动物农场Animal Farm 第3章(4)

 　　The pigs had set aside the harness-room as a headquarters for themselves.

　　猪已经把农具室当作他们自己的指挥部了。

　　Here, in the evenings, they studied blacksmithing, carpentering, and other necessary arts from books which they had brought out of the farmhouse¹.

　　一到晚上，他们就在这里，从那些在庄主院里拿来的书上学习打铁、木工和其他必备的技艺。

　　Snowball also busied himself with organising the other animals into what he called Animal Committees.

　　斯诺鲍自己还忙于组织其他动物加入他所谓的“动物委员会”。

　　He was indefatigable² at this.

　　在这件事上。他真是不知疲倦。

　　He formed the Egg Production Committee for the hens, the Clean Tails League for the cows, the Wild Comrades' Re-education Committee

　　他为母鸡设立了“产蛋委员会”，为牛设立了“洁尾社”，还设立了“野生同志再教育委员会”

　　(the object of this was to tame the rats and rabbits), the Whiter Wool Movement for the sheep, and various others.

　　（这个委员会目的在于驯化耗子和兔子），又为羊发起了“让毛更白运动”等等。

　　Besides instituting classes in reading and writing.

　　此外，还组建了一个读写班。

　　On the whole, these projects were a failure.

　　但总的来说。这些活动都失败了。

　　The attempt to tame the wild creatures, for instance, broke down almost immediately.

　　例如，驯化野生动物的努力几乎立即流产。

　　They continued to behave very much as before, and when treated with generosity³, simply took advantage of it.

　　这些野生动物仍旧一如既往，要是对他们宽宏大量，他们就公然趁机钻空子。

　　The cat joined the Re-education Committee and was very active in it for some days.

　　猫参加了“再教育委员会”，很活跃了几天。

　　She was seen one day sitting on a roof and talking to some sparrows who were just out of her reach.

　　有动物看见她曾经有一天在窝棚顶上和一些她够不着的麻雀交谈。

　　She was telling them that all animals were now comrades and that any sparrow who chose could come and perch⁴ on her paw.

　　她告诉麻雀说，动物现在都是同志，任何麻雀，只要他们愿意，都可以到她的爪子上来，并在上面休息。

　　But the sparrows kept their distance.

　　但麻雀们还是对她敬而远之。

　　The reading and writing classes, however, were a great success.

　　然而，读书班却相当成功。

　　By the autumn almost every animal on the farm was literate⁵ in some degree.

　　到了秋季，庄园里几乎所有的动物都不同程度地扫了盲。

　　As for the pigs, they could already read and write perfectly⁶.

　　对猪来说，他们已经能够十分熟练地读写。

　　The dogs learned to read fairly well, but were not interested in reading anything except the Seven Commandments.

　　狗的阅读能力也练得相当不错，可惜他们只对读“七诫”有兴趣。

　　Muriel, the goat, could read somewhat better than the dogs,

　　山羊穆丽尔比狗读得还要好，

　　and sometimes used to read to the others in the evenings from scraps⁷ of newspaper which she found on the rubbish heap.

　　她还常在晚上把从垃圾堆里找来的剪报念给其他动物听。

　　Benjamin could read as well as any pig, but never exercised his faculty⁸.

　　本杰明读得不比任何猪逊色，但从不运用发挥他的本领。

　　So far as he knew, he said, there was nothing worth reading.

　　他说，据他所知，迄今为止，还没有什么值得读的东西。

　　Clover learnt the whole alphabet, but could not put words together.

　　克拉弗学会了全部字母，可是就拼不成单词。

1 farmhouse   

n.农场住宅（尤指主要住房）

参考例句：

• We fell for the farmhouse as soon as we saw it.我们对那所农舍一见倾心。
• We put up for the night at a farmhouse.我们在一间农舍投宿了一夜。

2 indefatigable   

adj.不知疲倦的，不屈不挠的

参考例句：

• His indefatigable spirit helped him to cope with his illness.他不屈不挠的精神帮助他对抗病魔。
• He was indefatigable in his lectures on the aesthetics of love.在讲授关于爱情的美学时，他是不知疲倦的。

3 generosity   

n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为

参考例句：

• We should match their generosity with our own.我们应该像他们一样慷慨大方。
• We adore them for their generosity.我们钦佩他们的慷慨。

4 perch   

n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于

参考例句：

• The bird took its perch.鸟停歇在栖木上。
• Little birds perch themselves on the branches.小鸟儿栖歇在树枝上。

5 literate   

n.学者；adj.精通文学的，受过教育的

参考例句：

• Only a few of the nation's peasants are literate.这个国家的农民中只有少数人能识字。
• A literate person can get knowledge through reading many books.一个受过教育的人可以通过读书而获得知识。

6 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

7 scraps   

油渣

参考例句：

• Don't litter up the floor with scraps of paper. 不要在地板上乱扔纸屑。
• A patchwork quilt is a good way of using up scraps of material. 做杂拼花布棉被是利用零碎布料的好办法。

8 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。