《傲慢与偏见》第二章节选

《傲慢与偏见》第二章节选

【导读】简·奥斯汀常被二十世纪的文学评论家们和文学史家们誉为真正伟大的英国小说家。《傲慢与偏见》就是她的代表作之一。本文节选了小说第二章的部分内容，并对其中的词汇进行讲解。

After listening to their praise of the officers one morning，Mr Bennet said coolly，‘From what I can see，you must be two of the silliest girls in the country. I’ve suspected it for some time，but now I’m convinced.’

一天早上，班纳特先生听了她们对军官的称赞以后冷冷地说：“依我看，你们俩肯定是全英国最傻的女孩。过去，我还一直怀疑这个，现在我彻底相信了。”

Kitty was embarrassed and did not reply，but Lydia，the youngest，continued to express her admiration for a certain Captain Carter，with perfect indifference.

吉蒂感到害臊，没有吱声。可是最小的丽迪亚毫不在意，继续表达她对一个什么卡特尔上尉的爱慕之情。

‘I am very surprised，my dear，’said Mrs Bennet，‘that you should be so ready to think your own children silly. As it happens，they are all very clever.’

“我真感到奇怪，亲爱的，”班纳特夫人说，“你为什么总是爱把自己的孩子想得那么傻。巧得很，她们都很聪明。”

‘That is the only point，I think，on which we do not agree. I am afraid I must say that I consider our two youngest daughters unusually foolish.’

“我想，只有这一点我们俩意见不一致。恐怕我得说，我们的两个小女儿还不是一般的愚蠢。”

‘My dear Mr Bennet，you mustn’t expect such young girls to have the common sense of their father or mother. I remember when I used to like a red coat myself，and indeed I still do. If a good-looking officer with five or six thousand a year wanted to marry one of my girls，I wouldn’t turn him down. And I thought Colonel Forster looked very handsome last night at Sir William’s，in his regimental uniform.’

“我亲爱的班纳特先生，她们还小呢，你不能指望她们有父母一样的见识。我记得自己过去就很喜欢红色的外套，确实，我现在还喜欢。如果哪一位年收入五六千英镑的漂亮军官想娶我们的哪个姑娘，我是不会拒绝他的。我觉得福斯特上校昨天晚上在威廉爵士家身穿兵团制服看起来很英俊。”

Just then a servant entered with a note for Jane，which had come from Netherfield. Mrs Bennet’s eyes shone with pleasure and she called out eagerly，while her daughter was reading it，‘Well，Jane，who is it from? What does he say?Tell us，tell us quickly，my love!’

这时，一位仆人拿着给简的一张便条走了进来，便条是从尼日斐送来的。班纳特太太喜出望外，眼睛为之一亮，女儿还没看完，她就急切地叫道：“哎呀，简，是谁写来的？上面写的什么？告诉我们，快告诉我们，我的乖！”

【重难点词汇讲解】

convinced 确信的，深信的

eg：He is convinced that she could make him happy.他坚信她可以让自己过得快乐。

embarrassed 尴尬的，窘迫的

eg：Jim was embarrassed for making such a big mistake.吉姆对自己犯了那么大个错误而感到尴尬不已。

indifference 漠不关心，冷淡；相应的形容词形式为indifferent

eg：Everyone can feel his indifference.每个人都能感受到他的冷淡。

expect 期望，指望，预期；其名词形式为expectation

eg：I never expect that you will come.我没想到你会来。

turn down 拒绝，回绝

eg：Why did you turn down his invitation？你为什么回绝了他的邀请？

（文章来源于沪江英语，有删改）