《夏洛的网》英文版精读训练（9）

Chapter 3 Escape (2)

勤动笔是好习惯

Fern came almost every day to visit him. She found an old milking stool that had been discarded, and she placed the stool in the sheepfold next to Wilbur's pen. Here she sat quietly during the long afternoons, thinking and listening and watching Wilbur. The sheep soon got to know her and trust her. So did the geese, who lived with the sheep. All the animals trusted her, she was so quiet and friendly. Mr. Zuckerman did not allow her to take Wilbur out, and he did not allow her to get into the pigpen. But he told Fern that she could sit on the stool and watch Wilbur as long as she wanted to. It made her happy just to be near the pig, and it made Wilbur happy to know that she was sitting there, right outside his pen. But he never had any fun---no walks, no rides, no swims.

One afternoon in June, when Wilbur was almost two months old, he wandered out into his small yard outside the barn. Fern had not arrived for her usual visit. Wilbur stood in the sun feeling lonely and bored.

"There's never anything to do around here," he thought. He walked slowly to his food trough and sniffed to see if anything had been overlooked at lunch. He found a small strip of potato skin and ate it. His back itched, so he leaned against the fence and rubbed against the boards. When he tired of this, he walked indoors, climbed to the top of the manure pile, and sat down. He didn't feel like going to sleep, he didn't feel like digging, he was tired of standing still, tired of lying down. "I'm less than two months old and I'm tired of living," he said. He walked out to the yard again.

"When I'm out here, " he said, "there's no place to go but in. When I'm indoors, there's no place to go but out in the yard."

原文句子仿写练习：

He didn't feel like going to sleep, he didn't feel like digging, he was tired of standing still, tired of lying down.

本句描写了小猪威尔伯感觉无聊时的情形。我们时不时也会感觉到无聊，平时爱做的事，或经常做的事，比如追剧、逛街、玩游戏、看电影等等，突然不想做了。这时可以仿写一下：

I didn't feel like (            ), I didn't feel like (            ), I was tired of (            ), tired of (            ).

我觉得感觉到无聊并不是一件太糟糕的事情。无聊是因为心里想做事情，但又不知道该做什么，找不到方向的状态。不过这时候如果不小心，就很容易滑落到“被动娱乐”的状态。“被动娱乐”只能暂时让人逃避一会无聊感，但娱乐过后，更进一步的空虚无聊又会卷土重来。所以感觉无聊时，与其浑浑噩噩的耗散精力，不如静下心来和自己聊聊天，了解自己的真实想法，或者干脆就好好休息。当精力充沛时，头脑也更清醒，从而也就更容易找到自己的方向。能够把自己的时间和精力投入到自己认为有价值的事情上才是克服无聊的根本解决方案。

原文中的动词：

1. discard: to get rid of something

近义词：throw away

例句：Read the manufacturer's guidelines before discarding the box.

2. wander:  to walk slowly across or around an area, usually without a clear direction or purpose

例句：When he got bored he wandered around the fair.

3. sniff: to breathe air in through your nose in order to smell something

例句：He opened the milk and sniffed it.

4. overlook: to not notice something, or not see how important it is 

近义词：miss

生活中有很多我们习以为常的美好，今天就想一想：What have I overlooked today?

5. itch: if part of your body or your clothes itch, you have an unpleasant feeling on your skin that makes you want to rub it with your nails

说到“痒”，的确是unpleasant feeling. 苏东坡曾经说过：“人生耐贫贱易,耐富贵难；安勤苦易, 安闲散难；忍痛易, 忍痒难。能耐富贵、安闲散、忍痒者, 必有道之士也。” 真是越想越觉得精辟呀。

6. rub: to make something press against something else and move it around

rub against:

例句：She stood by the oven, rubbing one bare foot against the other.

原文中的名词：

1. milking stool: 挤奶凳

2. food trough: 食槽