在码字的过程中,要坚持两个原则,看的时候不写,写的时候不看。如果边看边写, 所谓一心二用,浮光掠影。
On either side of her, the twins lounged easily in their chairs, squinting at the sunlight through tall mint-garnished glasses as they laughed and talked, their long legs, booted to the knee and thick with the suddle muscles, crossed negligently. Nineteen years old, six feet two inches tall, long of bone and hard of muscle, with sun-burned faces and deep auburn hair, their eyes merry and arrogant, their bodies clothed in identical blue coats and mustard-colored breeches, they were as much like as two bolls of cotton.
什么是squinting? to look with the eyes partly closed., 看了这张图片你就明白了。我一直希望写作的时候可以随时插入图片,在简书上,一开始试过几次都没有成功。后来有一次,想起看看其他人是否插入图片的文章。找到了,相信可以做成。试了几次,原来要图片独立点击后产生的网址。long of bone and hard of muscle 容易让人困惑,似乎lone bone and hard muscle就可行了。
其实,在英语中,at\in等引导的时间、地点状语很容易理解,那么想象一下,which\that引导的定语从句就好比at\in等引导的时间、地点状语。其中which\that=at\in所起的作用也只是引导而已,所以之前的词语成为先行词,真难为当年翻译这种术语的人。英语中的这种用法一脉相承,只是表现在不同的层次,词、词组、句子乃至篇章。补充完这一点,我们再看long of bone and hard of muscle, 之前的nineteen years old, six feet two inches tall都是形容词结尾,很工整;类似的,先提到long and hard也很工整,在哪一方面啊?用of引导相应的名词。
本段末尾two bolls of cotton的比喻非常有意思,那么什么是棉桃呢?。其中的of cotton的用法与of bone and of muscle相似,当然在课堂上你不太可能遇到。曾经读到过一句话,说现代教育培养的本质都是奴性的工人教育,大体是对的。而在大多数英语的课堂,你可能听到的就是无法实用的所谓语言知识,所以务必回归经典,用社会和历史的视野积累自己的知识。
Outside, the late afternoon sun slanted down in the yard, throwing into gleaming brightness the dogwood trees that were solid masses of white blossoms against the background of new green. The twins horses were hitched in the driveway, big animals, red as their master's hair; and around the horses' legs quarreled the pack of lean, nervous possom hounds that accompanied Stuart and Brent wherever they went. A little aloof, as became an aristocrat, lay a black-spotted carriage dog, muzzle paws, patiently waiting for the boys to go home to supper.
还记得,第一段中her thick black brows slanted upward吗?作者用词,习惯使然,细品之。补充一下,当你想要在写的时候不看而做到写的较多,朗读一遍再写,笔端记录文字,坚持下去,短时记忆就非常好的训练出来了。the background of new green中之前就有了the定冠,of引导的就不用the了。lean是指without much flesh or fat, a little aloof是指at a distance, carriage dog是指
muzzle paws有点难以理解,不过,muzzle有projecting的意思,那么可见,狗是趴着的,前腿前伸着趴着,这就是waiting的姿势!
Between the hounds and the horses and the twins there was a kinship deeper than that of their constant companionship. They were all healthy, thoughtless young animals, sleek, graceful, high-spirited, the boys as mettlesome as the horses they rode, mettlesome and dangerous but, withal, sweet tempered to those who knew how to handle them.
kinship是个非常好的词,relationship by nature and qualities. 后面一系列的形容词语就是nature and qualities. mettlesome是指 courageous, valiant, showing bravery, 初生牛犊不怕虎的spirit.