雅思阅读练习：The Wife’s Story

　　新东方在线雅思网为大家带来了雅思阅读练习：The Wife’s Story。正文都做了贴心的注解，文章包含雅思词汇、例句讲解。希望以下内容能够为同学们的雅思备考提供帮助。新东方在线雅思网将第一时间为大家发布最新、最全、最专业的雅思报名官网消息和雅思考试真题及解析，供大家参考。

　　【导读】厄休拉·勒古恩(1929-)，美国科幻、奇幻与女性主义与青少年儿童文学作家。著有小说20余部，以及诗集、散文集、游记、文学评论多部。她曾与人合译老子《道德经》，所获文学奖与荣誉不计其数。由于深受老子与人类学影响，其作品常蕴含道家思想，将世界万物与人类等量齐观。

　　《妻子的故事》收录在勒古恩1982年的短篇小说集《罗盘玫瑰》(The Compass Rose)中，小说使用第一人称回顾视角，讲述了一只狼如何变成狼人，然后被狼群杀死的故事。小说的故事本身并不新奇(美国文学中有数量相当可观的关于狼人的故事)，但勒古恩别具一格的视角使用方式体现了她一贯的叙述风格和哲学思想。

　　【正文】

　　He was a good husband, a good father1. I don’t understand it. I don’t believe in it. I don’t believe that it happened. I saw it happen but it isn’t true. It can’t be. He was always gentle. If you’d have seen him playing with the children, anybody who saw him with the children would have known that there wasn’t any bad in him, not one mean bone. When I first met him he was still living with his mother, over near Spring Lake, and I used to see them together, the mother and the sons, and think that any young fellow that was that nice with his family must be one worth knowing. Then one time when I was walking in the woods I met him by himself coming back from a hunting trip. He hadn’t got any game at all, not so much as a field mouse, but he wasn’t cast down about it. He was just larking along enjoying the morning air. That’s one of the things I first loved about him. He didn’t take things hard, he didn’t grouch and whine when things didn’t go his way. So we got to talking that day. And I guess things moved right along after that, because pretty soon he was over here pretty near all the time. And my sister said — see, my parents had moved out the year before and gone south, leaving us the place — my sister said, kind of teasing but serious, “Well! If he’s going to be here every day and half the night, I guess there isn’t room for me!” And she moved out — just down the way. We’ve always been real close, her and me. That’s the sort of thing doesn’t ever change. I couldn’t ever have got through this bad time without my sis.

　　他曾是个好丈夫、好父亲。我不明白，我不相信，我不相信事情就那样发生了。我目睹了事情的发生，可那不是真的，根本不可能!他一向都是很温柔的。如果你曾见过他和孩子们玩耍，只要见过他和孩子们在一起的情景，谁都知道他一点都不坏，连一根坏骨头也没有。我第一次遇上他时，他还和母亲一起住在春湖附近，我经常看到他们在一起，母亲和她那群儿子，我心想，对家人那么友好的年轻小伙肯定值得相识。有一次我在树林里散步，看见他独自打猎回来。他没有打到任何猎物，就连一只田鼠也没有，但他一点也不沮丧。他一路嬉戏，享受着清晨的空气。我首先爱上他的就是这一点。他不会纠结，事不遂愿时也不牢骚抱怨。就这样，那天我们开始说起话来。之后我觉得事情上路了，因为不久后他就老在我们周围晃悠。我姐——哦，我父母一年前就搬走，去了南方，把这地方留给我俩——，我姐半开玩笑半认真地说：“好啦!如果他整天半夜都来这里的话，我看这地方就没有我的份罗!”很快她真的搬出去了——离这儿不远的地方。我们一直都非常亲近，她和我。那是永远都不会改变的。要不是姐儿，我根本熬不过眼下这段难捱的日子。

　　[2] Well, so he come to live here. And all I can say is, it was the happy year of my life. He was just purely good to me. A hard worker and never lazy, and so big and fine-looking. Everybody looked up to him, you know, young as he was. Lodge Meeting nights, more and more often they had him to lead the singing. He had such a beautiful voice, and he’d lead off strong, and the others following and joining in, high voices and low. It brings the shivers on me now to think of it, hearing it, nights when I’d stayed home from meeting when the children was babies — the singing coming up through the trees there, and the moonlight, summer nights, the full moon shining. I’ll never hear anything so beautiful. I’ll never know a joy like that again.

　　[2] 于是，他就过来住这儿了。不得不说，那是我人生中幸福的一年。他是全心全意地对我好。他干起活来很卖力，从不偷懒，而且块头很大，长相英俊。真的，虽然他年纪不大，可人人都敬他三分。居处集会之夜，越来越多的时候他们让他领唱。他的嗓音那么动听，领唱那么有劲，大家都跟着他高高低低地唱起来。直到现在，只要我想起这些，我都禁不住全身颤抖，仿佛又回到那些夜晚—那时孩子们还小，我留在家里，不去参加集会—，听见那歌声穿越树林，还有那月色，夏夜，皎洁的圆月!我再也不会听到如此美妙的声音，再也不会拥有那样的欢乐了!

　　[3] It was the moon, that’s what they say. It’s the moon’s fault, and the blood. It was in his father’s blood. I never knew his father, and now I wonder what become of him. He was from up Whitewater way, and had no kin around here. I always thought he went back there, but now I don’t know. There was some talk about him, tales, that come out after what happened to my husband. It’s something runs in the blood, they say, and it may never come out, but if it does, it’s the change of the moon that does it. Always it happens in the dark of the moon. When everybody’s home and asleep. Something comes over the one that’s got the curse in his blood, they say, and he gets up because he can’t sleep, and goes out into the glaring sun, and goes off all alone — drawn to find those like him.

　　[3] 是月亮，他们说，是月亮和血液的错。在他父亲的血液中就有了。我从不认识他父亲，而现在我想知道他的来龙去脉了。他来自白水河道上游，在这附近无亲无戚。我一直以为他已原路回去，但现在我不敢肯定了。我丈夫出事之后，就出现了一些关于他的风言风语。他们说，是血液里流淌着的某种东西，那东西可能永远都不会出来，一旦出来，那就是月亮的变化让它出来的，通常发生在月黑时分，大家都回家睡着之时。谁的血液里被种下符咒，那东西就会附在他身上，他睡不着，于是起床走到耀眼的太阳之下，独自离开，被牵引着去寻找同类。

　　[4] And it may be so, because my husband would do that. I’d half rouse and say, “Where you going to?” and he’d say, “Oh, hunting, be back this evening,” and it wasn’t like him, even his voice was different. But I’d be so sleepy, and not wanting to wake the kids, and he was so good and responsible, it was no call of mine to go asking “Why?” and “Where?” and all like that.

　　[4] 也许他们说的不错，因为我的丈夫就是那样的。我会半起身地说：“你要去哪里?”他会回答：“哦，打猎，晚上就回来。”这不像他，甚至连他的声音也变了。但是由于我太困，也不想吵醒孩子，他又是那么好，那么有责任感，我就没有必要追问“为什么?”、“去哪里?”之类的问题了。

　　[5] So it happened that way maybe three times or four. He’d come back late and worn out, and pretty near cross for one so sweet-tempered —not wanting to talk about it. I figured everybody got to bust out now and then, and nagging never helped anything. But it did begin to worry me. Not so much that he went, but that he come back so tired and strange. Even, he smelled strange. It made my hair stand up on end. I could not endure it and I said, “What is that — those smells on you? All over you!” And he said, “I don’t know,” real short, and made like he was sleeping. But he went down when he thought I wasn’t noticing, and washed and washed himself. But those smells stayed in his hair, and in our bed, for days.

　　[5] 事情就这样发生了大概三四次。他每次回来都很晚，而且疲惫不堪，他本来脾气很好，现在却面带愠色——似乎不愿说话。我想每个人都有偶尔出格的时候，唠唠叨叨是没有用的。但这事的确开始让我不安了，主要原因并不是他的离开，而是他回来时显得那样疲倦，那样奇怪。甚至他身上的味道都是怪怪的。这让我感到毛骨悚然。终于我无法忍受了，说：“你身上那——那些味道是什么，满身都是!”他说：“我不知道。”十分简短，让人觉得他是睡着了。但是当他以为我没注意时，他下去使劲地冲洗自己的身子。可那些气味依然留在他头发里，留在我们床上，几天都散不去。

　　[6] And then the awful thing. I don’t find it easy to tell about this. I want to cry when 1 have to bring it to my mind. Our youngest, the little one, my baby, she turned from her father. Just overnight. He come in and she got scared-looking, stiff, with her eyes wide, and then she begun to cry and try to hide behind me. She didn’t yet talk plain but she was saying over and over, “Make it go away! Make it go away!”

　　[6] 接着可怕的事情来了。对我来说讲这事并不容易，每当我不得不回忆这事的时候我都想哭。我们最年幼的小乖乖小宝贝突然间讨厌起她爸爸来了。他进屋时，她一脸惊愕，僵在那里，眼睛瞪得大大的，然后就开始哭，想躲到我身后。她本来话都说不清，这会却一个劲地说：“让它滚开!让它滚开!”

　　[7] The look in his eyes; just for one moment, when he heard that. That’s what 1 don’t want ever to remember. That’s what I can’t forget. The look in his eyes baking at his own child.

　　I said to the child, “Shame on you, what’s got into you!” — scolding, but keeping her right up close to me at the same time, because I was frightened too. Frightened to shaking.

　　[7] 当他听到孩子的话时，他的眼神，虽然只是一瞬间，但那是我永远都不愿记住，却永远也忘不了的：他恶狠狠地瞪着自己孩子的眼神。

　　我对孩子说：“真不害臊，你怎么回事!”我一边骂着孩子，一边让她紧紧地贴着我，因为我也很害怕，害怕得发抖。

　　[8] He looked away then and said something like, “Guess she just waked up dreaming,” and passed it off that way. Or tried to. And so did I. And I got real mad with my baby when she kept on acting crazy scared of her own dad. But she couldn’t help it and I couldn’t change it.

　　He kept away that whole day. Because he knew, I guess. It was just beginning dark of the moon.

　　[8] 他移开视线，说了一句：“她大概是做噩梦才醒吧。”就这么掩饰了过去。或者说，他想这样掩饰过去。我也想掩饰。孩子见到自己老爹依然害怕得要命，我对她真的很生气，但她就是无法控制自己，我也束手无策。

　　那一整天他都离我们远远的。我猜，那是因为他明白。月亮就要开始变黑了。

　　[9] It was hot and close inside, and dark, and we’d all been asleep some while, when something woke me up. He wasn’t there beside me. I heard a little stir in the passage, when I listened. So I got up, because I could bear it no longer. I went out into the passage, and it was light there, hard sunlight coming in from the door. And I saw him standing just outside, in the tall grass by the entrance. His head was hanging. Presently he sat down, like he felt weary, and looked down at his feet. I held still, inside, and watched — I didn’t know what for.

　　[9] 屋内又热又闷，没有光亮。我们都睡下很久了，这时什么东西吵醒了我。他不在我旁边。我竖起耳朵，听见过道里有一阵响动。我站起身来，因为我再也无法忍受了。我走到过道，那里亮晃晃的，剧烈的阳光从门外照进来。我看见他就站在外面，站在门边的高草丛里。他的脑袋耷拉着。不一会儿，他坐了下来，好像很疲倦的样子，低头盯着双脚。屋里，我屏住呼吸，看着他——我不知道自己在干吗。

　　[10] And I saw what he saw. I saw the changing. In his feet, it was, first. They got long, each foot got longer, stretching out, the toes stretching out and the foot getting long, and fleshy, and white. And no hair on them. The hair begun to come away all over his body. It was like his hair fried away in the sunlight and was gone. He was white all over then, like a worm’s skin. And he turned his face. It was changing while I looked, it got flatter and flatter, the mouth flat and wide, and the teeth grinning flat and dull, and the nose just a knob of flesh with nostril holes, and the ears gone, and the eyes gone blue — blue, with white rims around the blue —staring at me out of that flat, soft, white face.

　　[10] 我随着他的眼睛看下去，看到了他身上的变化。首先是他的双脚。它们变长了，每只脚都变长了，向外伸着，脚趾外伸，跟着脚也变长了，肉乎乎白刹刹的。而且没有毛发。然后，他全身的毛发开始脱落，那情景就像他的毛发在阳光下给煎烤蒸发了一般。他全身上下都变白了，跟蠕虫的皮肤似的。他转过脸，在我的眼睛里，他的脸也正在变化，变得越来越扁平，嘴巴又宽又平，露出的牙齿平而钝，鼻子成了有鼻孔的一团肉瘤，耳朵不见了，眼睛成了蓝色——蓝色的周围有白边——那双眼睛嵌在那平平的、软软的、白白的脸上，直盯着我。

　　[11] He stood up then on two legs.

　　I saw him, I had to see him. My own dear love, turned in the hateful one.

　　I couldn’t move, but as I crouched there in the passage staring out that day I was trembling and shaking with a growl that burst out into a crazy.

　　[11] 然后，他站了起来，双腿着地。

　　我看着他，我不得不看着他。我的亲夫，竟变成了可憎的怪物!

　　我整个呆住了，但那天当我躲在过道里往外看时，我全身发抖，不停颤栗，发出一声近乎疯狂的嚎叫。

　　[12] It stared and peered, that thing my husband had turned into, and shoved its face up to the entrance of our house. I was still bound by mortal fear, but behind me the children had waked up, and the baby was whimpering. The mother anger come into me then, and I snarled and crept forward.

　　[12] 我丈夫变成的那个东西死死地瞪着我，然后将脑袋朝屋门口硬伸过来。我本来还笼罩在死亡般的恐惧中，但在我身后孩子们已经醒了，小宝贝正在哭叫。我的母性愤怒一下子给激发出来，我怒吼一声，爬上前去。

　　[13] The man thing looked around. It had no gun, like the ones from the man places do. But it picked up a heavy fallen tree branch in its long white foot, and shoved the end of that down into our house, at me. I snapped the end of it in my teeth and started to force my way out, because I knew the man would kill our children if it could. But my sister was already coming. I saw her running at the man with her head low and her mane high and her eyes yellow as the winter sun. It turned on her and raised up that branch to hit her. But I come out of the doorway, mad with the mother anger, and the others all were coming answering my call, the whole pack gathering, there in that blind glare and heat of the sun at noon.

　　[13] 那似人的怪物朝四周看了看。从人类地区来的那些人有枪，而它没有，但它用又长又白的脚捡起一根粗壮的断枝，强行将树枝的一端伸进屋内，对着我。我啪的一声将那树枝咬断，然后开始用力望外冲，我知道如果做得到，那怪物会杀掉我们的孩子。不过，我姐姐已经过来了。我看见她埋着头朝那人冲去，她的鬃毛高耸，眼睛黄如冬日太阳。它转过身去攻击她，朝她举起树枝。我从门口冲出来，无法抑制母性的愤怒，在我的叫喊下，左邻右舍全都过来了，一大群聚集在炫目而灼热的中午太阳底下。

　　[14] The man looked round at us and yelled out loud, and brandished the branch it held. Then it broke and ran, heading for the cleared fields and plowlands, down the mountainside. It ran, on two legs, leaping and weaving, and we followed it.

　　[14] 那人望了望我们，大吼一声，乱舞着握在手中的树枝。接着，它冲出去，沿着山坡，朝光秃秃的田野和耕地逃去。它两条腿跳跃腾挪，我们在后面紧追不舍。

　　[15] I was last, because love still bound the anger and the fear in me. I was running when I saw them pull it down. My sister’s teeth were in its throat. I got there and it was dead. The others were drawing back from the kill, because of the taste of the blood, and the smell. The younger ones were cowering and some crying, and my sister rubbed her mouth against her fore legs over and over to get rid of the taste. I went up close because I thought if the thing was dead the spell, the curse must be done, and my husband could come back — alive, or even dead, if I could only see him, my true love, in his true form, beautiful. But only the dead man lay there white and bloody. We drew back and back from it, and turned and ran, back up into the hills, back to the woods of the shadows and the twilight and the blessed dark.

　　[15] 我跑在最后，因为爱仍在牵制着我内心的愤怒和恐惧。我还在奔跑时，就看见他们将它扑倒在地。我姐姐的牙齿刺进它的喉咙。等我跑到时，它已经死了。他们正纷纷退离那被杀之人，因为那血的味道，那气味。年幼一些的都蜷缩着身子，有些还在哭叫，我姐姐在前腿上擦拭着嘴巴，一遍又一遍，以除去那味道。我走近前去，因为我想，如果那东西死了，那符咒、那诅咒就该了结，然后我的丈夫就该回来了——活人，或者即便是死人，我只想看到他，我的真爱，看到他真实的、俊俏的模样。然而，躺在那里的终究只是个皮肤发白、满身带血的死人。我们退回，一步步退离它，然后转身狂奔，跑回山丘中，跑回丛林中，那里有阴影，有暮光，还有保佑我们的黑暗。