英语听书《白鲸记》 第4期

  Should you ever be athirst in the great American desert,try this experiment, 

 if your caravan¹ happen to be supplied with a metaphysical professor. 

 Yes,as every one knows,meditation and water are wedded² for ever. 

 But here is an artist.He desires to paint you the dreamiest,shadiest,quietest, 

 most enchanting³ bit of romantic landscape in all the valley of the Saco. 

 What is the chief element he employs?There stand his trees,each with a hollow trunk, 

 as if a hermit⁴ and a crucifix were within;and here sleeps his meadow,and there sleep his cattle; 

 and up from yonder cottage goes a sleepy smoke. 

 Deep into distant woodlands winds a mazy way,reaching to overlapping⁵ spurs of mountains bathed in their hill side blue. 

 But though the picture lies thus tranced, 

 and though this pine tree shakes down its sighs like leaves upon this shepherd's head,yet all were vain, 

 unless the shepherd's eye were fixed⁶ upon the magic stream before him.Go visit the Prairies in June, 

 when for scores on scores of miles you wade⁷ knee deep among Tiger lilieswhat is the one charm wanting? 

 Waterthere is not a drop of water there!Were Niagara but a cataract⁸ of sand,would you travel your thousand miles to see it? 

 Why did the poor poet of Tennessee,upon suddenly receiving two handfuls of silver,deliberate whether to buy him a coat,which he sadly needed, 

 or invest his money in a pedestrian trip to Rockaway Beach?Why is almost every robust⁹ healthy boy with a robust healthy soul in him, 

 at some time or other crazy to go to sea?Why upon your first voyage as a passenger, 

 did you yourself feel such a mystical vibration, 

 when first told that you and your ship were now out of sight of land? 

 Why did the old Persians hold the sea holy?Why did the Greeks give it a separate deity,and own brother of Jove? 

 Surely all this is not without meaning. 

 And still deeper the meaning of that story of Narcissus,who because he could not grasp the tormenting,mild image he saw in the fountain, 

 plunged into it and was drowned.But that same image,we ourselves see in all rivers and oceans. 

 It is the image of the ungraspable phantom¹⁰ of life;and this is the key to it all. 

 Now,when I say that I am in the habit of going to sea whenever I begin to grow hazy¹¹ about the eyes, 

 and begin to be over conscious of my lungs,I do not mean to have it inferred that I ever go to sea as a passenger. 

 For to go as a passenger you must needs have a purse,and a purse is but a rag unless you have something in it. 

 Besides,passengers get sea sickgrow quarrelsomedon't sleep of nightsdo not enjoy themselves much, 

 as a general thing;no,I never go as a passenger;nor,though I am something of a salt, 

 do I ever go to sea as a Commodore,or a Captain,or a Cook. 

1 caravan   

n.大蓬车；活动房屋

参考例句：

• The community adviser gave us a caravan to live in.社区顾问给了我们一间活动住房栖身。
• Geoff connected the caravan to the car.杰弗把旅行用的住屋拖车挂在汽车上。

2 wedded   

adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She's wedded to her job. 她专心致志于工作。
• I was invited over by the newly wedded couple for a meal. 我被那对新婚夫妇请去吃饭。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 enchanting   

a.讨人喜欢的

参考例句：

• His smile, at once enchanting and melancholy, is just his father's. 他那种既迷人又有些忧郁的微笑，活脱儿象他父亲。
• Its interior was an enchanting place that both lured and frightened me. 它的里头是个吸引人的地方，我又向往又害怕。

4 hermit   

n.隐士，修道者；隐居

参考例句：

• He became a hermit after he was dismissed from office.他被解职后成了隐士。
• Chinese ancient landscape poetry was in natural connections with hermit culture.中国古代山水诗与隐士文化有着天然联系。

5 overlapping   

adj./n.交迭（的）

参考例句：

• There is no overlapping question between the two courses. 这两门课程之间不存在重叠的问题。
• A trimetrogon strip is composed of three rows of overlapping. 三镜头摄影航线为三排重迭的象片所组成。

6 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

7 wade   

v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉

参考例句：

• We had to wade through the river to the opposite bank.我们只好涉水过河到对岸。
• We cannot but wade across the river.我们只好趟水过去。

8 cataract   

n.大瀑布，奔流，洪水，白内障

参考例句：

• He is an elderly gentleman who had had a cataract operation.他是一位曾经动过白内障手术的老人。
• The way is blocked by the tall cataract.高悬的大瀑布挡住了去路。

9 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

10 phantom   

n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的

参考例句：

• I found myself staring at her as if she were a phantom.我发现自己瞪大眼睛看着她，好像她是一个幽灵。
• He is only a phantom of a king.他只是有名无实的国王。

11 hazy   

adj.有薄雾的，朦胧的；不肯定的，模糊的

参考例句：

• We couldn't see far because it was so hazy.雾气蒙蒙妨碍了我们的视线。
• I have a hazy memory of those early years.对那些早先的岁月我有着朦胧的记忆。