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Myra could not sleep. It was past midnight but, in the room above, her son William and his wife kept up their quarreling, and for an hour Myra lay sleepless. She was afraid, for she knew the 1)ungovernable 2)rages that her son William permitted to 3)possess him when he was 4)opposed. She could hear him 5)tramping back and forth, shouting, and she could hear Effie saying a word now and then. Effie had a sharp 6)tongue; she could make a word a 7)goad. It was not the way to 8)handle Will.
Myra got out of bed and lighted the lamp on her dressing table. She had made the table herself out of a box, covering it with 9)flimsy figured 10)sateen, hanging a fifty-cent mirror above it. Now she seated herself before the table and took up her hairbrush, for, often, brushing her hair quieted her nerves. She found she was 11)trembling and could hardly hold the brush, but, as the 12)bristles 13)caressed her hair, she felt the 14)soothing effect. In the room above her, Will was no longer shouting; the voices were low but tense with bitterness.
As she brushed her hair, Myra looked at the reflection of her face in the mirror. Some of the lines had been put there by the constant 15)bickering of Will and his wife, but she was, she told herself, still a good-looking woman. Her hair was still as black as when she was a girl. For a moment, she let her hands fall in her lap and bowed her head. It might, after all, be best, she told herself, to marry John Parton and let Effie and Will have this house. John Parton was not the man she wanted as a husband if she married again, but she would at least be away from this unending quarreling. It was making her whole life one great tragedy.
Tonight, for example, Will had come to the house after one of his long absences and she had not known he was there until she heard the quarreling begin. He would go, probably, before morning; he always left after a quarrel. It was no way to live never knowing when one of these storms would break.
From above came a roar of rage from Will, and Effie's voice crying, "No! No, Will!" ending in a 16)choking 17)gurgle. The awful thought that Will might be murdering Effie made Myra get to her feet and hurry up the stairs. She stood at the door and saw Willher son, Will 18)crouched over Effie, his fingers tight about the girl's neck. Effie's face was 19)hideouspurple. She was dead. She saw Will rise and she put her hands to her mouth to 20)stifle a scream and backed into the dark hall and stood trembling there as Will ran down the steps and out of the house.
She did not know how she had the strength to do what she did in the next hour, lifting Effie to the bed, seeing that Will's hands had made no 21)bruises on Effie's throat; straightening the confusion of the room so that it might appear that Effie had died in her sleep.
In the morning, a 22)shawl over her head, she ran all the way to Doctor Blascombe's, begging him to come, saying that she was afraid Effie had had an 23)attack of some sort, that she feared Effie was dead. When she reached the house with the doctor, the neighbors had already gathered and they had brought Henry Casey, the policeman of the neighborhood.
"She did not die a natural death," said Doctor Blascombe, when he had made his examination. "She was murdered. She was choked to death."
"But that could not be," said Myra. "I would have heard. My room is just below."
"You heard nothing?" Casey asked.
"Not a sound. And I am a light sleeper. The least sound awakens me."
"It could be one of them maniac murders that's been goin' round," suggested Mrs. Brumbaugh. "They been sneakin' in and killin' folks."
"It might be at that," said Patrolman Casey. "They're slick, them insane ones. We got eight of them murders, but we haven't caught anybody yet. Three of them throttled th' victims like this. You saw nothin' and you heard nothin', ma'am?"
"No; I slept through it all," said Myra. "I heard nothing."
"Well, you'd be the only witness there was," said Casey, "if there was any. Was any one in the house but you that you know of, ma'am?"
"No one. My son is away."
"There was no trouble between him and her?"
"Never! None at all. His heart will be broken."
"Well, there's nothing to" Casey began. His eyes swept here and there in the room. They passed over the two hairbrushes on Effie's dresser without seeing them, but Myra saw them. She had left her brush there. She might have to explain that.
"Well, it beats me," said Casey. "Whoever killed her was a shrewd one. And to think, ma'am, that only yesterday I was talkin' to her and you at the gate, nobody ever thinkin' of such a thing as this, and me 24)blarnying the both of you, saying"
Myra had let her shawl drop from her head and back upon her shoulders. Patrolman Casey's voice changed, and his eyes became hard, 25)glittering steel.
"And I was sayin' how black your hair was," he said. "And you saw nothin' last night? Answer me this, then: What turned your hair white in one night?"
But Myra did not answer; she fell forward in a faint upon the floor.
迈拉根本无法入睡，时间已经过了深夜，可楼上房间里依然传来儿子威廉与儿媳的吵架声，整整一个多小时迈拉就这样辗转难眠。她感到非常害怕，因为她太清楚自己儿子的脾气了，当他受到抵触的时候，情绪往往会失控而变得暴跳如雷。她可以听到威廉在楼上来回地踏步、怒吼，中间还夹杂着埃菲说话的声音。埃菲讲话过于刻薄，往往刺激得威廉更加暴躁，这可不是对付威尔的好办法。
迈拉走下床来，开亮了梳妆台上的灯。梳妆台是她自己用一个箱子做的，外面蒙了一层薄薄的缎布，上面还挂了一面用五十美分买回来的镜子。此刻她坐到了桌前，拿起了发梳通常在她心神不宁的时候总要梳梳头发来放松自己。她发现自己紧张地颤抖，险些握不住梳子，可当鬃毛滑过头发的时候，她还是觉得安定了很多。楼上威廉也不再大声吼叫了，声音低沉短促，更加让人胆战心惊。
梳头发时，迈拉不由端详起镜子中自己的脸来威尔夫妇无休止的争吵让她平添了好几道皱纹，但她仍然觉得自己是一个好看的女人，头发仍然那么油黑发亮，就和当年她小姑娘时的样子一样。她低下头来，把手放在大腿上。她在心里想着，也许嫁给约翰帕顿，并且让埃菲和帕顿拥有这座房子，可能是最好不过的事了。尽管约翰帕顿并不是她再婚的理想丈夫，但至少，她可以逃脱像现在这样无休无止的争吵，这让她的一生都成了一出惨痛的悲剧。
就像今天晚上，要不是听到争吵声又开始了，迈拉根本不知道长时间离家的威尔又回来了。天亮之前，他可能又要走了吧！他总是这样，吵完架就走。这样的日子可怎么熬？总是担惊受怕，不知道什么时候这样的暴风雨又会袭来。
楼上又传来威尔愤怒的咆哮声，还有埃菲带着哭腔的声音"不，不要，威尔！"，最后是一阵拼命咳嗽的呼吸急促声。威尔不是把埃菲杀了吧？迈拉脑中闪过这个恐怖的念头，她马上起来冲上楼去。当她站在门口的时候，她看到威尔她的亲生儿子俯在埃菲身上，他的手指正紧紧地箍在女孩的脖子上。埃菲的脸变得惨不忍睹已经变成紫色了。很显然她已经死了。威尔站起身来，一路小跑着下了楼梯，离开了家。迈拉死死地捂住自己的嘴，不让尖叫声发出来，然后退回到黑暗的走廊上，站在那里不停地瑟瑟发抖。
接下来的时间，她不知道自己哪儿来的力量做了下面的事把埃菲抬到床上，留意到威尔并没有在埃菲的脖子上留下淤痕，将凌乱的房间整理好这一切看上去就好像埃菲是在睡觉的时候死去的一样。
第二天早上，她在头上披了一条披肩，一路跑着去找布拉斯库姆医生，说她担心埃菲突发了某种病，恐怕埃菲已经死了，恳求医生能到家里去看看。当她和医生一起回到家里的时候，邻居们已经聚集在那儿了，并且叫来了负责他们街区的亨利凯西警官。
"她并不是自然死亡的，"布拉斯库姆医生检查完后说，"她是被谋杀的，窒息而死。"
"那怎么可能呢？"迈拉说道："我应该会听到声音的，我的房间就在下面。"
凯西问："您没有听到任何声音吗？"
"没有任何声音。我睡觉时很容易惊醒的，一点点声音都会惊醒我。"
"是不是盛传中的杀人狂干的呢？"布鲁鲍夫人提出来说："他们总是悄悄地摸上门，然后下手杀人。"
"也许真的是那样，"凯西警官说道："他们狡猾得很，个个都是丧心病狂的角色。我们已经接到八起类似这样的谋杀案了，但到现在为止还没有抓住一个人。其中三起谋杀案的被害人都是这样被扼死的。您什么都没有看到，也没有听到吗，夫人？"
"是的，我一直都睡在楼下，"迈拉说道："没有听到任何声音。"
"那么，您就是这里唯一的目击证人了，"凯西警官说，"如果说有目击证人的话。您家里还有其他人吗，夫人？"
"没有了。我的儿子不在家里。"
"他们夫妻俩之间没有任何的麻烦吗？"
"没有！从来没有。他如果知道这事，肯定心都会碎了。"
"那么，没有什么要......"凯西说着他开始在房间里到处扫视了一遍。他目光扫过埃菲梳妆台上的两把发梳，似乎没有留意它们。但是迈拉看到了，她把自己的发梳留在那里了。也许她要解释一下。
"这样的话，我就想不明白了。"凯西警官说，"杀害她的人肯定很狡猾。想一想，夫人，昨天我还和你们婆媳俩说话呢，你们就站在门口，谁也想不到会发生这样的事情，我当时还夸你们两个呢，说......"
迈拉从头上把披肩拿下来，披回到肩膀上。这事，凯西警官的声音突然变了，眼神变得锐利起来，像钢铁般闪闪发光。
"我当时还说您的头发好黑呢！"凯西说道，"您确信昨晚什么都没有看见吗？那么，您能告诉我，是什么事情让您的头发一夜变白呢？"
但是迈拉没有回答，她已晕倒在地板上。
最后由 阿山子 于 2007-01-19 09:02 编辑
关键字:双语故事
生词表:
Myra could not sleep. It was past midnight but, in the room above, her son William and his wife kept up their quarreling, and for an hour Myra lay sleepless. She was afraid, for she knew the 1)ungovernable 2)rages that her son William permitted to 3)possess him when he was 4)opposed. She could hear him 5)tramping back and forth, shouting, and she could hear Effie saying a word now and then. Effie had a sharp 6)tongue; she could make a word a 7)goad. It was not the way to 8)handle Will.
Myra got out of bed and lighted the lamp on her dressing table. She had made the table herself out of a box, covering it with 9)flimsy figured 10)sateen, hanging a fifty-cent mirror above it. Now she seated herself before the table and took up her hairbrush, for, often, brushing her hair quieted her nerves. She found she was 11)trembling and could hardly hold the brush, but, as the 12)bristles 13)caressed her hair, she felt the 14)soothing effect. In the room above her, Will was no longer shouting; the voices were low but tense with bitterness.
As she brushed her hair, Myra looked at the reflection of her face in the mirror. Some of the lines had been put there by the constant 15)bickering of Will and his wife, but she was, she told herself, still a good-looking woman. Her hair was still as black as when she was a girl. For a moment, she let her hands fall in her lap and bowed her head. It might, after all, be best, she told herself, to marry John Parton and let Effie and Will have this house. John Parton was not the man she wanted as a husband if she married again, but she would at least be away from this unending quarreling. It was making her whole life one great tragedy.
Tonight, for example, Will had come to the house after one of his long absences and she had not known he was there until she heard the quarreling begin. He would go, probably, before morning; he always left after a quarrel. It was no way to live never knowing when one of these storms would break.
From above came a roar of rage from Will, and Effie's voice crying, "No! No, Will!" ending in a 16)choking 17)gurgle. The awful thought that Will might be murdering Effie made Myra get to her feet and hurry up the stairs. She stood at the door and saw Willher son, Will 18)crouched over Effie, his fingers tight about the girl's neck. Effie's face was 19)hideouspurple. She was dead. She saw Will rise and she put her hands to her mouth to 20)stifle a scream and backed into the dark hall and stood trembling there as Will ran down the steps and out of the house.
She did not know how she had the strength to do what she did in the next hour, lifting Effie to the bed, seeing that Will's hands had made no 21)bruises on Effie's throat; straightening the confusion of the room so that it might appear that Effie had died in her sleep.
In the morning, a 22)shawl over her head, she ran all the way to Doctor Blascombe's, begging him to come, saying that she was afraid Effie had had an 23)attack of some sort, that she feared Effie was dead. When she reached the house with the doctor, the neighbors had already gathered and they had brought Henry Casey, the policeman of the neighborhood.
"She did not die a natural death," said Doctor Blascombe, when he had made his examination. "She was murdered. She was choked to death."
"But that could not be," said Myra. "I would have heard. My room is just below."
"You heard nothing?" Casey asked.
"Not a sound. And I am a light sleeper. The least sound awakens me."
"It could be one of them maniac murders that's been goin' round," suggested Mrs. Brumbaugh. "They been sneakin' in and killin' folks."
"It might be at that," said Patrolman Casey. "They're slick, them insane ones. We got eight of them murders, but we haven't caught anybody yet. Three of them throttled th' victims like this. You saw nothin' and you heard nothin', ma'am?"
"No; I slept through it all," said Myra. "I heard nothing."
"Well, you'd be the only witness there was," said Casey, "if there was any. Was any one in the house but you that you know of, ma'am?"
"No one. My son is away."
"There was no trouble between him and her?"
"Never! None at all. His heart will be broken."
"Well, there's nothing to" Casey began. His eyes swept here and there in the room. They passed over the two hairbrushes on Effie's dresser without seeing them, but Myra saw them. She had left her brush there. She might have to explain that.
"Well, it beats me," said Casey. "Whoever killed her was a shrewd one. And to think, ma'am, that only yesterday I was talkin' to her and you at the gate, nobody ever thinkin' of such a thing as this, and me 24)blarnying the both of you, saying"
Myra had let her shawl drop from her head and back upon her shoulders. Patrolman Casey's voice changed, and his eyes became hard, 25)glittering steel.
"And I was sayin' how black your hair was," he said. "And you saw nothin' last night? Answer me this, then: What turned your hair white in one night?"
But Myra did not answer; she fell forward in a faint upon the floor.
迈拉根本无法入睡，时间已经过了深夜，可楼上房间里依然传来儿子威廉与儿媳的吵架声，整整一个多小时迈拉就这样辗转难眠。她感到非常害怕，因为她太清楚自己儿子的脾气了，当他受到抵触的时候，情绪往往会失控而变得暴跳如雷。她可以听到威廉在楼上来回地踏步、怒吼，中间还夹杂着埃菲说话的声音。埃菲讲话过于刻薄，往往刺激得威廉更加暴躁，这可不是对付威尔的好办法。
迈拉走下床来，开亮了梳妆台上的灯。梳妆台是她自己用一个箱子做的，外面蒙了一层薄薄的缎布，上面还挂了一面用五十美分买回来的镜子。此刻她坐到了桌前，拿起了发梳通常在她心神不宁的时候总要梳梳头发来放松自己。她发现自己紧张地颤抖，险些握不住梳子，可当鬃毛滑过头发的时候，她还是觉得安定了很多。楼上威廉也不再大声吼叫了，声音低沉短促，更加让人胆战心惊。
梳头发时，迈拉不由端详起镜子中自己的脸来威尔夫妇无休止的争吵让她平添了好几道皱纹，但她仍然觉得自己是一个好看的女人，头发仍然那么油黑发亮，就和当年她小姑娘时的样子一样。她低下头来，把手放在大腿上。她在心里想着，也许嫁给约翰帕顿，并且让埃菲和帕顿拥有这座房子，可能是最好不过的事了。尽管约翰帕顿并不是她再婚的理想丈夫，但至少，她可以逃脱像现在这样无休无止的争吵，这让她的一生都成了一出惨痛的悲剧。
就像今天晚上，要不是听到争吵声又开始了，迈拉根本不知道长时间离家的威尔又回来了。天亮之前，他可能又要走了吧！他总是这样，吵完架就走。这样的日子可怎么熬？总是担惊受怕，不知道什么时候这样的暴风雨又会袭来。
楼上又传来威尔愤怒的咆哮声，还有埃菲带着哭腔的声音"不，不要，威尔！"，最后是一阵拼命咳嗽的呼吸急促声。威尔不是把埃菲杀了吧？迈拉脑中闪过这个恐怖的念头，她马上起来冲上楼去。当她站在门口的时候，她看到威尔她的亲生儿子俯在埃菲身上，他的手指正紧紧地箍在女孩的脖子上。埃菲的脸变得惨不忍睹已经变成紫色了。很显然她已经死了。威尔站起身来，一路小跑着下了楼梯，离开了家。迈拉死死地捂住自己的嘴，不让尖叫声发出来，然后退回到黑暗的走廊上，站在那里不停地瑟瑟发抖。
接下来的时间，她不知道自己哪儿来的力量做了下面的事把埃菲抬到床上，留意到威尔并没有在埃菲的脖子上留下淤痕，将凌乱的房间整理好这一切看上去就好像埃菲是在睡觉的时候死去的一样。
第二天早上，她在头上披了一条披肩，一路跑着去找布拉斯库姆医生，说她担心埃菲突发了某种病，恐怕埃菲已经死了，恳求医生能到家里去看看。当她和医生一起回到家里的时候，邻居们已经聚集在那儿了，并且叫来了负责他们街区的亨利凯西警官。
"她并不是自然死亡的，"布拉斯库姆医生检查完后说，"她是被谋杀的，窒息而死。"
"那怎么可能呢？"迈拉说道："我应该会听到声音的，我的房间就在下面。"
凯西问："您没有听到任何声音吗？"
"没有任何声音。我睡觉时很容易惊醒的，一点点声音都会惊醒我。"
"是不是盛传中的杀人狂干的呢？"布鲁鲍夫人提出来说："他们总是悄悄地摸上门，然后下手杀人。"
"也许真的是那样，"凯西警官说道："他们狡猾得很，个个都是丧心病狂的角色。我们已经接到八起类似这样的谋杀案了，但到现在为止还没有抓住一个人。其中三起谋杀案的被害人都是这样被扼死的。您什么都没有看到，也没有听到吗，夫人？"
"是的，我一直都睡在楼下，"迈拉说道："没有听到任何声音。"
"那么，您就是这里唯一的目击证人了，"凯西警官说，"如果说有目击证人的话。您家里还有其他人吗，夫人？"
"没有了。我的儿子不在家里。"
"他们夫妻俩之间没有任何的麻烦吗？"
"没有！从来没有。他如果知道这事，肯定心都会碎了。"
"那么，没有什么要......"凯西说着他开始在房间里到处扫视了一遍。他目光扫过埃菲梳妆台上的两把发梳，似乎没有留意它们。但是迈拉看到了，她把自己的发梳留在那里了。也许她要解释一下。
"这样的话，我就想不明白了。"凯西警官说，"杀害她的人肯定很狡猾。想一想，夫人，昨天我还和你们婆媳俩说话呢，你们就站在门口，谁也想不到会发生这样的事情，我当时还夸你们两个呢，说......"
迈拉从头上把披肩拿下来，披回到肩膀上。这事，凯西警官的声音突然变了，眼神变得锐利起来，像钢铁般闪闪发光。
"我当时还说您的头发好黑呢！"凯西说道，"您确信昨晚什么都没有看见吗？那么，您能告诉我，是什么事情让您的头发一夜变白呢？"
但是迈拉没有回答，她已晕倒在地板上。
最后由 阿山子 于 2007-01-19 09:02 编辑
关键字:双语故事
生词表:
文章标签:双语阅读
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