听美国故事练听力 46

　　Today we continue the story "Benito Cereno". It was written by HermanMelville. Last week we told how African slaves on a Spanish shiprebelled in 1799. They killed most of the Spanish sailors, only theCaptain Benito Cereno and a few others were left alive. The leader ofthe rebellion was a slave named Babo. He ordered Captain Cereno tosail the ship back to Senegal - the slaves' homeland. But food andwater were low. So the ship stopped at an island of the coast of Chileto get the needed supplies. When it arrived, an American ship was inthe harbor. The American Captain Amasa Delano thought the Spanish shipmight be in trouble. He would offer help. Babo decided¹ to remain closeto Captain Cereno and act as if he was the captain's slave. Babo wouldkill him if he told Captain Delano the truth about what happened.
Now, here is Shep O'Neal to continue our story.
As Captain Delano came up in his whaleboat, he saw that the other shipneeded scraping, tarring and brushing. It looked old and decayed. Heclimbed up the side and came aboard. He was quickly surrounded by acrowd of black men.
Captain Delano looked around for the man who commanded the ship. TheSpanish captain stood a little way off, against the main mast. He wasyoung looking, richly dressed, but seemed troubled and tired with thespirit gone out of him. He looked unhappily toward his Americanvisitor. At the Spanish captain's side stood a small black man with arough face. Captain Delano struggled forward through the crowd, wentup to the Spaniard and greeted him. He offered to help him in any wayhe could. Captain Benito Cereno returned the American's greetingpolitely, but without warmth.
Captain Delano pushed his way back through the crowd to the gangway.
He told his men to go and bring back as much water as they could, alsobread, pumpkins², sugar and a dozen of his private bottles of cider.
The whaleboat pushed off. Left alone, Captain Delano again observedwith fresh surprise the general disorder³ aboard ship. Some of the menwere fighting. There were no deck officers to discipline or controlthe violent ones. And everyone seemed to do as he pleased. CaptainDelano could not fully⁴ understand how this could have happened. Whatcould explain such a breakdown⁵ of order and responsibility?
He asked Don Benito to give him the full story of his ship'smisfortunes. Don Benito did not answer; he just kept looking at hisAmerican visitor as if he heard nothing. This angered Captain Delano,who suddenly turned away and walked forward to one of the Spanishseamen for his answer. But he had hardly gone five steps when DonBenito called him back.
"It is now 190 days," Don Benito began, “that the ship sailed fromBuenos Aires for Lima with a general cargo⁷: pedigree, tea and thelike, and a number of Negroes now not more than 150 as you see, butthen numbering over 300 souls.
The ship was officered and well-manned with several cabin passengers,some 50 Spaniards in all.”
"Off Cape⁸ Horn we had heavy gales⁹,"Captain Cereno coughed suddenly and almost collapsed¹⁰. He felt heavilyagainst his body servant.
"His mind wandered," said Babo, "He was thinking of the disease thatfollowed the gales. My boor¹¹ poor master. Be patient, Senor. Theseattacks do not last long. Master will soon be himself."Don Benito recovered, and in a broken voice continued his story. "Myship was tossed about many days in storms of Cape Horn. And then therewas an outbreak of scurvy¹². The disease carried off many whites andblacks. Most of my surviving seamen⁶ had become so sick that they couldnot handle the sails well. For days and nights we could not controlthe ship. It was blown northwestward. The wind suddenly left us inunknown waters with oppressive, hot calms. Most of our water was gone.
And we suffered terribly especially after a deadly fever broke outamong us. Whole families of blacks and many Spaniards, including everyofficer but myself, were killed by the disease."Don Benito paused. He looked down at the black man at his side. Baboseemed satisfied. The Spanish captain saw him take his hand from theknife hidden under his shirt.
Captain Delano thought nothing. His mind was filled with the terribletale he had just heard. Now he could understand why the other captainsseemed so shaken. He took down Don Benito's hand and promised to givehim all the help possible. He would give him a large permanent supplyof water and some sails, and equipment for sailing the ship. And healso promised to let Don Benito have 3 of his best seamen fortemporary deck-officers. In this way, the San Dominick could withoutdelay, start for Concepcion. There the ship could be fixed¹³ andprepared for its voyage to Lima.
Don Benito's face lighted up. He seemed excited by Captain Delano'sgenerous offer, but Babo appeared troubled. "This excitement is badfor master," Babo whispered, taking down Don Benito's arm and withsoothing words gently drawing him aside.
When Don Benito returned, Captain Delano observed that his excitementwas gone.
Captain Delano decided to talk of other matters, but the Spanishcaptain showed no further interest. He answered Captain Delano'squestions with sharp words and suddenly with an angry movement, hewalked back to Babo.
Captain Delano watched the two men whispering together in low voices.
It made an ugly picture, which Captain Delano found so extremelyunpleasant that he turned his face to the other side of the ship.
Their actions made Delano suspicious of Captain Cereno. He began towonder about him, his behavior, his coughing attacks, his weakness,his empty wild looks. Was he really half mad or a faker playing apart?
One moment Captain Delano had the worst suspicions of Don Benito, butthe next he felt guilty and ashamed of himself for having such doubtsabout the man.
Presently Don Benito moved back toward his guest, still supported byhis servant. His pale face twitched¹⁴. He seemed more nervous than usualand there was a strange tone in his husky whisper as he spoke¹⁵.
"May I ask how many men you have on board, Senor?"Captain Delano became uneasy but answered: "About 25 all total.""And at present, Senor, all on board?”
"All on board." Captain Delano answered.
"And will be tonight, Senor?" At this last question, Captain Delanolooked very seriously at Don Benito, who could not return the look butdropped his eyes to the deck.
Captain Delano could think of only one reason for such a question, butno. It was foolish to think that these weak and starving men couldhave any idea of seizing his ship. But still he remained silent.
"And will they be aboard tonight?” Again the question from DonBenito.
Captain Delano decided to answer truthfully. Some of his men hadtalked of going off on a fishing party about midnight. And he told DonBenito this.
As he answered, Captain Delano again looked straight at Don Benito,but the Spanish captain refused to meet his eyes. Then as before, hesuddenly withdrew with his servant and again the two men beganwhispering to each other in low voices.
Captain Delano tried to push the worry from his mind, but what werethose two strange men discussing?
That will be our story next week.
You have been listening to the VOA Special English program "AmericanStories". Your narrator was Shep O'Neal. We invite you to listen againnext week for the final part of "Benito Cereno" by Herman Melvill. I'mJim Tedder

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 pumpkins   

n.南瓜( pumpkin的名词复数 )；南瓜的果肉，南瓜囊

参考例句：

• I like white gourds, but not pumpkins. 我喜欢吃冬瓜，但不喜欢吃南瓜。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then they cut faces in the pumpkins and put lights inside. 然后在南瓜上刻出一张脸，并把瓜挖空。 来自英语晨读30分（高三）

3 disorder   

n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调

参考例句：

• When returning back,he discovered the room to be in disorder.回家后，他发现屋子里乱七八糟。
• It contained a vast number of letters in great disorder.里面七零八落地装着许多信件。

4 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

5 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

6 seamen   

n.海员

参考例句：

• Experienced seamen will advise you about sailing in this weather. 有经验的海员会告诉你在这种天气下的航行情况。
• In the storm, many seamen wished they were on shore. 在暴风雨中，许多海员想，要是他们在陆地上就好了。

7 cargo   

n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物

参考例句：

• The ship has a cargo of about 200 ton.这条船大约有200吨的货物。
• A lot of people discharged the cargo from a ship.许多人从船上卸下货物。

8 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

9 gales   

龙猫

参考例句：

• I could hear gales of laughter coming from downstairs. 我能听到来自楼下的阵阵笑声。
• This was greeted with gales of laughter from the audience. 观众对此报以阵阵笑声。

10 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

11 boor   

n.举止粗野的人；乡下佬

参考例句：

• I'm a bit of a boor,so I hope you won't mind if I speak bluntly.我是一个粗人，说话直来直去，你可别见怪。
• If he fears the intellectual,he despises the boor.他对知识分子有戒心，但是更瞧不起乡下人。

12 scurvy   

adj.下流的，卑鄙的，无礼的；n.坏血病

参考例句：

• Vitamin C deficiency can ultimately lead to scurvy.缺乏维生素C最终能道致坏血病。
• That was a scurvy trick to play on an old lady.用那样的花招欺负一个老太太可真卑鄙。

13 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

14 twitched   

vt.& vi.（使）抽动，（使）颤动（twitch的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Her lips twitched with amusement. 她忍俊不禁地颤动着嘴唇。
• The child's mouth twitched as if she were about to cry. 这小孩的嘴抽动着，像是要哭。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。