英语听书《白鲸记》第22期

  Thinks I,Queequeg,under the circumstances,this is a very civilized¹ overture;but,the truth is, 

 these savages² have an innate³ sense of delicacy,say what you will;it is marvellous how essentially⁴ polite they are. 

 I pay this particular compliment to Queequeg,because he treated me with so much civility and consideration, 

 while I was guilty of great rudeness;staring at him from the bed, 

 and watching all his toilette motions;for the time my curiosity getting the better of my breeding. 

 Nevertheless,a man like Queequeg you do not see every day,he and his ways were well worth unusual regarding. 

 He commenced dressing⁵ at top by donning his beaver⁶ hat,a very tall one,by the by,and then still minus his trowsers he hunted up his boots. 

 What under the heavens he did it for,I can not tell,but his next movement was to crush himself boots in hand, 

 and hat on under the bed;when,from sundry⁷ violent gaspings and strainings,I inferred he was hard at work booting himself; 

 though by no law of propriety⁸ that I ever heard of,is any man required to be private when putting on his boots. 

 But Queequeg,do you see,was a creature in the transition stage neither caterpillar⁹ nor butterfly. 

 He was just enough civilized to show off his outlandishness in the strangest possible manners. 

 His education was not yet completed.He was an undergraduate.If he had not been a small degree civilized, 

 he very probably would not have troubled himself with boots at all;but then,if he had not been still a savage, 

 he never would have dreamt of getting under the bed to put them on. 

 At last,he emerged with his hat very much dented¹⁰ and crushed down over his eyes, 

 and began creaking and limping about the room,as if,not being much accustomed to boots, 

 his pair of damp,wrinkled cowhide ones probably not made to order either rather pinched and tormented¹¹ him at the first go off of a bitter cold morning. 

 Seeing,now,that there were no curtains to the window,and that the street being very narrow, 

 the house opposite commanded a plain view into the room, 

 and observing more and more the indecorous figure that Queequeg made,staving about with little else but his hat and boots on; 

 I begged him as well as I could,to accelerate his toilet somewhat,and particularly to get into his pantaloons as soon as possible. 

 He complied,and then proceeded to wash himself.At that time in the morning any Christian¹² would have washed his face; 

 but Queequeg,to my amazement,contented himself with restricting his ablutions to his chest,arms,and hands. 

 He then donned his waistcoat,and taking up a piece of hard soap on the wash stand centre table, 

 dipped it into water and commenced lathering¹³ his face.I was watching to see where he kept his razor, 

 when lo and behold,he takes the harpoon¹⁴ from the bed corner,slips out the long wooden stock,unsheathes the head, 

 whets it a little on his boot,and striding up to the bit of mirror against the wall,begins a vigorous scraping,or rather harpooning¹⁵ of his cheeks. 

1 civilized   

a.有教养的，文雅的

参考例句：

• Racism is abhorrent to a civilized society. 文明社会憎恶种族主义。
• rising crime in our so-called civilized societies 在我们所谓文明社会中日益增多的犯罪行为

2 savages   

未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There're some savages living in the forest. 森林里居住着一些野人。
• That's an island inhabited by savages. 那是一个野蛮人居住的岛屿。

3 innate   

adj.天生的，固有的，天赋的

参考例句：

• You obviously have an innate talent for music.你显然有天生的音乐才能。
• Correct ideas are not innate in the mind.人的正确思想不是自己头脑中固有的。

4 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

5 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

6 beaver   

n.海狸，河狸

参考例句：

• The hat is made of beaver.这顶帽子是海狸毛皮制的。
• A beaver is an animals with big front teeth.海狸是一种长着大门牙的动物。

7 sundry   

adj.各式各样的，种种的

参考例句：

• This cream can be used to treat sundry minor injuries.这种药膏可用来治各种轻伤。
• We can see the rich man on sundry occasions.我们能在各种场合见到那个富豪。

8 propriety   

n.正当行为；正当；适当

参考例句：

• We hesitated at the propriety of the method.我们对这种办法是否适用拿不定主意。
• The sensitive matter was handled with great propriety.这件机密的事处理得极为适当。

9 caterpillar   

n.毛虫，蝴蝶的幼虫

参考例句：

• A butterfly is produced by metamorphosis from a caterpillar.蝴蝶是由毛虫脱胎变成的。
• A caterpillar must pass through the cocoon stage to become a butterfly.毛毛虫必须经过茧的阶段才能变成蝴蝶。

10 dented   

v.使产生凹痕( dent的过去式和过去分词 )；损害；伤害；挫伤（信心、名誉等）

参考例句：

• The back of the car was badly dented in the collision. 汽车尾部被撞后严重凹陷。
• I'm afraid I've dented the car. 恐怕我把车子撞瘪了一些。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 tormented   

饱受折磨的

参考例句：

• The knowledge of his guilt tormented him. 知道了自己的罪责使他非常痛苦。
• He had lain awake all night, tormented by jealousy. 他彻夜未眠，深受嫉妒的折磨。

12 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

13 lathering   

n.痛打，怒骂v.（指肥皂）形成泡沫( lather的现在分词 )；用皂沫覆盖；狠狠地打

参考例句：

• After this my skin is really illuminous and clean even though there was no lathering. 在这以后即使我不使用泡沬之类的，皮肤也特别光滑干净。 来自互联网
• And yet Carl is standing there lathering his face and not a single detail is altered. 可是卡尔却站在那儿往脸上抹肥皂，全然不动声色。 来自互联网

14 harpoon   

n.鱼叉；vt.用鱼叉叉，用鱼叉捕获

参考例句：

• The harpoon drove deep into the body of the whale.渔叉深深地扎进鲸鱼体内。
• The fisherman transfixed the shark with a harpoon.渔夫用鱼叉刺住鲨鱼。

15 harpooning   

v.鱼镖，鱼叉( harpoon的现在分词 )

参考例句：