1-21

 

21.

Must’ve been early spring, 1999. I must’ve been home from Eton for the weekend.

I woke to find Pa on the edge of my bed, saying I was going back to Africa.

Africa, Pa?

Yes, darling boy.

Why?

It was the same old problem, he explained. I was facing a longish school holiday, over Easter,and something needed to be done with me. So, Africa. Botswana, to be precise. A safari¹.

Safari! With you, Pa?

No. Alas², he wouldn’t be going along this time. But Willy would.

Oh, good.

And someone very special, he added, acting³ as our African guide.

Who, Pa?

Marko.

Marko? I barely knew the man, though I’d heard good things. He was Willy’s minder, andWilly seemed to like him very much. Everyone did, for that matter. Of all Pa’s people there wasconsensus that Marko was the best. The roughest, the toughest, the most dashing.

Longtime Welsh Guard. Raconteur⁴. Man’s man, through and through.

I was so excited about the prospect⁵ of this Marko-led safari, I don’t know how I got throughthe following weeks of school. I don’t actually recall getting through them, in fact. Memory winksout completely, right after Pa delivered the news, then snaps back into focus as I’m boarding aBritish Airways⁶ jet with Marko and Willy and Tiggy—one of our nannies. Our favorite nanny, tobe accurate, though Tiggy couldn’t stand being called that. She’d bite the head off anyone whotried. I’m not the nanny, I’m your friend!

Mummy, sadly, didn’t see it that way. Mummy saw Tiggy not as a nanny but as a rival. It’scommon knowledge that Mummy suspected Tiggy was being groomed⁷ as her future replacement⁸.

(Did Mummy see Tiggy as her Spare?) Now this same woman whom Mummy feared as herpossible replacement was her actual replacement—how dreadful for Mummy. Every hug or headpat from Tiggy, therefore, must’ve unleashed⁹ some twinge of guilt¹⁰, some throb¹¹ of disloyalty, andyet I don’t remember that. I remember only heart-racing joy to have Tiggy next to me, telling meto buckle¹² my seatbelt.

We flew direct to Johannesburg, then by prop¹³ plane to Maun, the largest city in northernBotswana. There we met up with a large group of safari guides, who steered¹⁴ us into a convoy¹⁵ ofopen- topped Land Cruisers. We drove off, straight into pure wilderness¹⁶, towards the vastOkavango Delta¹⁷, which I soon discovered was possibly the most exquisite¹⁸ place in the world.

The Okavango is often called a river, but that’s like calling Windsor Castle a house. A vastinland delta, smack¹⁹ in the middle of the Kalahari Desert, one of the largest deserts on earth, thelower Okavango is bone dry for part of the year. But come late summer it begins to fill withfloodwaters from upstream, little droplets²⁰ that begin as rainfall in the Angola highlands and slowlyswell to a trickle²¹, then a flow, which steadily²² transforms the delta into not one river but dozens.

From outer space it looks like the chambers²³ of a heart filling with blood.

With water comes life. A profusion²⁴ of animals, possibly the most biodiverse collectionanywhere, they come to drink, bathe, mate. Imagine if the Ark suddenly appeared, then capsized.

As we neared this enchanted²⁵ place, I had trouble catching²⁶ my breath. Lions, zebras, giraffes,hippos—surely this was all a dream. At last we stopped—our campsite for the next week. The spotwas bustling²⁷ with more guides, more trackers, a dozen people at least. Lots of high fives, bearhugs, names flung at us. Harry²⁸, William, say hello to Adi! (Twenty years old, long hair, sweetsmile.) Harry, William, say hi to Roger and David.

And at the center of it all stood Marko, like a traffic cop, directing, cajoling, embracing,barking, laughing, always laughing.

In no time he’d pulled our campsite into shape. Big green canvas tents, soft canvas chairsgrouped in circles, including one enormous circle around a stone-rimmed campfire. When I thinkabout that trip, my mind goes immediately to that fire—just as my skinny body did then. The firewas where we’d all collect at regular intervals²⁹ throughout the day. First thing in the morning,again at midday, again at dusk—and, above all, after supper. We’d stare into that fire, then up atthe universe. The stars looked like sparks from the logs.

One of the guides called the fire Bush TV.

Yes, I said, every time you throw a new log on, it’s like changing the channel.

They all loved that.

The fire, I noticed, hypnotized, or narcotized, every adult in our party. In its orange glow theirfaces grew softer, their tongues looser. Then, as the hour got later, out came the whisky, and theywould all undergo another sea change.

Their laughter would get…louder.

I’d think: More of this, please. More fire, more talk, more loud laughter. I’d been scared ofdarkness all my life, and it turned out Africa had a cure.

The campfire.

 

1 safari   

n.远征旅行(探险、考察)；探险队，狩猎队

参考例句：

• When we go on safari we like to cook on an open fire.我们远行狩猎时，喜欢露天生火做饭。
• They went on safari searching for the rare black rhinoceros.他们进行探险旅行，搜寻那稀有的黑犀牛。

2 alas   

int.唉(表示悲伤、忧愁、恐惧等)

参考例句：

• Alas!The window is broken!哎呀！窗子破了！
• Alas,the truth is less romantic.然而，真理很少带有浪漫色彩。

3 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

4 raconteur   

n.善讲故事者

参考例句：

• The raconteur mentioned that the quotation was from the Bible.说故事的那位个人，指出那句话是出自圣经。
• His grandfather was a fine raconteur.他的祖父是位很好讲故事的人。

5 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。

6 AIRWAYS   

航空公司

参考例句：

• The giant jets that increasingly dominate the world's airways. 越来越称雄于世界航线的巨型喷气机。
• At one point the company bought from Nippon Airways a 727 jet. 有一次公司从日本航空公司买了一架727型喷气机。

7 groomed   

v.照料或梳洗（马等）( groom的过去式和过去分词 )；使做好准备；训练；（给动物）擦洗

参考例句：

• She is always perfectly groomed. 她总是打扮得干净利落。
• Duff is being groomed for the job of manager. 达夫正接受训练，准备当经理。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

9 unleashed   

v.把（感情、力量等）释放出来，发泄( unleash的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The government's proposals unleashed a storm of protest in the press. 政府的提案引发了新闻界的抗议浪潮。
• The full force of his rage was unleashed against me. 他把所有的怒气都发泄在我身上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 guilt   

n.犯罪；内疚；过失，罪责

参考例句：

• She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
• Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。

11 throb   

v.震颤，颤动；(急速强烈地)跳动，搏动

参考例句：

• She felt her heart give a great throb.她感到自己的心怦地跳了一下。
• The drums seemed to throb in his ears.阵阵鼓声彷佛在他耳边震响。

12 buckle   

n.扣子，带扣；v.把...扣住，由于压力而弯曲

参考例句：

• The two ends buckle at the back.带子两端在背后扣起来。
• She found it hard to buckle down.她很难专心做一件事情。

13 prop   

vt.支撑；n.支柱，支撑物；支持者，靠山

参考例句：

• A worker put a prop against the wall of the tunnel to keep it from falling.一名工人用东西支撑住隧道壁好使它不会倒塌。
• The government does not intend to prop up declining industries.政府无意扶持不景气的企业。

14 steered   

v.驾驶( steer的过去式和过去分词 )；操纵；控制；引导

参考例句：

• He steered the boat into the harbour. 他把船开进港。
• The freighter steered out of Santiago Bay that evening. 那天晚上货轮驶出了圣地亚哥湾。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 convoy   

vt.护送，护卫，护航；n.护送；护送队

参考例句：

• The convoy was snowed up on the main road.护送队被大雪困在干路上了。
• Warships will accompany the convoy across the Atlantic.战舰将护送该船队过大西洋。

16 wilderness   

n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

17 delta   

n.（流的）角洲

参考例句：

• He has been to the delta of the Nile.他曾去过尼罗河三角洲。
• The Nile divides at its mouth and forms a delta.尼罗河在河口分岔，形成了一个三角洲。

18 exquisite   

adj.精美的；敏锐的；剧烈的，感觉强烈的

参考例句：

• I was admiring the exquisite workmanship in the mosaic.我当时正在欣赏镶嵌画的精致做工。
• I still remember the exquisite pleasure I experienced in Bali.我依然记得在巴厘岛所经历的那种剧烈的快感。

19 smack   

vt.拍，打，掴；咂嘴；vi.含有…意味；n.拍

参考例句：

• She gave him a smack on the face.她打了他一个嘴巴。
• I gave the fly a smack with the magazine.我用杂志拍了一下苍蝇。

20 droplets   

n.小滴( droplet的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Droplets of sweat were welling up on his forehead. 他额头上冒出了滴滴汗珠。 来自辞典例句
• In constrast, exhaled smoke contains relatively large water droplets and appears white. 相反，从人嘴里呼出的烟则包含相当大的水滴，所以呈白色。 来自辞典例句

21 trickle   

vi.淌，滴，流出，慢慢移动，逐渐消散

参考例句：

• The stream has thinned down to a mere trickle.这条小河变成细流了。
• The flood of cars has now slowed to a trickle.汹涌的车流现在已经变得稀稀拉拉。

22 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

23 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

24 profusion   

n.挥霍；丰富

参考例句：

• He is liberal to profusion.他挥霍无度。
• The leaves are falling in profusion.落叶纷纷。

25 enchanted   

adj. 被施魔法的，陶醉的，入迷的 动词enchant的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• She was enchanted by the flowers you sent her. 她非常喜欢你送给她的花。
• He was enchanted by the idea. 他为这个主意而欣喜若狂。

26 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

27 bustling   

adj.喧闹的

参考例句：

• The market was bustling with life. 市场上生机勃勃。
• This district is getting more and more prosperous and bustling. 这一带越来越繁华了。

28 harry   

vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼

参考例句：

• Today,people feel more hurried and harried.今天，人们感到更加忙碌和苦恼。
• Obama harried business by Healthcare Reform plan.奥巴马用医改掠夺了商界。

29 intervals   

n.[军事]间隔( interval的名词复数 )；间隔时间；[数学]区间；（戏剧、电影或音乐会的）幕间休息

参考例句：

• The forecast said there would be sunny intervals and showers. 预报间晴，有阵雨。
• Meetings take place at fortnightly intervals. 每两周开一次会。