Jane Eyre 简爱 Chapter 9

BUT the privations, or rather the hardships, of Lowood lessened ¹. Spring drew on: she was indeed already come; the frosts of winter had ceased; its snows were melted, its cutting winds ameliorated. My wretched feet, flayed ² and swollen ³ to lameness ⁴ by the sharp air of January, began to heal and subside ⁵ under the gentler breathings of April; the nights and mornings no longer by their Canadian temperature froze the very blood in our veins ⁶; we could now endure the play-hour passed in the garden: sometimes on a sunny day it began even to be pleasant and genial ⁷, and a greenness grew over those brown beds, which, freshening daily, suggested the thought that Hope traversed them at night, and left each morning brighter traces of her steps., ,Flowers peeped out amongst the leaves; snowdrops, crocuses, purple auriculas, and golden-eyed pansies. On Thursday afternoons (half-holidays) we now took walks, and found still sweeter flowers opening by the wayside, under the hedges., ,I discovered, too, that a great pleasure, an enjoyment ⁸ which the horizon only bounded, lay all outside the high and spike-guarded walls of our garden: this pleasure consisted in prospect ⁹ of noble summits girdling a great hill-hollow, rich in verdure and shadow; in a bright beck, full of dark stones and sparkling eddies ¹⁰. How different had this scene looked when I viewed it laid out beneath the iron sky of winter, stiffened ¹¹ in frost, shrouded ¹² with snow!- when mists as chill as death wandered to the impulse of east winds along those purple peaks, and rolled down 'ing' and holm till they blended with the frozen fog of the beck! That beck itself was then a torrent ¹³, turbid ¹⁴ and curbless: it tore asunder ¹⁶ the wood, and sent a raving ¹⁷ sound through the air, often thickened with wild rain or whirling sleet ¹⁸; and for the forest on its banks, that showed only ranks of skeletons., , ,Have I not described a pleasant site for a dwelling ³¹, when I speak of it as bosomed ³² in hill and wood, and rising from the verge ³³ of a stream? Assuredly, pleasant enough: but whether healthy or not is another question., ,That forest-dell, where Lowood lay, was the cradle of fog and fog-bred pestilence ³⁴; which, quickening with the quickening spring, crept into the Orphan ³⁵ Asylum ³⁶, breathed typhus through its crowded schoolroom and dormitory, and, ere May arrived, transformed the seminary into an hospital., ,The flight to suburbia lessened the number of middle-class families living within the city. 随着迁往郊外的风行，住在城内的中产家庭减少了。,He was so angry he nearly flayed his horse alive. 他气得几乎把马活活抽死 。 来自《简明英汉词典》