburb feels that he has one foot in the city and one in the country.
　　　一个住在相当新的郊区的人，感到他一只脚站在城市，一只脚站在乡村。 
　　　The person who lives in a newish suburb feels that his life flavors with both country and city style. ( He can enjoy the advantages of both the city and the countryside: fresh air, quietness, beautiful scenery, convenient transportation, cheaper prices of commodities, etc.)
6. We must return, however, to the landscape, which I suggest is the result of a compromise between wilderness and cultivation, Nature and Man. ①One reason for this is that it contains that exquisite balance between Nature and Man. We see a cornfield and a cottage, both solid evidences of man's presence. ②But notice how these things, in the middle of the scene, are surrounded by witnesses to that ancient England that was nearly all forest and heath. The fence and the gate are man-made, but are not severely regular and trim — as they would be in some other countries. ③The trees and hedges, the grass and wild flowers in the foreground, all suggest that Nature has not been forced into obedience. ④Even the cottage, which has an irregularity and colouring that make it fit snugly into the landscape (as all good cottages should do), looks nearly as much a piece of natural history as the trees: you feel it might have grown there. In some countries, that cottage would have been an uncompromising cube of brick, which would have declared, ⑤"No nonsense now. Man, the drainer, the tiller, the builder, has settled here. ⑥" In this English scene there is no such direct opposition. Men and trees and flowers, we feel, have all settled down comfortably together. The motto is, "Live and let live. ⑦" This exquisite harmony between Nature and Man explains in part the enchantment of the older Britain, in which whole towns fitted snugly into the landscape, as if they were no more than bits of woodland; and roads went winding the easiest way as naturally as rivers; ⑧and it was impossible to say where cultivation ended and wild life began. It was a country rich in. trees, birds, and wild flowers, as we can see to this day.


　　① …one reason for this is that it contains that exquisite balance between Nature and Man. 
　　　…the landscape shows that what Nature offers and what Man creates coexist in a harmonious way. 
　　② But notice how these things, in the middle of the scene, are surrounded by witnesses to that ancient England that was nearly all forest and heath. 
　　　The cornfield and the cottage, the evidence of man presence, are surrounded by all forest and heath that have been there since ancient times when the surface of Britain was almost entirely forest and heath land. 
　　③ The trees and hedges, the grass and wild flowers in the foreground, all suggest that Nature has not been forced into obedience.
　　　画面前部的景物——树木、树篱、草地和野花都在告诉人们大自然没有被迫就范，屈从于人工景物。 
　　　The trees and hedges, the grass and wild flowers are a part of Nature and gifts of Nature.
　　④ Even the cottage, which has an irregularity and colouring that make it fit snugly into the landscape…,looks nearly as much a piece of natural history as the tree: you feel it might have grown there. 
　　　The cottage with its irregular shape and unique colour harmonizes with its surroundings so well that one might feel that it grows out of the earth just like the surrounding trees.. 
　　⑤ "No nonsense now, Man, the drainer, the tiller, the builder, has settled here." 
　　　Stop the foolish behavior now. Man has drained the environment, tiled the land and built houses and settled here.
　　⑥ In this English scene there is no such direct opposition. Men and trees and flowers, we feel, have all settled down comfortably there, the motto is "Live and let live. "
　　　而在英格兰这样的环境中，没有这样的对立（自然与人工的对立）。我们感到，人、树、花共同舒舒服服地在此落家了，他们的格言是“共同生存”。 
　　　Here in England the cottage does not threaten the charm of the natural surroundings. Man and Nature coexist harmoniously and peacefully. Our guiding principle is: accept the existence of our fellow creatures and live peacefully with them. Man should not destroy Nature, nor break the ecological balance. 
　　⑦ This exquisite harmony between Nature and Man explains in part the enchantment of the older Britain, in which whole towns fitted snugly into the landscape, as if they were no more than bits of woodland; and roads went winding the easiest way as naturally as rivers;
　　　自然与人工这种巧妙的平衡能说明英国人以往的几分魅力，那时城镇与其周围环境十分和谐，好像它们本身就是这块林地里星星点点的树木；那时道路像河流一样自然、从容、蜿蜒向前伸延； 
　　　The excellent balance between Nature and Man partially accounts for the charm of ancient Britain. At that time, whole towns harmonized richly with their surroundings. They looked as if they were part of Nature like patched woodland. The roads were made to wind their way easily along just as rivers follow their natural courses.
　　⑧ …and it was impossible to say where cultivation ended and wild life began. It was a country rich in trees, birds, and wild flowers, as we can see to this day.
　　　那时你说不清何处文明截止，何处野生开始。那时的英国，正如我们今天看到的那样，是个树多、鸟多、野花多的国度。 
　　　One could hardly tell where farmland ended and wildness began. There was an exquisite harmony between Nature and Man. It was a country where there were many trees, birds and wild flowers just as we can see today.
请认真答题，答题结果将记入知识点测评的成绩！


（单选题）39.Now that you are already a grown-up, I think you have no _____ your parents for money whenever you need.


A． business to have asked
B． business to ask
C． quality to ask
D． quality asking
【答案】B


【解析】本题考查重要短语have no business to do sth.。have no business to do sth.意思是“无权做某事”，该句句意是“既然你已经是成年人了，我认为你没有权力一需要钱就向父母索要。”


【知识点】重要短语have no business to do sth.