learnEnglish 发表于 2009-10-6 02:18

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

本帖最后由 learnEnglish 于 2009-10-6 02:19 编辑

I decide to try to read at least a paragraph of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" every day.
Maybe you want to do it, too.
Let's start.

daniellwolfe 发表于 2009-10-6 02:21

wow, i read it one month ago... still nice

it is my fav book!

learnEnglish 发表于 2009-10-6 02:23

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Chapter01-01)

本帖最后由 learnEnglish 于 2009-10-15 09:20 编辑

"TOM!"

No answer.

"TOM!"

No answer.

"What's gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!"

No answer.

The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room; then she put them up and looked out under them.She seldom or never looked through them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for "style," not service -- she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well. She looked perplexed for a moment,and then said, not fiercely, but still loud enough for the furniture to hear:

"Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll --"

She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and punching under the bed with the broom, and so she needed breath to punctuate the punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.

"I never did see the beat of that boy!"

She went to the open door and stood in it and looked out among the tomato vines and "jimpson" weeds that constituted the garden.No Tom. So she lifted up her voice at an angle calculated for distance and shouted:

"Y-o-u-u Tom!"

--------------------
pull down = 拉下
pull up = 拉上
bend down = 弯腰
lift up = 抬起
-
look out under = 在...之下往外看
look over = 在...之上看
look through = 穿过...看
look out among = 朝向...之中看
-
just as well = 完全一样好, 幸好, 还好, 无妨
by this time = 到这时
get hold of = 抓住..., 得到...
the beat of = 这样(让人吃惊, 厉害, 等等)的..., 比这更(让人吃惊, 厉害, 等等)的...
-
she needed breath to punctuate the punches with => "to punctuate the punches with" is attribute
--------------------
lay = 发誓, 打赌, etc.
punch
punctuate
resurrect
constitute
-
seldom
perplexed
fiercely
calculated
--------------------

learnEnglish 发表于 2009-10-6 02:31

wow, i read it one month ago... still nice

it is my fav book!
daniellwolfe 发表于 2009-10-6 02:21 http://www.dolc.de/forum/images/common/back.gif

envy you {:4_299:}

learnEnglish 发表于 2009-10-7 01:19

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Chapter01-02)

本帖最后由 learnEnglish 于 2009-10-16 18:16 编辑

There was a slight noise behind her and she turned just in time to seize a small boy by the slack of his roundabout and arrest his flight.

"There! I might 'a thought of that closet. What you been doing in there?"

"Nothing."

"Nothing! Look at your hands. And look at your mouth. What is that truck?"

"I don't know, aunt."

"Well, I know. It's jam -- that's what it is. Forty times I've said if you didn't let that jam alone I'd skin you. Hand me that switch."

The switch hovered in the air -- the peril was desperate --

"My! Look behind you, aunt!"

The old lady whirled round, and snatched her skirts out of danger. The lad fled on the instant, scrambled up the high board-fence, and disappeared over it.

--------------------
'a thought = have a thought
What you been doing? => What have you been doing?
-
the slack of = ...的下摆
on the instant = 立即
-
whirl round = 转身
scramble up = 爬上
--------------------
roundabout = [美]男用紧身短外套
truck = [口]垃圾, 破烂, 废话
peril
fence
-
seize
arrest
hover
snatch
flee, fled
disappear
-
desperate
slight
--------------------

程普 发表于 2009-10-7 01:23

大爱!

learnEnglish 发表于 2009-10-8 02:58

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Chapter01-03)

本帖最后由 learnEnglish 于 2009-10-17 20:22 编辑

His aunt Polly stood surprised a moment, and then broke into a gentle laugh.

"Hang the boy, can't I never learn anything? Ain't he played me tricks enough like that for me to be looking out for him by this time? But old fools is the biggest fools there is. Can't learn an old dog new tricks, as the saying is. But my goodness, he never plays them alike, two days, and how is a body to know what's coming? He 'pears to know just how long he can torment me before I get my dander up, and he knows if he can make out to put me off for a minute or make me laugh, it's all down again and I can't hit him a lick. I ain't doing my duty by that boy, and that's the Lord's truth, goodness knows. Spare the rod and spile the child, as the Good Book says. I'm a laying up sin and suffering for us both, I know. He's full of the Old Scratch, but laws-a-me! he's my own dead sister's boy, poor thing, and I ain't got the heart to lash him, somehow. Every time I let him off, my conscience does hurt me so, and every time I hit him my old heart most breaks. Well-a-well, man that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble, as the Scripture says, and I reckon it's so. He'll play hookey this evening, and I'll just be obliged to make him work, to-morrow, to punish him. It's mighty hard to make him work Saturdays, when all the boys is having holiday, but he hates work more than he hates anything else, and I've got to do some of my duty by him, or I'll be the ruination of the child."

--------------------
ain't = am not, are not, is not, have not, has not
'pear = appear = 似乎, 显得, etc.
-
hang it = [口]见鬼, 该死, 岂有此理
learn anything = [俚]吸取任何教训
get one's dander up = 发怒, 发脾气
-
goodness knows = 上天作证, 天知道
laws-a-me = Lord save me("laws-a-me" is rural dialect)
-
Good Book = (基督教的)圣经
the Lord =主, 耶稣基督
Old Scratch = 魔鬼, 撒旦
old fool = 老糊涂
-
break into = 突然, 爆发出, etc.
have got to = 不得不, 必须
suffer for = 为...遭受/受苦
lay up = 贮存, 搁置, 卧床
put off= 敷衍, 搪塞, 拖延, etc.
let off= 放过, 免罚, 宽恕
make out = 设法应付, etc.
-
be obliged = 被迫
be born of = 源于..., 由...生产的
-
heart break = 心碎
conscience hurt = 良心谴责
play trick = 开玩笑, 玩把戏
play hookey = 逃学
-
can't I never learn anything? = 我不能总不吸取教训吧?
I'm a laying up sin and suffering for us both = ?
can't learn an old dog new tricks = an old dog can't learn new tricks
-
as the saying is = 俗话说得好
spare the rod and spile the child = 不打不成器("spile" is southwestern dialect for “spoil”)
--------------------
torment
punish
lash
reckon
-
scripture
conscience
ruination
--------------------

learnEnglish 发表于 2009-10-8 03:06

OMG! So difficult.
{:4_284:}

learnEnglish 发表于 2009-10-8 03:11

本帖最后由 learnEnglish 于 2009-10-8 12:41 编辑

--
I'm a laying up sin and suffering for us=(=???)I'm laying up sin and suffering for us

↑ a lapse of the pen? ↑
↑ typographical error? ↑
↑ clerical error? ↑
--

learnEnglish 发表于 2009-10-8 06:18

I want to give up.
The third took me several hours to consult the dictionary and the example sentence and to ask others for help.
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