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1、Four short words sum up what has lifted most successful individuals above the crowd: a little bit more.-author-dateSoldiers27 heartSoldiers27 heartSoldiers HeartIt begins in France in June of 1944. Man are lying face down on the earth. The air is filled with sounds, shrieks Shriek 尖叫 n. that come ou
2、t of the sky and terminate Terminate 结束;使终结 vi.&vt. with an explosion. This may be a matter of seconds. If the sounds continue, the men will be seen scraping Scrape 刮,擦 vi.&vt. the surface of the earth with shovels Shovel 铲子n. and burying themselves in it until, like a species of animal, they vanish
3、 Vanish 消失vi.&vt. from sight. Or the men are walking up a road in two parallel lines. They are heavily burdened, carrying rifles, machine guns, and mortars. If the shrieking from the sky begins, they will turn quickly off the road and lie face down. Or they have spread out and are walking in an open
4、 field. An embankment Embankment 路堤;筑堤 n. runs across itthe railroad. There is a brief purring Purr发咕噜声 v. sound, then a rhythmic Rhythmic 有韵律的,有节奏的 adj. drumming. If you should happen to be with these men, it would sound as though the air were being torn. One of them falls. The other run forward an
5、d crouch Crouch屈膝,蹲伏vi.&vt. in the shelter of the embankment.Such is the life or death of an infantry Infantry 步兵 n. soldier in France in the summer of 1944. These actions will be repeated many timesthe scenery will change, from small fields separated by hedgerows Hedgerow绿篱;灌木篱墙 n. to a flat Flat 平
6、的 adj. landscape Landscape 风景;地形 n. with windmills to a forest covered with snow. The soldiers will pass through villages. Now they are on the banks of a river, and rowing across in rubber Rubber 橡胶 n. boats. Finally they are among mountains.I was discharged Discharge 免除(自己的义务、负担等) v. from the US ar
7、my in 1945 and went home. What followed I do not know. One person had it that I lost my key to the apartment I was sharing, and was found lying unconscious outside the door.What name have they given it now, the illness I had as a result of being shot at and shelled Shell 炮轰 v. for months on end on e
8、nd 连续地? I dont suppose many of our soldiers in the Gulf War have suffered from itthey were spared a long engagement. After Vietnam it was called “post-traumatic Traumatic 创伤的 adj. stress disorder.” In World War II it was called “combat fatigue Fatigue 疲劳 n.” In the Great War (I prefer that name, for
9、 the Great War was what people at the time thought it was) it was called “shell shock.” In the Civil War it was “soldiers heart.” The name strikes me as the best, for it describes an illness that involved my heart as much as my head. My heart would beat faster, I would tremble and sweat and, on occa
10、sion, pass out pass out 昏厥.One was a skinny man with a dull face. The trigger Trigger (枪)扳机 n. finger of his right hand was missing. Once he waggled the stump under my face with a sly smile. This, he gave me to understand, was why he had been excused from military service.One of the symptoms of my i
11、llness had been hearing voices. But one day-and this was after I came out of the fog and I was quite calm and rational-looking out of the cage, the barred windows behind which we lived, at grass and trees and clouds. I heard a voice say “praised God, they resist, they resist!” Who was it who was res
12、isting? Others like myself, I suppose. I believe with Shakespeare that there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in the philosophy of those who serve the world, and who administer its institutions, and grow rich.For some years I was subject to subject to 使服从,使遭受 the sudden onsets
13、 Onset 袭击 n. I have mentioned: a heart that beat faster, and shaking, and sweating. I would imagine shells falling and hear the sound of guns. I could not stand being confined. And I had the habits that remain with soldiers. One in particular: when I went walking I would keep an eye peeled Peel 剥落 v
14、i.&vt. for an enemy position. If there was an open field I would think, how are we going to get across that? I imagined lying again on a railroad embankment in Normandy, waiting to be hold to go over it in spite of the bullets that were sweeping to and fro directly above me. That day I was sure I wo
15、uld be killed. Or I was in a graveyard Graveyard 墓地 n. in Holland with shells falling and the living getting mixed in with the dead. I was in the Ardennes, standing in a fox-hole fox-hole单人战壕,散兵坑 n. among trees covered with snow and stamping my feet. They were freezing.For what had I suffered in com
16、parison with others? When I thought of them, the dead, and those who were in wheel-chairs, or blinded, or insane Insane 疯狂的;精神病的 adj., had I really known war at all? What have we to complain of who have only known soldiers heart? Nothing, sir, nothing at all.Why write about such things? Are they not
17、 better forgotten? After a war, the millions who have been through it want to forget. It was terrible, and sordid Sordid 肮脏的;污秽的 adj., and boring. Besides, everyone knows the things you do. But time passes and the number of those who remember is suddenly diminished Diminish 减少 vi.&vt. Who remembers
18、the Great War?When I was a teacher and the subject of war came up, I would write a name on the blackboard: Somme Somme索姆河会战 n. Who, I would ask, had heard of it? None of the students would answer. Only one or two knew anything at all about the Great War. I would tell them that the Somme was a battle
19、 in that war, a terrible war in which thousands were killed or wounded-sixty thousand casualties Casualty 伤亡(人数);受害者 n. in the British army on the first morning alone. It was hell on earth, but the men who went through it consoled Console 安慰 vi.&vt. themselves with a thought: Generations will rememb
20、er what we did here, it will never be forgotten. Yet not one of the young people in front of me had ever heard of it.I have not forgotten the men I knew in the 101st Airborne Division. The men and women I worked with in universities were pale and unreal in comparison. They were hollow Hollow 空洞的;虚伪的
21、 adj. and filled with words.The men I knew in the 101st, most of them, had no education beyond high school. And they werent stunning Stun 击晕;使昏厥 vi.&vt. physical specimens either, though they could carry a pack, trench Trench 沟,渠;战壕 n. tool, rifle Rifle 步枪 n. or carbine, machine gun, tripod Tripod 三脚架 n. or ammunition Ammunition 弹药;军火 n. boxes, for miles at a good pace.So the war gave me poetry. I had a driving need to write. A few lines for a poem, a paragraph of prose Prose 散文 n. Anything! Even at the university there were very few who felt about things as I did.生词注释:-
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