The end of a dream

Tired of sleeping on the floor, a young man in Teheran saved up for years to buy a real bed. For the first time in his life, he became the proud owner of a bed which had springs and a mattress. Because the weather was very hot, he carried the bed on to the roof of his house. He slept very well for the first two nights, but on the third night, a storm blew up. A gust of wind swept the bed off the roof and sent it crashing into the courtyard below. The young man did not wake up until the bed had struck the ground. Although the bed was smashed to pieces, the man was miraculouslyunhurt. When he woke up, he was still on the mattress. Glancing at the bits of wood and metal that lay around him, the man sadly picked up the mattress and carried it into his house. After he had put it on the floor, he promptly went to sleep again.

【課文翻譯】

德黑蘭的一個(gè)年輕人由于對(duì)睡地板感到厭倦, 于是積蓄多年買了一張真正的床. 他平生第一次自豪地?fù)碛辛艘粡埣扔袕椈捎謳Т矇|的床. 由于天氣很熱, 他便把床搬到了他的屋頂上. 頭兩天晚上, 他睡得非常好. 但第三天晚上起了風(fēng)暴. 一陣大風(fēng)把床從屋頂上刮了下來(lái), 把它摔碎在下面的院子里. 那年輕人直到床撞到地上才醒了過(guò)來(lái). 盡管床摔成了碎片, 但年輕人卻奇跡般地沒(méi)有受傷. 他醒來(lái)時(shí), 仍然躺在床墊上. 年輕人看了一眼周圍的碎木片和碎金屬片, 傷心地?fù)炱鹆舜矇|, 把它拿進(jìn)了屋. 他把床墊往地板上一放, 很快又睡著了.

【生詞匯總】

spring n.彈簧

mattress n.床墊

gust n.一陣狂風(fēng)

sweep v.掃，刮

courtyard n.院子

smash v.碰碎，摔碎

miraculous adj.奇跡般的

glance v.掃視

promptly adv.迅速地

【短語(yǔ)匯總】

be tired of厭倦，苦于，受夠了，如：I am tired of your lies.我受夠了你的謊言。

save up攢，存(錢)

for the first time第一次，首次

pick up撿起來(lái)，接走(某人)，如：my father will pick me up today. 今天我爸爸回來(lái)接我的。

【知識(shí)點(diǎn)講解】

1 Tired of sleeping on the floor, a young man in Teheran saved up for years to buy a real bed.

德黑蘭的一個(gè)年輕人由于對(duì)睡地板感到厭倦, 于是積蓄多年買了一張真正的床.

(1)tired adj. 辛苦的，厭倦的

這個(gè)詞由名詞tire變化而來(lái)。tire是輪胎的意思，如“spare-tire”就是我們常見(jiàn)的“備胎”。輪胎一直轉(zhuǎn)，是汽車磨損最快的一個(gè)部件，所以它對(duì)應(yīng)的形容詞自然就是“勞累的”“辛苦的”的意思

I strongly advised my boss to hire a "spare-tire", because I am so tired. But he refused.

我強(qiáng)烈建議我們的老板再招一個(gè)人，我實(shí)在是太累了。但是他拒絕了。

(2)Teheran

伊朗首都德黑蘭。世界上各個(gè)國(guó)家的首都記憶是一項(xiàng)很重要的工作，應(yīng)按照區(qū)域記憶。如，中東區(qū)域的幾個(gè)國(guó)家(尤其是新聞中經(jīng)常涉及的)放在一起進(jìn)行記憶，效果事半功倍。

(3)for+時(shí)間段的時(shí)間狀語(yǔ)

一般我們講這樣的時(shí)間狀語(yǔ)對(duì)應(yīng)的是完成時(shí)且只能對(duì)應(yīng)完成時(shí)，但是在新概念中經(jīng)常會(huì)涉及到這樣的情況：save up“存款”這樣一個(gè)概念是沒(méi)必要強(qiáng)調(diào)其時(shí)態(tài)是完成時(shí)的，存款本身意思上就不可能是瞬間，只可能放在時(shí)間段內(nèi)。

時(shí)間段類時(shí)間狀語(yǔ)包括：since+時(shí)間點(diǎn)，for+時(shí)間段，from…to…這樣三個(gè)

2 he became the proud owner of a bed which had springs and a mattress

他平生第一次自豪地?fù)碛辛艘粡埣扔袕椈捎謳Т矇|的床.

專講定語(yǔ)從句中which這樣一個(gè)連接詞的用法。當(dāng)定語(yǔ)從句中的先行詞(也就是我們常講的“被定詞”)是一個(gè)非人的東西的時(shí)候，我們常用which 和that作為其后的銜接詞。只用which的情況包括兩種：銜接詞前有介詞，如“in which”“within which”等;銜接詞前有“，”。

3 The young man did not wake up until the bed had struck the ground.

那年輕人直到床撞到地上才醒了過(guò)來(lái)

not…until和not…unless類似，都是主句否定，后句采用這兩個(gè)詞，所以要注意not一詞的添加;如果沒(méi)有not，until用when代替，如果沒(méi)有not，unless用if代替。