吹小号的天鹅 第20期:路易斯(4)

 　　Poor Louis! While his father watched, he took a deep breath¹, opened his mouth, and let the air out, hoping it would say beep. But there wasn't a sound.

　　可怜的路易斯！就在他父亲的注视下，他深吸了一口气，张大了嘴巴，吐出里面的空气，希望可以借此发出一声“哔”来。可是他却发不出一丝声音。

　　"Try again, Louis!" said his father. "Perhaps you're not making enough of an effort."

　　“再试一次，路易斯！”他的父亲说，“可能你努力得还不够。”

　　Louis tried again. It was no use. No sound came from his throat. He shook his head, sadly.

　　路易斯又试了一次。这并没有用。他的喉咙里根本就没发出声音。他难过地摇了摇头。

　　"Watch me!" said the cob. He raised his neck to its full height and cried ko-hoh so loud it was heard by every creature for miles around.

　　“看我！”雄天鹅说。他高高地仰起脖子叫了声“吭—嗬”，声音大得方圆数里内的所有动物都听到了。

　　"Now let me hear you go beep!" he commanded. "Say beep, Louis--loud and clear!"

　　“现在让我来听你说‘哔’！”他命令道，“说‘哔’，路易斯——大声点，清楚些！”

　　Louis tried. He couldn't beep.

　　路易斯想说。可他却不能说“哔”。

　　"Let me hear you burble! Go ahead and burble! Like this: burble, burble, burble."

　　“让我听你说‘波’好了！开始，‘波’！就像这样：波，波，波。”

　　Louis tried to burble. He couldn't do it. No sound came.

　　路易斯试着说“波”。可他还是不能说。什么声音都没有。

　　"Well," said the cob, "I guess it's no use. I guess you are dumb²."

　　“好了，”雄天鹅说，“我猜这是没有用的。我想你是哑的。”

　　When he heard the word "dumb," Louis felt like crying.

　　听到“哑”这个词时，路易斯感到自己快要哭了。

　　The cob saw that he had hurt Louis's feelings.

　　雄天鹅看出来他已经伤了路易斯的心。

　　"You misunderstand me, my son," he said in a comforting voice.

　　“你误会我的意思了，我的儿子，”他用安慰的口气说，

　　"You failed to understand my use of the word "dumb," which has two meanings.

　　“你对我用的‘哑’这个词理解错了，它是有两种含义的。

　　If I had called you a dumb cluck or a dumb bunny, that would have meant that I had a poor opinion of your intelligence³.

　　如果我说你是笨蛋或傻子，那才意味着那才意味着我认为你的智力有缺陷呢。

　　Actually, I think you are perhaps the brightest, smartest, most intelligent of all my cygnets.

　　实际上，我认为你可能是我所有的孩子中最聪明的，最机灵的，最有才能的。

　　Words sometimes have two meanings; the word "dumb" is such a word.

　　一个词有时会同时具有两种意思；‘哑’就是这样的词。

　　A person who can't see is called blind. A person who can't hear is called deaf. A person who can't speak is called dumb.

　　看不见东西的人叫盲人。听不到声音的人叫聋子。说不出话的人叫哑巴。

　　That simply means⁴ he can't say anything. Do you understand?"

　　这意思仅仅是说他不能说话而已。你明白了吗？”

　　Louis nodded his head. He felt better, and he was grateful⁵ to his father for explaining that the word had two meanings.

　　路易斯点点头。他感觉好点儿了，他对父亲关于这个词的两种含义的解释表示感激。

　　He still felt awfully⁶ unhappy, though.

　　不过，他还是特别的不开心。

1 breath   

n.呼吸，气息，微风，迹象，精神，一种说话的声音

参考例句：

• I'm just going out for a breath of fresh air.我正要出去呼吸新鲜空气。
• While climbing up the stairs the old man always loses his breath.那老人上楼时总是气喘吁吁的。

2 dumb   

adj.哑的；不会说话的；笨的；愚蠢的

参考例句：

• She is very kind to the dumb children.她对哑童非常好。
• It was dumb of you to say that.你说这种话太愚蠢了。

3 intelligence   

n.智力，聪明，智能；情报

参考例句：

• He was a man of intelligence and of firmness of will.他是个聪明而又意志坚定的人。
• He equals me in strength but not in intelligence.他和我力气相等，但智力不同。

4 means   

n.方法，手段，折中点，物质财富

参考例句：

• That man used artful means to find out secrets.那人使用狡猾的手段获取机密。
• We must get it done by some means or other.我们总得想办法把它干完。

5 grateful   

adj.感谢的，感激的，受欢迎的，表示谢意的

参考例句：

• If you will help us, we shall be very grateful.如果你愿意帮助我们，我们会很感激你。
• He closed his letter with expression of grateful thanks.他在那封信的结尾表达了自己的感激之情。

6 awfully   

adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地

参考例句：

• Agriculture was awfully neglected in the past.过去农业遭到严重忽视。
• I've been feeling awfully bad about it.对这我一直感到很难受。