第五天閱讀
作者的文字溫暖而風趣它掂，讓人舍不得放下這本書呆瞻，看來從今天開始作者要慢慢講述深刻而沉重的內(nèi)容了……
The Radley Place jutted into a sharp curve beyond our house. Walking south, one faced its porch; the sidewalk turned and ran beside the lot. The house was low, was once white with a deep front porch and green shutters, but had long ago darkened to the color of the slate-gray yard around it. Rain-rotted shingles drooped over the eaves of the veranda; oak trees kept the sun away. The remains of a picket drunkenly guarded the front yard—a “swept” yard that was never swept—where johnson grass and rabbit-tobacco grew in abundance.
Inside the house lived a malevolent phantom. People said he existed, but Jem and I had never seen him. People said he went out at night when the moon was down, and peeped in windows. When people’s azaleas froze in a cold snap, it was because he had breathed on them. Any stealthy small crimes committed in Maycomb were his work.
Once the town was terrorized by a series of morbid nocturnal events: people’s chickens and household pets were found mutilated; although the culprit was Crazy Addie, who eventually drowned himself in Barker’s Eddy, people still looked at the Radley Place, unwilling to discard their initial suspicions. A Negro would not pass the Radley Place at night, he would cut across to the sidewalk opposite and whistle as he walked. The Maycomb school grounds adjoined the back of the Radley lot; from the Radley chicken yard tall pecan trees shook their fruit into the schoolyard, but the nuts lay untouched by the children: Radley pecans would kill you. A baseball hit into the Radley yard was a lost ball and no questions asked.
The misery of that house began many years before Jem and I were born. The Radleys, welcome anywhere in town, kept to themselves, a predilection unforgivable in Maycomb. They did not go to church, Maycomb’s principal recreation, but worshiped at home; Mrs. Radley seldom if ever crossed the street for a mid-morning coffee break with her neighbors, and certainly never joined a missionary circle. Mr. Radley walked to town at eleven-thirty every morning and came back promptly at twelve, sometimes carrying a brown paper bag that the neighborhood assumed contained the family groceries. I never knew how old Mr. Radley made his living—Jem said he “bought cotton,” a polite term for doing nothing—but Mr. Radley and his wife had lived there with their two sons as long as anybody could remember.
The shutters and doors of the Radley house were closed on Sundays, another thing alien to Maycomb’s ways: closed doors meant illness and cold weather only. Of all daysSunday was the day for formal afternoon visiting: ladies wore corsets, men wore coats, children wore shoes. But to climb the Radley front steps and call, “He-y,” of a Sunday afternoon was something their neighbors never did. The Radley house had no screen doors. I once asked Atticus if it ever had any; Atticus said yes, but before I was born.
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熟詞僻義
lot 這里指“地塊”
原句：the sidewalk turned and ran beside the lot.
詞匯學習
shutters 百葉窗
slate-gray? 青灰色
shingles 木瓦
eaves 屋檐
veranda 名詞 （房屋底層有頂半敞的）走廊肩杈，游廊
drunkenly 醉醺醺地杏愤，蹣跚地
picket 尖木樁? 同義詞：stake
原文：The remains of a picket drunkenly guarded the front yard.
drunkenly 這里指尖木樁東倒西歪地守護這前院
phantom 幽靈
azaleas 杜鵑花
mutilated 使殘廢，殘缺不全驼仪，毀傷
原文：people’s chickens and household pets were found mutilated… 人們養(yǎng)的雞和自家的寵物不斷受到殘害掸犬。
culprit 罪犯
pecan trees 美洲山核桃
predilection 偏愛 to have a predilection for sth. 偏愛某物
和作者學習寫作
The Radley Place jutted into a sharp curve beyond our house. Walking south, one faced its porch; the sidewalk turned and ran beside the lot. The house was low, was once white with a deep front porch and green shutters, but had long ago darkened to the color of the slate-gray yard around it. Rain-rotted shingles drooped over the eaves of the veranda; oak trees kept the sun away. The remains of a picket drunkenly guarded the front yard—a “swept” yard that was never swept—where johnson grass and rabbit-tobacco grew in abundance.
如何描述一間簡陋的房子？
There is a big tree in front of the house??
文化速遞
a swept yard
原文：a “swept” yard that was never swept
這個叫做“掃院”的地方從來沒有被清掃绪爸。
通常湾碎，美國南方的某些地方把前院稱為“掃院”。因為前院代表一個家的門面奠货，需要經(jīng)常打掃介褥，保持干凈。（如下圖）
如果想了解這方面的內(nèi)容递惋，推薦大家看一本小說 Flipped
或者根據(jù)這本小說改編的電影怦然心動
