2019_2020学年高中英语Unit17Laughter英美文化欣赏讲义北师大版选修6.docx

Unit 17 Laughter【导读】最后一战是英国作家CS刘易斯创作的纳尼亚传奇系列小说的最后一部。该书是“纳尼亚传奇”的终结篇。国王蒂莲为了解救纳尼亚的生灵向狮王阿斯兰求救，唤来了尤斯塔斯和吉尔。他们救出蒂莲国王，带领独角兽等忠诚的动物，同卡乐门军队、反叛的野兽以及小矮人展开了惊心动魄的战斗。狮王力挽狂澜，开天辟地，用至高无上的力量打造了一个崭新的纳尼亚。Night Falls on Narnia(Excerpt)They all stood beside Aslan, on his right side, and looked through the open doorway.The bonfire had gone out. On the earth all was blackness: in fact you could not have told that you were looking into a wood if you had not seen where the dark shapes of the trees ended and the stars began. But when Aslan had roared yet again, out on their left they saw another black shape. That is, they saw another patch where there were no stars: and the patch rose up higher and higher and became the shape of a man, the hugest of all giants. They all knew Narnia well enough to work out where he must be standing. He must be on the high moorlands that stretch away to the North beyond the River Shribble. Then Jill and Eustace remembered how once long ago, in the deep caves beneath those moors, they had seen a great giant asleep and been told that his name was Father Time, and that he would wake on the day the world ended.“Yes，” said Aslan, though they had not spoken. “While he lay dreaming his name was Time. Now that he is awake he will have a new one.”Then the great giant raised a horn to his mouth. They could see this by the change of the black shape he made against the stars. After that quite a bit later, because sound travels so slowly they heard the sound of the horn: high and terrible, yet of a strange, deadly beauty.Immediately the sky became full of shooting stars. Even one shooting star is a fine thing to see; but these were dozens, and then scores, and then hundreds, till it was like silver rain: and it went on and on. And when it had gone on for some while, one or two of them began to think that there was another dark shape against the sky as well as the giants. It was in a different place, right overhead, up in the very roof of the sky as you might call it. “Perhaps it is a cloud，” thought Edmund. At any rate, there were no stars there: just blackness. But all around, the downpour of stars went on. And then the starless patch began to grow, spreading further and further out from the centre of the sky. And presently a quarter of the whole sky was black, and then a half, and at last the rain of shooting stars was going on only low down near the horizon.With a thrill of wonder (and there was some terror in it too) they all suddenly realized what was happening. The spreading blackness was not a cloud at all: it was simply emptiness. The black part of the sky was the part in which there were no stars left. All the stars were falling: Aslan had called them home.The last few seconds before the rain of stars had quite ended were very exciting. Stars began falling all round them. But stars in that world are not the great flaming globes they are in ours. They are people (Edmund and Lucy had once met one). So now they found showers of glittering people, all with long hair like burning silver and spears like whitehot metal, rushing down to them out of the black air, swifter than falling stones. They made a hissing noise as they landed and burnt the grass. And all these stars glided past them and stood somewhere behind, a little to the right.This was a great advantage, because otherwise, now that there were no stars in the sky, everything would have been completely dark and you could have seen nothing. As it was, the crowd of stars behind them cast a fierce, white light over their shoulders. They could see mile upon mile of Narnian woods spread out before them, looking as if they were floodlit. Every bush and almost every blade of grass had its black shadow behind it. The edge of every leaf stood out so sharp that youd think you could cut your finger on it.On the grass before them lay their own shadows. But the great thing was Aslans shadow. It streamed away to their left, enormous and very terrible. And all this was under a sky that would now be starless forever.黑夜笼罩纳尼亚(节选)他们都站在阿斯兰的身边，站在他的右边，从那门口望出去。篝火已经熄灭了。大地上一片漆黑：事实上你没法儿说你正在向一个树林望进去，如果你不曾看见树林、黑影艟朦的尽头和繁星开始闪烁的地方。但，阿斯兰再次高呼时，他们看见左边儿又出现一个黑影。那就是说，他们在没有繁星的地方，看到了另一块黑色；这黑块愈升愈高，变成了一个人的形状，巨人中最巨大的巨人。他们大家对纳尼亚的地形地貌都很熟悉，能目测巨人必定站在什么地方。巨人必定是站在高沼地上，沼地在斯力布河外往北绵亘开去。于是吉尔和尤斯塔斯记起了好久好久以前，每次在那些高沼地的深洞里，他们看见过一个伟大的巨人在睡大觉，人家告诉他们，这巨人叫时间老人，到了世界末日那一天，他就醒了。“是的，”尽管他们并没说话，阿斯兰却答道，“他躺着睡觉时他的名字叫时间。如今他醒来了，他就要有一个新的名字。”这时这了不得的巨人把一个号角举到嘴边。他们看得见这个动作，是凭着他那映衬着星光的黑影儿的变化。这之后好一会儿之后，因为声音传得十分缓慢他们听到了号角的声音：高亢激越，骇人听闻，然而又有一种新奇的阴森森的美。天空突然之间遍布了流星。即使一颗流星也是很好看的景致：但现在是十几颗、二十几颗乃至成百颗流星，终于像是银白色的雨，一阵又一阵地下着。星雨下了一些时候，他们之中有一两个人开始认为又有一个像巨人的黑影一样映衬在天空里。它位于一个截然不同的地方，正在人们的头顶之上，正在你可能称之为“天空屋顶”的地方。“它也许是一片云。”爱德蒙心中想道。无论如何，那儿没有繁星，就是漆黑一团。但它的周围，流星之雨还在向下倾泻。于是那无星的黑块便开始变大，从天空的中央向外铺陈开去。不久，四分之一的天空全然变黑了，然后是一半儿天空变黑了，最后，流星之雨只是在低得靠近地平线的地方倾泻而下了。满怀神奇之感(也有些儿毛骨悚然之感)，他们突然认识到正在发生什么事情了。铺陈开来的黑暗压根儿不是云霾：它简直就是空虚。天空中的黑暗部分就是一颗星也没剩下的部分。所有的繁星都在落下来：阿斯兰已经呼唤它们回家去。流星之雨落尽之前的最后几分钟是十分激动人心的。流星开始在他们的四周纷纷落下。那个世界里的流星，并不像我们的世界里的流星那样是巨大的燃烧着的星球。它们是人(爱德蒙和露茜曾经碰到过一个)。所以，他们现在发觉闪烁生光的人像阵雨似的倾泻而下，人人都生着长长的头发像燃烧的银丝，拿着长矛像烫得白热化的金属，从黑暗的空中朝着他们奔腾而下；速度之快，超过了天上落下来的石子。他们发出嘶嘶的声音，落到地上，把青草也燃着了。这些流星人全都在他们身边掠过，站在后边儿的某些地方，稍稍靠近右边一点儿。这对他们大为有利，因为，不然的话，如果今天空中暗无星辰，一切东西都会全然漆黑，你就什么东西都看不见了。事实上，他们背后的一群繁星把强烈的白色光芒越过他们的肩膀向前照射。他们能看见纳尼亚树林一英里又一英里地在他们的前边儿绵延开去，看上去树林里都泛滥着强光。每一丛灌木，几乎每一片草叶，背后几乎都有它的黑色阴影。每一片叶子的边缘都轮廓分明地挺立着，使你感到你会在叶子边缘上划破手指的。