仲夏之夜

江苏扬州中学教育集团树人学校 王 烨 编译

The children were very muchpuzzledwhat to do,for it wasMidsummer-night,and they knew that there was a dreambelonging toit;but they could not tell how tocome acrossit.They knew that the dream had something to do withfairies,aqueen,and allmannerof lovely things;but that was all.

孩子们都非常困惑接下来要做什么，因为现在是仲夏之夜，他们知道有一个属于自己的梦，但是谁也说不出来怎样才会碰上这个梦。他们知道这个梦与仙女、王后和各种可爱的东西有关，但仅此而已。

At first,they thought they would sit up with the doors and windows open,and the dog on the steps was ready tobarkif he saw anythingunusual.Then they felt sure that they could not dream while they werewide-awake,so three of them went to bed,and onedozedin a corner of theporch,with her clothes on.

起初，他们以为他们会熬夜并把门窗开着，台阶上的狗准备在看到任何异常情况时发出吠叫声。然后，他们确信在完全清醒的时候是不可能做梦的，所以他们三个人上床睡觉，一个人穿着衣服在门廊的角落里打瞌睡。

Presentlythe dog barked,and two children in theirnightgownsran out to see,and one took off her night-cap and looked out of the window;but it was only old Nurse coming back from a longgossipwith the villageblacksmith’swife andmotherin-law.So the dog looked foolish,and Nurse was angry,and put them all to bed without any more ado.

不一会儿，狗叫了起来，两个穿着睡衣的孩子跑出来看，其中一个人摘下睡帽，向窗外看去；但只是老莱斯与村里铁匠的妻子、丈母娘结束长聊后回来了。所以这狗看起来很愚蠢，莱斯很生气，毫不犹豫地叫他们都上床睡觉。

“Oh,” they cried,“but the fairies,and the queen,and the flowers! What shall we do to see them?”

“哦，”他们喊道，“但是仙女们，王后，还有花儿们！我们该怎样看到他们呢？”

“Go to sleep,” said Nurse,“and the dream may come to you;—you can’t go to a dream,” sheadded,for you see she was just apeasantwoman,and had never travelled far,or into any land but her own.

“去睡觉吧，”莱斯说，又补充道，“梦会向你走来，你是不能走向梦那里的。”如你所见，她只是一个农村妇女，从来没有远行，或者去过任何地方，她只待在自己的土地上。

So the children shut their eyestightlyand went to sleep,and I think that they saw something,for their eyes were very bright next morning,and one of themwhisperedto me,softly,“The queen wore awreathof flowers last night,dear mother,and,oh,she was very beautiful.”

于是，孩子们闭上眼睛睡着了，而我想他们还是看到了什么，因为第二天早上他们的眼睛非常明亮，其中一个轻声对我说：“亲爱的妈妈，王后昨晚戴着一个花环，哦，她非常漂亮。”

Notes:

puzzledadj.疑惑的；困惑的

midsummer-night 仲夏之夜

belong to… 属于……

come across 遇到；碰上

fairyn.仙女

queenn.王后

mannern.方式；举止；行为

barkv.（狗）吠叫

unusualadj.不同寻常的；异样的

wide-awakeadj.完全醒过来的

dozev.打瞌睡

porchn.门廊

presentlyadv.最近；不久；现在

night-gownn.睡袍

gossipn.说闲话

blacksmithn.铁匠

mother-in-lawn.岳母；婆母

addv.补充；补充道

peasantn.农民

tightlyadv.紧紧地

whisperv.耳语

wreathn.花环

I.Read the passage and answer the following questions.

1.Did the children know what to do at the midsummer-night?

2.Did the dog on the steps see anything unusual that night?

3.Did the children have a dream when they were wide-awake?

4.Did old Nurse travel far before?

5.Did the children have a dream of the queen that night?

II.Put the following into Chinese.

1.midsummer-night __________________

2.feel sure _________________________

3.have something to do with ___________

4.go to bed _________________________

5.come across _______________________

6.in a corner _______________________

7.at first ___________________________

8.next morning _____________________

9.something unusual _________________

10.look foolish _____________________

III.Choose the correct words in the brackets to fill in the blanks.

1.Those students are puzzled ________ (what/ when) to go to the zoo.

2.That night,Richard ________ (has/ had) a nice dream.

3.Our teacher of music ________ (knows/ knew) that thing last week.

4.That boy doesn’t know ________ (how/ what) to answer this question in English.

5.It must have ________ (anything/something) to do with the doctor,I think.

6.The white rabbit sat ________ (down/ up) when those strangers came to her.

7.George is Mary’s husband,so Mary’s father is George’s________ (mother-in-law/ father-in-law).

8.He came back late ________ (because/ for) there was something wrong with his car.

9.He has to work hard,________ (because/ for) he wants to support his family.

10.Yesterday afternoon,their maths teacher ________ (wears/wore) a blue T-shirt.

(参考答案见本期第29 页)