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艾丽斯·门罗逝世： 英语文学的契诃夫
- Authors
作者的笔触不断落在家庭生活上：厨房里的投币煤气灶，餐厅里铺着蕾丝布料的餐桌，八角镜里映出的一只陶瓷天鹅。
双语精读
"Promise me you'll boil the water you drink. And you won't marry a farmer," says a character in "The Love of a Good Woman".
“答应我，喝的水要烧开。还有，你不会嫁给一个农民。”《好女人的爱情》中的一个人物说。
Instantly, the reader is in Alice Munro territory: spinsters with lingering illnesses and stifled passions, jealous married women scrubbing floors, inky veins protruding from their legs.
读者立刻就进入了艾丽丝·门罗的语境：疾病缠身、激情被压抑的老姑娘，善妒的已婚妇女擦洗着地板，腿上凸出的静脉血管像用墨水画上去的一样。
Light falls constantly on the domestic: a gas stove in the kitchen fed with quarters, a dining-room table with a lace cloth on it, a ceramic swan reflected in an octagonal mirror.
作者的笔触不断落在家庭生活上：厨房里的投币煤气灶，餐厅里铺着蕾丝布料的餐桌，八角镜里映出的一只陶瓷天鹅。
But there is always something savage lurking beneath the veneer of gentility. Certain themes recur -- of drowning, regret, longing and the cruelty of lovers.
但在文雅的表象之下，总潜藏着一些凶残的东西。某些主题反复出现：溺水、悔恨、渴望和恋人的冷酷。
The daughter of a silver-fox and mink farmer, Ms Munro was brought up in rural Ontario. As a girl, she was told that the worst thing you could do was to "call attention to yourself" or "think you were smart".
门罗是一个银狐和水貂养殖场主的女儿，在加拿大安大略省的农村长大。作为女孩，她被告知，你能做的最糟糕的事情就是“引起人们对你的关注”或“认为自己很聪明”。
She enrolled at the University of Western Ontario to study journalism but dropped out when her scholarship money dried up. Ms Munro married young and moved to Vancouver, where her husband worked as a manager in a department store.
她进入西安大略大学学习新闻学，但在奖学金用完后辍学。门罗很早就结婚了，并搬到了温哥华，她的丈夫是当地一家百货公司的经理。
She had four daughters. One, born with defective kidneys, died in infancy. It was not the housework that dragged her down; it was the assumption that women who tried to do something as challenging as writing were unseemly.
她有四个女儿。其中一个孩子出生时肾脏有缺陷，在婴儿时期就夭折了。拖累她的并不是家务，而是一种观点，即认为女性试图做一些像写作那样具有挑战性的事情是不得体的。
She wrote while her daughters napped. It was in those stories that she tried to fathom the bargains people make "for lust", recording the cycle of excitement and despair and the bitterness of those who fear they have missed the boat.
她在女儿们午睡的时候写作。正是在这些故事中，她试图洞察人们为“欲望”而做的交易，记录了兴奋和绝望的循环，以及那些担心错过机会的人的苦涩心情。
For years she thought short stories were practice. Deep in domesticity in suburban Vancouver, she dreamed up plots. She was as consumed by the minutiae of daily life -- cooking, cleaning, taking care of her children -- as by the stories she was writing in her head in the deadness of early afternoon.
多年来，她一直认为写短篇小说是一种练习。在温哥华市郊的家庭生活中，她想象了一些情节。她沉浸于日常生活的琐事中--做饭、打扫卫生、照顾孩子，也同样沉浸于她在寂静的午后在脑海中构想的故事中。
Each story has layers, from the mundane (embroidered napkins, liquorice drops, bus depots) to the sublime (a man touching a woman's waist, a look of recognition and encouragement, daydreams that wear themselves out with the passage of time).
每个故事都有层次，从平淡(刺绣的餐巾、甘草糖浆、公交站台)到升华(一个男人触碰了一个女人的腰，一个心领神会和鼓励的眼神，一些在时间的磋磨中而破灭的白日梦)。
Her first book, "Dance of the Happy Shades", won the Governor General's Award -- one of Canada's highest literary accolades -- yet still she was dismissed by many as a shy housewife.
她的第一本书《快乐影子之舞》获得了加拿大最高文学荣誉之一的总督奖，但她仍被许多人轻视，说她不过是一个腼腆的家庭主妇。
In 2013 she became the first Canadian woman to win the Nobel prize in literature, but was too unwell to travel to Stockholm for the ceremony. The Swedish Academy praised her ability to show "how much of the extraordinary can fit into that jam-packed emptiness called The Ordinary."
2013年，她成为第一位获得诺贝尔文学奖的加拿大女性，但身体不适，无法前往斯德哥尔摩参加颁奖典礼。瑞典学院称赞门罗能够向人们展示“在被称为‘平凡’的堆满琐事的空虚中，可以容纳多少非凡之物”。
词汇预习
constantly [高考]
美[ˈkɑːnstəntli] | 英[ˈkɒnstəntli]
adv. 不断地；经常地
recognition [高考]
美[ˌrekəɡˈnɪʃn] | 英[ˌrekəɡˈnɪʃn]
n. 识别；认识；承认；认可；表彰，赞誉；（政府对他国的）外交认可
bitterness [高考]
美[ ˈbɪtɚnɪs] | 英['bɪtənəs]
n. 苦味；悲痛；怨恨
cruelty [高考]
美[ˈkruːəlti] | 英[ˈkruːəlti]
n. 残酷；虐待；残酷的行为
jealous [高考]
美[ˈdʒeləs] | 英[ˈdʒeləs]
adj. 妒忌的，羡慕的，吃醋的
defective [高考]
美[dɪˈfektɪv] | 英[dɪˈfektɪv]
adj. 有缺陷的；[语]不完全变化的 n. 有缺陷的人
beneath [高考]
美[bɪˈniːθ] | 英[bɪˈniːθ]
prep. 在 ... 之下；被...覆盖；低于...；不值得 adv. 在下方；在底下
cloth [高考]
美[klɔːθ] | 英[klɒθ]
n. 布；布料；一块布
literary [高考]
美[ˈlɪtəreri] | 英[ˈlɪtərəri]
adj. 文学的
extraordinary [高考]
美[ɪkˈstrɔːrdəneri] | 英[ɪkˈstrɔːdnri]
adj. 非凡的；特别的；特派的
assumption [高考]
美[əˈsʌmpʃn] | 英[əˈsʌmpʃn]
n. 假定；设想；担任(职责等)；假装
scholarship [高考]
美[ˈskɑːlərʃɪp] | 英[ˈskɒləʃɪp]
n. 奖学金；学问；学识
encouragement [高考]
美[ɪnˈkɜːrɪdʒmənt] | 英[ɪnˈkʌrɪdʒmənt]
n. 鼓励；激励
stove [高考]
美[stoʊv] | 英[stəʊv]
n. 炉子；窑；【主英】温室
waist [高考]
美[weɪst] | 英[weɪst]
n. 腰部；腰
housewife [高考]
美[ˈhaʊswaɪf] | 英[ˈhaʊswaɪf]
n. 家庭主妇 n. 针线盒
recording [高考]
美[rɪˈkɔːrdɪŋ] | 英[rɪˈkɔːdɪŋ]
n. 录音
territory [高考]
美[ˈterətɔːri] | 英[ˈterətri]
n. 领土；领域；版图；范围
domestic [高考]
美[dəˈmestɪk] | 英[dəˈmestɪk]
adj. 家庭的；国内的；驯养的 n. 佣人；家仆
despair [高考]
美[dɪˈsper] | 英[dɪˈspeə(r)]
n. 绝望；失望 vi. 失望
lace [高考]
美[leɪs] | 英[leɪs]
n. 鞋带；饰带；花边；缎带 v. 系带子；饰以花边；把酒搀入；[口]抨击
longing [高考]
美[ˈlɔːŋɪŋ] | 英[ˈlɒŋɪŋ]
n. 渴望；憧憬 adj. 渴望的
savage [高考]
美[ˈsævɪdʒ] | 英[ˈsævɪdʒ]
adj. 野性的；凶猛的；粗鲁的；荒野的；原始的 n. 野蛮人；粗人；凶恶的人 vt. 激烈抨击；猛烈攻击
suburban [高考]
美[səˈbɜːrbən] | 英[səˈbɜːbən]
adj. 市郊的；郊区的
challenging [高考]
美[ˈtʃælɪndʒɪŋ] | 英[ˈtʃælɪndʒɪŋ]
adj. 挑战性的；有吸引力的
where [高考]
美[wer] | 英[weə(r)]
adv. 在哪里；在那个地方 conj. 在 ... 地方
swan [四级]
美[swɑːn] | 英[swɒn]
n. 天鹅 vi. 闲荡；游荡
journalism [四级]
美[ˈdʒɜːrnəlɪzəm] | 英[ˈdʒɜːnəlɪzəm]
n. 新闻工作；新闻业；新闻写作
care of [四级]
美[kɛr ʌv] | 英[kɛə ɔv]
转交； 照管
recur [六级]
美[rɪˈkɜːr] | 英[rɪˈkɜː(r)]
vi. 重现；再发生
touching [专四]
美[ˈtʌtʃɪŋ] | 英[ˈtʌtʃɪŋ]
adj. 动人的；感人的 prep. 关于；有关
married [专四]
美[ˈmærid] | 英[ˈmærid]
adj. 已婚的；婚姻的；密切结合的 n. 已婚者
fathom [专四]
美[ˈfæðəm] | 英[ˈfæðəm]
n. 英寻（测量水深单位，合6英尺或1.8米） v. 深刻理解，彻底弄清（难题或神秘的人）；测量（水）的深度
infancy [专八]
美[ˈɪnfənsi] | 英[ˈɪnfənsi]
n. 婴儿期；幼年；初期
mink [专八]
美[mɪŋk] | 英[mɪŋk]
n. 貂；貂皮衣
domesticity [专八]
美[ˌdoʊmeˈstɪsəti] | 英[ˌdəʊmeˈstɪsəti]
n. (喜欢)家庭生活；顾家
gentility [专八]
美[dʒenˈtɪləti] | 英[dʒenˈtɪləti]
n. 文雅；出身高贵；有教养
mundane [专八]
美[mʌnˈdeɪn] | 英[mʌnˈdeɪn]
adj. 平凡的；世俗的；世界的
sublime [专八]
美[səˈblaɪm] | 英[səˈblaɪm]
adj. 高尚的；壮观的；非凡的；极其的 vt. 变高尚；升华；气化 n. 顶峰；高尚
unwell [托福]
美[ʌnˈwɛl] | 英[ʌnˈwel]
adj. 不舒服的；不爽快的；身体不好的
packed [托福]
美[pækt] | 英[pækt]
adj. 塞满的；收拾好行李的；紧压的
重点讲解
“Promise me you'll boil the water you drink. And you won't marry a farmer," says a character in “The Love of a Good Woman".
“答应我，喝的水要烧开。还有，你不会嫁给一个农民。”《好女人的爱情》中的一个人物说。
stifle v. 使窒息；压抑
【例】to stifle one’s laughter/creativity/growth
忍住不笑/扼杀创意/抑制发展
【拓展】stifling adj. 闷的；不透气的
【例】a hot and stifling room 闷热的房间
the stifling family life 令人窒息的家庭生活
protrude v. 凸出；伸出
【例】protruding teeth 龅牙
A nail protrudes from the wall.
一根钉子从墙上凸出来。
【近义词】stick out 凸出；伸出
Instantly, the reader is in Alice Munro territory: spinsters with lingering illnesses and stifled passions, jealous married women scrubbing floors, inky veins protruding from their legs.
读者立刻就进入了艾丽丝·门罗的语境：疾病缠身、激情被压抑的老姑娘，善妒的已婚妇女擦洗着地板，腿上凸出的静脉血管像用墨水画上去的一样。
stifle v. 使窒息；压抑
【例】to stifle one’s laughter/creativity/growth
忍住不笑/扼杀创意/抑制发展
【拓展】stifling adj. 闷的；不透气的
【例】a hot and stifling room 闷热的房间
the stifling family life 令人窒息的家庭生活
protrude v. 凸出；伸出
【例】protruding teeth 龅牙
A nail protrudes from the wall.
一根钉子从墙上凸出来。
【近义词】stick out 凸出；伸出
Light falls constantly on the domestic: a gas stove in the kitchen fed with quarters, a dining-room table with a lace cloth on it, a ceramic swan reflected in an octagonal mirror.
作者的笔触不断落在家庭生活上：厨房里的投币煤气灶，餐厅里铺着蕾丝布料的餐桌，八角镜里映出的一只陶瓷天鹅。
domestic adj.
1. 国内的
【例】domestic affairs/flights
国内事务/国内航班
2. 家庭的
【例】domestic appliances/violence/cat
家用电器/家暴/家猫
【拓展】domesticity n. 家庭生活
recur v. 反复出现
【例】His illness is likely to recur.
他的病可能复发。
recurring problems 反复出现的问题
【拓展】occur v. 发生；出现
But there is always something savage lurking beneath the veneer of gentility. Certain themes recur -- of drowning, regret, longing and the cruelty of lovers.
但在文雅的表象之下，总潜藏着一些凶残的东西。某些主题反复出现：溺水、悔恨、渴望和恋人的冷酷。
domestic adj.
1. 国内的
【例】domestic affairs/flights
国内事务/国内航班
2. 家庭的
【例】domestic appliances/violence/cat
家用电器/家暴/家猫
【拓展】domesticity n. 家庭生活
recur v. 反复出现
【例】His illness is likely to recur.
他的病可能复发。
recurring problems 反复出现的问题
【拓展】occur v. 发生；出现
The daughter of a silver-fox and mink farmer, Ms Munro was brought up in rural Ontario. As a girl, she was told that the worst thing you could do was to “call attention to yourself” or “think you were smart”.
门罗是一个银狐和水貂养殖场主的女儿，在加拿大安大略省的农村长大。作为女孩，她被告知，你能做的最糟糕的事情就是“引起人们对你的关注”或“认为自己很聪明”。
enroll v. 入学；注册
【例】She enrolled in a piano course.
她报名学习了一门钢琴课。
【拓展】enrollment n. 入学；入学人数
【拓展】enlist v. 入伍
admission n. 招生；入学
She enrolled at the University of Western Ontario to study journalism but dropped out when her scholarship money dried up. Ms Munro married young and moved to Vancouver, where her husband worked as a manager in a department store.
她进入西安大略大学学习新闻学，但在奖学金用完后辍学。门罗很早就结婚了，并搬到了温哥华，她的丈夫是当地一家百货公司的经理。
enroll v. 入学；注册
【例】She enrolled in a piano course.
她报名学习了一门钢琴课。
【拓展】enrollment n. 入学；入学人数
【拓展】enlist v. 入伍
admission n. 招生；入学
She had four daughters. One, born with defective kidneys, died in infancy. It was not the housework that dragged her down; it was the assumption that women who tried to do something as challenging as writing were unseemly.
她有四个女儿。其中一个孩子出生时肾脏有缺陷，在婴儿时期就夭折了。拖累她的并不是家务，而是一种观点，即认为女性试图做一些像写作那样具有挑战性的事情是不得体的。
defective adj. 有缺陷的；有毛病的
【例】defective goods 有瑕疵的商品
defective eyesight 视力缺陷
【拓展】defect n. 缺点；缺陷
drag sb down 拖累；使境况更差
【例】If he fails, he'll drag us all down with him.
要是他失败了，他会把我们都拉下水的。
【拓展】drag by 时间过得缓慢
【例】The Monday really dragged by.
星期一过得好慢啊。
fathom v. 理解（深奥的问题）
【例】to fathom the criminal’s motives
去弄清罪犯的作案动机
【拓展】unfathomable adj. 难以理解的；高深莫测的
miss the boat 错失良机
【例】He missed the boat on buying those stocks when they were cheap.
他错过了低价买这些股票的机会。
【拓展】be in the same boat 一条船上的人；面临相同的困境
burn one's boat 破釜沉舟；不留退路
She wrote while her daughters napped. It was in those stories that she tried to fathom the bargains people make “for lust”, recording the cycle of excitement and despair and the bitterness of those who fear they have missed the boat.
她在女儿们午睡的时候写作。正是在这些故事中，她试图洞察人们为“欲望”而做的交易，记录了兴奋和绝望的循环，以及那些担心错过机会的人的苦涩心情。
defective adj. 有缺陷的；有毛病的
【例】defective goods 有瑕疵的商品
defective eyesight 视力缺陷
【拓展】defect n. 缺点；缺陷
drag sb down 拖累；使境况更差
【例】If he fails, he'll drag us all down with him.
要是他失败了，他会把我们都拉下水的。
【拓展】drag by 时间过得缓慢
【例】The Monday really dragged by.
星期一过得好慢啊。
fathom v. 理解（深奥的问题）
【例】to fathom the criminal’s motives
去弄清罪犯的作案动机
【拓展】unfathomable adj. 难以理解的；高深莫测的
miss the boat 错失良机
【例】He missed the boat on buying those stocks when they were cheap.
他错过了低价买这些股票的机会。
【拓展】be in the same boat 一条船上的人；面临相同的困境
burn one's boat 破釜沉舟；不留退路
For years she thought short stories were practice. Deep in domesticity in suburban Vancouver, she dreamed up plots. She was as consumed by the minutiae of daily life -- cooking, cleaning, taking care of her children -- as by the stories she was writing in her head in the deadness of early afternoon.
多年来，她一直认为写短篇小说是一种练习。在温哥华市郊的家庭生活中，她想象了一些情节。她沉浸于日常生活的琐事中--做饭、打扫卫生、照顾孩子，也同样沉浸于她在寂静的午后在脑海中构想的故事中。
be consumed by
1. 被......吞噬
【例】The house was consumed by fire.
房子被大火吞噬了。
2. 被强烈影响；沉迷于
【例】She was consumed by guilt after her patient died.
她照顾的病人去世后，她自责不已。
He was consumed by his interest in painting.
他完全沉浸在对绘画的兴趣中。
【近义词】be lost in/absorbed/engrossed in 沉迷于
wear sth/sb out
1. 磨损；用坏
【例】to wear out a pair of shoes
穿坏了一双鞋
2. 使筋疲力尽
【例】The noisy kids are wearing me out.
吵闹的小孩要把我烦死了。
Each story has layers, from the mundane (embroidered napkins, liquorice drops, bus depots) to the sublime (a man touching a woman's waist, a look of recognition and encouragement, daydreams that wear themselves out with the passage of time).
每个故事都有层次，从平淡(刺绣的餐巾、甘草糖浆、公交站台)到升华(一个男人触碰了一个女人的腰，一个心领神会和鼓励的眼神，一些在时间的磋磨中而破灭的白日梦)。
be consumed by
1. 被......吞噬
【例】The house was consumed by fire.
房子被大火吞噬了。
2. 被强烈影响；沉迷于
【例】She was consumed by guilt after her patient died.
她照顾的病人去世后，她自责不已。
He was consumed by his interest in painting.
他完全沉浸在对绘画的兴趣中。
【近义词】be lost in/absorbed/engrossed in 沉迷于
wear sth/sb out
1. 磨损；用坏
【例】to wear out a pair of shoes
穿坏了一双鞋
2. 使筋疲力尽
【例】The noisy kids are wearing me out.
吵闹的小孩要把我烦死了。
Her first book, “Dance of the Happy Shades”, won the Governor General's Award -- one of Canada's highest literary accolades -- yet still she was dismissed by many as a shy housewife.
她的第一本书《快乐影子之舞》获得了加拿大最高文学荣誉之一的总督奖，但她仍被许多人轻视，说她不过是一个腼腆的家庭主妇。
be dismissed as 被当作……而轻视/不予考虑
【例】His suggestion was dismissed as irrelevant.
他的建议被视作无关紧要不被重视。
fit into
1. 装入；装进
【例】It was difficult to fit the large sofa into the small living room.
把大沙发放进小客厅里很难。
2. 找到时间做某事
【例】to fit two meetings into one morning
一上午要安排两个会
【拓展】accommodate v. 容纳
In 2013 she became the first Canadian woman to win the Nobel prize in literature, but was too unwell to travel to Stockholm for the ceremony. The Swedish Academy praised her ability to show “how much of the extraordinary can fit into that jam-packed emptiness called The Ordinary.”
2013年，她成为第一位获得诺贝尔文学奖的加拿大女性，但身体不适，无法前往斯德哥尔摩参加颁奖典礼。瑞典学院称赞门罗能够向人们展示“在被称为‘平凡’的堆满琐事的空虚中，可以容纳多少非凡之物”。
be dismissed as 被当作……而轻视/不予考虑
【例】His suggestion was dismissed as irrelevant.
他的建议被视作无关紧要不被重视。
fit into
1. 装入；装进
【例】It was difficult to fit the large sofa into the small living room.
把大沙发放进小客厅里很难。
2. 找到时间做某事
【例】to fit two meetings into one morning
一上午要安排两个会
【拓展】accommodate v. 容纳
课后练习
What did Alice Munro mainly write about in her stories?
A. The hidden brutalities in family life.
B. Love stories with an unhappy ending.
C. Real incidents that happened in her life.
D. The beauty and pleasure of domestic life.
What challenge did Alice Munro face in her early life and career?
A. Lack of educational opportunities.
B. Early marriage and domestic obligations.
C. Financial difficulties and humble background.
D. Disapproval of her writing ambitions as a woman.
What can be learned about Alice Munro's writing?
A. She achieved success after practicing short stories for a long time.
B. Her writing was deeply influenced by her daily domestic experiences.
C. Her stories have a wide range of styles from the mundane to the sublime.
D. She struggled to find inspiration for her stories amid the chores of daily life.
What does the Swedish Academy's comment about Munro's work mean?
A. She vividly depicted the emptiness of everyday life.
B. She used everyday scenarios to tell profound stories.
C. She was extraordinary in balancing her life and writing.
D. She focused on extraordinary events in ordinary settings.