• 熟词生义 •
1. [ fair ]
在文中是“肤色白皙的”意思,英文解释为"pale or light-colored skin",常见的意思是“公平的”。
原句:He has just come from the tropics, for his face is dark, and that is not the natural color of his skin, for his wrists are fair.
2.[ remark ]
文中的remark是“说”的意思,常见的意思是“评论”。
原句:“You would lose your money,” Sherlock Holmes remarked calmly.
3. [ click ]
在文中是指“并拢”,常见的意思是“点击,作咔嗒声”。
原句:He clicked his heels together, raised his hand.
• 今日讲义 •
1. It attempted to show how much an observant man might learn by an accurate and careful examination of all that came in his way.
It 代指那本书,这本书尝试着展现一个善于观察的人能学到多少,by通过精确而且仔细的审视他在人生道路遇到的问题。难点在于[ all that came in his way ],all 理解为问题,难题。拟人化came看做问题主动走到你的way上。come in one's way,碰见。
2. The writer claimed by a temporary expression, a twitch of a muscle or a glance( 一瞥 ) of an eye, to find out a man’s inner thoughts.
这个作者声称,通过观察一个人瞬间的表情,肌肉的抽动,眼神可以发现那个人的内心想法。
3.“From a drop of water,” said the writer, “a logician could gather the possibility of an Atlantic or a Niagara without having seen or heard of one or the other. So all life is a great chain, the nature of which is known whenever we are shown a single link of it.
这句话是一叶知秋,以小见大的感觉。“仅仅依靠一滴水,”作者如是写道,“推理专家就可以推断出这滴水是来自大西洋还是尼亚加拉河,不需要耳闻目睹。因此,万事万物就像一根巨大的链条,只需要看到其中的一个环link,我们就可以了解万事万物的本质。 which代指前面的all life。
尼亚加拉河(Niagara River)位于北美洲的五大湖区。尼加拉河自伊利湖流注安大略湖,为美国纽约州与加拿大安大略省的界河。集水面积包括苏必略湖、密西根湖、休伦湖和伊利湖水系,总计约67.3万平方千米,为北美水力资源最丰富的水道之一。
4.I should like to see him sit down in a third class carriage on the Underground, and figure out the profession of all the travelers. I would lay a thousand to one against him.
本句的意思是“我倒想看他坐在地下铁路的三等车厢里,对着来往行人,指出他们一个个的职业。我为此要下一个1:1000的赌注”。lay,除了有产卵、下蛋,还有下赌注的意思。
“I should like to”有“我想要,我喜欢”的意思。但此处联系上下文我们可以知道,华生不相信报纸上那篇文章的内容,并不觉得这篇文章的作者有多厉害。所以说这句话的时候,暗含轻蔑。因此这里I should like to译为“我倒想……” figure out 弄清楚
因为三等车厢的乘客鱼龙混杂,各行各业的都有,所以要凭借各自身上的一些特点来判断这些人的职业是很难的。然而Dr.Watson并不知道这篇文章正是Sherlock写的。
5.Yes, I have a natural talent both for observation and for deduction.
observation and deduction:观察法和演绎法。这就是Sherlock Holmes探案时所使用的两种最基本的方法。
对于deduction,Sherlock说过三句话:
1.I observe everything.(我观察一切。)
2.From what I observe, I deduce everything. (根据我的观察,我推理一切。)
3.When I've eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how mad it might seem, must be the truth. (当排除了一切不可能的情况,剩下的,不管看起来多么难以置信,都一定是真相。)
英国还有个网站叫做the science of deduction(http://www.thescienceofdeduction.co.uk/), 里面有一些推理小游戏,有兴趣的同学可以去玩耍。
6.They lay all the evidence before me, and I am generally able to give them the right idea, with the help of my knowledge of the history of crime. Lestrade is a well-known detective. He got himself into a mess recently over a case. That’s what brought him here.
他们将所有的证据罗列在我面前,正因为我对犯罪史十分了解,我往往能给他们正确的(指导)意见。雷斯垂德是一个颇负盛名的侦探。最近被一件案子搞的晕头转向。所以他来到了这儿(求助于我)。「get into a mess 」(陷入困境)。
作为全世界唯一的consulting detective(侦探顾问),傲娇的Sherlock经常帮助其他侦探破案,其中也包括大名鼎鼎的雷斯垂德侦探,连他被案子弄昏头脑时,也会来这儿向Sherlock求助。可见,我们最爱的Sherlock真的厉害!
7.I knew you came from Afghanistan. From long habit the sequence of thoughts ran so swiftly through my mind that I arrived at the conclusion without being aware of the intermediate steps. …The whole train of thought did not take a second. I then remarked that you came from Afghanistan, and you were shocked.
我知道你是从阿富汗回来的。习惯使然,一系列的想法在我的脑海中飞快运转,以至于我在得出结论时,没有觉察到中间这些步骤/过程……「 From long habit」有“习惯使然”的意思,这一推理的“绝技”是Sherlock久而久之形成的习惯。
判断Dr. Watson从阿富汗回到英国的经典桥段,便是Sherlock在书中第一次展示他的演绎推理,他还解释了自己的大脑的推理如此迅速。以至于当他说出结论时,对方都觉得他要么是瞎猜的,要么是听来的。
8.No man lives, or has ever lived, who has brought the same amount of study and of natural talent to the detection of crime as I have done.
这句话正常语序应该是:No man who has brought the same amount of study and of natural talent to the detection of crime as I have done lives, or has ever lived. 前无古人,当下也没有人像我一样有丰富的知识和与生俱来的侦探天赋
这句话的定语部分是who引导的后面的整个句子,修饰的前面的man,表示“当下活着的人或者曾经活过的人”;定语部分大家要注意两个并列的部分,amount of study and amount of natural talent 丰富的知识和与生俱来的天赋,以及最后那个as I have done (就像我所做的一样)。
9.There is no crime to detect, or, at most, some stupid crimes with a motive so obvious that even a Scotland Yard official can see through it.
如果有我这样的人存在,世上就不会有案子需要去侦破,或者,至少没有那么蠢的案子连警察厅都能搞定。这句话是Sherlock在嘲讽Scotland Yard(苏格兰场),说有些案子蠢得连苏格兰场的人也可以搞定。苏格兰场是伦敦警察厅的别称,这个名称来源于最初警察厅的总部地址,警察厅有一个后门位于一条叫Great Scotland Yard的街道。后来,这个门变成了警局的公共出入口,慢慢地大家也就把伦敦警察厅叫做苏格兰场了。
10.“But do you mean to say,” I said.
“that without leaving your room you can undo some knots which other men cannot figure out, although they have seen every detail for themselves?”
“Quite so.“
“你的意思是说……”我说道。
“你足不出户就能解开让别人束手无策的谜团,就算他们已经了解了所有细节(但也无力破案)?”
“非常正确。”
「undo knot」(解开结)可以抽象为“解开谜团”之意,而「figure out」也是一个近义表达,是“指出,指明”之意。这句话再次展示了他的高明,和其他侦探的愚蠢——就算拿到案件细节,依旧不能推断出结论。
11.The thought had hardly passed through my mind when the man whom we were watching caught sight of the number on our door, and ran rapidly across the road.
「 hardly…when…」: 一……就……,这个结构相当于as soon as。这句话是说Dr.Watson脑海中的话音刚落,街上那个男人就看到他们门上的门牌号,然后迅速地跑过了马路。再如: I had hardly arrived home when it rained. (我刚到家就下雨了。)此处,「catch sight of 」有“发现”之意。
•今日短语•
pick up 捡起,偶然学会
far-fetched 牵强的,不着边际的
figure out sth 弄清楚…….
manage to do sth 成功的做了某事
put sb on the right scent 使某人找到正确线索
get into a mess 陷入困境
undo knot 解开谜题
turn up 出现
lay down 阐述
second nature 第二天性
nothing of the sort! 哪有这回事!
arrive at a conclusion 得出结论
be aware of 意识到
catch sight of 看见
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