现代大学英语精读Unit新SpringSowing原文

1、Spring Sowing got up. Martin stood It was still dark when Martin Delaney and his wife Mary in his shirt by the window, rubbing his eyes and yawning, while Mary raked night. on all the hearth in the live coals that had lain hidden the ashes out Outside, cocks were crowing and a white streak was risin

2、g form the ground, morning, a February It to were, and beginning scatter the darkness. was it as dry, cold and starry. tea, bread and butter, in silence. The couple sat down to their breakfast of They had only been married the previous autumn and it was hateful leaving a warm bed at such and early h

3、our. Martin, with his brown hair and eyes, his married, young to be little and his fair moustache, looked too freckled face and his wife looked hardly more than a girl, red-cheeked and blue-eyed, her black hair piled at the rear of her head with a large comb gleaming in the homespuns, in dressed rou

4、gh Spanish fashion. They were both the middle of pile, and both wore the loose white shirt that Inverara peasants use for work in the fields. They ate in silence, sleepy and yet on fire with excitement, for it was the first day of their first spring sowing as man and wife. And each felt the plant ea

5、rth open up the together and to on glamour of that day which they were expected been long had of But seeds in it. somehow the imminence an event that loved, feared and prepared for made them dejected. Mary, with her shrewd would a life are as many of mind, womans thought as things there in as woman

6、in the first joy and anxiety of her mating. But Martins mind was fixed on head being of the worthy a able he thought. one Would be to prove himself man of a family by dong his spring sowing well? seeds and the were getting the potato In the barn after breakfast, when they line for measuring the grou

7、nd and the spade, Martin fell over a basket in the half-darkness of the barn, he swore and said that a man would be better Mary going was to say, he finish he But dead off than. before could whatever had her arms around his waist and her face to his. Martin, she said, let us not begin this day cross

8、 with one another. And there was a tremor in her voice. And somehow, as they embraced, all their irritation and sleepiness left them. And they stood there embracing until at last Martin pushed her from him with pretended roughness and said: Come, come, girl, it will be sunset before we begin at this

9、 rate. Still, as they walked silently in their rawhide shoes through the little hamlet, there was not a soul about. Lights were glimmering in the windows of a few cabins. The sky had a big grey crack in it in the east, as if it were going to burst in order to give birth to the sun. Birds were singin

10、g somewhere at a distance. Martin and Mary rested their baskets of seeds on a fence outside the village and Martin whispered to Mary proudly: We are cluster of cabins that back they both first, Mary. And looked at the little was the centre of their world, with throbbing hearts. For the joy of spring

11、 had now taken complete hold of them. They reached the little field where they were to sow. It was a little triangular patch of ground under an ivy-covered limestone hill. The little rotted the weeds had weeks with seaweed some before, and field had been manured lying seaweed big red heap of fresh a

12、 and whitened on the grass. And there was Martin, laid. they were seeds be corner by the fence to spread under the as in a striped his his threw the cold, off everything above waist except spite in of woolen shirt. Then he spat on his hands, seized his spade and cried: Now you are going to see what

13、kind of a man you have, Mary. There, now, said Mary, tying a little shawl closer under her chin. sunset till morning? hour of the Maybe Ill wait early Arent we boastful this to see what kind of a man I have got. first the southern fence for the by Martin The work began. measured the ground ridge, a

14、strip of ground four feet wide, and he placed the line along the strip. end. Then he seaweed over the spread fresh it at edge and pegged each Mary filled her apron with seeds and began to lay them in rows. When she was head, the spade Martin distance a little down the ridge, advanced with his to eag

15、er to commence. Now in the name of God, he cried, spitting on his palms, let us raise the first sod! seeds on the ! cried Mary, dropping her till Im with you Oh, Martin, wait numb woolen mittens were her fingers him up and ridge running to .Her outside with the cold, and she couldnt wipe them in her

16、 apron. Her cheeks seemed to be on fire. She put an arm round Martins waist and stood looking at the of a little child. with the excitement to cut, going green sod his spade was anybody gruffly. Suppose back! girl, keep said Martin Gods Now for sake, saw us like this in the field of our spring sowin

17、g, what would they take us for but a pair of useless, soft, empty-headed people that would be sure to die of hunger? Huh! He spoke very rapidly, and his eyes were fixed on the primeval some them in as if wild, His ground before hm. eyes had a eager light but desire other and burning impulse were wit

18、hin his brain driving out every that of asserting his manhood and of subjugating the earth. Oh, what do we care who is looking? said Mary; but she drew back at the same time and gazed distantly at the ground. Then Martin cut the sod, and first his foot, he turned up the deep into the pressing the sp

19、ade earth with out of the earth. roots were dragged as the grass sod with a crunching sound Mary sighed and walked back hurriedly to her seeds with furrowed brows. She drive out the sudden them rapidly to to spread picked up her seeds and began look the fierce, hard terror that had seized her at tha

20、t moment when she saw in her husbands eyes that were unconscious of her presence. She became suddenly afraid of that pitiless, cruel earth, the peasants slave master that would keep her chained to hard work and poverty all her life until she would sink again into its bosom. Her short-lived love was

21、gone. Henceforth she was only her husbands helper to till the earth. And Martin, absolutely without thought, worked furiously, covering the ridge with block earth, his sharp spade gleaming white as he whirled it sideways to beat the sods. became ivy-covered hills beneath rose, sun the little valley

22、the the Then, as speaking, without madly, worked men everywhere and shirts, white with dotted and women spread seeds. There was no heat in the light of the sun, and there was a sharpness in the still thin air that made the men jump on their spade halts ferociously and beat the sods as if they were l

23、iving enemies. Birds watching cocked sideways, spades, with their heads silently hopped before the secure spades to under hunger, worms. for Made brave by they often dashed the their food. Then, when the sun reached a certain point, all the women went back to the for their men, and the men worked on

24、 without stopping. village to get dinner flannel tin running, the Then women returned, almost each carrying a can with a down around Martin threw white with bundle it and a little tied a cloth, tied his spade when Mary arrived back in the field. Smiling at one another they sat under the hill for the

25、ir meal .It was the same as their breakfast, tea and bread and butter. Ah, said Martin, when he had taken a long draught of tea form his mug, is there anything in this world as fine as eating dinner out in the open like this after doing a good mornings work? There, I have done two ridges and a half.

26、 Thats more than any man in the village could do. Ha! And he looked at his wife proudly. She wistfully. ridges the looking said it Yes, isnt lovely, Mary, at back was just munching her bread and butter .The hurried trip to the village and She had the trouble of getting the tea ready had robbed her o

27、f her appetite. to keep blowing at the turf fire with the rim of her skirt, and the smoke nearly blinded her. But now, sitting on that grassy knoll, with the valley all round glistening with fresh seaweed and a light smoke rising from the other her. It overpowered that swept earth, freshly turned a

28、strange joy over felling of dread that had been with her during the morning. with hunger, great great heartily, Martin ate reveling in his thirst and his every pore of his body open to the pure air. And he looked around at his neighbors fields boastfully, comparing them with his own. Then he looked

29、at his wifes little round black head and felt very proud of having her as his own. He leaned back on his elbow and took her hand in his. Shyly and in silence, not knowing what to say and ashamed of their gentle feelings, they finished eating and still sat hand in hand looking away into the distance.

30、 children women and men, resting Everywhere the sowers were on little knolls, sitting in silence. And the great calm of nature in spring filled the midday wait to around atmosphere them. Everything seemed sit still and until had passed. Only the gleaming sun chased westwards at a mighty pace, in and

31、 out through white clouds. Then in a distant field an old man got up, took his spade and began to clean the earth from it with a piece of stone. The rasping noise carried a long way in the silence. That was the signal for a general rising all along the slowly walked and Young little valley. men stre

32、tched themselves yawned. They back to their ridges. Martins back and his wrists were getting sore, and Mary felt that if she anything neither break, neck seeds over stooped again her her would but said and soon they had forgotten their tiredness in the mechanical movement of their bodies. The strong

33、 smell of the upturned earth acted like a drug on their nerves.came the village men was afternoon, In the when the sun strongest, the old of double sowing. look out to at their people Martins grandfather, almost bent loudly, over and the land outside field groaning in stick his thick stopped the he

34、leaned over the fence. “God bless the work, he called wheezily.And you, grandfather, replied the couple together, but they did not stop working.Ha! muttered the old man to himself. He sows well and that woman is good 潴?吠敨?牡?敢楧湮湩?敷汬尮It was fifty years since he had begun with his Mary, full of hope an

35、d pride, and themerciless soil had hugged them to its bosom ever since, each spring without handkerchief and nose the spotted red his man, the rest. Today, old with huge tied around his skull under his black soft felt hat, watched his grandson work and gave him advice.Dont cut your sods so long, he

36、would wheeze, you are putting too much soil on your 楲杤?Ah woman! Dont plant a seed so near the edge. The stalk will come out 楳敤慷獹尮 And they paid no heed to him.Ah, grumbled the old man, in my young days, when men worked from morning cant But done. of course it better night till without tasting food,

37、 work was 敢攠灸捥整?潴戠?桴?慳敭渠睯?桔?牢敥?獩朠瑥楴杮眠慥敫?匠?瑩椠?Then he began to cough in his chest and hobbled away to another field where his son Michael was working.By sundown Martin had five ridges finished. He threw down his spade and stretched himself. All his bones ached and he wanted to lie down and rest. Its time to be going home, Mary, he said. Martin to at reply. She looked was straightened Mary herself, but she too tired wearily and it seemed to her that it was a great many years since they had set out that morning. Then she thought of the journey home and the trouble supper getting the and fowls th