【有声英语文学名著】CHAPTER THREE(2)

 Scott slapped a palm on Ian‘s shoulder, startling him: ‗So I‘m going to hand  you over to Emma, our longest serving member of staff!—‘

Emma winced¹ at the accolade², then smiled apologetically at the new boy, and he smiled back with his mouth closed tight; a Stan Laurel smile.

—She‘ll show  you the basics, and that‘s it, everyone. Remember!  Fish burritos! Now, music please!‘

Paddy  pressed  play  on  the  greasy  tape  deck  behind  the  bar  and  the  music  began,  a maddening forty-five minutes loop of synthetic³ mariachi music, beginning aptly enough with ‗La Cucaracha‘, the cockroach⁴, to be heard  twelve times in an eight-hour shift. Twelve times a shift, twenty-four shifts a month, for seven months now. Emma looked down at the baseball cap in her hand. The restaurant logo, a cartoon donkey, peered up at her goggle-eyed from beneath  his  sombrero,  drunk  it  would  seem,  or  insane  perhaps.  She  settled  the  cap  on  her head and slid off the bar stool as if lowering herself into icy water. The new guy was waiting for her, beaming, his fingertips jammed awkwardly into the pockets of his gleaming white jeans, and Emma wondered once again what exactly she was doing with her life.

Emma, Emma, Emma. How are you, Emma? And what are you doing right this second? We’re six hours  ahead  here in  Bombay,  so  hopefully  you’re  still  in  bed  with  a  Sunday  morning  hangover  in which case WAKE UP! IT’S DEXTER!

This letter comes to you from a downtown Bombay hostel⁵ with scary mattresses⁶ and hot and cold running Australians. My guide book tells me that it has character i.e. rodents⁷ but my room also has a little  plastic  picnic  table  by  the  window  and  it’s  raining  like  crazy  outside,  harder  even  than  in Edinburgh. It’s CHUCKING IT DOWN, Em, so loud that I can barely hear the compilation⁸ tape you made me which I like a lotincidentally except for that jangly indie stuff because after all I’m not some GIRL.  I’ve  been  trying  to  read  the  books  you  gave  me  at  Easter  too,  though  I  have  to  admit  I’m finding  Howards End  quiteheavy-going. It’s like they’ve been drinking the same cup of tea for two hundred pages, and I keep waiting for someone to pull a knife or an alien invasion or something, but that’s not going to happen is it? 

1 winced   

赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He winced as the dog nipped his ankle. 狗咬了他的脚腕子，疼得他龇牙咧嘴。
• He winced as a sharp pain shot through his left leg. 他左腿一阵剧痛疼得他直龇牙咧嘴。

2 accolade   

n.推崇备至，赞扬

参考例句：

• Four restaurants have been awarded the highest accolade of a three-star rating.四家餐馆获授予三星级餐馆的最高荣誉称号。
• The Nobel prize has become the ultimate accolade in the sciences.诺贝尔奖已成为科学界的最高荣誉。

3 synthetic   

adj.合成的，人工的；综合的；n.人工制品

参考例句：

• We felt the salesman's synthetic friendliness.我们感觉到那位销售员的虚情假意。
• It's a synthetic diamond.这是人造钻石。

4 cockroach   

n.蟑螂

参考例句：

• A cockroach can live several weeks with its head off.蟑螂在头被切掉后仍能活好几个星期。
• She screamed when she found a cockroach in her bed.她在床上找到一只蟑螂时大声尖叫。

5 hostel   

n.（学生）宿舍，招待所

参考例句：

• I lived in a hostel while I was a student.我求学期间住在青年招待所里。
• He says he's staying at a Youth Hostel.他说他现住在一家青年招待所。

6 mattresses   

褥垫，床垫( mattress的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The straw mattresses are airing there. 草垫子正在那里晾着。
• The researchers tested more than 20 mattresses of various materials. 研究人员试验了二十多个不同材料的床垫。

7 rodents   

n.啮齿目动物( rodent的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Rodents carry diseases and are generally regarded as pests. 啮齿目动物传播疾病，常被当作害虫对待。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Some wild rodents in Africa also harbor the virus. 在非洲，有些野生啮齿动物也是储毒者。 来自辞典例句

8 compilation   

n.编译，编辑

参考例句：

• One of the first steps taken was the compilation of a report.首先采取的步骤之一是写一份报告。
• The compilation of such diagrams,is of lasting value for astronomy.绘制这样的图对天文学有永恒的价值。