【有声英语文学名著】CHAPTER TWO（10）

In the Piazza¹ della Rotunda², Dexter‘s mother sat at a café table, a novel held loosely in one 

hand, her eyes closed and her head tilted³ back and to the side like a bird  to catch the last of 

the afternoon sun. Rather than arrive straightaway, Dexter took a moment to sit amongst the 

tourists on the steps of the Pantheon and watch as the waiter approached and picked up her 

ashtray⁴, startling her. They both laughed, and from the theatrical⁵ movement of her mouth and 

arms he could tell that she was speaking her terrible  Italian, her hand on the waiter‘s arm, 

patting  it  flirtatiously.  With  no  apparent  idea  what  had  been  said,  the  waiter  nevertheless 

grinned  and  flirted  back,  then  walked  away,  glancing  over  his  shoulder  at  the  beautiful 

English woman who had touched his arm and talked incomprehensibly.

Dexter  saw  all  this  and  smiled.  That  old  Freudian  notion,  first  whispered  at  boarding 

school, that boys were meant to be in love with their mothers and hate their fathers, seemed 

perfectly⁶ plausible⁷ to him. Everyone he had ever met had been in love with Alison Mayhew, 

and the best of it was that he really liked his father too; as in so many things, he had all the 

luck.

1 piazza   

n.广场；走廊

参考例句：

• Siena's main piazza was one of the sights of Italy.锡耶纳的主要广场是意大利的名胜之一。
• They walked out of the cafeteria,and across the piazzadj.他们走出自助餐厅,穿过广场。

2 rotunda   

n.圆形建筑物；圆厅

参考例句：

• The Capitol at Washington has a large rotunda.华盛顿的国会大厦有一圆形大厅。
• The rotunda was almost deserted today,dotted with just a few tourists.圆形大厅今天几乎没有多少人，只零星散布着几个游客。

3 tilted   

v. 倾斜的

参考例句：

• Suddenly the boat tilted to one side. 小船突然倾向一侧。
• She tilted her chin at him defiantly. 她向他翘起下巴表示挑衅。

4 ashtray   

n.烟灰缸

参考例句：

• He knocked out his pipe in the big glass ashtray.他在大玻璃烟灰缸里磕净烟斗。
• She threw the cigarette butt into the ashtray.她把烟头扔进烟灰缸。

5 theatrical   

adj.剧场的，演戏的；做戏似的，做作的

参考例句：

• The final scene was dismayingly lacking in theatrical effect.最后一场缺乏戏剧效果，叫人失望。
• She always makes some theatrical gesture.她老在做些夸张的手势。

6 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

7 plausible   

adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的

参考例句：

• His story sounded plausible.他说的那番话似乎是真实的。
• Her story sounded perfectly plausible.她的说辞听起来言之有理。