纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 037北美水獭烟(1)

The pipe I have here is about the size and shape of a kazoo, the children's toy music pipe that makes buzzing sounds when you blow through it.

这只烟斗的大小类似于卡祖笛。

So it's not like any normal modern pipe with a long stem and a bowl at one end. This one is carved in reddish stone and has a flat base about four inches (10 cm) long,

现代烟斗一般是一根一头带斗的长管，而文中这只由红色的石头雕成，还有一块长约十厘米的扁平底座，

so it's almost exactly the colour and the size of a bourbon biscuit, and at one end is carved a small hole to serve as the mouth piece.

大小和颜色都与巧克力夹心饼干类似。底座的一头雕有小孔，起烟嘴的作用。

The pipe bowl is halfway¹ down, but it's no simple hollow for holding the tobacco,

斗的部分则位于中央，并非一个简单的碗形斗，

because it's in the shape of the upper half of a swimming otter², with its paws perched on the bank of a river, and it looks as though it's just popped up out of the water to look around.

而是形似一只漂在水里的水獭的上半身，仿佛它刚从水里冒出头，爪子搭在河岸上，正要四处张望。

The stone is smooth, and to me it beautifully suggests the sleek³ wet fur of the animal.

烟斗通体光润，完美表现出水獭湿漉漉的闪亮皮毛。

The otter looks along the pipe so that, as you smoke it, both you and the otter would be looking into each other's eyes.

水獭此刻正朝烟嘴的方向看去，人抽烟斗时就仿佛在与它对视。

But in fact you are even closer to this animal than that suggests, because if I try to smoke it now and put it to my mouth, I discover that I am literally⁴ nose-to-nose with the otter.

但其实抽烟的人与它之间的距离还会更近些：把烟斗含在嘴里,你的鼻子就会碰到水獭的鼻子。

And that contact would have been even more striking than it is now, because the empty eye sockets⁵ would have been inlayed with fresh water pearls.

如今留在水獭眼窝处的深坑当年应镶嵌翁淡水珍珠，让抽烟人与水獭的接触更有趣味。

This wonderfully crafted and evocative object pinpoints⁶ in history the world's earliest use of tobacco pipes.

这只工艺精美的烟斗是目前已知世界上最早被使用过的烟斗之一，

Sherlock Holmes probably didn't know it, but this is where the story of pipe-smoking begins.

福尔摩斯未必也知道，它是烟斗历史的起点。

1 halfway   

adj.中途的，不彻底的，部分的；adv.半路地，在中途，在半途

参考例句：

• We had got only halfway when it began to get dark.走到半路，天就黑了。
• In study the worst danger is give up halfway.在学习上，最忌讳的是有始无终。

2 otter   

n.水獭

参考例句：

• The economists say the competition otter to the brink of extinction.经济学家们说，竞争把海獭推到了灭绝的边缘。
• She collared my black wool coat with otter pelts.她把我的黑呢上衣镶上了水獭领。

3 sleek   

adj.光滑的，井然有序的；v.使光滑，梳拢

参考例句：

• Women preferred sleek,shiny hair with little decoration.女士们更喜欢略加修饰的光滑闪亮型秀发。
• The horse's coat was sleek and glossy.这匹马全身润泽有光。

4 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

5 sockets   

n.套接字，使应用程序能够读写与收发通讯协定(protocol)与资料的程序( Socket的名词复数 )；孔( socket的名词复数 )；（电器上的）插口；托座；凹穴

参考例句：

• All new PCs now have USB sockets. 新的个人计算机现在都有通用串行总线插孔。
• Make sure the sockets in your house are fingerproof. 确保你房中的插座是防触电的。 来自超越目标英语 第4册

6 pinpoints   

准确地找出或描述( pinpoint的第三人称单数 )； 为…准确定位

参考例句：

• The bombs hit the pinpoints at which they were aimed. 炸弹精确地击中了目标。
• There's really no point in arguing about pinpoints. 为芝麻绿豆般的小事争论实在毫无意义。