On to Oxford來到牛津

Jerome K. Jerome

作者簡介：

杰羅姆·K.杰羅姆（Jerome K. Jerome），生于英格蘭的斯坦福德郡。他從小受到良好的教育，酷愛閱讀，是英國現代杰出的幽默小說家、散文家和劇作家，一生創作了大量享譽世界的作品，為世界各國的讀者所喜愛。

作品簡介：

《三怪客泛舟記》（Three Men in a Boat）是英國作家Jerome K. Jerome寫的一部讓人心情放松的幽默小說，曾被《紳士》雜志評為史上最幽默的五十部文學作品之一。

這本書的主人公喬治、哈里斯和杰（杰就是書中的“我”）計劃去旅行。于是他們開始制訂計劃，準備行裝，一切就緒以后，他們開始了旅程。他們的旅行既不是橫渡大洋的危險航行，也不是沿著亞馬孫河的漂流探險，而是乘著一只小小的船去旅行。雖然困難重重，但是最終他們完成了旅行，并在旅行中學習了許多技能，他們的熱情讓他們在旅行中收獲了快樂。簡單的故事，富含深刻的哲理：我們要丟掉懶惰的思想，腳踏實地地去干一些事情，要肯吃苦，不怕艱險，多學習一些技能，不要總是空想。

本文節選自《三怪客泛舟記》第十五章，節選時有刪改。

We left Streatley early the next morn?ing. We were going to Culham， and wewanted to spend the night there. BetweenStreatley and Wallingford the river is notvery interesting. Then from Cleeve， there isquite a long piece of the river which has nolocks. Most people are pleased about thisbecause it makes everything much easier，but I quite like locks， myself. I rememberthat George and I nearly had an accidentin a lock once...

It was a lovely day， and there were a lot of boats in the lock. Someone wastaking a photograph of us all， and thephotographer was hoping to sell the pictureto the people in the lock. I did not see thephotographer at first， but suddenly Georgestarted to brush his trousers， and he fixedhis hair and put on his hat. Then he satdown with a kind but sad expression on hisface， and he tried to hide his feet.

My first idea was that he had seen agirl that he knew， and I looked round tosee who it was. Everybody in the lock hadstopped moving and they all had fixedexpressions on their faces. All the girlswere smiling prettily， and all the men weretrying to look brave and handsome.

Then I saw the photographer and atonce I understood. I wondered if I wouldbe in time. Our boat was the first one inthe lock， so I must look nice for the man'sphotograph.

So I turned round quickly and stoodin the front of the boat. I arranged my haircarefully， and I tried to make myself lookstrong and interesting.

We stood and waited for the importantmoment when the man would actually takethe photograph. Just then， someone behindme called out，“Hi！ Look at your nose！”

I could not turn round to see whosenose it was， but I had a quick look atGeorge's nose. It seemed to be all right. Itried to look at my own nose， and thatseemed to be all right， too.

“Look at your nose， you stupid fool！”the voice cried again， more loudly thistime.

And then another voice called，“Pushyour nose out！ You two， with the dog！”

We could not turn round because theman was just going to take the photograph.Was it us they were calling to？ What wasthe matter with our noses？ Why did theywant us to push them out？

But now everybody in the lock startedshouting， and a very loud， deep voice fromthe back called，“Look at your boat！ You，in the red and black caps！ If you don't dosomething quickly， there will be two deadbodies in that photograph！”

We looked then， and we saw that the nose of our boat was caught in the woodengate at the front of the lock. The water wasrising， and our boat was beginning to turnover. Quickly， we pushed hard against theside of the lock， to move the boat. The boatdid move， and George and I fell over onour backs.

We did not come out well in that pho?tograph because the man took it just as wefell over. We had expressions of“Wheream I？”and“What's happened？”on ourfaces， and we were waving our feet aboutwildly. In fact， our feet nearly filled thephotograph. You could not see much else.

Nobody bought the photographs. Theysaid they did not want photographs of ourfeet. The photographer was not verypleased.

We passed Wallingford and Dorches?ter， and we spent the night at CliftonHampden， which is a very pretty littlevillage.

The next morning we were up early，because we wanted to be in Oxford by theafternoon. By half past eight， we had fin?ished breakfast and we were through Clif?ton Lock. At half past twelve， we wentthrough Iffley Lock.

From there to Oxford is the most diffi?cult part of the river. First the river carriesyou to the right， then to the left; then ittakes you out into the middle and turns youround three times. We got in the way of alot of other boats; a lot of other boats got inour way and a lot of bad words were used.

Reading Check

1. Where did the journey described inthe text originate， and where was the desti?nation for the night？

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2. What caused George to startgrooming himself while they were in thelock？

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3. Why were George and the narratorunable to respond to the warnings abouttheir boats nose and the risk of it turningover？

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4. After the incident in the lock andthe unsuccessful photograph， did the trav?elers reach their initial planned destina?tion for the night？

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