B1U3T1 Letter from America: Notes from the Underground
文本细读
商务英语综合教程
- 作者Shashi Tharoor是个印度人,有关他的简介可以看这里。
One of the biggest surprises of my life in America is the New York City subway. I've actually come to enjoy it. When I firt moved here in 1989, well-meaning friends warned me away from the already 80-year-old underground railroad, notorious among both residents and visitors as the least pleasant and most dangerous means of getting around this City That Never Sleeps. Yet it was also the fastest and the most economical means of doing so.
I've actually come to enjoy it.
- 作者这里并没有直接说enjoy the subway,而是用了come to enjoy it,变得享受它了,这说明作者也经历了一个由不理解、不喜欢到理解、享受的过程。
- actually:in reality, in fact。此处作者使用actually强调,说明他预计别人认为他的感受与他自己要说的感受可能不同
When I first moved here in 1989, well-meaning friends warned me away from the already 80-year-old underground railroad, notorious among both residents and visitors as the least pleasant and most dangerous means of getting around this City That Never Sleeps.
- well-meaning: well-intentioned 好心好意的,出于好心的
- warn me away from:警告我远离 to tell someone that they should not go near something, especially because it may be dangerous 例句:Soon an official appeared to warn them away.
- already:已经,这里的已经所对照的时间点指的是1989年他刚搬到纽约来的时候,而这篇文章写在大约2001年,所以这里表示的是,在当时就已经80岁高龄的地铁
- underground railroad 和 sub + way 的构成形式异曲同工
- notorious among ... Sleeps 这一部分是形容词性质的,修饰的是underground railroad
- notorious:臭名昭著的、恶名在外的、声名狼藉的 例句:He was notorious as a gambler and rake. 他是声名狼藉的赌徒﹑ 浪荡子. 与该例句类似,后面的as其实也是跟在这个notorious后面的。 该词的名词形式是:notoriety
- residents:居民
- the least pleasant and most dangerous ...,pleasant:令人愉快的,the least pleasant 细究起来,是给人最少愉快感受的,但实际表达出来的意思应该更接近于最令人感到不快的。
- means of getting around ... :means 方法、手段、工具 例句:We need to find some other means of transportation. 我们需要找到其他的交通方式 |注意,虽然means后面带s,但是它既可用作单数,也可用作复数,因此,说 a means of doing sth 并不是错误的
- City That Never Sleeps 不眠之城,是纽约非常著名的绰号。除了纽约的夜生活等,纽约的地铁也是24小时运营的。
Yet it was also the fastest and the most economical means of doing so.
- Yet:但是 conj but at the same time; nevertheless 然而; 而; 但是 例句:She trained hard all year yet still failed to reach her best form. 她全年艰苦训练, 然而仍未达到自己的最佳状态. |Yet此处表示转折,因为前面一句讲的是别人让他远离纽约地铁,接下来又讲了纽约地铁的好处。这两句构成了一个dilemma(在第二段的第一句中出现,作者究竟是坐地铁呢,还是不坐呢?)
- economical:经济实惠的,节省的。与economic进行区分。 an economical car to run, (eg one with low petrol consumption) 节油汽车
With that dilemma, I began my life as a New Yorker -- and I've remained ambivalent ever since. The subway is the thing we love to hate. Schedules are unreliable. Trains come when they come, or not at all. Breakdowns are so frequent that women have been known to give birth, stuck in some tunnel. Staff are few and their announcements incomprehensible. The infrastructure is ancient and crumbling. From time to time, burst water pipes flood stations, paralyzing traffic. The city's homeless live on the platforms, sleeping on benches (or in the trains themselves) and heightening passengers' insecurity. Every few months the papers report the familiar horror of yet another innocent randomly pushed under the wheels of an oncoming train. Muggings, rape and murders are not common, but they happen. Add to this the often dirty cars and graffiti-scrawled stations, the hellish heat in summer and the arctic freeze of winter, and you have quite an indictment. A writer at The Washington Post called the New York subway "a near-unworkable mixture of the ancient, the old, the outmoded and the inefficient." and he was being sympathetic.
With that dilemma, I began my life as a New Yorker -- and I've remained ambivalent ever since.
- dilemma:situation in which one has to choose between two undesirable things or courses of action 进退两难的窘境; 进退维谷的困境: be in/place sb in a dilemma 陷入[置某人於]进退两难之境. |这里的dilemma指的就是上一段最后两句讲的矛盾,纽约地铁的臭名昭著,别人不建议去坐 vs 快捷与实惠
- ambivalent:having or showing mixed feelings about a certain object, person or situation 对某物、某人或某境况具有或显示矛盾情感的: an ambivalent attitude towards one's best friend's wife 对至友的妻子有矛盾的心态
- 整句理解:就这样坐也不是不坐也不是(意译),我开始了自己作为纽约人的生活 —— 而且自那以后,我的心理一直矛盾不已。
The subway is the thing we love to hate.
- 这一句很有意思,一句话中出现了love和hate一对反义词。地铁是让我们乐意去恨的东西。在此可以提一下一种修辞手法叫Oxymoron,虽然此处不是,但是Oxymoron这种修辞手法就是在一个短语中,修饰语与中心词矛盾,例如:sweet bitterness 甜蜜的忧伤。painful pleasure 悲喜交集(痛苦的喜悦);labordious idleness 令人腻烦的闲散、闲得发慌。|这里的love to hate的感觉就像是 毕业生经常自己说自己的学校不好(love to hate),但是别人说你的学校不好,你也不乐意 (个人感觉有一种这样的效果在里面)
- 本句话可以视为这一段的中心句,该段后面的文字,都在讲我们为什么有理由去hate New York subway
Schedules are unreliable.
Trains come when they come, or not at all.
- 地铁来就来,不来就不来(地铁来就来,要么根本就不来)。come when ... 当……时候,火车会来。但当什么时候呢?当火车来的时候来。隐含着作者那它根本就没有办法的情绪。
Breakdowns are so frequent that women have been known to give birth, stuck in some tunnel.
- breakdown:mechanical failure 机械的故障: Our car/We had a breakdown on the motorway. 我们的汽车[我们]在高速公路上抛锚了.
- give birth:生产、分娩、生孩子
- stuck: [pred 作表语] not able to move or continue doing sth 不能动; 不能继续做某事、被困住
- tunnel:地下通道; 隧道; 地道(地铁是在地道中行驶的)
- stuck in some tunnel:此处的some指的是“某个”,此处作者并未确指,没有用 in the tunnel,而是用some(具体哪个不知道),更突出了故障所造成的问题,将孕妇生产与不确定会被困到哪里的矛盾更加突出出来。
- 故障频出,甚至听说有些孕妇(把women译得具体一些)被困在不知道什么地道里,把孩子生出来了。
Staff are few and their announcements incomprehensible.
- 工作人员很少,而且他们的广播也听不明白在说些什么。
- incomprehensible 无法理解的、无法明白的、搞不懂的。
The infrastructure is ancient and crumbling.
- infrastructure:基础建设、基础设施,这里应该指的是地铁的硬件条件
- crumble:to break, or cause something to break, into small pieces
- 基础设施十分老旧,而且也破败不堪。
From time to time, burst water pipes flood stations, paralyzing traffic.
- from time to time:now and then, occasionally 时不时地
- burst:burst作为动词,其过去分词可以是burst也可以是bursted,此处的burst应该视为过去分词作形容词,表示爆裂的、裂开的
- flood:动词,(cause a place that is usu dry to) be filled or overflow with water; inundate (使通常乾燥的地方)灌满水; 淹没; 泛滥 例句:The river had burst its banks and flooded the valley. 河水冲破堤岸, 淹没了山谷.
- paralyze:to make unable to move or act 使瘫痪、使动不了
- traffic前面除了用paralyze以外,还可以用 block, hold up, obstruct, stop, tie up 表示交通瘫痪、交通堵塞 例句:Traffic was held up for six hours by the motorway blockade.
The city's homeless live on the platforms, sleeping on benches (or in the trains themselves) and heightening passengers' insecurity.
- The city's homeless 这个城市无家可归的人,the + adj表示一类人
- platform:地铁的站台
- heighten:(cause sth to) become higher or more intense (使某事物)提高, 加强: heightening tension 越来越紧张的情况
- insecurity:insecure的名词形式:insecure:not feeling at all confident about yourself, your abilities, or your relationships with people 感到不安全的、不安全感的 例句:She felt lonely and insecure away from her family.
Every few months the papers report the familiar horror of yet another innocent randomly pushed under the wheels of an oncoming train.
- Every few months 每隔几个月
- the papers 这里应该指的是newspaper
- report 报道
- 本句的主结构是papers report the horror。这里的horror指的是令人感到恐怖的事情。注意,这样的用法在英语中很常见,horror可以用来表示恐慌心态,也可以用来指令人有这种心态的具体事件。
- the familiar horror,familiar说明类似惨剧经常见诸报端
- yet:still more。yet another ... / yet again 强调“又”一次、“再”一次
- innocent:用作名词:无辜的人
- randomly:随机地、任意地,强调这样的惨剧可能发生在任何人身上
- oncoming:advancing; approaching 即将来临的; 接近的: oncoming traffic 迎面驶来的车辆.
Muggings, rape and murders are not common, but they happen.
- mugging: An assault upon a person especially with the intent to rob 行凶抢劫
Add to this the often dirty cars and graffiti-scrawled stations, the hellish heat in summer and the arctic freeze of winter, and you have quite an indictment.
- Add to this,在这上面加上,火上浇油的是、更有甚者。本句中可以理解为:不仅如此,你还要忍受。this就是指上面已经讲到过的这些问题。
- 前半个句子结构是倒装句,the often dirty .. winter add to this.
- car:这里指的是地铁的车厢
- graffiti 涂鸦
- scrawl 乱涂乱画
- hellish heat 形容head是用地狱式的,一般认为在地狱里是用火烤那些有罪的人,因此是“炼”狱
- arctic:北极的、极寒冷的
- freeze: (of weather) be so cold that water turns to ice; be extremely cold (指天气)冷得使水结成冰, 严寒
- quite: to some extent; not very; fairly 达到某种程度; 不很; 相当: quite big, small, good, cold, warm, interesting, etc 相当大﹑ 小﹑ 好﹑ 冷﹑ 热﹑ 有趣等
- indictment 起诉书,这里表示 a reason for giving blame。 例句:This seems to me to be a damning indictment of education policy. | You have quite an indictment 可以理解为:你确实有(狠狠)抱怨的理由。你对地铁的控诉/抱怨相当有理。 | 注意该词发音
A writer at The Washington Post called the New York subway "a near-unworkable mixture of the ancient, the old, the outmoded and the inefficient." and he was being sympathetic.
- unworkable:not practicalor feasible 不实用的; 不可行的; 行不通的: an unworkableplan, proposal, scheme, etc 不切实际的计画﹑ 建议﹑ 方案等
- mixture 混合体
- 英语中用 the mixture of ... 如果直译成中文就变成 …… 的综合体。这样译并不符合汉语的表达习惯。mixture代表集这些特点于一身,所以半句话的结构可以译为:作家称纽约地铁既……,又……,既……,又……。几乎已经开不下去了。
- outmoded:过时的、陈旧的 表示时髦的、流行的,可以用 a la mode
- he was being sympathetic。“be+形容词”用于现在进行时时,表示的是一种暂时的、故意的、和平常不一样的、甚至是伪装的状态、例如:He is being nice. 说明这个人平日里并不好,这时候只是故意表现得人很nice。在课文中,and he was being sympathetic可以理解为:而且他还[假惺惺地][对纽约人民]表示同情。
Why, then, do New Yorkers swear by it? One reason is economic: $1.50 to travel any distance, anywhere in the city. Compare that with a $12 cab fare from, say, the United Nations to Columbia University, on the other side of Manhattan. Traveling to New York's so-called outer boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn or the Bronx -- anything entailing a bridge from Manhattan -- can easily cost three times as much. The subway is also fast. A ride from midtown Manhattan to Flushing Meadows, the site of the US Open tennis tournament, can take as little as 25 minutes: the same trip is upwards of an hour by car, and then you still have to find parking. Small wonder that even millionaires (which is to say, anyone who owns a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan) carry a Metrocard. And considering just how much moving and hauling the subway does each day, you can't help but be impressed. For the subway is an enduring marvel of mass-transit engineering: trains make 6,800 trips each day over 731 miles of rail, carrying 3.7 million people.
Why, then, do New Yorkers swear by it?
- swear by: to have great confidence in how good or effective something is 例句:Many people swear by vitamin C's ability to ward off colds. 很多人认定吃维C能预防感冒。
- 本句理解:那么,为什么纽约人还这么信赖它/认它呢?这一个问句跟随着上一段,有转折的意味。既然上一段中说了那么多纽约地铁的缺点,那么为什么纽约人还信赖它?
One reason is economic: $1.50 to travel any distance, anywhere in the city.
- 一个原因是经济方面的:1.5美元(的地铁费)可以(让你)在这个城市里乘坐任意距离,到达任何地方。
Compare that with a $12 cab fare from, say, the United Nations to Columbia University, on the other side of Manhattan.
- that指的是乘地铁的1.5美元
- cab fare 出租车费
- say 举例来说
- 从联合国(总部)到曼哈顿另一边的哥伦比亚大学,这一段路程究竟有多长呢?
可以看到,就是从曼哈顿的一边到另一边,大约6 miles(9.5km)的距离,就要花费12美刀。这与前面的1.5美元畅游纽约确实有很强烈的对比。
Traveling to New York's so-called outer boroughs of Queens, Brooklyn or the Bronx -- anything entailing a bridge from Manhattan -- can easily cost three times as much.
- 看一下纽约市的地图
- outer borough。纽约的每个行政区都称为borough,除了曼哈顿以外,其他四个行政区都被称为outer borough 外行政区
- entail:make (sth) necessary; involve 使(某事物)必要; 牵涉: This job entails a lot of hard work. 这项工作需要十分努力. * That will entail an early start tomorrow morning. 那就需要明晨很早动身.
- 整句理解:要去纽约的皇后区、布鲁克林或布朗克斯这些所谓的外行政区 -- 只要是必须得从曼哈顿过桥才能到的 -- 都要轻轻松松花掉那个价钱(12美元)的三倍。
A ride from midtown Manhattan to Flushing Meadows, the site of the US Open tennis tournament, can take as little as 25 minutes: the same trip is upwards of an hour by car, and then you still have to find parking.
- ride:A trip in a motor vehicle
- midtown:市中心区
- Flushing Meadows 法拉盛草原可乐娜公园 (看上面那幅地图,Flushing Meadows的位置大约就在“皇后区”三个字的上方)
- site:The place where an action or event occurs
- the US Open tennis tournament 美国网球公开赛
- upwards of:……以上,多于
- find parking 找停车的地方,找车位
Small wonder that even millionaires (which is to say, anyone who owns a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan) carry a Metrocard.
- small wonder that ...:……不足为奇、怪不得
- millionaires (which is to say, anyone who owns a two-bedroom apartment in Manhattan) 百万富翁(也就是说,任何在曼哈顿一套两室公寓的人,这里暗示着曼哈顿的房价,两室的公寓就要上百万)
- Metrocard 地铁交通卡
And considering just how much moving and hauling the subway does each day, you can't help but be impressed.
- haul:拖拉、拖运
- can't help but do 禁不住
- 而且只要想想每天(纽约)地铁跑多少距离、拉多少人,你就禁不住感到了不起。
For the subway is an enduring marvel of mass-transit engineering: trans make 6,800 trips each day over 731 miles of rail, carrying 3.7 million people.
- for表原因,但是按道理来说不应该置于句首。个人感觉这里作者的语法并不是很严谨,但对阅读和意义理解不产生影响。
- enduring:existing or remaining in the same state for an indefinitely long time 持久的、持续时间很长的 (有些奇迹可能是昙花一现的,但是纽约地铁是持续运营的,所以用enduring来修饰)
- marvel:One that evokes great surprise and admiration,让你感到惊奇和钦佩、惊异的事物、奇迹
- mass-transit:public transportation, especially in a city or town
- engineering:工程、工程学 (纽约的)地铁是一个持续存在的公共交通工程……
The subway, I find, is also oddly liberating. It takes you not only to your destination, but along the way to another world. As you wait for your train, you can listen to (sometimes) talented musicians from around the globe, some merely pounding on drums, others trying out their best tunes for whatever patrons will put into their hats. Your fellow riders are a jostling microcosm of a teeming cosmopolis: men, women and children from every stratum of society, of every imaginable color, sporting all kinds of dress (or undress) and chattering in most of the languages of the planet. Romances among subway riders are not unknown; marriages have been reported betwen people who met as straphangers.
The subway, I find, is also oddly liberating.
- oddly: in a strange or unusual way 奇妙地、古怪地、不同寻常地
- liberating: making you feel that you have more freedom to do what you want 令人感觉更自由、更释放 (别人可能认为地铁是个压抑无趣的地方,但作者认为却能在那里感到自由和释放,因此用了oddly来修饰)
It takes you not only to your destination, but along the way to another world.
- along the way 沿途、一路上
- 它不仅能将你带到目的地,还能沿途带你去另一个世界。(后面接着讲了在地铁上,你可以看到的各色各样的人)
As you wait for your train, you can listen to (sometimes) talented musicians from around the globe, some merely pounding on drums, others trying out their best tunes for whatever patrons will put into their hats.
- talented 有才华的
- some merely pounding on drums 有些人只是打打鼓
- pound: hit (sth) with repeated heavy blows or gunfire 连续地猛击或射击(某物): the sound of feet pounding on the stairs 楼梯上响起的沉重脚步声 * Someone was pounding at the door. 有人在砰砰地敲门.
- try out: If you try something out, you test it in order to find out how useful or effective it is or what it is like.
- tune: 曲调、歌曲、旋律
- patron:person who gives money or other support to a person, cause, activity, etc 资助人; 赞助人,这里其实指的就是路上听到这个人的歌曲,往他的帽子里丢钱的人
- whatever patrons will put into their hats:whatever引导的从句 相当于 any patrons that will put into their hats
Your fellow riders are a jostling microcosm of a teeming cosmopolis: men, women and children from every stratum of society, of every imaginable color, sporting all kinds of dress (or undress) and chattering in most of the languages of the planet.
- fellow riders 同乘地铁的人 fellow worker 同事、共事的人 fellow student 同学
- jostle:push roughly against (sb), usu in a crowd 推、挤(某人)
- microcosm:thing or being regarded as representing the universe, or mankind, on a small scale; miniature representation (of a system, etc) 小天地; 小宇宙; 微观世界; 缩影
- teeming:full of people, animals etc that are all moving around 例如:the teeming streets of the city | 动词 teem (with)
- cosmopolis: a large city inhabited by people from many different countries
- 冒号前面部分,可以这样理解:与你同乘的乘客挤在一起,构成了一个熙熙攘攘的国际都市的缩影
- every stratum of society 社会各个阶层 stratum的复数形式是strata
- of every imaginable color 我认为这里的color应该不是指人们穿着衣物的颜色,而侧重指人们的肤色
- sport:have or wear (sth) proudly for othersto see 夸示(某物); 炫耀地穿戴(某物): sport a moustache,a diamond ring, a flower in one's buttonhole 神气地蓄着小胡子﹑ 戴着钻石戒指﹑ 在钮扣眼中插着花.
- dress (or undress) :dress指的衣服,括号中的undress指的是穿着裸露或者干脆裸体
- chatter:talk quickly, continuously or foolishly about unimportant matters
Romances among subway riders are not unknown; marriages have been reported betwen people who met as straphangers.
- are not unknown:使用了 double negation 不是没听说过
- strap-hanger:One who grips a hanging strap or similar device for support while riding as a passenger on a bus or subway. 本意是在公交或地铁上,抓着挂带或者把手的人,可以隐身理解为乘坐公交或地铁的人。
Of course, there is no first class. On one trip recently, I noted a Wall Street banker heading home in his business suit next to a dreadlocked Rastafarian in torn blue jeans, as a Bangladeshi waiter disapprovingly eyed a miniskirted Hispanic secretary across from him struggling with her lipstick. Above them, a public-service ad in Spanish showed cartoon characters learning the importance of AIDS prevention. If the United Nations is where the world shakes hands, the New York subway is where the world rubs shoulders.
Of course, there is no first class.
- first class 头等舱。可见,在地铁上,人人平等。
On one trip recently, I noted a Wall Street banker heading home in his business suit next to a dreadlocked Rastafarian in torn blue jeans, as a Bangladeshi waiter disapprovingly eyed a miniskirted Hispanic secretary across from him struggling with her lipstick.
- note:注意到
- Wall Street banker 在华尔街上工作的银行家(隐含意义:富有、社会地位高)
- head:朝……前进,进发
- business suit 职业装(银行家的职业装都是西装)
- dreadlock:“骇人”长发绺。这里dreadlock用作动词,dreadlocked,绑着骇人的长发绺的
- Rastafarian:拉斯塔法里(牙买加的教派, 认为黑人是上帝将拯救的人); 该教派的成员
- torn:tear的过去分词,被撕裂的 → 破破烂烂
- Bangladeshi:孟加拉国的、孟加拉人的
- disapproving:showing that you think someone or something is bad or wrong
- eye:动词 observe or watch (sb/sth) in the specified way 以所述方式观察或观看(某人[某事物]): He eyed me with suspicion. 他怀疑地看着我. * They were ey(e)ing us jealously. 他们忌妒地看着我们.
- Hispanic:西班牙裔或葡萄牙裔的
- across from:在……的对面
- struggle with:挣扎、战斗、搏斗、努力。struggling with her lipstick 就是指对面的这位西裔的秘书,口红怎么抹也抹不好了
Above them, a public-service ad in Spanish showed cartoon characters learning the importance of AIDS prevention.
- public-service ad 公益广告,公共服务的广告
- in Spanish,广告中用的语言是西班牙语
- learn:become aware of (sth) through information or observation; realize 获悉; 得知; 认识到 例句:I never learned his name. 我从未听说过他的名字.
If the United Nations is where the world shakes hands, the New York subway is where the world rubs shoulders.
- 这里的the United Nations应该指的是联合国总部,在那里你可以见到来自世界各地的人,互相之间都很礼貌(地工作在一起)
- rub shoulder:肩膀擦肩膀。这里指在纽约地铁中也可以看到来自世界各地的人,他们彼此之间更加接近、亲近(地生活在一起)
Ambivalent I may still be. But I've come to believe something else about the subway -- that it epitomizes, as nothing else can, the city's soul. New York journalist Jim Dwyer captures something of this urban spirit in his book "Subway Lives." "The subways have become the great public commons of the city," he writes. "Only in the dim warrens of the subway, cursed accomplice of daily existence, can the full spectrum of city life -- with all the bewildering diversity of its pathologies and its glories -- be glimpsed, felt, and at times even understood."
Ambivalent I may still be.
But I've come to believe something else about the subway -- that it epitomizes, as nothing else can, the city's soul.
- 破折号后面的that it ... soul是前面 something else about the subway的同位语
- epitomize:to serve as an example, image, or symbol of 象征
New York journalist Jim Dwyer captures something of this urban spirit in his book "Subway Lives."
- journalist 新闻工作者、新闻记者
- capture:succeed in representing (sb/sth) in a picture, on film, etc 捕捉、成功体现
- something of: 有几分;在某种意义上
- 证据理解:纽约记者Jim Dwyer在他的《地铁众生》一书中捕捉到了(成功体现了)几分这种都市精神。
The subways have become the great public commons of the city
- public commons: a piece of open land for recreational use in an urban area 这个是WordNet的解释,表示城市中一块用于娱乐的公共用地。commons另外也有公园中的公共用地的意思。这里的public commons可以理解为人们所共有的一块区域、一个地方
Only in the dim warrens of the subway, cursed accomplice of daily existence, can the full spectrum of city life -- with all the bewildering diversity of its pathologies and its glories -- be glimpsed, felt, and at times even understood.
- 这句话的正常语序是 ... the full spectrum of city life can ... be glimpsed, felt and at times even understood.
- dim:光线暗淡的; 看不清的; 不光亮的; 昏暗的; 阴暗的
- warren:原意是兔子挖的洞,这里可以理解为地下错综复杂的地洞
- cursed accomplice of daily existence是the subway的同位语,也是用来进一步形容the subway的
- curse:to say a word or an expression which is not polite and shows that you are very angry 诅咒、咒骂 | cursed:被诅咒的、被咒骂的 从文章第二段可以看出,纽约地铁确实被许多人诟病。
- accomplice:原意person who helps another to do sth wicked or illegal 从犯; 帮凶; 同谋
- existence:生存、存在、生活(方式)
- 这里作者将the subway称为 cursed accomplice of daily existence,可以这样理解。以我在上海生活的感受来看,大城市的生活节奏很快,压力也不小,所以daily existence 每日的生活状态也是紧张忙碌的。本来工作就已经很忙,结果每天上下班都还要去挤地铁(而且纽约地铁还有那么多缺点),就感觉上让每日的生活好像变得更糟糕一样。所以,作者将the subway称为accomplice(帮凶)of daily existence。
- spectrum:原意:光谱
引申含义是:a complete range of opinions, people, situations etc, going from one extreme to its opposite
- the full spectrum of city life 城市生活的各个方面/全貌
- with all the bewildering ... glories 这一部分是插入的,即:城市生活的各个方面——以及……——被瞥见、感受到,甚至在某些时候被理解。
- bewildering:令人迷惑的
- diversity:多样性、变化万千
- pathology:scientific study of diseases of the body 病理学 这里可以简单的理解为病态(的事情)。
- glory:光荣、荣誉、光鲜(的事情)
- diversity of pathologies and its glories:这里的pathology和glory都是用的复数形式,说明病态或光鲜的地方不止一个。以上海为例子距离来说:有众多地铁,线路总长度位列世界前茅等等,这都是光鲜的地方;但是拥挤不堪则是病态的地方。以纽约为例,在第二段中讲到的那些都可以被视为是pathologies、第三段中的可以视为glories。由于这样的好坏兼具,所以才呈现出bewildering diversity。
- glimpse:get a quick look at (sb/sth) 匆匆看一下(某人[某物]): glimpse someone between the half-drawn curtains 从半掩的窗帘夹缝中瞥见某人.
- at times 有时;偶尔;间或
- 整句理解:只有在这灰暗的地铁迷宫中,城市生活的全貌——连带它那令人迷惑的病态与光鲜——才能被人们窥见一二、切身感受,甚至偶尔得到理解。
I'm not quite so poetic, but I do know that the subway is as essential to the character of New York, to its soul and sense of itself, as the Empire State Building or Central Park. That's something many well-heeled tourists don't realize. You haven't been to New York if you've never taken the subway.
I'm not quite so poetic, but I do know that the subway is as essential to the character of New York, to its soul and sense of itself, as the Empire State Building or Central Park.
- poetic 富有诗意的。在这里作者表达出:他认为Jim Dwyer写的很有诗意
- I do know:do表强调,我确实知道
- essential:必不可少、重要
- character:性格、品质、特性
- sense of itself 对自身的认识/感觉/觉悟 这里的sense of itself可以这样理解,通过纽约地铁,能够得到这样一种纽约的身份认知。就是说,纽约才有这样的地铁,提到这样的地铁,那就是在纽约。
- the Empire State Building 帝国大厦
具体介绍看这里。象征着工商业成就
- Central Park 中央公园
具体介绍看这里。休闲娱乐
- 整句理解:虽然我没那么富有诗意,但我确实知道,地铁就像帝国大厦和中央公园一样,对于纽约的性格、灵魂以及纽约之所以是纽约(以及对自身的认识)来说,是必不可少的。