跟新概念学托福口语之（2） thirteen equals one

昨天在msn上看到个小朋友，说正在跟着背诵新概念，他说，真的有用吗，我说，相信我。小朋友说，我才背了第一课第一段，我说，那允许你放慢进程，两天背一篇。但是小朋友：一旦背，就一定要滚瓜烂熟！！！！相信我，某一天你也能15分钟背完一篇，一定会！嗯，那么，昨天的任务完成了吗？？

今天我们讲新概念三册的第二篇课文，thirteen equals one。方法同前，先来看中文：

我们教区的牧师总是为各种各样的事筹集资金。但始终未能筹足资金把教堂的钟修好。教堂的钟很大，以前不分昼夜打点报时，但很多年前遭到毁坏，从此便无声无息了。
一天夜里，我们的牧师突然被惊醒了，大钟又在“打点”报时了！他一看表，才1点钟，可是那钟一边敲了13下才停。牧师拿着一支电筒走上钟楼想去看看究竟发生了什么事情。借着电筒光。他看见一个人，马上认出那是本地杂货店主经比尔.威尔金斯。
“你究竟在这上面干什么，比尔？”牧师惊讶地问。
“我想把这口钟修好，”比尔回答说。“好几个星期了，我天天夜里到钟楼上来。嗯，我是想让你大吃一惊。”
“你确实使我大吃了一惊！”牧师说，“也许同时你把村里所有的人都吵醒了。不过，钟又能报时了，我还是很高兴的。”
“问题就在这里，牧师，”比尔回答说。“不错，钟能报时了，但是，恐怕每到1点钟，它总要敲13下，对此我已无能为力了。”
“大家慢慢就习惯了，比尔，”牧师说。“13下是不如1下好，但总比1下也不敲强。来，咱们下楼去喝杯茶吧。”

接着请大家口头/笔头翻译一遍，请一定要把句子说/写完！不能出现broken English！是的，很痛苦，不过才那么短的一篇，你一定能完成的，加油！

完成以后我们来看原文：

Our vicar is always raising money for one cause or another, but he has never managed to get enough money to have the church clock repaired. The big clock which used to strike the hours day and night was damaged many years ago and has been silent ever since.

One night, however, our vicar work up with a start: the clock was striking the hours! Looking at his watch, he saw that it was one o'clock, but the bell struck thirteen times before it stopped. Armed with a torch, the vicar went up into the clock tower to see what was going on. In the torchlight, he caught sight of a figure whom he immediately recognized as Bill Wilkins, our local grocer.

'Whatever are you doing up here Bill?' asked the vicar in surprise.

'I'm trying to repair the bell,' answered Bill. 'I've been coming up here night after night for weeks now. You see, I was hoping to give you a surprise.'

'You certainly did give me a surprise!' said the vicar. 'You've probably woken up everyone in the village as well. Still, I'm glad the bell is working again.'

'That's the trouble, vicar,' answered Bill. 'It's working all right, but I'm afraid that at one o'clock it will strike thirteen times and there's nothing I can do about it."

'We'll get used to that, Bill,' said the vicar. "Thirteen is not as good as one, but it's better than nothing. Now let's go downstairs and have a cup of tea.'

通过将译文和原文进行对比，我们可以总结以下：

1. 第一句话中：“我们教区的牧师”，大家往往会翻成the priest in our parish。其实直接说our vicar就行，"in our parish"是中式思维中的redundancy，因为中文字符单个包含的意思就相当丰富，为了音律节奏我们往往要多说几个字使它“听上去更美”；比如中文的“用手指着他”，英文只要说"point at him"，而如果加上了"(point at him) with her hand"反而是画蛇添足。另，priest和vicar都可翻译成牧师，但意义其实有别。In Catholic canon law, a vicar is the representative of any ecclesiastic，即vicar只是一种统称，可以指代各种神职人员，而priest是三级圣品制中的第二级。

关于基督教圣职人员的称谓，简单的说遵照三级圣品制（主教、司铎、执事）three-part hierarchy of bishops, priests and deacons 。大概是这样一个分布：
Pope 教皇
cardinal 枢机/红衣主教
cardinal bishop 主教枢机
cardinal priest 司铎枢机
cardinal deacon 助祭枢机
archbishop 总主教
bishop 主教
priest 司铎（依信仰或神职层级而有不同的称呼，如神父或牧师、祭师、祭司、司铎等）
deacon 执事
*monk修士和nun修女并非圣职人员，而是修道者。

因为我也不是教徒，如果有任何理解错误先向大家致歉并欢迎更正。如果要了解更多的Roman Catholic Church，请点击这里。

• 托福口语Q1: describe a famous person you admire?

回答：我崇拜李连杰，他设立了个壹基金。
Response: Li has established a foundation by which he is always raising money for one cause or another, and he has managed to get a large amount of money to help the kids who survived the earthquake in Sichuan China.

2. “教堂的钟很大，以前不分昼夜打点报时，但很多年前遭到毁坏，从此便无声无息了。”这句也体现了中英思维的差异。中文的句子是意群的组合，就像我家墙上那个相片架，一朵铁花，枝叶四向茂盛生长，所以中文长句往往是把主谓结构的短语随意拼凑起来，行云流水，中间用逗号隔开以适当断句，如“我家有5个米菲，一个在床头，三个靠着沙发，还有一个我挂在书包上，每天看着它们，心情格外舒畅，而且她怎么一年四季只穿裙子呢，真是想不通”。（妈呀！你来分析看看！）而英文的句子有着严谨的单向结构，围绕着主谓宾分别添加修饰部分就行（多么小白啊！！），短语以偏正和后补更为常见。于是看到这句话，首先勾勒出主干：钟遭毁（the clock was damaged），遂（and）无声息（has been silent）。对“钟”有两个修饰，big (clock)是为偏正，而(the clock) which used to strike the hours day and night为后补；“遭毁”有一个时间修饰，英文中时间多做状语置于其后，于是(was damaged) many years ago；“无声息”又有个时间修饰，同理在后面加个ever since。于是合起来不就变成了完整的"The big clock which used to strike the hours day and night was damaged many years ago and has been silent ever since."吗？！（写的朕累死了！！）

• 托福口语Qa: describe your favorite gift

回答：我最喜欢的礼物是我爸3年前送我的笔记本电脑，虽然看上去很旧了，但一直很好用。
Response: the laptop which was from my father three years ago has been of great help to my study though it looks a little bit old-fashioned.

3. 突然被惊醒了：wake up with a start

• 托福口语Q1: decribe an event 都能用上

4. 还是句型，这几句写的太好了，我就不多说了，自己好好去模仿造句吧！背诵的时候记住“先抓主干，后添细节”。
“他一看表，才1点钟，可是那钟一边敲了13下才停。牧师拿着一支电筒走上钟楼想去看看究竟发生了什么事情。借着电筒光。他看见一个人，马上认出那是本地杂货店主经比尔.威尔金斯。”
Looking at his watch, he saw that it was one o'clock, but the bell struck thirteen times before it stopped. Armed with a torch, the vicar went up into the clock tower to see what was going on. In the torchlight, he caught sight of a figure whom he immediately recognized as Bill Wilkins, our local grocer.

5. 语音。如果你听的是美音版音频，顺便来看三个语音现象：night(末尾"t"的爆破), answer("a"的英、美区别), better("t"在美音中的半浊化)。


有同学问，我能不能不背诵，只是做到看着中文能复述出英文就行了呢？答案是No！因为通过背诵全文，你不仅在提高语言质量，更在学习行文结构，句子与句子间的逻辑结构、框架组织，承接词的使用，in this way u can finally come up with a GOOD essay on your own！今天我们讲的主要是思维问题，希望对你有一点点的帮助咯：）

本文为新概念3第1课，课文文本和音频（英式）链接：http://www.kekenet.com/nce/4794.shtml
如果有些同学想听/学美音版，那么音频（美式英语）见http://www.kekenet.com/nce/44369.shtml