有声书 | 格列佛游记 05

英语有声书

走近有声世界
共听英文原著

 

 今日书目 

书名： 

Gulliver's.Travel

《格列佛游记》

作者：

Swift 

往期回听 | 格列佛游记

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Gulliver's Travel

Part Five: A Voyage to Broblingnay

I was very happy to be back in England, after my adventures in Lilliput and Blefuscu. I often thought about the two countries. I hoped they were not fighting each other again.

My next voyage began when I took a job on the ship Adventure. There was a very big storm and a terrible wind. The wind blew the ship off course①, and we did not know where we were. Then one of the sailors saw that we were near land. We needed some fresh water, so some of us decided to take a ship's boat to the land.

When we came to the beach, we could not see any houses. I walked a little distance, but there was no sign of a village or town.

'No one lives here,' I thought. I was disappointed, and I turned to walk back to the boat. Then I saw that the other sailors were already in our boat. They were going away from the land very fast—and there was a huge creature following them in the water! The sailors were very frightened. I watched as they took the boat back to the ship.

Now I was alone, and I was frightened. I was afraid of the huge creature. I ran away from the beach. I ran to the top of a hill, and then I had a surprise. There were fields here— but they were not ordinary fields of corn and grass. Everything was very big. Then I saw a man —but he was as tall as a church! The corn was much taller than me, and I hid in it.

The giant called some other people. They were all giants, too. They began to cut the corn where I was hiding. I was very scared, and I cried out loudly. The first giant heard my cry, and he stopped work. He looked at the corn, and then he looked at the ground. He saw me. He reached down and picked me up. He held me between his fingers and looked at me for a while. I was very frightened to be so high in the air. I thought he would throw me onto the ground. I spoke to him, to show that I was a man like him. He seemed pleased that I could speak. Then I used signs to explain that his fingers were hurting my sides. He understood what I wanted to say, and he put me gently in his pocket. He carried me to the farm.

'Look at this,' he said.

He put his hand in his pocket, and took me out. 'What do you think it is?' he asked.

The farmer looked at me for a moment.

He put me on the ground, and studied me carefully for a moment. He looked at my clothes, which he seemed to think were a natural② part of my body.

'It's an animal,' he said. 'But I don't know what kind of animal it is.'

'I'm not an animal!' I shouted. 'I'm a man, like you.'

I walked backwards and forwards in front of the farmer and his men. I wanted to show them that I would not run away. They sat on the ground around me, and watched me with interest. I took off my hat. Then I pulled out my money and gave it to him. He looked at the money for a while, but he did not know what it was. Then I tried to speak to him.

'It can speak!' the farmer said. 'I don't know what it is— but I think I'll keep it.'

The farmer took me to his house. Everybody was eating dinner when we arrived. The farmer asked his wife what she thought of me. At first she thought I was a horrible little insect. She was frightened of me, the way English ladies are frightened of spiders③. Then, when she saw that I understood what was happening, she lost her fear. She soon became a good friend.

The farmer put me on the table, and he gave me something to eat and drink. The farmer's son, who was about ten years old, then reached forward and picked me up. He held me in the air by my legs, and I was very frightened. The farmer was angry with his son, and ordered him to put me down. Then he slapped④ his son on the ear very hard, and told him to leave the table. I remembered how children can be cruel to little animals, and I decided to make a friend of the boy. I used signs to show the farmer that I wanted him to forgive his son. The farmer smiled, and told his son to return to the table. When he had sat down again, I went to the boy and kissed his hand.

The family cat came into the room during dinner. I was very scared of this huge animal, but I was determined not to show my fear. I walked up and down in front of the animal for a while, and the enormous⑤ cat seemed frightened of me! Then the nurse brought in the baby of the family, who was about one year old. The baby saw me, and wanted to play with me. It put me into its mouth, and I thought it would eat me. I cried out very loudly, and the baby dropped me. Luckily, her mother caught me, or I would have been killed in the fall.

After dinner the farmer's wife put me onto her bed to sleep. She covered me with a handkerchief, and I soon fell asleep.

I was woken by a strange noise on the bed. I looked up, and there were two enormous rats on the bed —they were as big as dogs. I took out my sword, and attacked them. I killed one of the rats, and the second one ran away. Now I knew that it was dangerous to be small!

When the farmer's wife came into the room, she saw the body of the rat on the bed. She was very happy that I was not hurt. The farmer and his wife had a daughter. She was nine years old, and she became my friend. She looked after me very well, and she taught me many things. She told me that the name of the country was Brobdingnag. She gave me lessons in their language. I called her Glumdalclitch, which is the word for 'little nurse' in their language. She called me Grildrig, which means 'little man' in their language.

旺

财

旺

福

Words

① off course：偏离航道。

② natural：天生的。

③ spiders：蜘蛛。

④ slapped：打耳光。

⑤ enormous：巨大的。

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