英语听书《白鲸记》第17期

  Whether that mattress¹ was stuffed with corn cobs or broken crockery,there is no telling, 

 but I rolled about a good deal,and could not sleep for a long time. 

 At last I slid off into a light doze,and had pretty nearly made a good offing towards the land of Nod, 

 when I heard a heavy footfall in the passage,and saw a glimmer² of light come into the room from under the door. 

 Lord save me,thinks I,that must be the harpooneer,the infernal head peddler. 

 But I lay perfectly³ still,and resolved not to say a word till spoken to.Holding a light in one hand, 

 and that identical New Zealand head in the other,the stranger entered the room, 

 and without looking towards the bed,placed his candle a good way off from me on the floor in one corner, 

 and then began working away at the knotted cords of the large bag I before spoke⁴ of as being in the room. 

 I was all eagerness to see his face,but he kept it averted⁵ for some time while employed in unlacing the bag's mouth. 

 This accomplished,however,he turned round when,good heavens!what a sight!Such a face!It was of a dark,purplish, 

 yellow colour,here and there stuck over with large blackish looking squares.Yes,it's just as I thought, 

 he's a terrible bedfellow;he's been in a fight,got dreadfully cut,and here he is,just from the surgeon. 

 But at that moment he chanced to turn his face so towards the light,that I plainly saw they could not be sticking plasters at all, 

 those black squares on his cheeks.They were stains of some sort or other. 

 At first I knew not what to make of this;but soon an inkling of the truth occurred to me. 

 I remembered a story of a white man a whaleman too who,falling among the cannibals,had been tattooed⁶ by them. 

 I concluded that this harpooneer,in the course of his distant voyages,must have met with a similar adventure. 

 And what is it,thought I,after all!It's only his outside;a man can be honest in any sort of skin. 

 But then,what to make of his unearthly complexion,that part of it,I mean,lying round about,and completely independent of the squares of tattooing⁷. 

 To be sure,it might be nothing but a good coat of tropical tanning; 

 but I never heard of a hot sun's tanning a white man into a purplish yellow one. 

 However,I had never been in the South Seas;and perhaps the sun there produced these extraordinary effects upon the skin. 

 Now,while all these ideas were passing through me like lightning,this harpooneer never noticed me at all. 

 But,after some difficulty having opened his bag,he commenced fumbling⁸ in it,and presently pulled out a sort of tomahawk, 

 and a seal skin wallet with the hair on.Placing these on the old chest in the middle of the room, 

 he then took the New Zealand head a ghastly thing enough and crammed⁹ it down into the bag. 

 He now took off his hat a new beaver¹⁰ hat when I came nigh singing out with fresh surprise. 

 There was no hair on his head none to speak of at least nothing but a small scalp knot twisted up on his forehead. 

 His bald purplish head now looked for all the world like a mildewed¹¹ skull¹².Had not the stranger stood between me and the door, 

 I would have bolted out of it quicker than ever I bolted a dinner. 

 Even as it was,I thought something of slipping out of the window,but it was the second floor back. 

1 mattress   

n.床垫，床褥

参考例句：

• The straw mattress needs to be aired.草垫子该晾一晾了。
• The new mattress I bought sags in the middle.我买的新床垫中间陷了下去。

2 glimmer   

v.发出闪烁的微光；n.微光，微弱的闪光

参考例句：

• I looked at her and felt a glimmer of hope.我注视她，感到了一线希望。
• A glimmer of amusement showed in her eyes.她的眼中露出一丝笑意。

3 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。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 averted   

防止，避免( avert的过去式和过去分词 )； 转移

参考例句：

• A disaster was narrowly averted. 及时防止了一场灾难。
• Thanks to her skilful handling of the affair, the problem was averted. 多亏她对事情处理得巧妙，才避免了麻烦。

6 tattooed   

v.刺青，文身( tattoo的过去式和过去分词 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击

参考例句：

• He had tattooed his wife's name on his upper arm. 他把妻子的名字刺在上臂上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The sailor had a heart tattooed on his arm. 那水兵在手臂上刺上一颗心。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

7 tattooing   

n.刺字，文身v.刺青，文身( tattoo的现在分词 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击

参考例句：

• tattooing and body piercing 文身和穿体装饰
• On earth most work of the absolute shy cattle ^s skin-tattooing world! 地球上最牛的纹身绝对惊世之作！ 来自互联网

8 fumbling   

n. 摸索,漏接 v. 摸索,摸弄,笨拙的处理

参考例句：

• If he actually managed to the ball instead of fumbling it with an off-balance shot. 如果他实际上设法拿好球而不是fumbling它。50-balance射击笨拙地和迅速地会开始他的岗位移动，经常这样结束。
• If he actually managed to secure the ball instead of fumbling it awkwardly an off-balance shot. 如果他实际上设法拿好球而不是fumbling它。50-50提议有时。他从off-balance射击笨拙地和迅速地会开始他的岗位移动，经常这样结束。

9 crammed   

adj.塞满的，挤满的；大口地吃；快速贪婪地吃v.把…塞满；填入；临时抱佛脚( cram的过去式)

参考例句：

• He crammed eight people into his car. 他往他的车里硬塞进八个人。
• All the shelves were crammed with books. 所有的架子上都堆满了书。

10 beaver   

n.海狸，河狸

参考例句：

• The hat is made of beaver.这顶帽子是海狸毛皮制的。
• A beaver is an animals with big front teeth.海狸是一种长着大门牙的动物。

11 mildewed   

adj.发了霉的，陈腐的，长了霉花的v.（使）发霉，（使）长霉( mildew的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Things easily get mildewed in the rainy season. 梅雨季节东西容易发霉。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The colonel was gorgeous, he had a cavernous mouth, cavernous cheeks, cavernous, sad, mildewed eyes. 这位上校样子挺神气，他的嘴巴、双颊和两眼都深深地凹进去，目光黯淡，象发了霉似的。 来自辞典例句

12 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。