【有声英语文学名著】CHAPTER THREE(11)

Besides it’s only for three months. I’ve got to come back in the autumn anyway. As you know Mum’s not been well. She tells me the operation went fine and maybe it did or maybe she just doesn’t want me to worry. Either way I’ve got to come home eventually. (By the way, my mother has a theory about you and me, and if you meet me at the Taj Mahal I will tell you all about it, but only if you meet me.)

On the wall in front of me is this massive sort of praying mantis¹ thing and he’s looking at me as if to say shut up now so I will. It’s stopped raining, and I’m about to go to a bar and meet up with some new friends for a drink, three female medical students from Amsterdam which tells you all you need to know.  But  on  the  way  I’m  going  to  find  a  post  box  and  send  this  before  I  change  my  mind.  Not because I think you coming here is a bad idea  –  it isn’t, it’s a great idea and you must come  –  but because I think I might have said too much. Sorry if this has annoyed you. The main thing is that I think about you a lot, that’s all. Dex and Em, Em and Dex. Call me sentimental², but　there’s no -one in the world that I’d like to see get dysentery more than you.

Taj Mahal, 1st August, 12 noon.

I will find you!

Love

D

. . .  and  then  he  stretched  and  scratched  at  his  scalp,  drained  the  last  of  his  beer  and picked the letter up, tapped the edges together and laid the stack solemnly in front of him. He shook the cramp³ from his hand; eleven pages written at great speed, the most he had written since  his  finals.  Stretching  his  arms  above  his  head  in  satisfaction  he  thought:  this  isn‘t  a letter, it‘s a gift.

He slid his feet back into his sandals, stood a little unsteadily and steeled himself for the communal⁴ showers. He was deeply tanned now, his great project of the last two years, the colour penetrating⁵ deep into his skin like a creosoted fence. With his head shaved very close to the skull⁶ by a street barber, he had also lost some weight but secretly liked the new look: heroically gaunt, as if he‘d just been rescued from the jungle. 

1 mantis   

n.螳螂

参考例句：

• Praying mantis has two powerful claws like sharp knives.螳螂有一对强壮的爪子，它们像锋利的刀。
• In her mind,it was a female mantis,devouring her mates.她的意识中，是一只雌螳螂正吞咽她的配偶。

2 sentimental   

adj.多愁善感的，感伤的

参考例句：

• She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人，她相信姻缘命中注定。
• We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。

3 cramp   

n.痉挛；[pl.](腹)绞痛；vt.限制，束缚

参考例句：

• Winston stopped writing,partly because he was suffering from cramp.温斯顿驻了笔，手指也写麻了。
• The swimmer was seized with a cramp and had to be helped out of the water.那个在游泳的人突然抽起筋来，让别人帮着上了岸。

4 communal   

adj.公有的，公共的，公社的，公社制的

参考例句：

• There was a communal toilet on the landing for the four flats.在楼梯平台上有一处公共卫生间供4套公寓使用。
• The toilets and other communal facilities were in a shocking state.厕所及其他公共设施的状况极其糟糕。

5 penetrating   

adj.（声音）响亮的，尖锐的adj.（气味）刺激的adj.（思想）敏锐的，有洞察力的

参考例句：

• He had an extraordinarily penetrating gaze. 他的目光有股异乎寻常的洞察力。
• He examined the man with a penetrating gaze. 他以锐利的目光仔细观察了那个人。

6 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。