grapple a corner of the raft and pull it out of the current towards our bank. we still think it a miracle that they we able to do so.

new words and expressions 生词和短语

boundary

n. 界线；边界

pump

v. 用泵抽

overtake

v. 突然降临

backwater

n. 回水河汊

predecessor

n. 前任，前辈

meadow

n. 草地，草场

crown

v. 给……戴花环

holly

n. 一种冬青植物

wreath

n. 花环

occurrence

n. 偶发事件

proportion

n. 部分

site

v. 使位于

spell

v. 招致，带来

stall

n. 牲口棚

attic

n. 顶楼

sweeping

adj. 范围广大的

critical

adj. 危急的

juncture

n. 时刻，关头

raft

n. 木筏

unduly

adv. 过度地

foundations

n. 地基

stoutly

adv. 牢固地，粗壮的

submerge

v. 浸没

grapple

v. 抓住

参考译文

形成我们农场东部边界的一条河流一直在我们生活中发挥着重要作用。要是没有这条河，我们就无法生存下去。泉水只能满足家庭生活用水，因此我们必须从河里抽水以用于农业生产。我们向那条河倾诉我们的秘密。我们本能地懂得，就像养蜂人和他的蜜蜂那样，要是我们不把生活中的重大的事件告诉那条河，就可能大祸临头。

夏天，我们为这条河举办特殊的生日宴会。有时，我们溯流而上来到我们喜爱的回水河汊举办；有时在船坞举办。那船坞是农场一位前辈在一块草地上盖的，草地紧挨着一个专供游泳、跳水的深水池。天气炎热时，我们便选择在半夜举办生日聚会，这种聚会是最令人激动的。我们在河边迎接一年四季。春天在河边为最年轻的姑娘戴上花冠，夏天在河边欢庆“仲夏前夜”，秋天在河边丰收而感恩，冬天往河中抛撒一个冬表花环。

久雨这后，河水会泛滥成灾，但是在我们这里，气候很少发生异常，河水极少泛滥。值得庆幸的是，只有低洼的受到洪水影响，而低洼地在我们农场比例很小。其他农场地势欠佳，洪水有时会给农场主带来灾难。

有一年冬天，天气不好，我们眼看着河水浸没了地势较低的草场。所有的牲口已提前转移到畜圈里，没有造成什么损失。不过，我们很为我们的近邻担心。他们的农场地势低洼，而且他们又新来乍到。由于洪水造成了电话中断，我们无法了解他们情况。从顶楼窗口看去，我们农场与他们农场接壤处的那段河流一览无余。在最紧急的时刻，我们轮流监视那段河流的险情。灾难的第一迹象是一只死羊顺流而下，接着一匹活马勇敢地与水搏击。但我们担心，洪水力量将使它上岸之前就筋疲力尽了。突然，出现了一只筏子，看起来很像诺亚方舟，上面载着他们全家老小，还有几只母鸡、几只狗，一只猫与一只鸟笼，那里头有一只小鸟。我们意识到他们一定是被不断上涨的洪水吓坏了。因为他们的房子地基牢固，即使洪水几乎灭顶也不会倒塌。我家的男人们手拿船篙过被水淹没草场，希望能够钩住筏子一角，将它拽出激流，拖回岸边。他们终于成功了。至今我们仍认为这是个奇迹。

lesson 57

back in the old country

重返故里

listen to the tape then answer the question below.

听录音，然后回答以下问题。

did the narrator find is mother's grave?

i stopped to let the car cool off and to study the map. i had expected to be near my objective by now, but everything still seemed alien to me. i was only five when my father had taken me abroad, and that we eighteen years ago. when my mother had died after a tragic accident, he did not quickly recover from the shock and loneliness. everything around him was full of her presence, continually reopening the wound. so he decided to emigrate. in the new country he became absorbed in making a new life for the two of us, so that he gradually ceased to grieve. he did not marry again and i was brought up without a woman's care; but i lacked for nothing, for he was both father and mother to me. he always meant to go back on day, but not to stay. his roots and mine bad become too firmly embedded in the new land. but he wanted to see the old folk again and to visit my mother's grave. he became mortally ill a few months before we had planned to go and, when he knew that he was dying, he made me promise to go on my own.

i hired a car the day after landing and bought a comprehensive book of maps, which i found most helpful on the cross-country journey, but which i did not think i should need on the last stage. it was not that i actually remembered anything at all. but my father had described over and over again what we should see at every milestone, after leaving the nearest town, so that i was positive i should recognize it as familiar territory. well, i had been wrong, for i was now lost.

i looked at the map and then at the millimeter. i had come ten miles since leaving the town, and at this point, according to my father, i should be looking at farms and cottages in a valley, with the spire of the church of our village showing in the far distance. i could see no valley, no farms, no cottages and no church spire -- only a lake. i decided that i must have taken a wrong turning somewhere. so i drove back to the town and began to retrace the route, taking frequent glances at the map. i landed up at the same corner. the curious thing was that the lake was not marked on the map. i left as if i had stumbled into a nightmare country, as you sometimes do in dreams. and, as in a nightmare, there was nobody in sight to help me. fortunately for me, as i was wondering what to do next, there appeared on the horizon a man on horseback, riding in my direction. i waited till he came near, then i asked him the way to our old village. he said that there was now no village. i thought he must have misunderstood me, so i repeated its name. this time he pointed to the lake. the village no longer existed because it had been submerged, and all the valley too. the lake was not a natural one, but a man-made reservoir.

new words and expressions 生词和短语

alien

adj. 异国的，外国的

emigrate

v. 移居（国外）

absorb

v. 全神贯注于

embedded

adj. 扎牢的

mortally

adv. 致命地

comprehensive

adj. 广泛的；丰富的

milestone

n. 里程碑

territory

n. 领地；地区

milometer

n. 计程表

spire

n. （教堂的）塔尖

retrace

v. 返回，重走

stumble

v.