美国小学英语教材5:第167课 为朋友而勇敢(8)

For a moment or two he sat there, face screwed up, arms gripping his knees. Then he looked up at the frightened Paul, a wry¹ smile twisting the corners of his mouth. “It looks as if we are in a mess, doesn’t it?”

他在那儿坐了一两分钟，脸绷得紧紧的，双手紧紧抱住膝盖。然后他抬起头来，看着受惊的保罗，嘴角扭曲着一丝苦笑。“看起来我们好像一团糟，不是吗?”

Paul nodded, still unable to trust himself to speak. But Bill’s coolness soothed² his nerves, and presently a thought struck him.

保罗点点头，仍然不敢相信自己会说话。但是比尔的冷静缓和了他的紧张情绪，他立刻想到了一个主意。

“That cabin back there!” he exclaimed. “If we could only manage to get that far—”

“后面那个小木屋!”他解释道。“要是我们能走那么远——”

“Good idea,” Bill agreed promptly³. “I’m afraid I can’t walk it, but I might be able to crawl.”

“好主意，”比尔迅速达成。“恐怕我不能走，但我可能会爬。”

“Oh, I didn’t mean that. If we only had some way of fastening my skis together, you could lie down on I them and I could pull you.”

“哦，我不是那个意思。如果我们有办法把我的滑雪板系在一起，你可以躺在上面，我可以拉你。”

A gleam of admiration⁴ flashed into the older boy’s eyes. “You have your nerve with you, old man,” he said. “Do you know how much I weigh?”

大男孩的眼里闪过一丝赞赏的光芒。“你很有勇气，老伙计，”他说。“你知道我有多重吗？”

“That doesn’t matter,” was Paul’s reply. “It’s all down hill; it will not be so hard. Besides, we can’t stay here, or we’ll freeze.”

“那没关系，”保罗如此回答。“一直都在走下坡路；所以不会那么难。此外，我们不能呆在这里，否则我们会冻僵的。”

1 wry   

adj.讽刺的；扭曲的

参考例句：

• He made a wry face and attempted to wash the taste away with coffee.他做了个鬼脸，打算用咖啡把那怪味地冲下去。
• Bethune released Tung's horse and made a wry mouth.白求恩放开了董的马，噘了噘嘴。

2 soothed   

v.安慰( soothe的过去式和过去分词 )；抚慰；使舒服；减轻痛苦

参考例句：

• The music soothed her for a while. 音乐让她稍微安静了一会儿。
• The soft modulation of her voice soothed the infant. 她柔和的声调使婴儿安静了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

3 promptly   

adv.及时地，敏捷地

参考例句：

• He paid the money back promptly.他立即还了钱。
• She promptly seized the opportunity his absence gave her.她立即抓住了因他不在场给她创造的机会。

4 admiration   

n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕

参考例句：

• He was lost in admiration of the beauty of the scene.他对风景之美赞不绝口。
• We have a great admiration for the gold medalists.我们对金牌获得者极为敬佩。