Unit8AMagicianatStretchingaDollar课文翻译大学英语一

1、精品文档Unit 8 A Magician at Stretching a DollarThe boy was at first delighted to discover the prese nt his mother had hidde n away as his Christmas gift. But the n hebega n to worry that his mother would now no Ion ger have the pleasure of giv ing him a surprise. What was he to do?1.That December, with

2、 Christmas approach ing, she was out at work and Doris wasin the kitche n whe n I let myself into her bedroom one after noon in search of a safetypin. Since her bedroom ope ned onto a com mun ity hallway, she kept the door locked,but needing the pin, I took the key from its hiking place, uniocked th

3、e door and stepped in. Standing against the wallwas a big, black bicycle with balloon tires. I recog ni zed it in sta ntly. It was the same sec on d-ha nd bike rd bee nadmiri ng in a Baltimore Street shop window. rd even asked about the price. It was a shock.Somethi ng like $15. Somehow my mother ha

4、d scraped together eno ugh for a dow npayment and meant to surprise me with the bicycle on Christmas morning.2.I was deeply moved by the discovery and yet sickened by the knowledge that, bursting into her room like this, I hadrobbed her of the pleasure of seeing me ast oni shed and delighted on Chri

5、stmas day. I had nt wan ted to know herlovely secret; still coming upon it like this made me feel as though rd struck a blow aga insther happ in ess. I backed out, put the key back in its hidi ng place, and thought over what to do.3.I decided that betwee n now and Christmas I must do nothing, absolu

6、tely nothing,to reveal the slightest hint of my terrible knowledge. I must avoid the least word thatni ght reveal my possessi on of her secret. Noth ing must deny her the happ in ess of see ing me completely amazed onChristmas day.4.In the privacy of my bedroom I began composing and testing exclamat

7、ions ofdelight:“Wow!” “A bike with ballo on tires! I dont believe it!”Im the luckiest boyalive!”And so on. They all owed a lot to movies in which boys like Mickey Rooney had seen their wildest dreamscome true. I soon realized that, with my lack of acting tale nt, all of them were going to sound fals

8、e at the critical moment whe n I wan ted to cry out my love spontaneously from the heart. Maybe it would be better to say nothing but appearto be shocked into such deep pleasure that speech had escapedme/ I was nt sure, though. rd see n speechless gratitude in the movies too, and it n ever really wo

9、rked untiltheactors man aged to cry a few quiet tears. I doubted Icould cry on cue, so I began thinking about other expressions of speechless amazement. In front of a hand-held mirrorin my bedroom I tried the whole range of expressi ons; mouth ope n and eyes wide; hands slapped firmly aga inst both精

10、品文档cheeks to keep the jaw from falling off; ear-to-ear grin with all teeth fully exposed while hugg ing myself with both arms.These and more I practiced for several days without acquiri ng con fide nee in any of them. I decided to wait un tilChristmas morning and see if anything came naturally.5.Tha

11、t Christmas morning she woke up early,“to see what Santa Claus brought,”she said with just the right tone of voice to in dicate we were all old eno ugh to know who Santa Claus was. I came outof my bedroom with my present for her and Doris, and Doris came with hers. My mothers has bee n placed un der

12、 thetree duri ng the ni ght. There were a few small brightly wrapped packages, a big doll for Doris, but no bicycle. I musthave looked disappo in ted.6.It looks like Santa Claus did nt do too well by you this year, Buddy,”she said, asI opened packages. A shirt. A necktie. I said someth ing halfheart

13、ed like,Itsthethought that counts, but what I felt was bitter disappointment.I supposed shedfound the bike just too expe nsive and sent it back.7.“Wait a minu te! she cried, sn app ing her fin gers.“Theres someth ing in mybedroom I f orgot all about.”8.She went out, and a mome nt later came back whe

14、eli ng the big black two-wheelerwith ballo on tires. I did nt have to prete nd, after all. The three of usDoris, mymother, and I-were people bred to hold back emotional expressions of love, but Idid someth ing that startled both my mother and me. I threw my arms around herspontan eously and kissed h

15、er.9.“All right now, dont carry on about it. Its only a bicycle,10.Still, I knew that she was as happy as I was to see her so happy.she said.精品文档发现了母亲为他藏好的圣诞礼物男孩起先很高兴。但接着他就开始担心，妈妈将因此失 去给他一个惊喜的喜悦。他该怎么办呢？能把一块钱拉长的魔术师那年的十二月，圣诞节临近了。一天下午，妈妈在外面上班，妹妹多丽丝在厨房里，我 为了找一枚安全别针而开门走进了妈妈的卧室。因为她的卧室门正对着共用的走廊，她总是把门锁着，但我因

16、为需要别针，便从藏钥匙的地方取出钥匙，打开门，走了进去。只见靠墙 立着一辆低压轮胎的、 大的黑色自行车。 我一下子就认出了它。 这正是那摆在巴尔的摩大街 一家商店橱窗里一直让我羡慕不已的二手车。我甚至还问过这辆车的价钱。简直贵得吓人。 差不多要十五块钱。妈妈想办法凑足了首付款，打算在圣诞节早晨拿这辆自行车给我一个惊 喜。这一发现让我深为感动， 然而想到这样闯进她的卧室， 从而剥夺了她在圣诞节那天见到 我又惊又喜时的欢乐， 我又感到厌恶。我本不想知道她这个可爱的秘密；但像这样偶然地发现了它仍然使我觉得好像重重地打击了她的欢乐一样。我从她的卧室退了出来，把钥匙放回原处，认真考虑着该怎么办才好。我决

17、定，在现在和圣诞节之前这段时间里，我必须不动声色，绝对不可露出一点蛛丝马迹暗示我已令人讨厌地知道了此事。我必须谨言慎行，不能让她知道我已掌握了她的秘密。 必须想尽一切办法让她在圣诞节那天享受到看见我极为惊讶时的快乐。在我不受干扰的卧室里，我开始构思并试验种种表示喜悦的惊叫：”哇噢！一辆低压轮胎的自行车！我真不敢相信！我是世界上最最幸运的男孩！”等等。这些话都大大归功于比如由米基鲁尼主演的电影，片中男孩子看到他们最不着边际的梦想得以实现时都这么 说。我很快便意识到，因为我缺乏演戏的天才， 在我不由自主地想大声喊出发自肺腑的爱时， 所有这些话听上去都会显得很虚假。或许最好是什么也不说，而是看上去惊

18、喜得连话也说不出来了。不过，我也没有把握。我在电影里也看到过说不出话来的感激，但直到演员们设法 哭出几滴无声的眼泪时才真正起到作用。我怀疑自己能否适时地哭出来，于是便开始思考别的表示无言惊讶的方式。在卧室里，我手拿镜子，试着做出各种各样的表情，嘴巴张得大大 的，眼睛瞪得圆圆的；双手猛地捂住脸颊使下巴不至于落下来，双臂抱着自己，咧开嘴大笑，把全部牙齿都露出来。这些动作和一些别的动作我练了好几天，但对任何一个动作都没有把握。我决定等到圣诞节早晨再说，看能不能自然而然地做出什么动作来那年的圣诞节早晨，妈妈一早就把我们叫醒了，”看看圣诞老人带来了什么，她只是用一般的口吻说，借以表明我们都不小了，知道圣诞老人是谁了。 我带着送给她和多丽丝的礼物从我的卧室里走了出来，多丽丝也带着她送给我们的礼物走了出来。妈妈送给我们的礼物已在夜里放在了圣诞树下。有几个用彩纸包好的小包，一个给多丽丝的大玩具娃娃，但却没精品文档有自行车。我当时看上去一定很失望。在我打开包的时候，妈妈说：看来圣诞老人今年对你不太好吗，老弟。果然这里