大學(xué)英語綜合教程第四冊(cè) 16

[00:00.00] Annie Dillard tells of her visit to the Napo River in the heart of the Ecuadorian jungle [00:07.00]one of nature's most unspoiled places. [00:11.23]She describes the beauty of the forest and her admiration for the people who live there. [00:17.87]IN THE JUNGLE by Annle Dillard [00:21.97]Like any out-of-the-way place,the Napo River in the Ecuadorian jungle seems real enough when you are there [00:30.38]even central.Out of the way of what?I was sitting on a stump at the edge of a bankside palm-thatch village [00:40.33]in the middle of the night,on the headwaters of the Amazon. [00:44.77]Out of the way of human life,tenderness,or the glance of heaven? [00:50.91]A nightjar in deep-leaved shadow called three long notes,and hushed.The men with me talked softly: [01:00.21]three North Americans,four Ecuadorians who were showing us the jungle.We were holding cool drinks [01:08.44]and idly watching a hand-sized tarantula seize moths that came to the lone bulb on the generator shed beside us [01:17.24]It was February,the middle of summer.Green fireflies spattered lights across the air and illumined for seconds [01:27.01]now here,now there,the pale trunks of enormous,solitary trees. [01:33.20]Beneath us the brown Napo River was rising,in all silence; [01:39.27]it coiled up the sandly bank and tangled its foam in vines that trailed from the forest and roots that looped the shore [01:48.62]Each breath of night smelled sweet.Each star in Orion seemed to tremble and stir with my breath [01:57.29]All at once,in the thatch house across the clearing behind us came the sound of a recorder,playing a tune [02:06.01]that twined over the village clearing,muted our talk on the bankside,and wandered over the river,dissolving downstream [02:15.60]This will do,I thought.This will do,for a weekend,or a season,or a home. [02:24.35]Later that night I loosed my hair from its braids and combed it smooth not for myself, [02:32.19]but so the village girls could play with it in the morning. [02:36.58]We had disembarked at the village that afternoon,and I had slumped on some shaded steps, [02:43.76]wishing I knew some Spanish or some Quechua so I could speak with the ring of little girls [02:50.66]who were alterntely staring at me and smiling at their toes.I spoke anyway,and fooled with my hair, [02:58.96]which they were obviously dying to get their hands on,and laughed, [03:03.48]and soon they were all braiding my hair,all five of them, [03:08.47]all fifty fingers,all my hair,even my bangs. [03:13.25]And then they took it apart and did it again,laughing,and teaching me Spanish nouns, [03:20.18]and meeting my eyes and each other's with open delight,while their small brothers in blue jeans [03:27.33]climbed down from the trees and began kicking a volleyball around with one of the North American men. [03:34.47]Now,as I combed my hair in the little tent,another of the men,a free-lance writer from Manhattan [03:42.77]was talking quietly.He was telling us the tale of his life,describing his work in Hollywood,his apartment in Manhattan [03:52.62]his house in Paris…It makes me wonder,"he said,"what I'm doing in a tent under a tree in the village of Pompeya [04:02.10]on the Napo River,in the jungle of Ecuador."After a pause he added,"It makes me wonder why I'm going back. [04:13.02]The point of going somewhere like the Napo River in Ecuador is not to see the most spectacular anything [04:20.68]It is simply to see what is there.We are here on the planet only once,and might as well get a feel for the place [04:30.08]We might as well get a feel for the fringes and hollows in which life is lived, [04:35.04]for the Amazon basin,which covers half a continent, [04:39.59]and for the life that-there,like anywhere else-is always and necessarily lived in detail: [04:46.93]on the tributaries,inthe riverside villages,sucking this particular white-fleshed guava in this particular pattern of shade [04:56.36]What is there is interesting.The Napo River itself is wide and brown,opaque, [05:04.09]and smeared with floating foam and branches from the jungle.Parrots in flocks dart in and out of the light [05:13.63]Under the water in the river,unseen,are anacondas-- [05:18.93]which are reputed to take a few village toddlers every year-and water boas,crocodiles,and sweet-meated fish [05:28.07]Low water bares gray strips of sandbar on which the natives build tiny palm-thatch shelters for overnight fishing trips [05:36.77]You see these extraordinarily clean people(who bathe twice a day in the river, [05:43.33]and whose straight black hair is always freshly washed)padding down the river in dugout canoes,hugging the banks [05:52.16]Some of the Indians of this region,earlier in the century,used to sleep naked in hammocks.The nights are cold [06:01.38]Gordon MacCreach,an American explore in these Amazon tributaies, [06:07.26]reported that he was startled to hear the Indians get up at three in the morning.He was even more startled [06:15.22]night after night,to hear them walk down to the river slowly,half asleep,and bathe in the water. [06:23.45]Only later did he learn what they were doing:they were getting warm. [06:28.57]The cold woke them;they warmed their skins in the river, [06:34.06]which was always ninety degrees;then they returned to their hammocks and slept through the rest of the night [06:42.00]When you are inside the jungle,away from the river,the trees vault out of sight.Butterflies,brightblue,striped [06:52.11]or clear-winged,thread the jungle paths at eye levelAnd at your feet is a swant of ants bearing triangular bits of green leaf [07:02.43]The ants with their leaves look like a wide fleet of sailing dinghies-but they don't quit. [07:09.66]In either direction they wobble over the jungle floor as far as the eye can see . [07:15.57]Long lakes shine in the jungle.We traveled one of these in dugout canoes,canoes paddled with machete-hewn oars [07:25.49]or poled in the shallows with bamboo.Our part-Indian guide had cleared the path to the lake the day before [07:33.98]when we walked the path we saw where he had impaled the lopped head of a boa,open-mouthed, [07:41.22]on a pointed stick by the canoes,for decoration. [07:45.58]This lake was wonderful.Herons plodded the shores,kingfishers and cuckoos clattered from sunlight to shade [07:54.96]great turkey like birds fussed in dead branches,and hawks hung overhead.There was all the time in the world [08:04.13]A turtle slid into the water. [08:07.37]The boy in the bow of my canoe slapped stones at birds with a simple sling,a rubber thong and leather pad [08:15.54]He aimed brilliantly at moving targets,always,and always missed;the birds were out of range [08:24.37]He stuffed his sling back in his shirt.I looked around. [08:29.91]The lake and river waters are as opaque as rainforest leaves;they are veils,blinds,painted screens [08:39.44]You see things only by their effects.I saw the shoreline water heave above a thrashing paichi [08:48.33]an enormous black fish of these waters;one had been caught the previous week weighing 430pounds [08:57.08]Piranha fish live in the lakes,and electric eels.I dangled my fingers in the water,figuring it would be worth it [09:07.00]We would eat chicken that night in the village,togther with rice,onions and heaps of fruit. [09:13.93]The sun would ring down,pulling darkness after it like a curtain.Twiling is short,andthe unseen birds of twilight wistful [09:24.87]catching the heart.The two nuns in their dazzing white habits-the beauitful-boned young nun [09:33.49]and the warm-faced old-would glide to the open cane-and-thatch schoolroom in darkness, [09:39.89]and start the children singing.The children would sing in piping Spanish,high-pitched and pure [09:48.15]they would sing "Nearer My God to Thee"in Quechua,very fast.As the children became excited by their own singing [09:57.16]they left their log benches and swarmed around the nuns,hopping,smiling at us,everyone smiling [10:05.26]the nuns'faces bursting in their cowls,and the clear-voiced children still singing,and the palm-leafed roofing stirred [10:14.32]The Napo River:it is not out of the way.It is in the way,catching sunlight the way a cup catches poured water [10:24.54]it is a bowl of sweet air,a basin of greenness,and of grace,and,it would seem,of peace. [10:33.84]in the heart of Ecuadorian unspoiled admiration [10:38.96]在…心中 厄瓜多爾人 改變的 欽佩 [10:44.08]out-of-the-way stump bankside thatch [10:48.99]偏僻的 樹樁 岸坡 茅草屋頂 [10:53.90]headwaters nightjar hush idly [10:59.20]源頭 歐夜鷹 安靜下來 空閑地 [11:04.50]tarantula moth bulb firefly [11:09.53]鳥蛛 蛀蟲 電燈泡 螢火蟲 [11:14.56]spatter illumine now...now... in(all)silence [11:19.92]灑 照明 忽而…忽而 不出聲地 [11:25.27]tangle foam trail loop [11:30.13]使卷入 泡沫 蔓延 使成環(huán)狀 [11:34.99]twine mute dissolve downstream [11:39.98]纏繞 減弱 消散 向下游 [11:44.97]loose braid disembark slump [11:49.15]放開 辮子 登陸 重重地坐下 [11:53.33]Spanish Quechua toe be dying to do sth/for sth [12:00.25]西班牙 蓋丘亞族 腳趾 非常想做某事 [12:07.17]get one's hands on take apart jeans volleyball [12:12.45]抓到 分開 牛仔褲 排球 [12:17.72]spectacular fringe hollow in detail [12:22.11]與眾不同的 邊界 洞穴 詳細(xì)地 [12:26.50]tributary riverside guava opaque [12:31.23]支流 河邊的 番石榴 不透明的 [12:35.96]smear parrot flock dart [12:41.18]弄臟 鸚鵡 群 迅疾地飛 [12:46.41]anaconda repute boa crocodile [12:51.63]大水蟒 認(rèn)為 大蟒蛇 鱷魚 [12:56.86]bare strip sandbar freshly [13:01.65]裸露 狹長的地域 沙洲 剛才 [13:06.44]paddle hammock explorer out of sight [13:11.75]用槳?jiǎng)? 吊床 探險(xiǎn)家 看不見 [13:17.05]butterfly striped swath ant [13:21.79]蝴蝶 有條紋的 長列 螞蟻 [13:26.53]triangular fleet dinghy machete-hewn [13:30.72]三角形的 艦隊(duì) 小帆船 用大砍刀砍削而成 [13:34.92]oar shallow bamboo impale [13:39.63]槳 淺灘 竹 刺穿 [13:44.35]lop decoration heron plod [13:49.18]砍 裝飾 蒼鷺 慢而沉重地走 [13:54.01]kingfisher cuckoo clatter fuss [13:58.73]翠鳥 杜鵑 喧鬧地移動(dòng) 忙亂 [14:03.44]bow slap sling thong [14:07.53]船頭 彈射 彈弓 皮帶 [14:11.62]out of range rainforest blind shoreline [14:18.11]夠不到的 熱帶雨林 窗簾 海岸線 [14:24.60]thrash paichi piranha eel [14:29.93]翻騰 巨滑舌魚 水虎魚 鰻 [14:35.26]dangle heap wistful nun [14:39.31]擺動(dòng) 一堆 愁苦的 修女 [14:43.36]dazzling glide cane high-pitched [14:48.86]耀眼的 滑翔 藤條 音調(diào)高的 [14:58.17]你 成群地移動(dòng) 跳躍 僧侶穿戴的頭巾

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