42. The Long and Short of It

　　Although I had never met him, I knew that my grandfather had been five feet, six inches¹ tall, while my stately grandmother stood five feet, eleven inches. As a teen-ager leafing through old photographs with Grandma, I finally realized how unusual they must have looked together .

　　"Grandma, " I asked, "how could you have fallen in love with a man five inches shorter than you?"

　　She turned to me. "Honey," she said, "we fell in love sitting down, and when I stood up, it was too late."

Notes:

　　(1) stately adj.高贵的

　　(2) leaf through迅速翻阅；浏览

　　(3) teen-ager.十几岁的人

　　(4) fall in love with爱上；坠入爱河

Exercises:

根据短文选择正确答案：

　　① The child had never met______ .

　　A. the grandfather

　　B. the grandmother

　　C. the father

　　D. the mother

　　② The grandmother was _______taller than the grandfather.

　　A. five feet

　　B. six inches

　　C. four inches

　　D. five inches

　　③ "Leafing through" in "leafing through old photographs" means______ .

　　A. to turn page by page

　　B. to put leaves in an album²

　　C. to took for

　　D. to take out from

　　④ The child realized________ .

　　A. how strange they must have looked together

　　B. how wonderful they must have looked together

　　C. how shameful³ they must have looked together

　　D. how unusual they must have looked together

　　⑤ From the passage we can see that______ .

　　A. the grandmother loved her husband deeply⁴

　　B. the grandmother regretted⁵ to have married⁶ her husband

　　C. the grandfather had been out for at least ten years

　　D. the grandfather had been dead for nearly eight years

42.来龙去脉

　　尽管我从未见过我祖父，但我知道他身高五英尺六，而我高贵的祖母身高五英尺十一。十几岁的时候，我和祖母一起一页一页地翻着老照片，我终于认识到他们在一起是多么不同寻常。

　　“奶奶，”我问道，“你怎么会爱上一个比你矮五英寸的人呢？”

　　她转过脸来看着我。“宝贝，”她说，“我们是坐着相爱的。当我站起来的时候，已经太晚了。”

练习参考答案：

①A②D③A④A⑤A

1 inches   

n.英寸（相当于 2。54 厘米，一英尺有 12 英寸）( inch的名词复数 )；少量；[复数]身材；（数量、距离、程度等）少许

参考例句：

• The water is only a few inches deep. 这水只有几英寸深。
• 1.14 inches of rain fell last night. 昨晚的降雨量为1.14英寸。

2 album   

n.集子，粘贴集，影集，邮集，歌曲集

参考例句：

• The photos belong in an album.这些照片应该放在相册里。
• Will you look over his album?你要不要去看看他的歌集唱片？

3 shameful   

adj.可耻的，不道德的

参考例句：

• It is very shameful of him to show off.他向人炫耀自己，真不害臊。
• We must expose this shameful activity to the newspapers.我们一定要向报社揭露这一无耻行径。

4 deeply   

adv.深刻地，在深处，深沉地

参考例句：

• I do feel deeply the strength of the collective.我确实深深地感到了集体的力量。
• We're deeply honoured that you should agree to join us.您能同意加入我们，我们感到很荣幸。

5 regretted   

adj.后悔的

参考例句：

• Pierre told them some things he later regretted telling. 皮埃尔告诉了他们一些事，他后来感到后悔。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They regretted agreeing to the convocation of that meeting. 他们后悔同意召开这个会议。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 married   

adj.已婚的；与…结婚的

参考例句：

• I heard John got married.我听说约翰结婚了。
• They got married last autumn.他们在去年秋季结婚。