大学英语精读课程第三册(unit1-5需要背诵部分课文及翻译)

UNIT 1：A Brush with the Law

And so I do not have a criminal record. But what was most shocking at the time was the things my release from the charge so clearly depended on. I had the 'right' accent, respectable middle-class parents in court, reliable witnesses, and I could obviously afford a very good solicitor. Given the obscure nature of the charge, I feel sure that it I had come from a different background, and had really been unemployed, there is every chance that I would have been found guilty. While asking for costs to be awarded, my solicitor's case quite obviously revolved around the fact that I had a 'brilliant academic record'.

所以我就没有了犯罪记录。但当时，非常令人震惊的是宣布我无罪所明显依赖的事实。即我操着标准的口音，我受人敬重的中产阶级的父母到了法庭，我有可靠的证人，并且看得出我能请得起一位很好的律师。想到这次起诉时那种莫明其妙的做法，我敢肯定如果我出生于另一种背景的家庭，并真正是失了业，那很有可能我被判为有罪。当要求判定各种费用时，我的律师的辩词非常明显地围绕着我有着优秀的学校纪录的事实。

UNIT 2：The Woman Who Would Not Tell

To Bettie Van Metre this man was not an enemy but rather a suffering human being. She gave him water and tried to clean his terrible wounds. Then she went out into the cool air and leaned against the house, trying not to be sick as she thought of what she had seen - that smashed right hand, that missing left leg.

The man's papers Bettie found in the attic established his identity: Lt. Henry Bedell, Company D, 11th Vermont Volunteers, 30 years old. She knew that she should report the presence of this Union officer to the Confederate army. But she also knew that she would not do it. This is how she explained it to me: "I kept wondering if he had a wife somewhere, waiting, and hoping, and not knowing - just as I was. It seemed to me that the only thing that mattered was to get her husband back to her."

对贝蒂.范.米特来说这个人不是敌人，而是一个受伤的人。她给他水喝并且努力清洁他可怕的伤口。然后，她走出去倚靠着房子呼吸着外边凉爽的空气，试图不去想让她恶心的事-右手断了，左腿没了。

贝蒂在阁楼上发现那个男人的文件，证明了他的身份：陆军中尉亨利.贝德尔,D连，第十一批志愿兵,30岁。她知道她应该报告南部联邦军队的这名北部军官的存在。但是她知道她将不会这样做。她对我解释说:"我一直想知道他在有一位妻子在某一个地方，等待他，希望他回家，并且不知道他在哪 - 正象我一样。在我看来唯一重要的事情是把她的丈夫送回她。"

UNIT3：Why I Teach

These are the real reasons I teach, these people who grow and change in front me. Being a teacher is begins present at the creation, when the clay begins to breathe.

A "promotion" out of teaching would give me money and power. But I have money. I get paid to do what I enjoy: reading talking with people, and asking questions like, "What is the point of being rich?"

And I have power. I have the power to nudge, to fan sparks, to suggest books, to point out a pathway. What other power matters?

But teaching offers something besides money and power: it offers love. Not only the love of learning and of books and ideas, but also the love that a teacher feels for that rare student who walks into a teacher's life and begins to breathe, Perhaps love is the wrong word: magic might be better.

I teach because, being around people who are beginning to breathe, I occasionally find myself catching my breath with them.

这些都是我教书的真正原因，这些人在我眼前成长变化了。当一名教师就是要亲眼目睹泥人开始呼吸这一创造性工作。

摆脱教学工作，得到“晋升”会给我金钱和权力。但我有钱。我拿了工资去做我乐于干的事：阅读书籍，与人交谈，提出些像“富贵又有什么意义？”之类的问题。

我也有权力。我有权给予启示，点燃思想火花，建议阅读书目，为人指点迷津，其他权力又算得了什么呢？

况且，教书还提供了金钱和权力以外和东西，那就是爱。不仅包括爱学习、爱书本、爱思想，而且包含了一位老师所体会到的对那些出类拔萃的学生的爱。这些学生进入教师的生活，并获得了新的生命。或许爱在些用词不当，魔力或许更为妥帖。

我之所以教书就是因为与那些开始获得新生的人相处在一起，我偶尔也感到自己与他们一样获得了新生。

UNIT 4：A Fan's NotesBill Plaschke

I walked out of the sunlight, opened a torn screen door and moved into the shadows, where an 87-pound figure was curled up in a wheelc hair.

Her limbs twisted. Her head rolled. We could not hug.We could not even shake hands. She could only stare at me and smile.

But that smile! It cut through the gloom of the battered wooden f loor, the torn couch and the cobwebbed windows.

I could bear to look at nothing else, so I stared at that smile, and it was so clear, so certain, it even cut through most of my doubt s. But still, I wondered. This is Sarah Morris?

我从太阳光下走进去，打开一扇破烂的屏门，走进了阴暗的棚子，棚子里蜷缩在轮椅上的是一个87磅重的躯体。

她的四肢扭了一扭。她的头转了一转。我们无法拥抱，甚至也无法握手。她只能张大眼睛看我，向我微笑。

可她那微笑里充满了光芒！它穿透了由破烂的木地板、旧躺椅和结满蜘蛛网的窗户围起来的黑暗空间。

我不忍心看别的任何东西，所以我的眼睛只盯住她那微笑，它是那么清晰，那么自信，它甚至令我的多数怀疑一扫而光。但我还是要问，这就是莎拉·莫里斯吗？

UNIT 5：The Day Mother Cried

My shock and embarrassment at finding Mother in tears on Wednesday was a perfect index of how little I understood the pressures on her. Sitting beside her on the couch, I began very slowly to understand.

"I guess we all have to fail sometime," mother said quietly. I could sense her pain and the tension of holding back the strong emotions that were interrupted by my arrival. Suddenly, something inside me turned. I reached out and put my arms around her.

She broke then. She put her face against my shoulder and sobbed. I held her close and didn't try to talk. I knew I was doing what I should, what I could, and that it was enough. In that moment, feeling Mother's back racked with emotion, I understood for the first time her vulnerability. She was still my mother, but she was something more: a person like me, capable of tear and hurt and failure. I could feel her pain as she must have felt mine on a thousand occasions when I had sought comfort in her arms.

因此，当星期三看见妈妈在哭时，我既震惊双尴尬。这完全说明我一点不理解她身上的担子。

“我想，我们每个人都有失败的时候的，”她平静地说道。我能感觉到她的痛苦，感觉到她在极力抑制住因我到来而打断了的强烈感情。突然，我深深感动了，我伸出双臂把妈妈搂在怀里。

她再也抑制不住了，把脸帖着我的肩，抽泣着。我紧紧地搂着她并不急着说什么。我知道，我正在做我应该做的，能够做的，这就足够了。那一刻，当我感到妈妈的背因激动颤抖时，我才第一次明白她不是事事都能办到的。她仍是我妈妈，但她身上有了更多的东西：她和我一样，也害怕，也有失败的时候。我能感觉得到她的痛苦，就像我曾数千次地在她怀里寻求安慰时，她能感觉到我的痛苦一样。