musician→★music



athlete



fanatic(al)



lover



thirst



unlike



witness



kind



intelligent→★elect



priest



blessing



ceremony



impression→★press



enthusiastic



devote→★devote



superb



utmost



risk



pastime→★pass



religious



attempt→★tempt



accumulation



glove



attitude



slope



forth



trail



illuminate



avoid→★avoid



plunge



fracture→★fragment



skull



emergency room



scratch



injure



overcome



misfortune



funeral



testimony



personality



collection



accomplish



sportsman→★man



defy



potential



member→★member



mutual→★mutual



aid



association→★society



fund



available



eligible→★elect



philosophy



scholarship



译文:



Unit 6 A Woman's Distress…………………………………91



一个女人的苦恼



一个孤独的女人，同样也是一个情感丰富的女人，她在周末的空闲里会做些什么呢？在众多的选择中．詹却选择了独自守在郊区的木屋里用写作的形式来发泄自己的情感。写作虽然不是她的专业，却帮助她体验成就感，帮助她从生命中曾经忍受的痛苦中摆脱出来……



The morning was moist, and the fog had set in last evening and still masked over the shabby cabin hidden deep within the Turtle Mountains. She shivered as she stepped bare foot onto unfinished slabs that held her deck together. She had purchased the slabs from the Hillbilly Board Store.



Her white sleeping gown hung below her knees with just a white cotton lace. Her soft hair was loosely(宽松地)tied back with a piece of purple ribbon softly and gloriously falling out the sides and touching her cheeks of pale skin.



Jen was so glad to be out of the city for a few days. This was her weekend retreat. She loved the cabin. and it gave her confidence and peace and complacency(满足)in herself. Jen worked everyday in an attorney's office as a consultant. She handled stacks of legal documents daily. So when the weekend and holidays came around she would head for her cabin. Her cabin was thirty-seven miles from the city. It was excluded from other cabins at the lake. She liked it that way.



Jen had a secret, a secret she never told anyone: she was an amateur writer. She had a love for writing. Her writing is comprised by essays, fables, poems, and true stories about people she had come to know. Writing compositions about her childhood she could recall or anything that: kept her interest. Jen never told anyone about her love for writing. She always felt people would consider her as a bit crazy. With so many activities to do on weekends, why would she choose to sit and write?



The cabin was perfect: the breeze was fragrant and she could hear frogs croak(咕咕叫)from time to time. She would sit with her pen in hand and her spiral tablets(活页簿)and would write whatever came to her mind. Sometimes her novels and stories would dominate her and make her cry so hard that she would have to put her writing down and ask herself why she was doing this.



She would write a song, then hum it-and sing it to herself until she believed it was a real song, real like the songs on the radio or television or even imagined some famous singer singing her song.



From her standpoint, writing gave her a feeling of complete satisfaction with herself. It's not her expertise but it helped her to experience successes and overcome the pain she had endured throughout her lifetime. It helped her to articulate the feelings deep in her heart. It helped her to bring imaginary people and places to reality in her mind. It was a freedom no one ever knew. Her writing was her true complement and soul mate that she could trust.



Jen recently has purchased a computer and took an oath to herself that she would compile her writings and put them into the computer just to have for herself. It was an undertaking which would take a while but having her writings organized for the first time would be great.



It was going to be a dreary(阴沉的)weekend, but Jen didn't mind. She didn't plan on spending it outside anyway. For her, it was a stressful weekend. She had too many tasks to complete and the hours went away too fast for her when she was not at work.



Stretching her arms above her head, sticking out her chin and yawning as if it were a sign of freedom, Jen stretched every muscle in her body. "Good morning, world", she yelled out as she turned to go into her cabin.



The cabin was small in dimension, having four rooms to be exact, but it was all Jen needed. Her living room and kitchen were combined in one large room only the kitchen table separating them. The bedroom was direct opposite the living-room and the bathroom facing the kitchen. The backside of the cabin was an enclosed porch that was screened to enjoy a fresh breeze in the warm evenings and yet keep the irritating bugs away.



Jen poured herself a glass of brandy, sat at her kitchen table and stared into space. Words were running through her mind, words of peace, words of beauty and poetry to relax by.



She picked UD her Den and started to write.



Feeling like rose petals(花瓣)softened by the morning dew,



Sweet scent fills the soul when I think of you.



The way you hold me when I adz lonely and down



Like drops of water running through a pebbled brook.



And the laughter in your eyes every time I look,



Like soft rain falling, I have loved you from the start.



I know you can never show your love for me.



Your life has been drafted and she is yours forever.



But darling I need you to understand 1 will always love you.



I'll be here when you need me even if it's for an hour or two.



I will never love another and 1 will die with you in my heart.



Forbidden as it may be, I have loved you from the start.



She put the pen down on the table thereafter as she could feel her eyes filling up with mist. She began to sob. Damn him, why did he do this to me, why did I torture myself. I knew he was a married man, I always knew it and yet I let myself fall in love with him.



Jen wiped the tears that were streaming down her cheeks, and she knew she had to get on with her lire.



The weekend went fast, Jen had entered over one hundred of her poems on the computer and had written a few new ones too. She cried a lot of tears and yet had a few good laughs as she was reading what she had written. She always enjoyed going back and reading her previous writings. Sometimes she had even forgotten she had written some of them.



As Jen locked the cabin door, she slowly walked to her car, knowing it would be another week before she could return. She loved the cabin and her writing. After all it was all she had right now as she was trying her best not to break up her best friend's marriage.



注释:



distress→★stress



moist



fog



mask



shiver



bare



purchase



slab



gown



lace



loosely



tie→★tie



purple



ribbon



gloriously→★glory



retreat→★treat



confidence



attorney→★turn



consultant→★result



handle



stack



legal→★law



exclude→★close



amateur



writer



writing



comprise



essay



fable



recall→★call



consider→★consider



perfect



fragrant



frog



novel→★new



dominate



standpoint



expertise



endure



articulate



imaginary



reality



complement→★complete



mate



oath



compile



undertaking→★take



organize/-ise



anyway



stressful→★stress



stretch



chin



yawn



muscle



dimension



combine



screen



irritating



bug



brandy→★brandy



poetry



relax



dew



scent



pebble



brook



laughter



draft→★draw/haul



darling



forbid



thereafter→★there



sob



damn



torture



stream



previous



lock



译文:



Unit 7 On Duty……………………………………………109



值勤



一个年轻士兵，一个怀孕女人，一个奇特的场景。没人能够领会他们当时真正的心理，但只需领会一个人生命中总会偶尔被他人感动，而自己也可能在无意中感动别人，就足够了……



The young soldier, stationed on guard at a foreign city street corner, sheltered himself from the biting late evening wind by standing back against the lee(背风的)side of a small, one storey building, occasionally peering around to view the large crowd that had gathered on the main street.



He didn't know why the people were there, nor did he care; after all, it wasn't his country, and none of his concern. He had been in the Army for only six months, enlisting on the same day when he had turned eighteen, and he didn't understand the local language or any of the country's dialects. He could speak only a few words and phrases, just enough for him to occasionally purchase some of the local food and beverages.



The commander had told him to watch the assembly, and if they began to get rowdy(粗暴的)and appear to get out of control, he should immediately inform his partner, now stationed across the street, for reinforcements, garrisoned(驻守)just two blocks away. Looking at the disorder on the street, he thought, it must be some kind of protest for some radical cause or other.



He also thought about home, half a world away, and of a girl named Lisa, whom he planned to marry during his next leave. Six more months and he would be a married man. The thought made him smile.



Suddenly, about a block up the street, the crowd emitted up a loud roar, awakening the young soldier from his marital daydream. Back into reality, he quickly scanned the area, noticing that many of the people were pointing towards a woman in the middle of the street, coming from the darkness, like an aerial statue floating above the crowd. He saw a bearded man ahead of the woman, looking as if he was towing her along. Perhaps the woman sat upon a cart or some other wheeled device, but the soldier couldn't tell in accuracy because too many people blocked his view. Occasionally, through small gaps between the many bodies in front of him, he could see the woman's waist, and she appeared to be pregnant.



When the shouting became louder, the young soldier kept a watchful(警惕的)eye on the couple as they drew nearer, and at the same time he tried to guess the crowd's mood, but he couldn't find out if it was good or bad. He quickly checked his weapon, just in case he might have to defend himself. Then he turned his attention to a group of five dubious and nasty-looking young men standing nearby, ones that he had seen drinking liquor earlier in the evening. He was watching them carefully to make sure they didn't throw anything handy that might cause harm to the passing couple. Soon, the man and woman came directly in front of the young soldier and the five men, but instead of causing trouble, the drunken five began to wave their arms over their heads and cheer.



Noticing the cheers, the woman turned her head and looked directly at the five men for an instant, then her gaze quickly shifted to the young soldier. Although she smiled when she nodded her head at him, the soldier could sense a deep pain in the woman's eyes. Fascinated by what he saw, he continued to stare at the woman, his eyes locked onto hers. He couldn't tear his gaze away. Suddenly, a feeling of solemnity seeped(渗入)into the core of him like a wave of warm water, something that he had never experienced before. A moment later the woman broke the eye contact, and then she and her male companion disappeared, melting into the crowd and proceeding down the street towards one of the local inns.



After a short while, the crowd became quiet and began to disperse.



Within fifteen minutes the young soldier stood sober alone, looking up and down an empty street. A moment later, he noticed three well-dressed men coming out of the darkness, traveling from the same direction as the bearded man and pregnant woman, heading directly towards him. At that same instant he heard his commander's voice behind him, "soldier, you're relieved of your duty here. Fall in."



Marching back to the barracks(军营)in formation with the rest of the sentinels(哨兵),the young soldier looked up at the clear night sky, wondering if the woman with the mournful eyes and peaceful smile had noticed the extremely bright stars overhead.



注释:



stor(e)y



occasionally



peer



enlist



dialect→★lecture



commander



assembly



inform



partner



disorder→★order



radical→★radio



emit



awaken→★wake



aerial



statue



beard



tow



device



accuracy



gap



waist



watchful



mood→★model



weapon



dubious



nasty



liquor→★liquid



handy



harm



directly



drunken



instant



gaze



shift



fascinate



solemnity



core→★record



companion



melt



inn



disperse



sober



relieve



formation



mournful



overhead→★head



译文:



Unit 8 The Moon Princess…………………………………123



月亮公主



历来，地球上的王国战争总是不断，而人民备受其害。除了作战，他们还要在平时缴纳沉重的赋税，否则就要人头落地。作为善良象征的月亮公主这次能救苍生于水深火热吗？



A mythical(神话的,神话般的)music echoed over the tall buildings, floating toward the heavens through clusters of stars and gently making a light rain sprinkle over the forehead of the Moon Princess. She slept on a couch of cloud and on a pillow of fur, her pitch-black hair dazzling on the pure white of her bed; her six male servants knelt at the foot of her and waited. She stirred, her white suit shimmering with diamonds and crystals as the moon cast its brilliant rays over her slender body, and her deep blue eyes opened. Her servants bowed down in piety(虔诚)and offered her six black boxes, each containing a jewel. The Princess looked quickly over them and chose a jewel, then flung it into the orbit where it became a falling star that she hoped people would see so they could pray on it. She stood up and quivered slightly, still recovering from her long sleep and her devout(虔敬的)servants rushed shortly to hold her tap. The Princess had been sleeping for a hundred solar calendar years, a punishment from a powerful and ambitious Emperor on earth because she had resolved a conflict between his people and another tribe and had been hated for it. She slowly walked over the nickel-plating cube boxes that were laid out for her to make a bridge toward the Moon. She stepped onto its cool surface and toward her throne, one made of silver encrusted with stars that could no longer hold themselves in the sky.



The Princess sat down and turned to her servants who absently lay at her feet. She gestured for them to stand up. "Tell me," she said, "tell me about the world now; are there still wars

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