名著精读《傲慢与偏见》第十章 第3节

"That will not do for a compliment to Darcy, Caroline," cried her brother -- "because he does not write with ease. He studies too much for words of four syllables. -- Do not you, Darcy?"

她的哥哥嚷道：“这种恭维话可不能用在达西身上，珈罗琳，因为他并不能够大笔一挥而就，他还得在四个音节的字上面多多推敲。──达西，你可不是这样吗？”

"My style of writing is very different from yours."

“我写信的风格和你很不同。”

"Oh!" cried Miss Bingley, "Charles writes in the most careless way imaginable. He leaves out half his words, and blots the rest."

“噢，”彬格莱小姐叫起来了，“查尔斯写起信来，那种潦草随便的态度，简直不可想象。他要漏掉一半字，涂掉一半字。”

"My ideas flow so rapidly that I have not time to express them -- by which means my letters sometimes convey no ideas at all to my correspondents."

“我念头转得太快，简直来有及写，因此有时候收信人读到我的信，反而觉得言之无物。”

"Your humility, Mr. Bingley," said Elizabeth, "must disarm reproof."

“彬格莱先生，”伊丽莎白说，“你这样谦虚，真叫人家本来要责备你也不好意思责备了。”

"Nothing is more deceitful," said Darcy, "than the appearance of humility. It is often only carelessness of opinion, and sometimes an indirect boast."

达西说：“假装谦虚偏偏往往就是信口开河，有时候简直是转弯抹角的自夸？”

"And which of the two do you call my little recent piece of modesty?"

“那么，我刚刚那几句谦虚的话，究竟是信口开河呢，还是转弯抹角的自夸？”

"The indirect boast; -- for you are really proud of your defects in writing, because you consider them as proceeding from a rapidity of thought and carelessness of execution, which if not estimable, you think at least highly interesting. The power of doing any thing with quickness is always much prized by the possessor, and often without any attention to the imperfection of the performance. When you told Mrs. Bennet this morning that if you ever resolved on quitting Netherfield you should be gone in five minutes, you meant it to be a sort of panegyric, of compliment to yourself -- and yet what is there so very laudable in a precipitance which must leave very necessary business undone, and can be of no real advantage to yourself or any one else?"

“要算是转弯抹角的自夸，因为你对于你自己写信方面的缺点觉得很得意，你认为你思想敏捷，懒得去注意书法，而且你认为你这些方面即使没有什么了不起，完全不考虑到做出来的成绩是不是完美。你今天早上跟班纳特太太说，如果你决定要从尼日斐花园搬走，你五分钟之内就可以搬走，这种话无非是夸耀自己，恭维自己。再说，急躁的结果只会使得应该要做好的事情没有做好，无论对人对已，都没有真正的好处，这有什么值得赞美的呢？”

able n. 音节 vt. 分音节

Which syllable does the stress of this word fall on?
这个字的重音是在哪个音节上?

vt. 玷污，弄脏，吸干（墨汁等） vi. 弄上污迹

His apron was blotted with oil.
他的围裙上满是油点。

oof[ri'pru:f] n. 斥责，责备

Impatient of reproof, he left his parents and went away.
忍受不了责难，他离开父母出走了。

gyric n. 赞辞，夸大的颂词

He made a speech of panegyric.
他作了一个颂扬性的演讲。

able adj. 值得称赞的

His noble ideas and polite behavior are laudable.
他崇高的思想和彬彬有礼的举止令人赞美。

ipitance n. 急躁，仓促