红发会 09奇怪的广告(4)

'But,' said I, 'there would be millions of red-headed men who would apply.'

我说，'可是，会有数以百万计红头发的男子去申请的。'

'Not so many as you might think,' he answered.

他回答说，'没有你所想的那么多。

'You see it is really confined to Londoners, and to grown men.

你想想看，那实际上只限于伦敦人，而且必须是成年男子。

This American had started from London when he was young, and he wanted to do the old town a good turn.

这个美国人青年时代是在伦敦发迹的，他想为这个古老的城市做点好事。

Then, again, I have heard it is no use your applying if your hair is light red, or dark red, or anything but real bright, blazing¹, fiery² red.

而且我还听说，如果你的头发是浅红色或深红色，而不是真正发亮的火红色，那你去申请也是白搭。

Now, if you cared to apply, Mr. Wilson, you would just walk in;

好啦，威尔逊先生，如果你想申请的话，那你就走进去好了。

but perhaps it would hardly be worth your while to put yourself out of the way for the sake of a few hundred pounds.'

但是，为了几百英镑的钱，让你受到麻烦，也许是不值得的。'

Now, it is a fact, gentlemen, as you may see for yourselves, that my hair is of a very full and rich tint³,

先生们，正如你们现在亲自看到的实际情况，我的头发，真是鲜红鲜红的。

so that it seemed to me that if there was to be any competition in the matter I stood as good a chance as any man that I had ever met.

因此，在我看来，如果为了得到这个职位需要竞争一下的话，那么我要比任何同我竞争的人更有希望。

Vincent Spaulding seemed to know so much about it that I thought he might prove useful,

文森特·斯波尔丁似乎对这桩事已很了解，所以我想他也许能助我一臂之力。

so I just ordered him to put up the shutters⁴ for the day and to come right away with me.

于是，我就叫他把百叶窗关上，马上跟我一起走。

He was very willing to have a holiday,

他非常高兴得到一个休假日，

so we shut the business up and started off for the address that was given us in the advertisement.

我们就这样停了业，向广告上登的那个地址出发。

1 blazing   

a.强烈的，燃烧的，炫目的

参考例句：

• A huge fire was blazing in the fireplace. 壁炉中火烧得正旺。
• a blazing hot day 大热天

2 fiery   

adj.燃烧着的，火红的；暴躁的；激烈的

参考例句：

• She has fiery red hair.她有一头火红的头发。
• His fiery speech agitated the crowd.他热情洋溢的讲话激动了群众。

3 tint   

n.淡色，浅色；染发剂；vt.着以淡淡的颜色

参考例句：

• You can't get up that naturalness and artless rosy tint in after days.你今后不再会有这种自然和朴实无华的红润脸色。
• She gave me instructions on how to apply the tint.她告诉我如何使用染发剂。

4 shutters   

百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 )； （照相机的）快门

参考例句：

• The shop-front is fitted with rolling shutters. 那商店的店门装有卷门。
• The shutters thumped the wall in the wind. 在风中百叶窗砰砰地碰在墙上。