Back in the Old Country 重返故里
I stopped to let the car cool off and to study the map. I had expected to be near my objective by now, but everything still seemed alien to me. I was only five when my father had taken me abroad, and that we eighteen years ago.When my mother had died after a tragic accident, he did not quickly recover from the shock and loneliness. Everything around him was full of her presence, continually reopening the wound. So he decided to emigrate. In the new country he became absorbed in making a new life for the two of us, so that he gradually ceased to grieve. He did not marry again and I was brought up without a woman's care; but I lacked for nothing, for he was both father and mother to me. He always meant to go back on day, but not to stay. His roots and mine bad become too firmly embedded in the new land. But he wanted to see the old folk again and to visit my mother's grave. He became mortally ill a few months before we had planned to go and, when he knew that he was dying, he made me promise to go on my own.
I hired a car the day after landing and bought a comprehensive book of maps, which I found most helpful on the cross-country journey, but which I did not think I should need on the last stage. It was not that I actually remembered anything at all. But my father had described over and over again what we should see at every milestone, after leaving the nearest town, so that I was positive I should recognize it as familiar territory. Well, I had been wrong, for I was now lost.
I looked at the map and then at the millimeter. I had come ten miles since leaving the town, and at this point, according to my father, I should be looking at farms and cottages in a valley, with the spire of the church of our village showing in the far distance. I could see no valley, no farms, no cottages and no church spire -- only a lake. I decided that I must have taken a wrong turning somewhere. So I drove back to the town and began to retrace the route, taking frequent glances at the map. I landed up at the same corner. The curious thing was that the lake was not marked on the map. I left as if I had stumbled into a nightmare country, as you sometimes do in dreams. And, as in a nightmare, there was nobody in sight to help me. Fortunately for me, as I was wondering what to do next, there appeared on the horizon a man on horseback, riding in my direction. I waited till he came near, then I asked him the way to our old village. He said that there was now no village. I thought he must have misunderstood me, so I repeated its name. This time he pointed to the lake. The village no longer existed because it had been submerged, and all the valley too. The lake was not a natural one, but a man-made reservoir.
13.I hired a car the day after landing and bought a comprehensive book of maps, which I found most helpful on the cross-country journey, but which I did not think I should need on the last stage.
我下飛機(jī)后租了一輛車,并買了一本詳盡的地圖冊(cè)。在鄉(xiāng)間行車途中,我覺得它非常有用,但快到家了,我倒覺得它沒什么用了。
語(yǔ)言點(diǎn):句子結(jié)構(gòu)分析:兩個(gè)which都引導(dǎo)定語(yǔ)從句。I should need on the last stage是一個(gè)省去了關(guān)系代詞that的賓語(yǔ)從句。
14.It was not that I actually remembered anything at all.
這倒并非是我背熟了地圖。
語(yǔ)言點(diǎn):句子結(jié)構(gòu)分析:it is/was not that的意思是“并非是”;that引導(dǎo)表語(yǔ)從句。
15.But my father had described over and over again what we should see at every milestone, after leaving the nearest town, so that I was positive I should recognize it as familiar territory.
而是父親曾詳細(xì)給我講了,在過(guò)了離故鄉(xiāng)最近的那個(gè)小鎮(zhèn)后,在每一個(gè)路標(biāo)處可見到些什么。因此,我相信這段路對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)會(huì)是很熟悉的。
語(yǔ)言點(diǎn):句子結(jié)構(gòu)分析:for引導(dǎo)賓語(yǔ)從句。So that引導(dǎo)結(jié)果狀語(yǔ)從句。
I stopped to let the car cool off and to study the map. I had expected to be near my objective by now, but everything still seemed alien to me. I was only five when my father had taken me abroad, and that we eighteen years ago.When my mother had died after a tragic accident, he did not quickly recover from the shock and loneliness. Everything around him was full of her presence, continually reopening the wound. So he decided to emigrate. In the new country he became absorbed in making a new life for the two of us, so that he gradually ceased to grieve. He did not marry again and I was brought up without a woman's care; but I lacked for nothing, for he was both father and mother to me. He always meant to go back on day, but not to stay. His roots and mine bad become too firmly embedded in the new land. But he wanted to see the old folk again and to visit my mother's grave. He became mortally ill a few months before we had planned to go and, when he knew that he was dying, he made me promise to go on my own.
I hired a car the day after landing and bought a comprehensive book of maps, which I found most helpful on the cross-country journey, but which I did not think I should need on the last stage. It was not that I actually remembered anything at all. But my father had described over and over again what we should see at every milestone, after leaving the nearest town, so that I was positive I should recognize it as familiar territory. Well, I had been wrong, for I was now lost.
I looked at the map and then at the millimeter. I had come ten miles since leaving the town, and at this point, according to my father, I should be looking at farms and cottages in a valley, with the spire of the church of our village showing in the far distance. I could see no valley, no farms, no cottages and no church spire -- only a lake. I decided that I must have taken a wrong turning somewhere. So I drove back to the town and began to retrace the route, taking frequent glances at the map. I landed up at the same corner. The curious thing was that the lake was not marked on the map. I left as if I had stumbled into a nightmare country, as you sometimes do in dreams. And, as in a nightmare, there was nobody in sight to help me. Fortunately for me, as I was wondering what to do next, there appeared on the horizon a man on horseback, riding in my direction. I waited till he came near, then I asked him the way to our old village. He said that there was now no village. I thought he must have misunderstood me, so I repeated its name. This time he pointed to the lake. The village no longer existed because it had been submerged, and all the valley too. The lake was not a natural one, but a man-made reservoir.
13.I hired a car the day after landing and bought a comprehensive book of maps, which I found most helpful on the cross-country journey, but which I did not think I should need on the last stage.
我下飛機(jī)后租了一輛車,并買了一本詳盡的地圖冊(cè)。在鄉(xiāng)間行車途中,我覺得它非常有用,但快到家了,我倒覺得它沒什么用了。
語(yǔ)言點(diǎn):句子結(jié)構(gòu)分析:兩個(gè)which都引導(dǎo)定語(yǔ)從句。I should need on the last stage是一個(gè)省去了關(guān)系代詞that的賓語(yǔ)從句。
14.It was not that I actually remembered anything at all.
這倒并非是我背熟了地圖。
語(yǔ)言點(diǎn):句子結(jié)構(gòu)分析:it is/was not that的意思是“并非是”;that引導(dǎo)表語(yǔ)從句。
15.But my father had described over and over again what we should see at every milestone, after leaving the nearest town, so that I was positive I should recognize it as familiar territory.
而是父親曾詳細(xì)給我講了,在過(guò)了離故鄉(xiāng)最近的那個(gè)小鎮(zhèn)后,在每一個(gè)路標(biāo)處可見到些什么。因此,我相信這段路對(duì)我來(lái)說(shuō)會(huì)是很熟悉的。
語(yǔ)言點(diǎn):句子結(jié)構(gòu)分析:for引導(dǎo)賓語(yǔ)從句。So that引導(dǎo)結(jié)果狀語(yǔ)從句。