Unit 3 老人与海
①He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish. ②In the first forty days a boy had been with him.③But after forty days without a fish the boy's parents had told him that the old man was now definitely and finally salao, which is the worst form of unlucky, and the boy had gone at their orders in another boat which caught three good fish the first week. ④It made the boy sad to see the old man come in each day with his skiff empty and he always went down to help him carry either the coiled lines or the gaff and harpoon and the sail that was furled around the mast. ⑤The sail was patched with flour sacks and, furled, it looked like the flag of permanent defeat.
⑥The old man was thin and gaunt with deep wrinkles in the back of his neck. ⑦The brown blotches of the benevolent skin cancer the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea were on his cheeks. ⑧The blotches ran well down the sides of his face and his hands had the deep-creased scars from handling heavy fish on the cords. ⑨But none of these scars were fresh. ⑩They were as old as erosions in a fishless desert.
Key words and phrases
skiff [skɪf] n．小艇
definitely[ˈdefɪnətlɪ]ad．明确地，确切地
permanent [ˈpɜ:mənənt] a．永久的，永恒的
benevolent [bəˈnevələnt] a．好心肠的，与人为善的
句构分析
译 他是在湾流中的一条小船上独自钓鱼的老人，如今已经过去了八十四天，但他一条鱼也没钓到。
结构分析 本句话是本段的主旨句，后面又具体描述了这八十四天里老人钓鱼的故事。
译 在头四十天里，有个男孩和他在一起。
译 但过了四十天一条鱼也没有捉到，孩子的父母就告诉他，老人如今准是十足地“倒了血霉”，也就是说，倒霉到了极点，于是孩子听从了他们的吩咐，上了另外一条船，在第一周就捕到了三条好鱼。
译 老人每天回来时船总是空的，孩子看见感到很难受，他总是走下岸去帮老人拿卷起的钓索，或者鱼钩和鱼叉，还有绕在桅杆上的帆。
语法分析 该长句是由and连接的两个并列句，第一个句子It made the boy sad to see the old man come中，it是形式主语，真正的主语是to see the old man come；第二个句子中either...or..．表示“或者……或者……”, that was furled around the mast是一个定语从句，用来修饰the sail。
译 帆上用面粉袋打了些补丁，收拢后看起来像是一面标志着永远失败的旗子。
译 老人消瘦而憔悴，脖颈上有些很深的皱纹。
译 在他的脸颊上有些褐斑，那是太阳在热带海面上反射的光线所引起的良性皮肤癌变。
语法分析 在该句中，the sun brings from its reflection on the tropic sea是定语从句，修饰先行词the benevolent skin cancer，此处的定语从句省略了关系词which，因为关系词which在句中作宾语，可省略。
译 褐斑从他脸的两侧一直蔓延下去，他的双手因常用绳索拉大鱼，而留下了刻得很深的伤疤。
译 但是这些伤疤中没有一块是新的。
译 它们老得就像无鱼可打的沙漠上的侵蚀地一样。