23.1【精讲课】第5章 回到柜门这边（3）

本部分为《纳尼亚传奇》第5章第3部分。上一部分说到Peter和Susan对Lucy的情况无计可施，他们向房子的主人老教授求援。教授了解情况之后，问他们两个，凭他们的经验认为Edmund和Lucy谁更可靠呢？接下来我们一起来听听他们是怎么回答的吧！

CHAPTER 5

BACK ON THIS SIDE OF THE DOOR（3）

第5章 回到柜门这边（3）

    "That's just the funny thing about it, sir," said Peter. "Up till now, I'd have said Lucy every time."  

    "And what do you think（询问对方意见时的常用句型）, my dear?" said the Professor, turning to Susan.  

    "Well," said Susan, "in general, I'd say the same as (和……一样)Peter, but this couldn't be true - all this about the wood and the Faun."  

    "That is more than I know," said the Professor, "and a charge(指责)of lying against someone whom you have always found truthful is a very serious thing; a very serious thing indeed."  

    "We were afraid it mightn't even be lying," said Susan; "we thought there might be something wrong with（= out of one’s mind）Lucy."  

    "Madness(发疯), you mean?" said the Professor quite coolly. "Oh, you can make your minds easy about that.(这一点你们大可以放心。)One has only to look at her and talk to her to see that she is not mad."

 "But then," said Susan, and stopped. She had never dreamed that a grown-up(成年人) would talk like the Professor and didn't know what to think.

"Logic!" said the Professor half to himself. "Why don't they teach logic at these schools? There are only three possibilities(可能性). Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or  she is telling the truth. You know she doesn't tell lies and it is obvious(明显的) that she is not mad. For the moment then and unless any further evidence(证据) turns up(出现), we must assume(假设) that she is telling the truth."  

  Susan looked at him very hard and was quite sure from the expression(表情) on his face that he was not making fun of(和某人开玩笑) them.  

    "But how could it be true, sir?" said Peter.  

    "Why do you say that?" asked the Professor.  

    "Well, for one thing(首先)," said Peter, "if it was true why doesn't everyone find this country every time they go to the wardrobe? I mean, there was nothing there when we looked; even Lucy didn't pretend there was."  

    "What has that to do with it?" said the Professor.  

    "Well, sir, if things are real, they're there all the time(=all along一直)."  

    "Are they?" said the Professor; and Peter didn't know quite what to say. 

    "But there was no time," said Susan. "Lucy had no time to have gone anywhere, even if there was such a place. She came running after us the very moment(as soon as就在那一刻) we were out of the room. It was less than a minute, and she pretended to have been away for hours."  

    "That is the very(正是的；恰好的) thing that makes her story so likely to be true," said the Professor.