五个桔核 11神秘来信(5)

"The letter arrived on March 10, 1883. His death was seven weeks later, upon the night of May 2d."

"收到来信的日期是一八八三年三月十日。他的死是在七个星期后的五月二日。"

"Thank you. Pray proceed."

"谢谢您。请说下去。"

"When my father took over the Horsham property, he, at my request,

"当我父亲接收了那座霍尔舍姆房产时，他应我的建议，

made a careful examination of the attic¹, which had been always locked up.

仔细检查了长年累月挂上了锁的阁楼。

We found the brass² box there, although its contents had been destroyed.

我们发现那个黄铜匣子仍在那里，虽然匣内的东西已经被毁掉了。

On the inside of the cover was a paper label, with the initials of K. K. K. repeated upon it,

匣盖的里面有个纸标签写着K.K.K.三个大写字母。

and 'Letters, memoranda³, receipts, and a register' written beneath.

下边还写有'信件、备忘录、收据和一份记录'等字样。

These, we presume, indicated the nature of the papers which had been destroyed by Colonel Openshaw.

我们认为：这表明了奥彭肖上校所销毁的文件的性质。

For the rest, there was nothing of much importance in the attic save a great many scattered⁴ papers and note-books bearing upon my uncle's life in America.

除了许多散乱的文件和记有我伯父在美洲的生活情况的笔记本外，顶楼上其余的东西都无关紧要。

Some of them were of the war time and showed that he had done his duty well and had borne the repute of a brave soldier.

这些散乱的东西，有些是关于战争时期的情况和他恪尽职守荣获英勇战士称号的记述；

Others were of a date during the reconstruction⁵ of the Southern states, and were mostly concerned with politics,

还有些是关于战后南方各州重建时期的大多与政治有关的记录，

for he had evidently taken a strong part in opposing the carpet-bag politicians who had been sent down from the North.

显然我伯父当时曾积极参加反对那些由北方派来的随身只带着一只旅行手提包进行搜刮的政客。

1 attic   

n.顶楼，屋顶室

参考例句：

• Leakiness in the roof caused a damp attic.屋漏使顶楼潮湿。
• What's to be done with all this stuff in the attic?顶楼上的材料怎么处理？

2 brass   

n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器

参考例句：

• Many of the workers play in the factory's brass band.许多工人都在工厂铜管乐队中演奏。
• Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc.黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。

3 memoranda   

n. 备忘录, 便条 名词memorandum的复数形式

参考例句：

• There were memoranda, minutes of meetings, officialflies, notes of verbal di scussions. 有备忘录，会议记录，官方档案，口头讨论的手记。
• Now it was difficult to get him to address memoranda. 而现在，要他批阅备忘录都很困难。

4 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。

5 reconstruction   

n.重建，再现，复原

参考例句：

• The country faces a huge task of national reconstruction following the war.战后，该国面临着重建家园的艰巨任务。
• In the period of reconstruction,technique decides everything.在重建时期，技术决定一切。