【素材】Module 3 文本 The Old Man and the Sea (外研)

The Old Man and the Sea is a short novel novella about an elderly Cuban fisherman who goes out alone in a small boat and hooks into a huge marlin The Old Man and the Sea was first published in Life magazine in its issue of September 1 1952 Charles Scribner s Santiago was bad luck a defeated old man So Santiago sun wrinkled and gaunt would go out alone in his single masted skiff to catch wind and eventually a great fish But Manolin was always there in the morning to help him load his gear and in the evening to greet him and help him unload During the night before the 85th day Santiago sleeping in his dirt floor hovel dreams of Africa which he had once visited while serving on a ship In his dream he sees native boats hears the roar of the surf and watches young lions frolicking on the beach The lions seem to represent Santiago s youth in all of its feral vigor In the morning before sunrise Manolin helps him load his gear as usual and gives him small fish to use as bait Then the old man rides the wind and the waves into deep water beyond the pale of his earlier expeditions He catches a small tuna and thinks perhaps it is an omen of good fortune Later he feels a strong pull on his line suggesting that a great fish a marlin is on the other end The fish nibbles then nibbles again Finally it bites down and the war is on The marlin hauls the skiff effortlessly through the Gulf waters while Santiago lets out the line when necessary then holds fast to it sometimes wrapping it around his shoulders The give and take goes on and on Santiago s left hand cramps up but he is determined to stay with the fish which he respects as a worthy opponent even though he has only the tuna and his water bottle to sustain him As the sun sets the fish heads farther out to sea When it finally surfaces Santiago beholds the fish a gigantic marlin that is longer than his boat The struggle reminds the old man of an arm wrestling match he won it lasted through an entire day and night He eats part of the tuna he caught wraps the line around himself and sleeps awhile dreaming of Africa and those lions on the beach But the sleep is brief a mere wink of his heavy eyelids The struggle goes on all through the next day and night and into the following day Santiago s body aches and his raw hands sting under the tug of the hot slicing rope He thinks often of the great DiMaggio who played frequently in pain If DiMaggio could succeed under the stress of suffering why couldn t Santiago And then comes a hopeful sign The marlin which has been traveling northwest slows and turns eastward riding a current He is tired The end is near When the big fish swims close to the boat Santiago harpoons it the fight is over After lashing the fish s head and tail to the back and front of his boat Santiago heads for home toward the glow of the Havana lights However the blood from the harpoon wound attracts a shark Santiago kills it with the harpoon but is unable to retrieve his weapon There will be more sharks he knows so he ties a knife to an oar and waits When the sharks eventually arrive in a brutal hungry horde he stabs some of them and clubs others with his tiller But there are too many and they eat away all of the flesh leaving only the head the tail and the skeleton Santiago has won and he has lost After arriving onshore in the morning he drags his aching body across the beach bearing the mast on his back and collapsing under its weight then picking himself up and the mast and completing the journey to his home where he falls into bed While he sleeps fishermen gather and stand in awe at the size of the fish at 18 feet the largest seen in local waters Manolin who has been terribly worried about the old man is happy to find him home and in bed When Santiago awakes they have coffee and discuss baseball Manolin informs Santiago that a villager Pedrico is taking care of the old man s boat and fishing equipment Appreciative Santiago tells the youth to give Pedrico the head of the marlin to slice up and use as fish b