On to Oxford来到牛津

Jerome K. Jerome

作者简介：

杰罗姆·K.杰罗姆（Jerome K. Jerome），生于英格兰的斯坦福德郡。他从小受到良好的教育，酷爱阅读，是英国现代杰出的幽默小说家、散文家和剧作家，一生创作了大量享誉世界的作品，为世界各国的读者所喜爱。

作品简介：

《三怪客泛舟记》（Three Men in a Boat）是英國作家Jerome K. Jerome写的一部让人心情放松的幽默小说，曾被《绅士》杂志评为史上最幽默的五十部文学作品之一。

这本书的主人公乔治、哈里斯和杰（杰就是书中的“我”）计划去旅行。于是他们开始制订计划，准备行装，一切就绪以后，他们开始了旅程。他们的旅行既不是横渡大洋的危险航行，也不是沿着亚马孙河的漂流探险，而是乘着一只小小的船去旅行。虽然困难重重，但是最终他们完成了旅行，并在旅行中学习了许多技能，他们的热情让他们在旅行中收获了快乐。简单的故事，富含深刻的哲理：我们要丢掉懒惰的思想，脚踏实地地去干一些事情，要肯吃苦，不怕艰险，多学习一些技能，不要总是空想。

本文节选自《三怪客泛舟记》第十五章，节选时有删改。

We left Streatley early the next morn?ing. We were going to Culham， and wewanted to spend the night there. BetweenStreatley and Wallingford the river is notvery interesting. Then from Cleeve， there isquite a long piece of the river which has nolocks. Most people are pleased about thisbecause it makes everything much easier，but I quite like locks， myself. I rememberthat George and I nearly had an accidentin a lock once...

It was a lovely day， and there were a lot of boats in the lock. Someone wastaking a photograph of us all， and thephotographer was hoping to sell the pictureto the people in the lock. I did not see thephotographer at first， but suddenly Georgestarted to brush his trousers， and he fixedhis hair and put on his hat. Then he satdown with a kind but sad expression on hisface， and he tried to hide his feet.

My first idea was that he had seen agirl that he knew， and I looked round tosee who it was. Everybody in the lock hadstopped moving and they all had fixedexpressions on their faces. All the girlswere smiling prettily， and all the men weretrying to look brave and handsome.

Then I saw the photographer and atonce I understood. I wondered if I wouldbe in time. Our boat was the first one inthe lock， so I must look nice for the man'sphotograph.

So I turned round quickly and stoodin the front of the boat. I arranged my haircarefully， and I tried to make myself lookstrong and interesting.

We stood and waited for the importantmoment when the man would actually takethe photograph. Just then， someone behindme called out，“Hi！ Look at your nose！”

I could not turn round to see whosenose it was， but I had a quick look atGeorge's nose. It seemed to be all right. Itried to look at my own nose， and thatseemed to be all right， too.

“Look at your nose， you stupid fool！”the voice cried again， more loudly thistime.

And then another voice called，“Pushyour nose out！ You two， with the dog！”

We could not turn round because theman was just going to take the photograph.Was it us they were calling to？ What wasthe matter with our noses？ Why did theywant us to push them out？

But now everybody in the lock startedshouting， and a very loud， deep voice fromthe back called，“Look at your boat！ You，in the red and black caps！ If you don't dosomething quickly， there will be two deadbodies in that photograph！”

We looked then， and we saw that the nose of our boat was caught in the woodengate at the front of the lock. The water wasrising， and our boat was beginning to turnover. Quickly， we pushed hard against theside of the lock， to move the boat. The boatdid move， and George and I fell over onour backs.

We did not come out well in that pho?tograph because the man took it just as wefell over. We had expressions of“Wheream I？”and“What's happened？”on ourfaces， and we were waving our feet aboutwildly. In fact， our feet nearly filled thephotograph. You could not see much else.

Nobody bought the photographs. Theysaid they did not want photographs of ourfeet. The photographer was not verypleased.

We passed Wallingford and Dorches?ter， and we spent the night at CliftonHampden， which is a very pretty littlevillage.

The next morning we were up early，because we wanted to be in Oxford by theafternoon. By half past eight， we had fin?ished breakfast and we were through Clif?ton Lock. At half past twelve， we wentthrough Iffley Lock.

From there to Oxford is the most diffi?cult part of the river. First the river carriesyou to the right， then to the left; then ittakes you out into the middle and turns youround three times. We got in the way of alot of other boats; a lot of other boats got inour way and a lot of bad words were used.

Reading Check

1. Where did the journey described inthe text originate， and where was the desti?nation for the night？

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2. What caused George to startgrooming himself while they were in thelock？

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3. Why were George and the narratorunable to respond to the warnings abouttheir boats nose and the risk of it turningover？

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4. After the incident in the lock andthe unsuccessful photograph， did the trav?elers reach their initial planned destina?tion for the night？

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