英语毕业论文 简析马克吐温在《汤姆索亚历险记》中使用的写作手法

XX学院

本科毕业论文

（2008级）

姓名：

学号：

院系：双语学院

专业：英语（英日方向）

指导教师：

二〇一一年六月

An Analysis of Mark Twain’s Writing Techniques in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

简析马克吐温在《汤姆索亚历险记》中使用的写作手法

姓名：

学号：

院系：双语学院

专业：英语（英日方向）

指导教师：

吉林华桥外国语学院

Jilin HuaQiao Foreign Languages Institute

Content

Ⅰ.Introduction (1)

Ⅱ. Mark Twain and The Adventure of Tom Sawyer (1)

2.1 Mark Twain’s Life Experience (1)

2.2 A Brief Introduction of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (2)

Ⅲ. Writing Techniques Reflected in the Work (4)

3.1 Humor (4)

3.2 Satire (5)

3.3 Colloquial Language (6)

3.3.1 Local Color (7)

3.3.2 Vernacular Language (7)

3.4 Figures of Speech (8)

3.4.1 Exaggeration (8)

3.4.2 Metaphor (9)

3.4.3 Transferred epithet (10)

3.4.4 Metonymy (10)

ⅣConclusion (11)

Bibliography (12)

Abstract

Mark Twain, a mastermind of humor and satire, is seen as a giant in world literature. His humor had great impact on the following men of letters. He produced the world famous juvenile work The Adventure of Tom Sawyer which reflected his own life experience. He produced countless successful works loved by people form different countries. Until today, his works are still read by people all over the world. The thesis presents some of the writing features which contributed to his success such as humor, satire colloquial language and various figures of speech and some of the illustrations from the work.

The thesis consists of four parts. The first part of the body tells the life experience of Mark Twain and his famous work The Adventure of Tom Sawyer. The part following, which is also the theme that is discussed in the thesis, is a detailed analysis to some of the writing techniques such as humor, satire which Mark Twain applied in his work. This part specifically states how he created a vivid and expressive image to his readers with the application of the writing techniques and what kind of effects he achieved through this by some of the examples from Twain’s work. The last part is a conclusion of the achievements and brilliance Mark Twain have got. Mark Twain depicts the real world around him with vivid and animated words which shows his true feelings to the world.

Key Words: Mark Twain; Tom Sawyer; writing techniques

摘要

美国的幽默大师和现实主义作家马克·土温,被看作一位世界文学巨匠。他的幽默对其后辈文人产生了巨大的影响.批评家对此亦高度重视并就此提出了不同的阐释.他创作了闻名世界的儿童著作《汤姆索亚历险记》，从本书中读者们可以感受到马克吐温的生活经历。除了《汤姆索亚历险记》，他还创作了许多名著深受全世界读者的喜爱，直到今天，全世界的人任在读他的作品。本文介绍了一些促成马克吐温成功的写作特点如幽默、讽刺、口语化的语言，不同修辞手法以及他文中的一些例句。

本文由四部分组成。正文的第一部分讲述了马克吐温的生活经历与其作品《汤姆索亚历险记》。紧接着的部分，也就是本文的主题，详细分析了马克吐温应用于其作品的写作手法如幽默，讽刺等。这一部分详细陈述了马克吐温是如何利用这些写作手法为读者们创造出生动的形象并通过文中的一些例句来展示他达到了怎样的效果。最后一个部分是对马克吐温的成就和辉煌的一个总结。马克吐温用生动形象的文字把包含他真实感情的真实的世界展现给了他的读者们。

关键词:马克吐温；汤姆索亚；写作手法

An Analysis of Mark Twain’s Writing Techniques in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

I. Introduction

Most of Mark Twain’s works are directed against the American society. He is good at using extreme technique, enlarge the ugly phenomenon to the readers, let them find out what is right, what is wrong by themselves. For this reason, Mark Twain has a lot of audiences in the whole world. His works have practical significances, deserving to analyze. This thesis uses several points to expound Mark Twain’s writing style. His humorous style is different from that of other authors. Mark Twain’s humor is remarkable, it is fun to read Twain at first, for most of his works tend to be funny, containing some practical jokes, comic details, witty remarks and so on, and some of them are actually tall tales. Today, most of the authors still choose Mark Twain’s humorous style as the main technique in their literary works, because it is the best weapon to attack the darkness, could show the author’s ideas better than any other ways.

Ⅱ. Mark Twain and The Adventure of Tom Sawyer

As an outstanding writer, humorist, critic… Mark Twain is loved by people all around the world. His works had been translated into several other languages across the universe. The Adventure of Tom Sawyer is one of his most successful juvenile works which is still a bestseller today. The book was written partly based on Twain’s own life experience. So when the readers are reading through the book, they could imagine a vivid image of young Mark Twain.

2.1 Mark Twain’s Life Experience

Mark Twain (pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910), was an American writer, journalist and humorist, who won a worldwide audience for his stories of the youthful adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri, of a Virginian family. He was brought up in Hannibal, Missouri. The life of which contributed to the construction of the fictional town of St. Petersburg in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. After his father's death in 1847, he was apprenticed to a printer and wrote for his brother's newspaper. And later He worked as a licensed Mississippi river-boat pilot, which provided him with sufficient materials

for him and inspired him to the creation of many great works. The Civil War put an end to the steamboat traffic and Clemens moved to Virginia City, where he edited the Territorial Enterprise. On February 3, 1863, 'Mark Twain' was born when Clemens signed a humorous travel account with that pseudonym.

In 1864 Twain left for California, and worked in San Francisco as a journalist. There he got his first success as a writer for his humorous tall tale. He visited Hawaii as a correspondent for The Sacramento Union, publishing letters on his trip and giving lectures. Then He set out on a world tour, traveling in France and Italy. His travelogue was recorded in 1869 in The Innocents Abroad, which gained him wide popularity, and poked fun at both American and European prejudices and manners.

The success as a writer gave Twain enough financial security to marry Olivia Langdon in 1870 whom Twain claimed to have fallen in love at first sight . The next year, they moved to Hartford. Twain continued to give lecture in the United States and worked as an editor and writer in the Buffalo Express. Between 1876 and 1884 he published several masterpieces,The Adventures of Tom Sawyer(1881) and T he Prince And The Pauper(1881).Life On The Mississippi appeared in 1883 and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1884.

Twain made a substantial amount of money through his writing, but he lost a great deal through investments, mostly in new inventions and technology. In the 1890s Twain lost most of his earnings in financial speculations and in the failure of his own publishing firm. To recover from the bankruptcy, he started a world lecture tour, during which one of his daughters died. Twain toured New Zealand, Australia, India, and South Africa. He wrote such books as The Tragedy Of Pudd'head Wilson (1884), Personal Recollections Of Joan Of Arc (1885), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and the travelogue Following The Equator (1897). During his long writing career, Twain also produced a considerable number of essays. “Advice to youth” and “Courage”

Misery and sufferings beat the man who makes the world laugh. The death of his wife and his second daughter darkened the author's later years, which is seen in his posthumously published autobiography (1924). Twain died on April 21, 1910. His funeral was at the "Old Brick" Presbyterian Church in New York. He is buried in his wife's family plot at Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira, New York. His grave is marked by a 12-foot (i.e., two fathoms, or "mark twain") monument.

2.2 A Brief Introduction of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a literary masterpieces, written in 1876 is a child’s adventure story by the famous author Mark Twain. Tom Sawyer is a mischievous young boy who lives in the small town on the Mississippi River called St. Petersburg. Tom Sawyer is saucy and naturally show-off, who likes to show his authority over the other boys. He is a 13 years old boy who was born in a town on the Mississippi River, where he and Huck-his best friend, grew up. Tom is intended to represent the carefree and wonderful world of boyhood in the antebellum era. The story line is simple, the book reads like a biography or a memoir of a summer in Tom Sawyer's life.

Tom Sawyer seems to be the precursor of and the template for misfit kids such as Dennis the Menace, Malcolm in the Middle, and Calvin and Hobbs. What makes this story great is that Tom Sawyer represents everything that is great about childhood. The book is filled with Tom's adventures playing pirates and war with his friend Joe Harper. Tom has a trusted friend, Huck Finn, who few of the adults approve of. The book is filled with ideas of how the world works, such as how pirates and robbers work, that are so innocent, they could only come from a child. It is a story filled with action, adventure, ingenious ideas, love, and schoolyard politics. The whole story is seemingly a complication of what people did or wish they did during their childhood.

One of America’s best-loved tales, Tom Sawyer has a double appeal. First, it appeals to the young adolescent as the exciting adventures of a typical boy during the mid-nineteenth century, adventures that are still intriguing and delightful because they appeal to the basic instincts of nearly all young people, regardless of time or culture. Second, the novel appeals to the adult reader who looks back on his or her own childhood with fond reminiscences. Thus, the novel is a combination of the past and the present, of the well-remembered events from childhood told in such a way as to evoke remembrances in the adult mind.

The tale is very dramatically wrought, and the subordinate characters are treated with the same graphic force that sets Tom alive before us. The worthless vagabond, Huck Finn, is entirely delightful throughout, and in his promised reform his identity is respected: he will lead a decent life in order that he may one day be thought worthy to become a member of that gang of robbers which Tom is to organize. Tom's aunt is excellent, with her kind heart's sorrow and secret pride in Tom; and so is his sister Mary, one of those good girls who are born to usefulness and charity and forbearance and unvarying rectitude. Many village people and local notables are introduced in

well-conceived character; the whole little town lives in the reader's sense, with its religiousness, its lawlessness, its droll social distinctions, its civilization qualified by its slave-holding, and its traditions of the wilder West which has passed away. The picture will be instructive to those who have fancied the whole Southwest a sort of vast Pike County, and have not conceived of a sober and serious and orderly contrast to the sort of life that has come to represent the Southwest in literature.

Although Tom Sawyer is set in a small town along the western frontier on the banks of the legendary Mississippi River sometime during the 1840s, readers from all parts of the world respond to the various adventures experienced by Tom and his band of friends. The appeal of the novel lies mostly in Twain’s ability to capture-or recapture-universal experiences and dreams and fears of childhood.

Ⅲ. Writing Techniques Reflected in the Work

Whatever Mark Twain writes is pretty sure of an eager popular recognition. And it is due to him to say that he finds his readers and admirers all around the world. His application of humor, satire and colloquial language to his work bestowed him the most powerful weapon to win him the outstanding status in history of literature.

3.1 Humor

The word “Humor” in English originated from ancient Latin, "Liquid "or" Fluid ", which originally refers to one of the four humors (i.e., blood, mucus, bile, depression fluid) that play a decisive role in human nature and health. It was later extended to the meaning of today's humor. Humor is one of the most complex mechanisms of human language. According to their different life experiences, different social context, different writing style, writers defers greatly in their way of expression. Some express their meaning directly; some others are subtle and indirect in the expression of their thoughts and feelings. Humor is always showed in the indirect way.

Humor is among the most important ingredients that make satire interesting and attractive. But humor is certainly multifaceted. It may be aggressive and derisive, it can be playful or intelligent, it can even be serious as satire…; it cannot be false.

Humor cannot desert truth.Mark Twain, who was extremely gifted in humor, used his talent in The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, which has become American humor’s “masterpiece as well as Mark

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is the first novel which Mark Twain wrote independently. In this novel, Mark Twain create a vivid, delicate and lovely boy Tom and a colorful world which belong to him in the third person with a friendly easy-going tone. On the humorous and clever use of irony, the author criticized the current social vulgar, social institutions, and all kinds of people in society. Mark Twain combines o the real material and the humor together to form his own unique writing style which is frequently applied to his work. Mr. Lu said: "The irony from life is the real irony.” Only when one is involved in the real life could one grasp the surprise hiding in the common social phenomena could we discover and create good humor.

So Life is the source of humor, and humor could only be reflected fully by life. Mark Twain's humor is the case. Mark Twain inherited the 19th century humorous writing styles of the early American western literature of popularity. Besides, because of Mark Twain own writing features, .He used expressive words so that the characters in his work looks vivid. The carefully used words give the simple images a special effect. He perfectly combined the realism and humor together criticizes the dark society. His doesn’t not only create a unique humorous writing style, but also influence many American artists and authors.

3.2 Satire

Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement. Although satire is usually meant to be funny, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit as a weapon.

A common feature of satire is strong irony or sarcasm—"in satire, irony is militant"[2]—but parody, burlesque, exaggeration, juxtaposition, comparison, analogy, and double entendre are all frequently used in satirical speech and writing. This "militant" irony or sarcasm often professes to approve (or at least accept as natural) the very things the satirist wishes to attack.

In the Adventure of Tom Sawyer, Twain does not confine himself to telling a simple children’s story. He is, as always, the satirist and commentator on the foibles of human nature. As the authorial commentator, Twain often steps in and comments on the absurdity of human nature.

In Tom Sawyer, he is content with mild admonitions about the human race. For

example, after Tom has tricked the other boys into painting the fence for him, the voice of T wain, the author, points out the gullibility of man:”…than in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain.” There are stronger satires. Twain is constantly satirizing the hypocrisy found in many religious observances. For example, in the Sunday school episode, there are aspects of religion satirized, as Twain points out that one boy had memorized so many verses of the Bible so as to win prizes—more Bibles elegantly illustrated—that “the strain upon his mental faculties was too great, and he was little better than an idiot from that day forward.”

The adults’ reaction to Injun Joe and his malevolence is a typical Twain commentary on society; the adults create petitions to free Joe who has already killed, so it was believed, five” citizens of the village, but what of that? If he had been Satan himself there would have been plenty of weaklings ready to scribble their names to a pardon petition, and drip a tear on it from their permanently impaired and leaky waterworks.”

Twain criticizes the adult attitudes and behaviors throughout the novel. That is part of the conflict: the maturation of a youth into adulthood conflicting with the disapproval of the adult behaviors that exist. It is this double vision that raises the novel above the level of a boy’s adventure story.

3.3 Colloquial Language

Another factor that made Mark Twain unique is his magic power with language, his use of colloquial language. “In his hands, comic jargon an d dialect became a finished literary weapon, unemphatic, visual, and deceptively simple, sounding like speech and yet not quite the same”. At that time, Mark Twain adopts the American colloquial languages, hammering it into shape again and again. His words are vivid, concrete and direct in effect, and his sentence structures are simple, even ungrammatical, which is typical of the spoken language. And Mark Twain skillfully used the colloquialism to cast his protagonists in their everyday life. What’s more, h is characters, confined to a particular region and to a particular historical moment, speak with a strong accent, which is true of his local colorism. Besides, different characters from different literary or cultural backgrounds talk differently, as is the case with Tom. Indeed, with his great master and effective use of vernacular, Mark Twain has made colloquial speech an accepted, respectable literary medium in the literary history of

the country. His style of language was later taken up by his descendants, Sherwood Anderson and Ernest Hemingway, and influenced generations of letters.

3.3.1 Local Color

Local color as a trend first made its presence in the late 1860s and early seventies. It was the outgrowth of historical and aesthetic forces that been gathering energy since early nineteenth century. Since then local color became dominate in American Literature. One of the most important writing features of Mark Twain is the use of Local colorism. Twain refers to the elements, which characterize a local culture, elements such as speech, customs, and also a particular place as local colorism. Local colorists concerned themselves with presenting and interpreting the local character of their regions. They tended to identify and glorify, but they never forgot to keep an eye on the truthful color of local life.

Twain depicted social life through descriptions of local places and people he knew best and believed that “the most valuable capital, or culture, or education usable in the building of novels is personal e xperience.” Mark twain preferred to respect social life through portraits of local places which he knew best and drew heavily from his own rich fund of knowledge of people and places with the full depiction of the customs, dialects, sights, smell and sounds of regional America. Mark Twain often used local color to create realistic characters and settings within his writings. The special accent and the way of speaking his characters give the readers the feeling that they are shown a respectable, knowing person. It presented a vivid and real scene to the readers when they are reading through his works.

3.3.2 Vernacular Language

Mark Twain enriches the heritage of American literature by his style of writing in the vernacular, which means to write the way that people think and speak. The vernacular portrays the word in the purest sense of its original meaning. The vernacular symbolizes American writing because nobody else on earth would talk in that way besides the early American settlers. This style is done by writing without worrying about spelling or context, and rather just writing the way that the speech sounds.

This style of writing is uniquely American, because the famous European authors did not write that way since the people of Europe didn’t speak that way. Europeans had never spoken like this or heard of it before Mark Twain. The vernacular enhances American writing solely because it is uniquely early American. It also gives a face to

American writing, distinguishing it from writing in other parts of the world. The vernacular also shows the rural, uneducated portion of America. These are two examples from Tom Sawyer:

" Can"t, Mars Tom. Ole missis, she tole me I got to go an" git dis water an" not stop foolin" roun" wid anybody. She say she spec" Mars Tom gwine

to ax me to whitewash, an" so she tole me to go "long an" "tend to my own

business - she "lowed she"d tend to de whitewashin"" (Twain 13). Another

example is: " Look at him, Jim! He"s a-going up there. Say-look! He"s

a-going to shake hands with him..."(Twain 38).

This shows how they are uneducated, because of the sloppy sentence structure, and it hints at the fact of them being rural by mentioning whitewashing the fence. This enriches American literature by showing a point of view from the poor, which is welcome to those who are tired of hearing about the glamour of rich people

3.4 Figures of Speech

Besides humor, satire, and colloquial language, Twain is also a master of figurative techniques. He applied several figurative techniques in The Adventure of Tom Sawyer such as exaggeration, metaphor, pun and so on to provide emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity. Twain’s profusion of language enriched the reader’s effect of vivid scenes.

3.4.1 Exaggeration

Exaggeration is way of strengthen or exaggerate the meaning of language adopted by writers to make the readers to laugh and create a certain effect in the writings. But sometimes it is not easy to distinguish from boast and exaggeration. Boast is a way of make a self content or make others believe that something is true though it may not be true. So a good writer must be able to use exaggerations properly. It is quite important to distinguish the boundary that make the difference of exaggeration and boast. Mark Twain presented sophisticated skills in the appliance of exaggerations.Fantastic exaggerations often appear in Mark Twain’s works. Through the way of fantastic exaggeration, Mark Twain made his novels reach ironic effect. Then he can stress the gist of the article. Sometimes, exaggeration in his works seems a little bit ridicule, but it actually reflects the character’s unique personality. People got a big laugh out of reading these misspell words. As a satirist, He would often do

things that did not just make a fun, but make the reader think that he really mean something really deep. Then the reader would be able to get the point easily.

The Church's uncushioned pews would seat about 300 people. ( p.26) At last he was satisfied that time had Ceased and eternity began. (p.62) Some

vague figures approached through the gloom swinging an old fashioned tin

lantern that freckled the ground with innumerable little spangles of light. (p.

64) He was so brimful of exultation that he could hardly hold himself when

the old lady came back and stood above the wreck discharging lightnings of

wrath from over her spectacles. (p.20)

These words sound absolutely ridiculous, but Mark Twain can describe distantly a character that is addicted to gambling. Then, in landing, we would be lost in reflection, which could cerise the mass awareness to improve the society and perfect their personality.

3.4.2 Metaphor

Metaphor is the most common seen figure of speech in writings. It directly reflected the concept of human beings and human’s subjective reaction to the outside world. The essence of metaphor is to understand one things on the basis of another thing. Authors often apply metaphor in their writings to create humorous and ironic effects. Delving into the psychological aspects of metaphor to reveal Twain s attitudes and thoughts, Bird shows how using metaphor as a guide to Twain reveals much about his composition process. Twain s metaphoric construction over his complete career and especially sheds new light on his central texts. He reconsiders Old Times on the Mississippi as the most purely metaphorical of Twain s writings, goes on to look at how Twain used metaphor and talked about it in a variety of works and genres, and even argues that Clemens s pseudonym is not so much an alter ego as a metaphorized self.

“Old Scratch” in “He’s full of the Old Scratch”(2) refers to devil.

“In high feather” in “To which Tom responded with jeers, and started off in high feather”(8) means “in high spirit”. Here “feather”

is compared as one’s spirit.

“Gird up one’s lions” in “Then Tom girded up his lions”(22) means “preparing for action”. One’s attention and spirit here are

compared as “lion”.

“Give a wide berth to” in “… they struck far off to the right, to give the haunted house a wide berth to… ”(168) refers to “remain at

a safe distance from somebody or something”. “Berth”originally

means “the port or harborage for ship to stop at”. Here its meaning is

amplified as “the safe distance”.

3.4.3 Transferred epithet

It is a figure of speech where an epithet is transferred from the noun it should rightly modify to another to which it does not really apply or belong. The effect often stresses the emotions or feelings of the individual by expanding them on to the environment. It is one of the most frequently used figures of speech applied by the American writers. The using of transferred epithet is also an important writing feature of Mark Twain. Twain introduced transferred epithet in his work The Adventure of Tom Sawyer to strengthen the power of his language and much more vivid figures to the reader for a special artistic effect.

In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the readers can find many words and phrases that vividly expressed transferred epithet which Twain applied in the work.

For instance, “relieving snort” in “The strangli ng hero sprang up with a relieving snort…” (21) means that Tom snorted in order to

relieve himself. Snort itself cannot make any effect of relieving

people, but the epithet “relieving” is transferred to modify “snort”.

Another example is “dreary, aching noon” in the sentence “She...

take up the cross of a long dreary, aching afternoon… ”(56), which

means that she felt that the afternoon is long, dreary and painful. The

two adjectives “dreary” and “aching” are transferred to modify

“afternoon”.

3.4.4 Metonymy

Metonymy is a figure of speech used in rhetoric in which a thing or concept is not called by its own name, but by the name of something intimately associated with

the thing or concept. It is also a very popular writing technique applied by authors to illustrate their work. Usually the author would apply the most remarkable feature of the thing as the referent of it so that it would turn out to be a very artistic “exchange”. The “exchange” gave a vivid and interesting language to the readers and it made the expressions more visualized. So it can easily create a humorous and refreshing effect. The readers could easily found this wring technique in The Adventure of Tom Sawyer. In this novel, there are also a lot of idioms using the name of one thing to refer to another associated one.

“Mental stomach”in “Tom’s mental stomach had never really hungered for one of those prizes… ”(26) meaning in one’s mind is

the first example. Here “mind” is substituted by “one’s stomach in a

body” in the sentence. “Then all the young clerks in town in a body

–for they had stood in the vestibule sucking their cane heads… ” (32).

Here “in a body”means “altogether, in a whole”, s ubstitutes “whole”

with “body”. “Take up one’s cross”in the sentence “and she… take

up the cross of a long dreary, aching afternoon….”(56) implies

“suffer from and bear one’s tribulation”. Here, “cross”is the

substitution of “suffering”, whose meaning comes from the story of

Jesus.

ⅣConclusion

As one of America’s first and foremost realists and humorists, Mark Twain usually wrote about his own personal experiences and things he knew about from firsthand experience. The Adventure of Tom Sawyer is one of Twain’s best book s because, for whatever reasons, he brought together in it, with the highest degree of artistic balance, those most fundamental dualities running through his work and life from start to finish. Most of all it has to do with the structure of the sentence, which is simpl e, direct, and fluent, maintaining the rhythm of the word’s group of speech and the intonations of the speaking voice. Mark Twain’s colloquial style has influenced a large number of American writers. Twain depicted mostly the lower class of society. Meanwhile, local color mixed romantic plots with realistic descriptions of things which were readily observed, i.e. with the customs, dialects, sights, smell and sounds of regional America. Twain shows satire on southern culture before the Civil War, when the Mississippi Valley was still being settled. Twain blended two different

subjects, the experience of westward expansion and the experience of westward expansion and the experience of southern slavery. His contribution of the development of realism and American literature as a whole was partly through his colloquialism and satire. Commenting on Mark Twain as a social critic, Philip Foner observes that “Twain’s social criticism ranks with that of Milton, Swift, Defoe, and Bernard Shaw both in literary quality and influence on public opinion, and that it is an important part of Twain’s bequest. In this novel, one of the most successful writing styles is a combination of colloquial language and satire; it displays the major achievements of his art: writing in a rich and intricate style that supported his intense scrutiny of complex human experience. It is only right that Mark Twain should be remembered both as a great literary artist and a great social critic in the history of the United States.”

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[12] https://www.wendangku.net/doc/9a13745235.html,/wiki/Mark_Twain

第三版高级英语课后习题答案

1.He is a nice enough young fellow, you know, but he is empty-headed. 2.A passing fashion or craze, in my opinion, shows a complete lack of reason. 3.I ought to have known that raccoon coat would come back to fashion when the Charleston dance, which was popular in the 1920s, came back. 4.All the important and fashionable men on campus are wearing them. How come you don’t know? 5.My brain, which is a precision instrument, began to work at high speed. 6.Except for one thing (intelligence) Polly had all the other requirements. 7.She was not as beautiful as those girls in posters but I felt sure she would become beautiful enough after some time. 8.In fact, she went in the opposite direction, that is, she is not intelligent but rather stupid. 9.If you are no longer involved with her (if you stop dating her) others would be free to compete to get her as a girlfriend. 10.His head turned back and forth (looking at the coat then looking away from the coat). Every time he looked his desire for the coat grew stronger and his resolution not to give away Polly becomes weaker. 11.To teach her to think appeared to be a rather big task. 12.One must admit the outcome does not look very hopeful, but I decided to try one more time. 13.There is a limit to what any human being can bear. 14.I planned to be Pygmalion, to fashion an ideal wife for myself, but I turned out to be Frankenstein because Polly (the result/product of my hard work) ultimately rejected me and ruined my plan. 15.Desperately I tried to stop the feeling of panic that was overwhelming me. 1.I was once so completely absorbed in the important affairs of the world that I devoted all my attention, time and energy to them and only occasionally did I allow myself a little rest by reading poetry or listening to music. 2.Or maybe my suppressed inclination has been brought out under Laura’s unintentional influence. 3.I was as puritanical as a Pharisee and I viewed with contempt all those who lived a less practical life than my own and regarded them as creatures on the moon. 4.Just imagine how I have changed now. Here I stand, sentimental and sensitive, like an old unmarried woman painting a water-color picture of the sunset. 5.I want to enjoy beauty to my heart’s content before I die. 6.I feel that I am weightless and totally absorbed by the night and feel at peace with the night. 7.I imagine devoted religious people must feel as clean and pure as I do now when they leave the solemn confessional after gaining pardon for their sins. 8.In the same way I let myself freely imagine what the innermost part of Laura’s character presents. She looks so severe outwardly, but inwardly she is full of tenderness---tenderness like delicate flowers waiting for the daring to discover them. 9.We human beings ought to learn from the wise bird, knowing how far we can allow ourselves to go; knowing how much freedom of conduct we can allow ourselves to have. 10.Here I’m born anew, completely different from the past, changed excessively or to an unusual extent. 11.The Pacific Ocean alone is much larger than all the continents combined. 12.A storm that lasted two days has made me extremely excited and happy, but above all, I love these idle days in which I throw off all the qualities, perspectives, values and everything else that made me as what I was: I’m born anew.

高级英语第一册第九课翻译与练习答案

第九课 马克?吐温——美国的一面镜子 (节选) 诺埃尔?格罗夫 在大多数美国人的心目中，马克?吐温是位伟大作家，他描写了哈克?费恩永恒的童年时代中充满诗情画意的旅程和汤姆?索亚在漫长的夏日里自由自在历险探奇的故事。的确，这位美国最受人喜爱的作家的探索精神、爱国热情、浪漫气质及幽默笔调都达到了登峰造极的程度。但我发现还有另一个不同的马克?吐温——一个由于深受人生悲剧的打击而变得愤世嫉俗、尖酸刻薄的马克?吐温，一个为人类品质上的弱点而忧心忡忡、明显地看到前途是一片黑暗的人。 印刷工、领航员、邦联游击队员、淘金者、耽于幻想的乐天派、语言尖刻的讽刺家：马克?吐温原名塞缪尔?朗赫恩?克莱门斯，他一生之中有超过三分之一的时间浪迹美国各地，体验着美国的新生活，尔后便以作家和演说家的身分将他所感受到的这一切介绍给全世界。他的笔名取自他在蒸汽船上做工时听到的报告水深为两口寻(12英尺)——意即可以通航的信号语。他的作品中有二十几部至今仍在印行，其外文译本仍在世界各地拥有读者，由此可见他的享誉程度。 在马克?吐温青年时代，美国的地理中心是密西西比河流域，而密西西比河是这个年轻国家中部的交通大动脉。龙骨船、平底船和大木筏载运着最重要的商品。木材、玉米、烟草、小麦和皮货通过这些运载工具顺流而下，运送到河口三角洲地区，而砂糖、糖浆、棉花和威士忌酒等货物则被运送到北方。在19世纪50年代，西部领土开发高潮到来之前，辽阔的密西西比河流域占美国已开发领土的四分之三。 1857年，少年马克?吐温作为蒸汽船上的一名小领航员踏人了这片天地。在这个新的工作岗位上，他接触到的是各式各样的人物，看到的是一个多姿多彩的大干世界。他完全地投身到这种生活之中，经常在操舵室里听着人们谈论民间争斗、海盗抢劫、私刑案件、游医卖药以及河边的一些化外民居的故事。所有这一切，连同他那像留声机般准确可靠的记忆所吸收的丰富多彩的语言，后来都有机会在他的作品中得以再现。 蒸汽船的甲板上不仅挤满了富有开拓精神的人们，而且也载着一些娼妓、赌棍和歹徒等社会渣滓。从所有这些形形色色的人身上，马克?吐温敏锐地认识了人类，认识了人们的言与行之间的差距。他在蒸汽船上工作的四年半时间是他真正接受教育的开端，而且也是最具有深远意义的教育。到了晚年，马克?吐温还声言是密西西比河使他了解了各种各样的人的本性。这种生活体验对他的全部创作都起了促进作用，然而他描写得最为成功的还是那些密西西比河上的人物。 随着铁路运输的发展，社会上对汽船领航员的需求日渐减少，而内战的爆发又阻碍了商业贸易的发展。这时，马克?吐温便离开了密西西比河流域。他在南方邦联游击队的一支杂牌队伍里当了两个星期的兵。那支队伍想方设法避免与敌军交战。在确信“我比发明撤退的人更精通撤退”之后，马克?吐温离开了那支队伍。 他乘驿站马车来到西部，在内华达州的华苏地区受到当时正流行的淘金热的诱惑。同那只有既幸运而又锲而不舍的追求者才能取得的巨大财富三心二意地打了八个月交道之后，他遭到了失败。在破产和灰心之余，他接受了为弗吉尼亚市《领土开发报》当记者的工作，这一行动将获得文学界永久的感激。 自从他因淘金失败而感到心灰意冷之后，马克?吐温便开始努力博取作为一名报社记者和幽默作家的地区性声望。从事新闻报道工作当然不能使他像淘金成功者一样立成巨富，但在挣钱方面他的笔杆却比他的锄镐要有效得多。1864年春季，在他加盟《领土开发报》还不足两年之时，他又乘驿站马车前往旧金山，那儿在当时和现在都是有前途的年轻作家成长

从马克·吐温的小说看美国本土色彩文学

【摘要】美国本土文学的崛起不仅标志着真正的美国文学的形成，也助推了美国文学挣脱欧洲文学的枷锁，从独立走向成熟。作为美国本土文学的集大成者和发展者，马克?吐温的作品囊括了美国本土文学的绝大部分特点，除了地道的本土作家、本土气息的故事内容和人物角色，最可以反映美国本土文学独特色彩的就是其语言特点。文章以马克?吐温的小说为例，从现实的故事背景、独特的语言风格、深刻的社会意义三方面，分析美国本土文学的特征。 【关键词】马克?吐温；美国本土文学；特点 中图分类号：i06 文献标志码：a 文章编号：1007-0125（2015）11-0256-02 美国本土文学的出现标志着真正的美国文学的形成，伴随其发展，美国文学经历了从自嘲和被排斥的窘境，逐步独立并走出了欧洲文学的阴影。所谓美国本土文学，是以本土的语言风格描绘本土的人物、故事为特点的文学作品。作为美国文学史上一抹亮丽的色彩，其重要的地位不仅是因为它开辟了文学的新天地，更重要的是赋予它文学生命的美国本土文学作者。马克?吐温作为美国本土文学的开山鼻祖和集大成者，对美国本土文学的发展功不可没。如果说独立的美国文学始于美国本土文学，那么可以毫不夸张的说，美国本土文学始于马克?吐温。 马克?吐温通过其本土特色的作品将美国本土文学推向高潮，将民族标签印于美国文学作品之上，使曾经被欧洲传统文学压抑和排斥的美国文学不仅翻身独立，而且日渐繁荣。贯穿于美国本土文学中的美国本土文化、方言俗语、风土人情等，都成为其独树一帜的文学色彩。在马克?吐温的作品中，这些本土的文学色彩随处可见。马克?吐温作为地道的本土作家，以轻松幽默的方言俚语，讲述自己亲身经历的或是生活化的美国故事，描绘原汁原味的美国乡土风情，反映真实的美国社会。 一、现实的故事背景 美国文学的独立是内外合力的结果，全国统一趋势是自主文学得以发展的外部力量，美国作家们希望本国的文化得到认同的渴望是内在努力。长期受欧洲文学的影响，被压迫的不只是美国文学，还有美国文化，美国文学的独立也意味着美国文化的自由。美国本土文学作品具有明显的民族性和民族烙印，并不是一味的虚构人物架空历史，而是追求还原本真，以纯粹的美国风格和故事背景作为创作源泉，这种创作风格的作品表现的更加具有贴近性、生活性和趣味性。 首先，真实的时代背景。马克?吐温的小说都是以真实的时代背景为故事主线，他的经典著作三部曲（《密西西比河上的生活》、《汤姆?索亚历险记》和《哈克贝利?费恩历险记》）的时间节点是美国南北战争，书中描绘了战争前密西西比河上的美国村庄的生活，这个时代承载了马克?吐温的童年。在大的时代背景下又细化出具体的故事背景，南北战争前黑人还被奴役，闭塞的美国南部以及那里沉闷的生活都为故事的发展提供了源泉。在马克?吐温众多作品中，最有时代特色的代表作就是《竞选州长》。虽然同样是以南北战争为时间点，但这部作品是以战争后统一的美国为背景，这一阶段的美国迅速发展资本主义，宣扬民主、平等，表面上风平浪静，实际暗潮汹涌，虚伪的平等和假民主使得竞选成为荒谬的行为，而这些正是《竞选州长》整个故事的开端。 其次，生活化的故事。本土色彩的文学除了真实本土的故事背景，还要有接地气的故事内容。独立后的美国文学大胆的讲述美国人自己的故事，或是纯朴的乡村生活，或是小人物的悲欢离合，亦或是本民族的豪放与狭隘，无论好坏，都是最贴近美国人的故事。仍以马克?吐温的三部曲为例，这是一系列发生在密西西比河上的故事，那条河是美国人熟悉的河，故事里的村庄是美国最普通的村庄，那里发生的故事不只是作者自己的童年，也同样触碰到了多数美国人的记忆。而《百万英镑》正是马克?吐温亲身经历的缩影，在那个狂热拜金的时代下，不只是马克?吐温头脑发热迷失于财利的诱惑中，一定有更多的美国人会在故事中看见自

高级英丘吉尔演讲、马克吐温

1.Speech on Hitler’ Invasion of the U.S.S.R “Behind all this glare. behind all this storm, I see that small group of villainous men who plan, organize, and launch this cataract of horrors upon mankind... 在这番刀光剑影、血雨腥风的背后，我看到了那一小撮谋划、组织并向人类发起这场恐怖战争的恶棍··· “I have to declare the decision of His Majesty’s Government—and I feel sure it is a decision in which the great Dominions will in due course concur—for we must speak out now at once, without a day’s delay. I have to make the declaration, but can you doubt what our policy will be? We have but one aim and one single, irrevocable purpose. We are resolved to destroy Hitler and every vestige of the Nazi regime. From this nothing will turn us—nothing. We will never parley,we will never negotiate with Hitler or any of his gang. We shall fight him by land, we shall fight him by sea, we shall fight him in the air, until, with God’s help, we have rid the earth of his shadow and liberated its people from his yoke. Any man or state who fights on against Nazidom will have our aid.Any man or state who marches with Hitler is our foe...That is our policy and that is our declaration.It follows therefore that we shall give whatever help we can to Russia and the Russian people.We shall appeal to all our friends and allies in every part of the world to take the same course and pursue it,as we shall faithfully and stead-fastly to the end.... 现在我必须宣布大英帝国的决定，我确信伟大的自治领地在适当时候会一致同意这个决定。然而我们必须立即宣布这项决定，一天也不能耽搁。我必须发表这项声明，难道你们会怀疑我们的政策吗？我们只有一个目标，一个唯一的，不可能变的目标，那就是一定要消灭希特勒和纳粹政权的一切痕迹。什么也不能使我们改变这个决定。什么也不能！我们决不妥协；我们决不同希特勒或他的任何党羽谈判。我们将在陆地上同他战斗，直至借上帝之力，在地球上清除他的阴影，并把地球上的人民从他的枷锁中解放出来。我们将援助任何一个同纳粹主义作战的人或者国家。我们将敌视任何一个助纣为虐的人或国家···这就是我们的政策，这就是我们的宣言。因此，我们将尽力援助（前）苏联和（前）苏联人民。我们将呼吁世界各地的朋友和盟友与我们同心协力，忠诚不渝地斗争到底··· “This is no class war, but a war in which the whole British Empire and Commonwealth of Nations is engaged, without distinction of race, creed, or party. It is not for me to speak of the action of the Soviet Russia will cause the slightest divergence of aims or slackening of effort in the great democracies who are resolved upon his doom, he is woefully mistaken. On the contrary, we shall be fortified and encouraged in our efforts to rescue mankind from his tyranny. We shall be strengthened and not weakened in determination and in resources. 这绝不是阶级战争。这是一场大英帝国和英联邦，不分种族，不分信仰，不分党派，共同参与的战争。我无权代表美国方面做任何行动宣言，但我要声明一点，如果希特勒认为他对（前）苏联的进攻会稍稍转移那些一心埋葬他的伟大的民主

高级英语第一册马克吐温课文翻译以及词汇

在大多数美国人的心目中，马克?吐温是位伟大作家，他描写了哈克?费恩永恒的童年时代中充满诗情画意的旅程和汤姆?索亚在漫长的夏日里自由自在历险探奇的故事。的确，这位美国最受人喜爱的作家的探索精神、爱国热情、浪漫气质及幽默笔调都达到了登峰造极的程度。但我发现还有另一个不同的马克?吐温——一个由于深受人生悲剧的打击而变得愤世嫉俗、尖酸刻薄的马克?吐温，一个为人类品质上的弱点而忧心忡忡、明显地看到前途是一片黑暗的人。 印刷工、领航员、邦联游击队员、淘金者、耽于幻想的乐天派、语言尖刻的讽刺家：马克?吐温原名塞缪尔?朗赫恩?克莱门斯，他一生之中有超过三分之一的时间浪迹美国各地，体验着美国的新生活，尔后便以作家和演说家的身分将他所感受到的这一切介绍给全世界。他的笔名取自他在蒸汽船上做工时听到的报告水深为两口寻(12英尺)——意即可以通航的信号语。他的作品中有二十几部至今仍在印行，其外文译本仍在世界各地拥有读者，由此可见他的享誉程度。 在马克?吐温青年时代，美国的地理中心是密西西比河流域，而密西西比河是这个年轻国家中部的交通大动脉。龙骨船、平底船和大木筏载运着最重要的商品。木材、玉米、烟草、小麦和皮货通过这些运载工具顺流而下，运送到河口三角洲地区，而砂糖、糖浆、棉花和威士忌酒等货物则被运送到北方。在19世纪50年代，西部领土开发高潮到来之前，辽阔的密西西比河流域占美国已开发领土的四分之三。 1857年，少年马克?吐温作为蒸汽船上的一名小领航员踏人了这片天地。在这个新的工作岗位上，他接触到的是各式各样的人物，看到的是一个多姿多彩的大干世界。他完全地投身到这种生活之中，经常在操舵室里听着人们谈论民间争斗、海盗抢劫、私刑案件、游医卖药以及河边的一些化外民居的故事。所有这一切，连同他那像留声机般准确可靠的记忆所吸收的丰富多彩的语言，后来都有机会在他的作品中得以再现。 蒸汽船的甲板上不仅挤满了富有开拓精神的人们，而且也载着一些娼妓、赌棍和歹徒等社会渣滓。从所有这些形形色色的人身上，马克?吐温敏锐地认识了人类，认识了人们的言与行之间的差距。他在蒸汽船上工作的四年半时间是他真正接受教育的开端，而且也是最具有深远意义的教育。到了晚年，马克?吐温还声言是密西西比河使他了解了各种各样的人的本性。这种生活体验对他的全部创作都起了促进作用，然而他描写得最为成功的还是那些密西西比河上的人物。 随着铁路运输的发展，社会上对汽船领航员的需求日渐减少，而内战的爆发又阻碍了商业贸易的发展。这时，马克?吐温便离开了密西西比河流域。他在南方邦联游击队的一支杂牌队伍里当了两个星期的兵。那支队伍想方设法避免与敌军交战。在确信“我比发明撤退的人更精通撤退”之后，马克?吐温离开了那支队伍。 他乘驿站马车来到西部，在内华达州的华苏地区受到当时正流行的淘金热的诱惑。同那只有既幸运而又锲而不舍的追求者才能取得的巨大财富三心二意地打了八个月交道之后，他遭到了失败。在破产和灰心之余，他接受了为弗吉尼亚市

高级英语Lesson 6 Mark Twain课文翻译

Lesson 6 Mark Twain ---Mirror of America 马克.吐温--美国的一面镜子(节选) 诺埃尔.格罗夫 Most Americans remember Mark Twain as the father of Huck Finn's idyllic cruise through eternal boyhood and Tom Sawyer's endless summer of freedom and adventure. In-deed, this nation's best-loved author was every bit as ad-venturous, patriotic, romantic, and humorous as anyone has ever imagined. I found another Twain as well –one who grew cynical, bitter, saddened by the profound personal tragedies life dealt him, a man who became obsessed with the frailties of the human race, who saw clearly ahead a black wall of night. 在大多数美国人的心目中，马克?吐温是位伟大作家，他描写了哈克?费恩永恒的童年时代中充满诗情画意的旅程和汤姆?索亚在漫长的夏日里自由自在历险探奇的故事。的确，这位美国最受人喜爱的作家的探索精神、爱国热情、浪漫气质及幽默笔调都达到了登峰造极的程度。但我发现还有另一个不同的马克?吐温——一个由于深受人生悲剧的打击而变得愤世嫉俗、尖酸刻薄的马克?吐温，一个为人类品质上的弱点而忧心忡忡、明显地看到前途是一片黑暗的人。 Tramp printer, river pilot , Confederate guerrilla, prospector, starry-eyed optimist, acid-tongued cynic: The man who became Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens and he ranged across the nation for more than a third of his life, digesting the new American experience before sharing it with the world as writer and lecturer. He adopted his pen name from the cry heard in his steamboat days, signaling two fathoms (12 feet) of water -- a navigable depth. His popularity is attested by the fact that more than a score of his books remain in print, and translations are still read around the world. 印刷工、领航员、邦联游击队员、淘金者、耽于幻想的乐天派、语言尖刻的讽刺家：马克?吐温原名塞缪尔?朗赫恩?克莱门斯，他一生之中有超过三分之一的时间浪迹美国各地，体验着美国的新生活，尔后便以作家和演说家的身分将他所感受到的这一切介绍给全世界。他的笔名取自他在蒸汽船上做工时听到的报告水深为两口寻(12 英尺)——意即可以通航的信号语。他的作品中有二十几部至今仍在印行，其外文译本仍在世界各地拥有读者，由此可见他的享誉程度。 The geographic core, in Twain's early years, was the great valley of the Mississippi River, main artery of transportation in the young nation's heart. Keelboats ， flatboats , and large rafts carried the first major commerce. Lumber, corn, tobacco, wheat, and furs moved downstream to the delta country; sugar, molasses , cotton, and whiskey traveled north. In the 1850's, before the climax of westward expansion, the vast basin drained three-quarters of the settled United States. 在马克?吐温青年时代，美国的地理中心是密西西比河流域，而密西西比河是这个年轻国家中部的交通大动脉。龙骨船、平底船和大木筏载运着最重要的商品。木材、玉米、烟草、小麦和皮货通过这些运载工具顺流而下，运送到河口三角洲地区，而砂糖、糖浆、棉花和威士忌酒等货物则被运送到北方。在19 世纪50 年代，西部领土开发高潮到来之前，辽阔的密西西比河流域占美国已开发领土的四分之三。 Young Mark Twain entered that world in 1857 as a cub pilot on a steamboat. The cast of characters set before him in his new profession was rich and varied a cosmos . He participated abundantly in this life, listening to pilothouse talk of feuds , piracies, lynchings ,medicine shows, and savage waterside slums. All would resurface in his books,

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第九课 马克吐温——美国的一面镜子 (节选) 诺埃尔格罗夫 在大多数美国人的心目中，马克吐温是位伟大作家，他描写了哈克费恩永恒的童年时代中充满诗情画意的旅程和汤姆索亚在漫长的夏日里自由自在历险探奇的故事。的确，这位美国最受人喜爱的作家的探索精神、爱国热情、浪漫气质及幽默笔调都达到了登峰造极的程度。但我发现还有另一个不同的马克吐温——一个由于深受人生悲剧的打击而变得愤世嫉俗、尖酸刻薄的马克吐温，一个为人类品质上的弱点而忧心忡忡、明显地看到前途是一片黑暗的人。 印刷工、领航员、邦联游击队员、淘金者、耽于幻想的乐天派、语言尖刻的讽刺家：马克吐温原名塞缪尔朗赫恩克莱门斯，他一生之中有超过三分之一的时间浪迹美国各地，体验着美国的新生活，尔后便以作家和演说家的身分将他所感受到的这一切介绍给全世界。他的笔名取自他在蒸汽船上做工时听到的报告水深为两口寻(12英尺)——意即可以通航的信号语。他的作品中有二十几部至今仍在印行，其外文译本仍在世界各地拥有读者，由此可见他的享誉程度。 在马克吐温青年时代，美国的地理中心是密西西比河流域，而密西西比河是这个年轻国家中部的交通大动脉。龙骨船、平底船和大木筏载运着最重要的商品。木材、玉米、烟草、小麦和皮货通过这些运载工具顺流而下，运送到河口三角洲地区，而砂糖、糖浆、棉花和威士忌酒等货物则被运送到北方。在19世纪50年代，西部领土开发高潮到来之前，辽阔的密西西比河流域占美国已开发领土的四分之三。 1857年，少年马克吐温作为蒸汽船上的一名小领航员踏人了这片天地。在这个新的工作岗位上，他接触到的是各式各样的人物，看到的是一个多姿多彩的大干世界。他完全地投身到这种生活之中，经常在操舵室里听着人们谈论民间争斗、海盗抢劫、私刑案件、游医卖药以及河边的一些化外民居的故事。所有这一切，连同他那像留声机般准确可靠的记忆所吸收的丰富多彩的语言，后来都有机会在他的作品中得以再现。 蒸汽船的甲板上不仅挤满了富有开拓精神的人们，而且也载着一些娼妓、赌棍和歹徒等社会渣滓。从所有这些形形色色的人身上，马克吐温敏锐地认识了人类，认识了人们的言与行之间的差距。他在蒸汽船上工作的四年半时间是他真正接受教育的开端，而且也是最具有深远意义的教育。到了晚年，马克吐温还声言是密西西比河使他了解了各种各样的人的本性。这种生活体验对他的全部创作都起了促进作用，然而他描写得最为成功的还 是那些密西西比河上的人物。 随着铁路运输的发展，社会上对汽船领航员的需求日渐减少，而内战的爆发又阻碍了商业贸易的发展。这时，马克吐温便离开了密西西比河流域。他在南方邦联游击队的一支杂牌队伍里当了两个星期的兵。那支队伍想方设法避免与敌军交战。在确信“我比发明撤退的人更精通撤退”之后，马克吐温离开了那支队伍。 他乘驿站马车来到西部，在内华达州的华苏地区受到当时正流行的淘金热的诱惑。同那只有既幸运而又锲而不舍的追求者才能取得的巨大财富三心二意地打了八个月交道之后，他遭到了失败。在破产和灰心之余，他接受了为弗吉尼亚市《领土开发报》当记者的工作，这一行动将获得文学界永久的感激。 自从他因淘金失败而感到心灰意冷之后，马克吐温便开始努力博取作为一名报社记者和幽默作家的地区性声望。从事新闻报道工作当然不能使他像淘金成功者一样立成巨富，但在挣钱

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Mark Twain-the Mirror of America Most Americans remember Mark Twain as the father of Huck Finn's idyllic cruise through eternal boyhood and Tom Sawyer's endless summer of freedom and adventure. In-deed, this nation's best-loved author was every bit as ad-venturous, patriotic, romantic, and humorous as anyone has ever imagined. I found another Twain as well –one who grew cynical, bitter, saddened by the profound personal tragedies life dealt him, a man who became obsessed with the frailties of the human race, who saw clearly ahead a black wall of night. 在大多数美国人的心目中，马克?吐温是位伟大作家，他描写了哈克?费恩永恒的童年时代中充满诗情画意的旅程和汤姆?索亚在漫长的夏日里自由自在历险探奇的故事。的确，这位美国最受人喜爱的作家的探索精神、爱国热情、浪漫气质及幽默笔调都达到了登峰造极的程度。但我发现还有另一个不同的马克?吐温——一个由于深受人生悲剧的打击而变得愤世嫉俗、尖酸刻薄的马克?吐温，一个为人类品质上的弱点而忧心忡忡、明显地看到前途是一片黑暗的人。 Tramp printer, river pilot , Confederate guerrilla, prospector, starry-eyed optimist, acid-tongued cynic: The man who became Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens and he ranged across the nation for more than a third of his life, digesting the new American experience before sharing it with the world as writer and lecturer. He adopted his pen name from the cry heard in his steamboat days, signaling two fathoms (12 feet) of water -- a navigable depth. His popularity is attested by the fact that more than a score of his books remain in print, and translations are still read around the world. 印刷工、领航员、邦联游击队员、淘金者、耽于幻想的乐天派、语言尖刻的讽刺家：马克?吐温原名塞缪尔?朗赫恩?克莱门斯，他一生之中有超过三分之一的时间浪迹美国各地，体验着美国的新生活，尔后便以作家和演说家的身分将他所感受到的这一切介绍给全世界。他的笔名取自他在蒸汽船上做工时听到的报告水深为两口寻(12英尺)——意即可以通航的信号语。他的作品中有二十几部至今仍在印行，其外文译本仍在世界各地拥有读者，由此可见他的享誉程度。 The geographic core, in Twain's early years, was the great valley of the Mississippi River, main artery of transportation in the young nation's heart. Keelboats ，flatboats , and large rafts carried the first major commerce. Lumber, corn, tobacco, wheat, and furs moved downstream to the delta country; sugar, molasses , cotton, and whiskey traveled north. In the 1850's, before the climax of westward expansion, the vast basin drained three-quarters of the settled United States. 在马克?吐温青年时代，美国的地理中心是密西西比河流域，而密西西比河是这个年轻国家中部的交通大动脉。龙骨船、平底船和大木筏载运着最重要的商品。木材、玉米、烟草、小麦和皮货通过这些运载工具顺流而下，运送到河口三角洲地区，而砂糖、糖浆、棉花和威士忌酒等货物则被运送到北方。在19世纪50年代，西部领土开发高潮到来之前，辽阔的密西西比河流域占美国已开发领土的四分之三。 Young Mark Twain entered that world in 1857 as a cub pilot on a steamboat. The cast of characters set before him in his new profession was rich and varied a cosmos. He participated abundantly in this life, listening to pilothouse talk of feuds, piracies, lynchings ,medicine shows, and savage waterside slums. All would resurface in his books, together with the colorful language that he soaked up with a memory that seemed phonographic 1857年，少年马克?吐温作为蒸汽船上的一名小领航员踏人了这片天地。在这个新的工作

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2009-05-03 21:00 高级英语Lesson 9. Mark Twain ---Mirror of America Noel Grove Most Americans remember Mark Twain as the father of Huck Finn's idyllic cruise through eternal boyhood and Tom Sawyer's endless summer of freedom and adventure. In-deed, this nation's best-loved author was every bit as ad-venturous, patriotic, romantic, and humorous as anyone has ever imagined. I found another Twain as well – one who grew cynical, bitter, saddened by the profound personal tragedies life dealt him, a man who became obsessed with the frailties of the human race, who saw clearly ahead a black wall of night. Tramp printer, river pilot , Confederate guerrilla, prospector, starry-eyed optimist, acid-tongued cynic: The man who became Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens and he ranged across the nation for more than a third of his life, digesting the new American experience before sharing it with the world as writer and lecturer. He adopted his pen name from the cry heard in his steamboat days, signaling two fathoms (12 feet) of water -- a navigable depth. His popularity is attested by the fact that more than a score of his books remain in print, and translations are still read around the world. The geographic core, in Twain's early years, was the great valley of the Mississippi River, main artery of transportation in the young nation's heart. Keelboats ， flatboats , and large rafts carried the first major commerce. Lumber, corn, tobacco, wheat, and furs moved downstream to the delta country; sugar, molasses , cotton, and whiskey traveled north. In the 1850's, before the climax of westward expansion, the vast basin drained three-quarters of the settled United States. Young Mark Twain entered that world in 1857 as a cub pilot on a steamboat. The cast of characters set before him in his new profession was rich and varied a cosmos . He participated abundantly in this life, listening to pilothouse talk of feuds , piracies, lynchings ,medicine shows, and savage waterside slums. All would resurface in his books, together with the colorful language that he soaked up with a memory that seemed phonographic Steamboat decks teemed not only with the main current of pioneering humanity, but its flotsam of hustlers, gamblers, and thugs as well. From them all Mark Twain gained a keen perception of the human race, of the difference between what people claim to be and what they really are. His four and a half year s in the steamboat trade marked the real beginning of his education, and the most lasting part of it. In later life Twain acknowledged that the river had acquainted him with every possible type