仲夏之夜

江蘇揚州中學教育集團樹人學校 王 燁 編譯

The children were very muchpuzzledwhat to do,for it wasMidsummer-night,and they knew that there was a dreambelonging toit;but they could not tell how tocome acrossit.They knew that the dream had something to do withfairies,aqueen,and allmannerof lovely things;but that was all.

孩子們都非常困惑接下來要做什么，因為現在是仲夏之夜，他們知道有一個屬于自己的夢，但是誰也說不出來怎樣才會碰上這個夢。他們知道這個夢與仙女、王后和各種可愛的東西有關，但僅此而已。

At first,they thought they would sit up with the doors and windows open,and the dog on the steps was ready tobarkif he saw anythingunusual.Then they felt sure that they could not dream while they werewide-awake,so three of them went to bed,and onedozedin a corner of theporch,with her clothes on.

起初，他們以為他們會熬夜并把門窗開著，臺階上的狗準備在看到任何異常情況時發出吠叫聲。然后，他們確信在完全清醒的時候是不可能做夢的，所以他們三個人上床睡覺，一個人穿著衣服在門廊的角落里打瞌睡。

Presentlythe dog barked,and two children in theirnightgownsran out to see,and one took off her night-cap and looked out of the window;but it was only old Nurse coming back from a longgossipwith the villageblacksmith’swife andmotherin-law.So the dog looked foolish,and Nurse was angry,and put them all to bed without any more ado.

不一會兒，狗叫了起來，兩個穿著睡衣的孩子跑出來看，其中一個人摘下睡帽，向窗外看去；但只是老萊斯與村里鐵匠的妻子、丈母娘結束長聊后回來了。所以這狗看起來很愚蠢，萊斯很生氣，毫不猶豫地叫他們都上床睡覺。

“Oh,” they cried,“but the fairies,and the queen,and the flowers! What shall we do to see them?”

“哦，”他們喊道，“但是仙女們，王后，還有花兒們！我們該怎樣看到他們呢？”

“Go to sleep,” said Nurse,“and the dream may come to you;—you can’t go to a dream,” sheadded,for you see she was just apeasantwoman,and had never travelled far,or into any land but her own.

“去睡覺吧，”萊斯說，又補充道，“夢會向你走來，你是不能走向夢那里的。”如你所見，她只是一個農村婦女，從來沒有遠行，或者去過任何地方，她只待在自己的土地上。

So the children shut their eyestightlyand went to sleep,and I think that they saw something,for their eyes were very bright next morning,and one of themwhisperedto me,softly,“The queen wore awreathof flowers last night,dear mother,and,oh,she was very beautiful.”

于是，孩子們閉上眼睛睡著了，而我想他們還是看到了什么，因為第二天早上他們的眼睛非常明亮，其中一個輕聲對我說：“親愛的媽媽，王后昨晚戴著一個花環，哦，她非常漂亮。”

Notes:

puzzledadj.疑惑的；困惑的

midsummer-night 仲夏之夜

belong to… 屬于……

come across 遇到；碰上

fairyn.仙女

queenn.王后

mannern.方式；舉止；行為

barkv.（狗）吠叫

unusualadj.不同尋常的；異樣的

wide-awakeadj.完全醒過來的

dozev.打瞌睡

porchn.門廊

presentlyadv.最近；不久；現在

night-gownn.睡袍

gossipn.說閑話

blacksmithn.鐵匠

mother-in-lawn.岳母；婆母

addv.補充；補充道

peasantn.農民

tightlyadv.緊緊地

whisperv.耳語

wreathn.花環

I.Read the passage and answer the following questions.

1.Did the children know what to do at the midsummer-night?

2.Did the dog on the steps see anything unusual that night?

3.Did the children have a dream when they were wide-awake?

4.Did old Nurse travel far before?

5.Did the children have a dream of the queen that night?

II.Put the following into Chinese.

1.midsummer-night __________________

2.feel sure _________________________

3.have something to do with ___________

4.go to bed _________________________

5.come across _______________________

6.in a corner _______________________

7.at first ___________________________

8.next morning _____________________

9.something unusual _________________

10.look foolish _____________________

III.Choose the correct words in the brackets to fill in the blanks.

1.Those students are puzzled ________ (what/ when) to go to the zoo.

2.That night,Richard ________ (has/ had) a nice dream.

3.Our teacher of music ________ (knows/ knew) that thing last week.

4.That boy doesn’t know ________ (how/ what) to answer this question in English.

5.It must have ________ (anything/something) to do with the doctor,I think.

6.The white rabbit sat ________ (down/ up) when those strangers came to her.

7.George is Mary’s husband,so Mary’s father is George’s________ (mother-in-law/ father-in-law).

8.He came back late ________ (because/ for) there was something wrong with his car.

9.He has to work hard,________ (because/ for) he wants to support his family.

10.Yesterday afternoon,their maths teacher ________ (wears/wore) a blue T-shirt.

(參考答案見本期第29 頁)