The Moon and Sixpence

Note 6.0

Chapter V & Chapter VI

①：Robert-- was a boy of sixteen at Rugby; and you saw him in flannels and a cricket cap, and again in a tail-coat and a stand-up collar. He had his mother's candid brow and fine, reflective eyes. He looked clean, healthy, and normal.

② The daughter was fourteen. Her hair, thick and dark like her mother's, fell over her shoulders, in fine profusion, and she had the same kindly expression and sedate untroble eyes.

佳句赏析： 这两段话是对 Strickland 一双儿女的外貌描写。 描述的很生动，用词也很灵活。需要学习和借鉴。

③ I reflected, while I chatted with the woman I had been asked to " take in", that civilised man practises a strange ingenuity in wasting on tedious exercises the brief span of his life.

解析： the brief span of his life: 短暂的一生     ingenuity： 精巧，独创性

这段话有很多逗号，穿插了一个while 引导的时间状语从句， 从句的主语仍然是I。 因此翻译时，要注意不要被这段话带跑。

我一边和一位叫我"陪同"的女客随便闲谈，一边思忖：文明社会这样消磨自己的心智，把短促的生命浪费在无聊的应酬上实在令人莫解。

④ It was because the Member of Parliament found that he could not leave the House that I had been invited.

Because 引导的原因状语从句。 翻译时可以语序转至： 我之所以被邀请时因为议员发现自己无法离开议院，（我来是为了填补这个空缺）。

⑤ The women were too nice to be well dressed, and too sure of their position to be amusing.

解析，时刻注意 too...to...的用法才不会会错意。 too...to...意为 太……以至于不能……。

因此，这句话应该是： 

太太们知道自己的气派所以不太讲究穿着，也深知自己的地位也不想讨人欢喜。

⑤ I no longer wondered that Mrs. Strickland felt a certain embarrassment about him, he was scarcely a credit to a woman who wanted to make herself a position in the world of art and letters.

解析：我个人觉得这句写得很棒棒。这段话也是嵌套了主语从句： who wanted .....

翻译会比较简单： 我不再好奇为何在谈到Strickland 先生时，他的太太会有一些不好意思，因为对于一个想要在文艺界有一席地位的女人而言，他实在无法为她增光添彩（scarcely a credit to a woman...)。

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这两章内容篇幅较少，内容也比较简单（含有很多场景描写和对话，不会那么枯燥），有了前面几章的积累，现在看这两章内容也增加了信心，不会感觉特别难（至少不会出现单词全认识，句子却看不懂了），当然后面估计还会出现这种情况（笑），在看原著的同时也得一边学习、完善、巩固语法知识。