时间:2018-11-30 作者:英语课 分类:2006年星火30篇考研词汇


英语课
Unit 22 Come with Falling Snow…………………………385
和雪花一起飘来
生活中,要想得到自己想要的东西,有时需要付出本来承受不了的耐心。人们应该从不放弃希望。生活可能会不如人之所愿,但只要希望还在,终归会获得满足……
BY the year my husband turned 40 and I hit the age of 35, John’s parents evidently were worried about us. His older brother had produced three grandchildren. So had his younger sister. We had produced none.
For my in-laws, to love is to worry. When John’s parents visited us from New York, his mother would get me alone and inquire delicately. After a perfect summer seafood 1 dinner at their beach house, the same questions were fired at us. They always made attempts to know our attitude. Didn’t we want kids? Or was there a problem with our marriage?
John’s father rarely said anything, yet I knew that she spoke 2 for both of them. He was a re
tired ambassador and he liked to call himself a cranky(怪僻的)old mail. But I knew that he cared
and they fretted(烦忧)over us together.
By then we were wondering too. In earlier years the pressure to procreate(生育)had made us roll our eyes. In our 20’s and even into our 30’s,we were ambivalent(矛盾的)about the whole idea of children. We certainly didn’t regard the decision as anyone’s business but our own. Besides, what was the big deal(了不起)?His parents already had six grandchildren. Why did they need more from us?
Then one day we realized that we were real adults—old enough to be somebody’s parents. We had exceeded the age of youthfulness. Suddenly we felt ready for a child.
As a baby became central to our hopes, I better understood my in-laws’ interference. Now in their sliver 3 years, they took the connection between their later years of life and their children and grandchildren for their greatest pleasure. Our child would provide both us and them with a lifeline to the future.
Yet to hope does not always mean receiving. By the time 1 was 35,John and I had been“trying”for three years, however, I did not get pregnant. It seemed that Mother Nature(自然的力量)was displeased(使不快).Our sex life became a lab experiment, and our emotional life wavered monthly between hidden optimism and ruined expectations. Then finally, one day in January. The pregnancy 4 test(孕检测试)turned pink(孕检测试呈现粉红表示怀孕).John and I stared repeatedly at the supernatural stick in excitement and could not firmly believe. Was this true? Should we tell everyone?
We decided 5 to tell his parents on February 15, the day John’s father would turn 70.We were planning to surprise him by going up a few days early and to join the family for a birthday dinner at an elegant New York City restaurant. By then 1 would be six weeks pregnant. What an idea it would be to give him the ultimate gift—the news that, at long last, we would add a baby to the family.
We flew into Baltimore(巴尔的摩),planning to drive to New York the next day with John’s sister and her family. But nature was not cooperative. That was the winter of 1960,the year that broke records of snowfall on the East Coast(美国东海岸).A typhoon blew up then. And the weather forecasts issued stern warnings not to drive the next day.
We watched the news late into the night, huddled 6 beside the fireplace as the snow continued to fall. Drinking hot tea and hot alcohol, we debated whether to drive out the next day. Finally, we acceded(同意)to the decision that the event meant too much not to gamble on it. My brother-in-law(妹夫),a can-do man who inspires absolute confidence, was cautious but willing to take the wheel.
The next morning we loaded into their station wagon 7—four edgy(急躁不安的)adults, three excited young boys and a golden retriever(猎狗).Then we spent eight tense hours driving north on icy(冰的)highways in a whirling blizzard 8(大风雪).
when we finally arrived t hat night, the landscape(地形)of the outskirts 9 of New York had been transformed into a Nordic(北欧的)paradise. John’s father still had no idea we were coming. Wrapped in a huge thermal 10 coat。John knocked on the front door. “How hard it is snowing!”He said to his dad. When his puzzled father finally recognized him and ascertained 11 what really happened, he sank back into a chair. How had we appeared from Texas in the midst of a bleak 12 snowstorm so fierce that airports had canceled flights? All of us thought that to make the old man stunned 13 and pleased was worth the freezing on the long journey.
We didn’t make it into the city for our elegant dinner:the roads and bridges were Virtually in accessible(达不到的).We ended up eating at a neighborhood Chinese restaurant. Excited by our successful adventure, we made a noisy, festive(节日似的)party around the big family table. John and I exchanged a glance—now? Then I respectfully presented his father with a gift-wrapped box. He opened it, stared bewildered at our gift, a baby doll in a fabric 14 fashioned from a Texas(得克萨斯州)flag. He held up the doll and kept saying“Oh my Cod 15!”with watering blue eyes. It traveled around the table, everyone congratulated us.
The next morning, I started to bleed and to feel pain. Then to bleed more. Both my sisters-in-law had suffered troublesome pregnancies 16. Late that afternoon they sat with me and John in his boyhood bedroom as we struggled to face the matter. I found a spiritual comfort from their concern and anxiety. A call to my doctor confirmed the terrible truth:I had probably had an abortion(流产).
That night the eight adults went out for a formal makeup 17 birthday banquet at a restaurant. The atmosphere was strange and bittersweet(苦乐参半的).A 70th birthday celebration innately(天生就有地)has a dark note; to make a fuss of it is to acknowledge that the life is finite. Death may come at any hour. Aching with cramps(腹痛)and grief, I had wanted to stay home in bed. The sufferings spoiled my appetite. But John and his family had insisted on my joining them, and they were right. Our communal(集体的)dinner honored our father’s long life. We were family; sharing great meals was our glue and our comfort. We all drowned our complicated emotions in the toasts to my father-in-law(岳父).
The weather cleared the next day, and we flew home. On the way to the airport, I saw the doll lying abandoned in the back of my sister-in-law’s station wagon. Its face smiled up at me mockingly. Let them throw it out. I thought.1 wished we had never given my father-in-law that absurd baby doll.
Back home. John and 1 were struck down by the power of our grief. Neither of us could drag ourselves to work. We felt like a couple of baggage in a locker 18. After we had tried so long and got pregnant, the miscarriage(流产)was a tough, depressing loss. And to have lost the pregnancy so publicly made it even worse.
But once again, nature surprised us. Two months later, almost by accident, I turned up pregnant—a miracle! This time, we superstitiously(迷信地)kept the news to ourselves for a full three months. During those long days, we barely even allowed ourselves to believe in the pregnancy. If we had no expectations, then maybe we couldn’t be hurt. But despite our fears, this one was a keeper. The little being inside me lived and blossomed, grasped kicked, and together we grew into fullness.
On January 31, our daughter, Addie, was born. When she emerged after a long, hard labor 19, I asked for her to be placed skin-to-skin on my chest. She felt warm and solid and delicious. We gazed into each other’s eyes and 1 was instantly in love. The many obstacles that John and I had Overcome made US go into raptures(兴高采烈)over the birth of the little being. Among our most joyous 20 phone calls was the one to his parents. We did it! She’s here! She’s perfect!
The next morning, when John’s mother Game down to breakfast, she found the doll dressed in the Texas flag. Unknown(未知的)to US, my old father-in-law had kept the little darling dull tucked away for a year. Before placing the doll next to his wife’s plate, he had taped a note to it. It read“Hi, I’m Addie.”
He understood what we did not:life sometimes demands more patience than you can bear. He hadn’t given up hope. Our happiness didn’t come in the form we first expected, but it was delivered just the same.
It rarely snows in Austin(奥斯汀市)。Texas, but on Addle’s first birthday, the sky turned gray, then it snowed. The city was in white. I bundled up our sweet girl and carried her outside SO that she could feel and taste the falling snow a rare birthday gift from nature. We laughed as we caught snowflakes(雪花)on our tongues. I hadn’t seen snow myself since that East Coast storm two years before. Then it had been accompanied by an emotional blizzard. Now 1 watched it fall gently as I cradled my giggling(咯咯笑)daughter in my arms. I had learned a lot about love, hope and being a family in two years’ time.
I tried to make 0ut the intricate structure of individual snowflakes, to Capture their unique beauty. But they melted on my hand. So I gave up and watched as they united into white drifts on our deck, gathering 21 like the fullness of our family’s life.
注释:
inquire
rarely→★rare/scarce
ambassador→★ambulance
adult→★old
exceed→★proceed
interference
connection
lifeline
displease→★please
monthly
optimism
expectation
supernatural
gift
cooperative
typhoon
forecast
issue
stern
fireplace→★fire
alcohol
debate
gamble
absolute
cautious
wag(g)on→★wagon
tense
icy→★ice
highway→★way
whirl
outskirts
transform
paradise
thermal
puzzle
ascertain
bleak
fierce
inaccessible
neighborhood
doll
fabric→★fabric
fashion
congratulate
bleed→★blood
anxiety
formal
fuss
acknowledge
finite
grief
appetite
glue
father-in-law
mock
absurd
baggage
tough
despite
keeper→★keep
blossom
grasp
emerge
obstacle
unknown
tuck away
plate→★plate
bear
sweet
rare
accompany→★accompany
cradle
unique→★unite
gather

1 seafood
n.海产食品,海味,海鲜
  • There's an excellent seafood restaurant near here.离这儿不远有家非常不错的海鲜馆。
  • Shrimps are a popular type of seafood.小虾是比较普遍的一种海味。
2 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
  • 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。
3 sliver
n.裂片,细片,梳毛;v.纵切,切成长片,剖开
  • There was only one sliver of light in the darkness.黑暗中只有一点零星的光亮。
  • Then,one night,Monica saw a thin sliver of the moon reappear.之后的一天晚上,莫尼卡看到了一个月牙。
4 pregnancy
n.怀孕,怀孕期
  • Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
  • Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。
5 decided
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
6 huddled
挤在一起(huddle的过去式与过去分词形式)
  • We huddled together for warmth. 我们挤在一块取暖。
  • We huddled together to keep warm. 我们挤在一起来保暖。
7 wagon
n.四轮马车,手推车,面包车;无盖运货列车
  • We have to fork the hay into the wagon.我们得把干草用叉子挑进马车里去。
  • The muddy road bemired the wagon.马车陷入了泥泞的道路。
8 blizzard
n.暴风雪
  • The blizzard struck while we were still on the mountain.我们还在山上的时候暴风雪就袭来了。
  • You'll have to stay here until the blizzard blows itself off.你得等暴风雪停了再走。
9 outskirts
n.郊外,郊区
  • Our car broke down on the outskirts of the city.我们的汽车在市郊出了故障。
  • They mostly live on the outskirts of a town.他们大多住在近郊。
10 thermal
adj.热的,由热造成的;保暖的
  • They will build another thermal power station.他们要另外建一座热能发电站。
  • Volcanic activity has created thermal springs and boiling mud pools.火山活动产生了温泉和沸腾的泥浆池。
11 ascertained
v.弄清,确定,查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 )
  • The previously unidentified objects have now been definitely ascertained as being satellites. 原来所说的不明飞行物现在已证实是卫星。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • I ascertained that she was dead. 我断定她已经死了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
12 bleak
adj.(天气)阴冷的;凄凉的;暗淡的
  • They showed me into a bleak waiting room.他们引我来到一间阴冷的会客室。
  • The company's prospects look pretty bleak.这家公司的前景异常暗淡。
13 stunned
n.织物,织品,布;构造,结构,组织
  • The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
  • I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。
14 cod
n.鳕鱼;v.愚弄;哄骗
  • They salt down cod for winter use.他们腌鳕鱼留着冬天吃。
  • Cod are found in the North Atlantic and the North Sea.北大西洋和北海有鳕鱼。
15 pregnancies
怀孕,妊娠( pregnancy的名词复数 )
  • Since the wartime population needed replenishment, pregnancies were a good sign. 最后一桩倒不失为好现象,战时人口正该补充。
  • She's had three pregnancies in four years. 她在四年中怀孕叁次。
16 makeup
n.组织;性格;化装品
  • Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
  • Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗?
17 locker
n.更衣箱,储物柜,冷藏室,上锁的人
  • At the swimming pool I put my clothes in a locker.在游泳池我把衣服锁在小柜里。
  • He moved into the locker room and began to slip out of his scrub suit.他走进更衣室把手术服脱下来。
18 labor
n.劳动,努力,工作,劳工;分娩;vi.劳动,努力,苦干;vt.详细分析;麻烦
  • We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
  • He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后,他已经疲惫不堪了。
19 joyous
adj.充满快乐的;令人高兴的
  • The lively dance heightened the joyous atmosphere of the scene.轻快的舞蹈给这场戏渲染了欢乐气氛。
  • They conveyed the joyous news to us soon.他们把这一佳音很快地传递给我们。
20 gathering
n.集会,聚会,聚集
  • He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
  • He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。
学英语单词
acceptance and delivery list of wagons
AFFECT and EFFECT
allfinanz
annotining
Ash Brook
authority for issue
auxiliary curve
balzacs
base contact
brausens
Broadband Metropolitan Area Network
butternut squashes
cavity wave meter
cd - rom drives
CEPHFLOC
coguitive psychology
Colorno
congemi
counter vailing letter of credit
creational
cultural symbol
curuba
doctrinarianism
drill tip
endothermal reaction
entire horse
expansion drawing
fast breeder, fast-breeder reactor
frenched steak
ginger wine
harmonicas
heavy hitter
hexachlorobutadiene
hexadecapeptide
Hong Kong dog
i-bringe
impact cap
insertion tube
inter-nationality
interim development report
international unit of male hormone
jug-jug
kanasite (canasite)
language methodology
launching-pad
layer board
Ledo Road
leftism
Lesnikovo
like blazed
lodgepole
maddingly
Manjeshwar
marketing-communications
microdon (microdon) auricinctus
middle alveolar branches
Mikania scandens
miloshes
moisturizing creams
Montaigu
napa cabbage
number of classes
periodic emission
phenoxazines
phosphite ester
playing the field
post-publications
precast pattern block
protective housing
quicklimes
recessus
recording of oral statement
rocket-assisted torpedo
rod mounting adapter
san carlos apaches
sea-beds
seepage discharge
sex attractant
sexual risk behavior
shillaber
silent but deadly
skin blister
sloughs off
soil-water zone
spotted beebalm
starter bruch spring
suhenofrontal crest
superatoms
Surofene
terminating queue
tharfcake
thigh-slapper
tie-rod
Trichorad
trickled
tune the radio to
underresourced
unwhisperable
walpoles
worshipable
woven wire square mesh screen
yet another reason