1、unit 1 Mr. Doherty Builds His Dream LifeMr. Doherty Builds His Dream LifeJim Doherty 1 There are two things I have always wanted to do - write and live on a farm. Today Im doing both. I am not in E. B. Whites class as a writer or in my neighbors league as a farmer, but Im getting by. And after years
2、 of frustration with city and suburban living, my wife Sandy and I have finally found contentment here in the country. 多尔蒂先生创建自己的理想生活 吉姆多尔蒂有两件事是我一直想做的写作与务农。如今我同时做着这两件事。作为作家，我和 EB怀特不属同一等级，作为农场主，我和乡邻也不是同一类人，不过我应付得还行。在城市以及郊区历经多年的怅惘失望之后，我和妻子桑迪终于在这里的乡村寻觅到心灵的满足。2 Its a self-reliant sort of life. We grow n
3、early all of our fruits and vegetables. Our hens keep us in eggs, with several dozen left over to sell each week. Our bees provide us with honey, and we cut enough wood to just about make it through the heating season. 这是一种自力更生的生活。我们食用的果蔬几乎都是自己种的。自家饲养的鸡提供鸡蛋，每星期还能剩余几十个出售。自家养殖的蜜蜂提供蜂蜜，我们还自己动手砍柴，足可供过冬取暖
4、之用。3 Its a satisfying life too. In the summer we canoe on the river, go picnicking in the woods and take long bicycle rides. In the winter we ski and skate. We get excited about sunsets. We love the smell of the earth warming and the sound of cattle lowing. We watch for hawks in the sky and deer in
5、the cornfields. 这也是一种令人满足的生活。夏日里我们在河上荡舟，在林子里野餐，骑着自行车长时间漫游。冬日里我们滑雪溜冰。我们为落日的余辉而激动。我们爱闻大地回暖的气息，爱听牛群哞叫。我们守着看鹰儿飞过上空，看玉米田间鹿群嬉跃。4 But the good life can get pretty tough. Three months ago when it was 30 below, we spent two miserable days hauling firewood up the river on a sled. Three months from now, it wil
6、l be 95 above and we will be cultivating corn, weeding strawberries and killing chickens. Recently, Sandy and I had to retile the back roof. Soon Jim, 16 and Emily, 13, the youngest of our four children, will help me make some long-overdue improvements on the outdoor toilet that supplements our indo
7、or plumbing when we are working outside. Later this month, well spray the orchard, paint the barn, plant the garden and clean the hen house before the new chicks arrive. 但如此美妙的生活有时会变得相当艰苦。就在三个月前，气温降到华氏零下 30 度，我们辛苦劳作了整整两天，用一个雪橇沿着河边拖运木柴。再过三个月，气温会升到 95 度，我们就要给玉米松土，在草莓地除草，还要宰杀家禽。前一阵子我和桑迪不得不翻修后屋顶。过些时候，四个
8、孩子中的两个小的，16 岁的吉米和 13 岁的埃米莉，会帮着我一起把拖了很久没修的室外厕所修葺一下，那是专为室外干活修建的。这个月晚些时候，我们要给果树喷洒药水，要油漆谷仓，要给菜园播种，要赶在新的小鸡运到之前清扫鸡舍。 5 In between such chores, I manage to spend 50 to 60 hours a week at the typewriter or doing reporting for the freelance articles I sell to magazines and newspapers. Sandy, meanwhile, pursu
9、es her own demanding schedule. Besides the usual household routine, she oversees the garden and beehives, bakes bread, cans and freezes, drives the kids to their music lessons, practices with them, takes organ lessons on her own, does research and typing for me, writes an article herself now and the
10、n, tends the flower beds, stacks a little wood and delivers the eggs. There is, as the old saying goes, no rest for the wicked on a place like this - and not much for the virtuous either. 在这些活计之间，我每周要抽空花五、六十个小时，不是打字撰文，就是为作为自由撰稿人投给报刊的文章进行采访。桑迪则有她自己繁忙的工作日程。除了日常的家务，她还照管菜园和蜂房，烘烤面包，将食品装罐、冷藏，开车送孩子学音乐，和他们一
11、起练习，自己还要上风琴课，为我做些研究工作并打字，自己有时也写写文章，还要侍弄花圃，堆摞木柴、运送鸡蛋。正如老话说的那样，在这种情形之下，坏人不得闲贤德之人也歇不了。6 None of us will ever forget our first winter. We were buried under five feet of snow from December through March. While one storm after another blasted huge drifts up against the house and barn, we kept warm inside
12、burning our own wood, eating our own apples and loving every minute of it. 我们谁也不会忘记第一年的冬天。从 12 月一直到 3 月底，我们都被深达 5 英尺的积雪困着。暴风雪肆虐，一场接着一场，积雪厚厚地覆盖着屋子和谷仓，而室内，我们用自己砍伐的木柴烧火取暖，吃着自家种植的苹果，温馨快乐每一分钟。 7 When spring came, it brought two floods. First the river overflowed, covering much of our land for weeks. Then
13、 the growing season began, swamping us under wave after wave of produce. Our freezer filled up with cherries, raspberries, strawberries, asparagus, peas, beans and corn. Then our canned-goods shelves and cupboards began to grow with preserves, tomato juice, grape juice, plums, jams and jellies. Even
14、tually, the basement floor disappeared under piles of potatoes, squash and pumpkins, and the barn began to fill with apples and pears. It was amazing. 开春后，有过两次泛滥。一次是河水外溢，我们不少田地被淹了几个星期。接着一次是生长季节到了，一波又一波的农产品潮涌而来，弄得我们应接不暇。我们的冰箱里塞满了樱桃、蓝莓、草莓、芦笋、豌豆、青豆和玉米。接着我们存放食品罐的架子上、柜橱里也开始堆满一罐罐的腌渍食品，有番茄汁、葡萄汁、李子、果酱和果冻。最后
15、，地窖里遍地是大堆大堆的土豆、西葫芦、南瓜，谷仓里也储满了苹果和梨。真是太美妙了。 8 The next year we grew even more food and managed to get through the winter on firewood that was mostly from our own trees and only 100 gallons of heating oil. At that point I began thinking seriously about quitting my job and starting to freelance. The tim
16、ing was terrible. By then, Shawn and Amy, our oldest girls were attending expensive Ivy League schools and we had only a few thousand dollars in the bank. Yet we kept coming back to the same question: Will there ever be a better time? The answer, decidedly, was no, and so - with my employers blessin
17、gs and half a years pay in accumulated benefits in my pocket - off I went. 第二年我们种了更多的作物，差不多就靠着从自家树林砍斫的木柴以及仅仅 100 加仑的燃油过了冬。其时，我开始认真考虑起辞了职去从事自由撰稿的事来。时机选得实在太差。当时，两个大的女儿肖恩和埃米正在费用很高的常春藤学校上学，而我们只有几千美金的银行存款。但我们一再回到一个老问题上来：真的会有更好的时机吗？答案无疑是否定的。于是，带着老板的祝福，口袋里揣着作为累积津贴的半年薪水，我走了。 9 There have been a few anxious
18、moments since then, but on balance things have gone much better than we had any right to expect. For various stories of mine, Ive crawled into black-bear dens for Sports Illustrated, hitched up dogsled racing teams for Smithsonian magazine, checked out the Lake Champlain “monster“ for Science Digest
19、, and canoed through the Boundary Waters wilderness area of Minnesota for Destinations. 那以后有过一些焦虑的时刻，但总的来说，情况比我们料想的要好得多。为了写那些内容各不相同的文章，我为体育画报爬进过黑熊窝；为史密森期刊替参赛的一组组狗套上过雪橇；为科学文摘调查过尚普兰湖水怪的真相；为终点杂志在明尼苏达划着小舟穿越美、加边界水域内的公共荒野保护区。 10 Im not making anywhere near as much money as I did when I was employed full t
20、ime, but now we dont need as much either. I generate enough income to handle our $600-a-month mortgage payments plus the usual expenses for a family like ours. That includes everything from music lessons and dental bills to car repairs and college costs. When it comes to insurance, we have a poor ma
21、ns major-medical policy. We have to pay the first $500 of any medical fees for each member of the family. It picks up 80% of the costs beyond that. Although we are stuck with paying minor expenses, our premium is low - only $560 a year - and we are covered against catastrophe. Aside from that and th
22、e policy on our two cars at $400 a year, we have no other insurance. But we are setting aside $2,000 a year in an IRA. 我挣的钱远比不上担任全职工作时的收入，可如今我们需要的钱也没有过去多。我挣的钱足以应付每月 600 美金的房屋贷款按揭以及一家人的日常开销。那些开销包括了所有支出，如音乐课学费、牙医账单、汽车维修以及大学费用等等。至于保险，我们买了一份低收入者的主要医疗项目保险。我们需要为每一位家庭成员的任何一项医疗费用支付最初的 500 美金。医疗保险则支付超出部分的 80
23、。虽然我们仍要支付小部分医疗费用，但我们的保险费也低-每年只要 560 美金-而我们给自己生大病保了险。除了这一保险项目，以及两辆汽车每年 400 美金的保险，我们就没有其他保险了。不过我们每年留出 2000 美元入个人退休金账户。 11 Weve been able to make up the difference in income by cutting back without appreciably lowering our standard of living. We continue to dine out once or twice a month, but now we pa
24、tronize local restaurants instead of more expensive places in the city. We still attend the opera and ballet in Milwaukee but only a few times a year. We eat less meat, drink cheaper wine and see fewer movies. Extravagant Christmases are a memory, and we combine vacations with story assignments. 我们通
25、过节约开支而又不明显降低生活水准的方式来弥补收入差额。我们每个月仍出去吃一两次饭，不过现在我们光顾的是当地餐馆，而不是城里的高级饭店。我们仍去密尔沃基听歌剧看芭蕾演出，不过一年才几次。我们肉吃得少了，酒喝得便宜了，电影看得少了。铺张的圣诞节成为一种回忆，我们把完成稿约作为度假的一部分 12 I suspect not everyone who loves the country would be happy living the way we do. It takes a couple of special qualities. One is a tolerance for solitude.
26、 Because we are so busy and on such a tight budget, we dont entertain much. During the growing season there is no time for socializing anyway. Jim and Emily are involved in school activities, but they too spend most of their time at home. 我想，不是所有热爱乡村的人都会乐意过我们这种生活的。这种生活需要一些特殊的素质。其一是耐得住寂寞。由于我们如此忙碌，手头又
27、紧，我们很少请客。在作物生长季节，根本就没工夫参加社交活动。吉米和埃米莉虽然参加学校的各种活动，但他俩大多数时间也呆在家里。 13 The other requirement is energy - a lot of it. The way to make self-sufficiency work on a small scale is to resist the temptation to buy a tractor and other expensive laborsaving devices. Instead, you do the work yourself. The only ma
28、chinery we own (not counting the lawn mower) is a little three-horsepower rotary cultivator and a 16-inch chain saw. 另一项要求是体力相当大的体力。小范围里实现自给自足的途径是抵制诱惑，不去购置拖拉机和其他昂贵的节省劳力的机械。相反，你要自己动手。我们仅有的机器（不包括割草机）是一台 3 马力的小型旋转式耕耘机以及一架 16 英寸的链锯。 14 How much longer well have enough energy to stay on here is anybodys
29、guess - perhaps for quite a while, perhaps not. When the time comes, well leave with a feeling of sorrow but also with a sense of pride at what weve been able to accomplish. We should make a fair profit on the sale of the place, too. Weve invested about $35,000 of our own money in it, and we could j
30、ust about double that if we sold today. But this is not a good time to sell. Once economic conditions improve, however, demand for farms like ours should be strong again. 没人知道我们还能有精力在这里再呆多久-也许呆很长一阵子，也许不是。到走的时候，我们会怆然离去，但也会为自己所做的一切深感自豪。我们把农场出售也会赚相当大一笔钱。我们自己在农场投入了约 35，000 美金的资金，要是现在售出的话价格差不多可以翻一倍。不过现在不
31、是出售的好时机。但是一旦经济形势好转，对我们这种农场的需求又会增多。 15 We didnt move here primarily to earn money though. We came because we wanted to improve the quality of our lives. When I watch Emily collecting eggs in the evening, fishing with Jim on the river or enjoying an old-fashioned picnic in the orchard with the entire
32、family, I know weve found just what we were looking for. 但我们主要不是为了赚钱而移居至此的。我们来此居住是因为想提高生活质量。当我看着埃米莉傍晚去收鸡蛋，跟吉米一起在河上钓鱼，或和全家人一起在果园里享用老式的野餐，我知道，我们找到了自己一直在寻求的生活方式。 unit 2 The Freedom GiversThe Freedom GiversFergus M. Bordewich 1 A gentle breeze swept the Canadian plains as I stepped outside the small two
33、-story house. Alongside me was a slender woman in a black dress, my guide back to a time when the surrounding settlement in Dresden, Ontario, was home to a hero in American history. As we walked toward a plain gray church, Barbara Carter spoke proudly of her great-great-grandfather, Josiah Henson. “
34、He was confident that the Creator intended all men to be created equal. And he never gave up struggling for that freedom.“ 给人以自由者弗格斯M博得威奇我步出这幢两层小屋，加拿大平原上轻风微拂。我身边是一位苗条的黑衣女子，把我带回到过去的向导。那时，安大略省得雷斯顿这一带住着美国历史上的一位英雄。我们前往一座普普通通的灰色教堂，芭芭拉卡特自豪地谈论着其高祖乔赛亚亨森。 “他坚信上帝要所有人生来平等。他从来没有停止过争取这一自由权利的奋斗。 ” 2 Carters devot
35、ion to her ancestor is about more than personal pride: it is about family honor. For Josiah Henson has lived on through the character in American fiction that he helped inspire: Uncle Tom, the long-suffering slave in Harriet Beecher Stowes Uncle Toms Cabin. Ironically, that character has come to sym
36、bolize everything Henson was not. A racial sellout unwilling to stand up for himself? Carter gets angry at the thought. “Josiah Henson was a man of principle,“ she said firmly. 卡特对其先辈的忠诚不仅仅关乎一己之骄傲，而关乎家族荣誉。因为乔赛亚亨森至今仍为人所知是由于他所激发的创作灵感使得一个美国小说人物问世：汤姆叔叔，哈丽特比彻斯陀的小说汤姆叔叔的小屋中那个逆来顺受的黑奴。具有讽刺意味的是，这一人物所象征的一切在亨森身
37、上一点都找不到。一个不愿奋起力争、背叛种族的黑人？卡特对此颇为愤慨。 “乔赛亚亨森是个有原则的人， ”她肯定地说。 3 I had traveled here to Hensons last home - now a historic site that Carter formerly directed - to learn more about a man who was, in many ways, an African-American Moses. After winning his own freedom from slavery, Henson secretly helped hu
38、ndreds of other slaves to escape north to Canada - and liberty. Many settled here in Dresden with him. 我远道前来亨森最后的居所如今已成为卡特曾管理过的一处历史遗迹是为了更多地了解此人，他在许多方面堪称黑人摩西。亨森自己摆脱了黑奴身份获得自由之后，便秘密帮助其他许多黑奴逃奔北方去加拿大逃奔自由之地。许多人和他一起在得雷斯顿这一带定居了下来。 4 Yet this stop was only part of a much larger mission for me. Josiah Henson
39、is but one name on a long list of courageous men and women who together forged the Underground Railroad, a secret web of escape routes and safe houses that they used to liberate slaves from the American South. Between 1820 and 1860, as many as 100,000 slaves traveled the Railroad to freedom. 但此地只是我所
40、承担的繁重使命的一处停留地。乔赛亚亨森只是一长串无所畏惧的男女名单中的一个名字，这些人共同创建了这条“地下铁路” ，一条由逃亡线路和可靠的人家组成的用以解放美国南方黑奴的秘密网络。在 1820 年至 1860 年期间，多达十万名黑奴经由此路走向自由。 5 In October 2000, President Clinton authorized $16 million for the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center to honor this first great civil-rights struggle in the U. S.
41、The center is scheduled to open in 2004 in Cincinnati. And its about time. For the heroes of the Underground Railroad remain too little remembered, their exploits still largely unsung. I was intent on telling their stories. 2000 年 10 月，克林顿总统批准拨款 1600 万美元建造全国“地下铁路”自由中心，以此纪念美国历史上第一次伟大的民权斗争。中心计划于 2004
42、年在辛辛那提州建成。真是该建立这样一个中心的时候了。因为地下铁路的英雄们依然默默无闻，他们的业绩依然少人颂扬。我要讲述他们的故事。 6 John Parker tensed when he heard the soft knock. Peering out his door into the night, he recognized the face of a trusted neighbor. “Theres a party of escaped slaves hiding in the woods in Kentucky, twenty miles from the river,“ the
43、 man whispered urgently. Parker didnt hesitate. “Ill go,“ he said, pushing a pair of pistols into his pockets. 听到轻轻的敲门声，约翰帕克神情紧张起来。他开门窥望，夜色中认出是一位可靠的邻居。 “有一群逃亡奴隶躲在肯塔基州的树林里，就在离河 20 英里的地方， ”那人用急迫的口气低语道。帕克没一点儿迟疑。 “我就去， ”他说着，把两支手枪揣进口袋。 7 Born a slave two decades before, in the 1820s, Parker had been take
44、n from his mother at age eight and forced to walk in chains from Virginia to Alabama, where he was sold on the slave market. Determined to live free someday, he managed to get trained in iron molding. Eventually he saved enough money working at this trade on the side to buy his freedom. Now, by day,
45、 Parker worked in an iron foundry in the Ohio port of Ripley. By night he was a “conductor“ on the Underground Railroad, helping people slip by the slave hunters. In Kentucky, where he was now headed, there was a $1000 reward for his capture, dead or alive. 20 年前，即 19 世纪 20 年代，生来即为黑奴的帕克才 8 岁就被从母亲身边带
46、走，被迫拖着镣铐从弗吉尼亚走到阿拉巴马，在那里的黑奴市场被买走。他打定主意有朝一日要过自由的生活，便设法学会了铸铁这门手艺。后来他终于靠这门手艺攒够钱赎回了自由。现在，帕克白天在俄亥俄州里普利港的一家铸铁厂干活。到了晚上，他就成了地下铁路的一位“乘务员” ，帮助人们避开追捕逃亡黑奴的人。在他正前往的肯塔基州，当局悬赏1000 美元抓他，活人死尸都要。 8 Crossing the Ohio River on that chilly night, Parker found ten fugitives frozen with fear. “Get your bundles and follow m
47、e, “ he told them, leading the eight men and two women toward the river. They had almost reached shore when a watchman spotted them and raced off to spread the news. 在那个阴冷的夜晚，帕克渡过俄亥俄河，找到了十个丧魂落魄的逃亡者。 “拿好包裹跟我走， ”他一边吩咐他们，一边带着这八男二女朝河边走去。就要到岸时，一个巡夜人发现了他们，急忙跑开去报告。 9 Parker saw a small boat and, with a sho
48、ut, pushed the escaping slaves into it. There was room for all but two. As the boat slid across the river, Parker watched helplessly as the pursuers closed in around the men he was forced to leave behind. 帕克看见一条小船，便大喝一声，把那些逃亡黑奴推上了船。大家都上了船，但有两个人容不下。小船徐徐驶向对岸，帕克眼睁睁地看着追捕者把他被迫留下的两个男人围住。 10 The others mad
49、e it to the Ohio shore, where Parker hurriedly arranged for a wagon to take them to the next “station“ on the Underground Railroad - the first leg of their journey to safety in Canada. Over the course of his life, John Parker guided more than 400 slaves to safety. 其他的人都上了岸，帕克急忙安排了一辆车把他们带到地下铁路的下一“站”他们走向安全的加拿大之旅的第一程。约翰帕克在有生之年一共带领 400 多名黑奴走向安全之地。 11 While black conductors were often motivated by their own painful expe
