英语自考本科高级英语笔记-上册-Lesson_Ten

Lesson Ten The Tenth Man Words and Expressions

Text Explanation

1this one was very young, with inexperience even in the shape of his mustache…

他非常年轻，从他胡子的形状看，他很缺乏经验。

2…but the irony was overdone and the delivery that of an amateur actor.

但冷嘲做过了头，他说话的方式就像一个业余演员。

"delivery" means the way of speaking or performing in public.

"amateur" used as an adjective here means "poor, not good".

It means the delivery was the kind of an amateur actor.

3The whold scene was as unreal as a charade.

整个场面就像看手势猜字谜游戏那样虚假。

charade here has a double meaning: a piece of ridiculous pretence or absurd behaviour, and a game in which a one person acts the meaning of a word or phrase and the others have to guess what it is.

4Well, now you've to pay the hotel bill.

The speaker is trying to be humourous. It means they have to pay with their lives for the stay in the cell.

5This was just a line in his charade he couldn't sacrifice.

这是他矫饰时不能省略的一句话。

6The funeral rites will begin at seven tomorrow morning.

死刑将在明天早上七点执行。

7Charvel wondered for a moment what syllable had been acted…

查维尔忽然很想知道他打的手势是什么字。

8Unless it is thought that we should go by ages - the oldest first.

除非按年龄决定，最老的先去死。

To go by means to act according to

9It's the way of nature.

这是自然规律。

10Why should the married get off?

为什么结婚的人就可以躲避惩罚呢？

to get off means to avoid punishment, misfortune, loss, etc.

11…as the owner of time he was bound to be the next victim.

…as the owner of the watch he was bound to be the next victim to be shot because many watch owner in the cell had been shot, their watches looted by the Germans.

be bound to: certain to, obliged to 一定，必须

They are bound to take their son to the park every weekend.

12This isn't the last draw we shall have…

这并不是我们最后一次抽签，即以后德国人还会要我们自己决定下一批谁该去死。

13Picture to yourselves what it will be like in this cell if we have a privileged class - the ones who are left to the end.

你们自己想想，如果我们有一个特权阶级－由于种种原因没被选去枪毙而活到最后的人，这个牢房里将会怎样？

a privileged class refers to those people who, because of various reasons, enjoyed the privilege of not being chosen to be

shot dead, and would therefor remain alive till the end.

14We shall be left out of your fear…

You don't have to worry.你们不必担心。

We shall be left out of your fear that we are the privileged class.

15But if the taxes were levied like this…

The implied meaning is it would be most outrageous and unfair if the taxes were levied like this.

16and make careful excavations as though he had one particular scrap of paper in mind.

他用手在鞋子里小心地掏，就像是要掏到他心里想要的那张。