美丽新世界Brave New World 第18章(8)

 　　Three days later, like turkey buzzards setthug on a corpse¹, the reporters came.

　　三天以后，记者来了，像兀鹰落到了尸体上。

　　Dried and hardened over a slow fire of green wood, the bow was ready.

　　尸体已在鲜叶燃成的文火上烘干，可以用了，

　　The Savage² was busy on his arrows.

　　野蛮人在忙着做箭杆。

　　Thirty hazel sticks had been whittled³ and dried, tipped with sharp nails, carefully nocked.

　　三十根樟树条已经削好烤干，用尖利的钉子做了箭镞，弦口也仔细地刻好了。

　　He had made a raid one night on the Puttenham poultry⁴ farm, and now had feathers enough to equip a whole armoury.

　　有天晚上他袭击了帕特南家禽场，现在他已经有了足够制造一个武器库的羽毛。

　　It was at work upon the feathering of his shafts⁵ that the first of the reporters found him.

　　第一个记者找到他时他正在往箭杆上安装羽毛。

　　Noiseless on his pneumatic shoes, the man came up behind him.

　　那人的气垫鞋没有声音，悄悄来到了他的身后。

　　"Good-morning, Mr. Savage," he said. "I am the representative of The Hourly Radio."

　　“早上好，野蛮人先生，”他说，“我是《每时广播》的记者。”

　　Startled as though by the bite of a snake, the Savage sprang to his feet, scattering⁶ arrows, feathers, glue-pot and brush in all directions.

　　野蛮人仿佛叫蛇咬了一口，跳了起来，箭、羽毛、胶水罐和刷子掀了一地。

　　"I beg your pardon," said the reporter, with genuine compunction. "I had no intention …"

　　“请原谅，”记者说，真心地感到过不去，“我不是故意的……”

　　He touched his hat–the aluminum⁷ stove-pipe hat in which he carried his wireless⁸ receiver and transmitter.

　　他用手碰了碰帽子边缘——那是一顶铝制的烟囱帽，镶嵌了无线电收发报机。

　　"Excuse my not taking it off," he said. "It's a bit heavy. Well, as I was saying, I am the representative of The Hourly …"

　　“请原谅我不能脱帽致敬，”他说，“帽子有点重。噢，我刚才在说，我代表《每时广播》……”

　　"What do you want?" asked the Savage, scowling⁹. The reporter returned his most ingratiating smile.

　　“你要干什么？”野蛮人皱着眉头问。记者用他最讨好的微笑回答。

　　"Well, of course, our readers would be profoundly interested …"

　　“当然，我们的读者会非常感到兴趣的，如果……”

　　He put his head on one side, his smile became almost coquettish. "Just a few words from you, Mr. Savage."

　　他把脑袋偏到一边，微笑得几乎有点献媚的意思。“只需要你说几句话，野蛮人先生。”

　　And rapidly, with a series of ritual gestures,

　　他做了几个礼貌性的手势，

　　he uncoiled two wires connected to the portable battery buckled¹⁰ round his waist;

　　迅速把两根电线解开（电线连．接着系在腰间的移动电池上），

　　plugged them simultaneously¹¹ into the sides of his aluminum hat;

　　分头插进他那铝制帽子的两侧。

　　touched a spring on the crown–and antenn? shot up into the air;

　　然后碰了碰帽子顶上一根弹簧，呛，一根天线射了出来；

　　touched another spring on the peak of the brim–and, like a jack-in-the-box, out jumped a microphone and hung there,

　　他再碰了碰帽檐上的一根弹簧，一个麦克风就像玩具弹簧人一样蹦了出来，

　　quivering, six inches in front of his nose; pulled down a pair of receivers over his ears;

　　悬在离他鼻子六英寸的地点，摇晃着。他再拉下受话器盖住耳朵，

　　pressed a switch on the left side of the hat-and from within came a faint waspy buzzing;

　　按了一下左边的按钮——一种轻微的黄蜂般的嗡嗡声出现了；

　　turned a knob on the right–and the buzzing was interrupted by a stethoscopic wheeze¹² and cackle, by hiccoughs and sudden squeaks¹³.

　　再扭了一下右边的把手，嗡嗡声便为一种听诊器里的咝咝声、咯咯声、打嗝声和突然的吱吱声所代替。

1 corpse   

n.尸体，死尸

参考例句：

• What she saw was just an unfeeling corpse.她见到的只是一具全无感觉的尸体。
• The corpse was preserved from decay by embalming.尸体用香料涂抹以防腐烂。

2 savage   

adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人

参考例句：

• The poor man received a savage beating from the thugs.那可怜的人遭到暴徒的痛打。
• He has a savage temper.他脾气粗暴。

3 whittled   

v.切，削（木头），使逐渐变小( whittle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He whittled a simple toy from the piece of wood. 他把那块木头削成了一个简易的玩具。
• The government's majority has been whittled down to eight. 政府多数票减少到了八票。

4 poultry   

n.家禽，禽肉

参考例句：

• There is not much poultry in the shops. 商店里禽肉不太多。
• What do you feed the poultry on? 你们用什么饲料喂养家禽?

5 shafts   

n.轴( shaft的名词复数 )；（箭、高尔夫球棒等的）杆；通风井；一阵（疼痛、害怕等）

参考例句：

• He deliberately jerked the shafts to rock him a bit. 他故意的上下颠动车把，摇这个老猴子几下。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• Shafts were sunk, with tunnels dug laterally. 竖井已经打下，并且挖有横向矿道。 来自辞典例句

6 scattering   

n.[物]散射；散乱，分散；在媒介质中的散播adj.散乱的；分散在不同范围的；广泛扩散的；（选票）数量分散的v.散射(scatter的ing形式)；散布；驱散

参考例句：

• The child felle into a rage and began scattering its toys about. 这孩子突发狂怒，把玩具扔得满地都是。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The farmers are scattering seed. 农夫们在播种。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 aluminum   

n.(aluminium)铝

参考例句：

• The aluminum sheets cannot be too much thicker than 0.04 inches.铝板厚度不能超过0.04英寸。
• During the launch phase,it would ride in a protective aluminum shell.在发射阶段，它盛在一只保护的铝壳里。

8 wireless   

adj.无线的；n.无线电

参考例句：

• There are a lot of wireless links in a radio.收音机里有许多无线电线路。
• Wireless messages tell us that the ship was sinking.无线电报告知我们那艘船正在下沉。

9 scowling   

怒视，生气地皱眉( scowl的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• There she was, grey-suited, sweet-faced, demure, but scowling. 她就在那里，穿着灰色的衣服，漂亮的脸上显得严肃而忧郁。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Scowling, Chueh-hui bit his lips. 他马上把眉毛竖起来。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）

10 buckled   

a. 有带扣的

参考例句：

• She buckled her belt. 她扣上了腰带。
• The accident buckled the wheel of my bicycle. 我自行车的轮子在事故中弄弯了。

11 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

12 wheeze   

n.喘息声，气喘声；v.喘息着说

参考例句：

• The old man managed to wheeze out a few words.老人勉强地喘息着说出了几句话。
• He has a slight wheeze in his chest.他呼吸时胸部发出轻微的响声。

13 squeaks   

n.短促的尖叫声，吱吱声( squeak的名词复数 )v.短促地尖叫( squeak的第三人称单数 )；吱吱叫；告密；充当告密者

参考例句：

• The upper-middle-classes communicate with each other in inaudible squeaks, like bats. 那些上中层社会的人交谈起来象是蚊子在哼哼，你根本听不见。 来自辞典例句
• She always squeaks out her ideas when she is excited. 她一激动总是尖声说出自己的想法。 来自互联网