【有声英语文学名著】英国病人 41

The sapper  stood, his hands raised above him as if he were holding a giant cobweb. He was shaking his head to get free of the earphones. As she ran towards him he yelled at her to circle to the left, there were mine wires all over the place. She stopped. It was a walk she had taken numerous times with no sense of danger. She raised her skirt and moved forward, watching her feet as they entered the long grass. 

 

 

His hands were still up in the air as she came alongside him. He had been tricked, ending up holding two live wires he could not put down without the safety of a descant¹ chord. He needed a third hand to negate² one of them and he needed to go back once more to the fuze head. He passed the wires carefully to her and dropped his arms, getting blood back into them. 

“I’ll take them back in a minute.” 

“It’s okay.” 

“Keep very still.” 

1 descant   

v.详论，絮说；n.高音部

参考例句：

• You need not descant upon my shortcomings.你不必絮说我的缺点。
• An elderly woman,arms crossed,sang the descant.一位双臂交叉的老妇人演唱了高音部。

2 negate   

vt.否定，否认；取消，使无效

参考例句：

• Our actions often negate our principles.我们的行为时常与我们所信奉的原则背道而弛。
• Mass advertising could negate the classical theory of supply and demand.大宗广告可以否定古典经济学的供求理论。