看《傲慢与偏见》学英语

“凡是有钱的单身汉，总想娶位太太，这已经成了一条举世公认的真理。这样的单身汉，每逢新搬到一个地方，四邻八舍虽然完全不了解他的性情如何，见解如何，可是，既然这样的一条真理早已在人们心目中根深蒂固，因此人们总是把他看作自己某一个女儿理所应得的一笔财产。”

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.

However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.

这是英国著名女作家简•奥斯汀的代表作《傲慢与偏见》的开篇一段话，据说这段开篇语是世界各国读者最喜欢的开头语，它不仅反映了现实的社会生活，而且反映了人们更加现实的内心世界。这段精彩的开头引出了一段发生在十九世纪初英国的关于爱与价值的经典故事。

《傲慢与偏见》是奥斯丁的代表作。这部作品以日常生活为素材，一反当时社会上流行的感伤小说的内容和矫揉造作的写作方法，生动地反映了18世纪末到19世纪初处于保守和闭塞状态下的英国乡镇生活和世态人情。这部社会风情画式的小说不仅在当时吸引着广大的读者，时至今日，仍给读者以独特的艺术享受。根据这部名著改编的电影电视作品不下十几部。从小说原著中看，伊丽莎白聪敏机智、有胆识、有远见，且具有很强的自尊心，并善于思考问题。就当时一个算得上大户闺中的小姐来讲，这是非常难能可贵的。正是由于这种品质，才使她在爱情问题上有独立的主见，并导致她与达西经过了百般的周折之后，组成美满的家庭。

05版电影中，伊丽莎白在一个阴沉的雨天拒绝了达西的求婚，两人的对话成就让人难以忘怀的高潮。让我们一起回到两百年前那个敢爱敢恨的伊丽莎白拒绝达西的那一幕。

DARCY: (cont'd) I came to Rosings with the single object of seeing you...l had to see you 

LIZZIE: Me?

DARCY: I've fought against my better judgement, my family's expectation. . .
(pause) 

DARCY: (cont'd) The inferiority of your birth. . .my rank and circumstance.. (stumblingly) all those things...but I'm willing to put them aside...and ask you to end my agony...

LIZZIE: I don't understand...

DARCY: (with passion) I love you. Most ardently.

Lizzie stares at him. 

DARCY: (cont'd) Please do me the honour of accepting my hand.

A silence. Lizzie struggles with the most painful confusion of feeling. Finally she recovers. 
LIZZIE: (voice shaking) Sir, I appreciate the struggle you have been through, and I am very sorry to have caused you pain. Believe me, it was unconsciously done.

A silence. Gathering her shawl, she gets to her feet.

DARCY: (stares) Is this your reply?

LIZZIE: Yes, sir.

DARCY: Are you laughing at me?

LIZZIE: No!

DARCY: Are you rejecting me?

LIZZIE: (pause) I'm sure that the feelings which, as you've told me, have hindered your regard, will help you in overcoming it.

A terrible silence, as this sinks in. Neither of them can move. At last, Darcy speaks. He is very pale. 

DARCY: Might I ask why, with so little endeavour at civility, I am thus repulsed?

LIZZIE: (trembling with emotion) I might as well enquire why, with so evident a design of insulting me, you chose to tell me that you liked me against your better judgement. If I was uncivil, that was some excuse -

DARCY: Believe me, I didn't mean.

LIZZIE: But I have other reasons, you know I have!

DARCY: What reasons?

LIZZIE: Do you think that anything might tempt me to accept the man who has ruined, perhaps for ever, the happiness of a most beloved sister?

Silence. Darcy looks as if he's been struck across the face. 

LIZZIE: (cont'd) Do you deny it, Mr Darcy? That you've separated a young couple who loved each other, exposing your friend to the censure of the world for caprice, and my sister to its derision for disappointed hopes, and involving them both in misery of the acutest kind?
DARCY: I do not deny it.

LIZZIE: (blurts out) How could you do it?

DARCY: Because I believed your sister indifferent to him.

LIZZIE: Indifferent?

DARCY: I watched them most carefully, and realized his attachment was much deeper than hers.

LIZZIE: That's because she's shy!

DARCY: Bingley too is modest, and was persuaded that she didn't feel strongly for him.

LIZZIE: Because you suggested it!

DARCY: I did it for his own good.

LIZZIE: My sister hardly shows her true feelings to me! (pause, takes a breath) I suppose you suspect that his fortune had same bearing on the matter?

DARCY: ( sharply) No! I wouldn't do your sister the dishonour. Though it was suggested (stops)

LIZZIE: What was?

DARCY: It was made perfectly clear that...an advantageous marriage... (stops)

LIZZIE: Did my sister give that impression?

DARCY: No!

An awkward pause. 
DARCY: (cont'd) There was, however, I have to admit... the matter of your family.

LIZZIE: Our want of connection? Mr Bingley didn't vex himself about that!

DARCY: No, it was more than that.

LIZZIE: How, sir?

DARCY: (pause, very uncomfortable) It pains me to say this, but it was the lack of propriety shown by your mother, your three younger sisters - even, on occasion, your father. Forgive me.

Lizzie blushes. He has hit home. Darcy paces up and down. 

DARCY: (cont'd) You and your sister - I must exclude from this...

Darcy stops. He is in turmoil. Lizzie glares at him, ablaze.

2008年时事政治复习资料大全