全新版大学英语综合教程3Unit5-Passage-A-词汇和短语

Unit 5

Passage A

# Detailed Reading

##1. Difficult Sentences

1. I stared at the words in the distressed way you might stare at party guests whose faces you’ve seen somewhere before but whose names have escaped your mind .(Para .9 , L .1)

我看着这些词, 一筹莫展。这就像参加晚会时, 盯着那些似曾相识的脸孔, 可怎么也想不起名字一样。

2.. He looked confused, a reminder that clever’s not clever if it doesn’t communicate.

He looked confused, and his puzzled look reminded me that my answer was not clever at all because it couldn’t be understood.

他一脸的迷惑，这是在提醒我，如果不能使对方明白，这词儿就不能算用得聪明。

3.Just not right now, now when it mattered, now when the fate of a curious, intelligent immigrant hung on the answers he assumed would fall from a native speaker’s tongue as naturally as leaves from an October tree.

I couldn’t say the answer right now, because this answer was so important that the fate of this curious and intelligent Pakistani driver kind of relied on it. I couldn’t tell the answer precisely, though he supposed it would be so natural for me to give him an answer as a native speaker, as natural as leaves falling from an October tree.

这我可以回答，但不是在此时。因为此时这一回答至关重要，一个好奇聪明的外国移民以为他所期待的答案会从一个本国人的口中自然而然地脱口而出，就好像十月的树叶会自然地落下来一样。因此我退却了。

4. …so enthralled by the chance to indulge my curiosity about words with another curious soul, that I didn’t fully grasp the potential for linguistic fraud committed in this man’s cab.

…(I’d been) so absorbed in the chance to satisfy the man’s curiosity with my (poor) knowledge of English that I didn’t fully realize how misleading and confusing my and other native speakers’ interpretations might be.

…(我一直）陶醉于能有机会与一个充满好奇心的人一起来满足自己对语言词语的好奇心， 却未能充分意识到在这辆出租车上可能犯下的语言欺诈错误。

5.And that he figures out that, no matter what his passengers may say, haste doesn’t always make waste at the gapers block.

And that he finds out that, no matter what his passengers may say, things may not mean as they say. (Surface meaning: When other people gather to watch what’s happened, you should waste no time and leave in a hurry. In other words, haste doesn’t lead to waste of time in this case)

他能明白，不论乘客如何解释，发生围观塞车时，欲速则未必不达。

##2. Words and Expressions

1. rear a. of, at or located in the back