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CHAPTER ONE THE PICTURE IN THE BEDROOM
第一章 卧室内的画
THERE was a boy called Eustace Clarence Scrubb, and he almost deserved it.
一个小男孩叫尤斯塔斯·克拉伦斯·斯克伦布, 他叫这个名字真是名副其实。
His parents called him Eustace Clarence and masters called him Scrubb.
父母叫他尤斯塔斯·克拉伦斯, 老师叫他斯克罗布。
I can't tell you how his friends spoke to him, for he had none.
至于他的朋友们管他叫什么, 就不得而知了, 因为他压根儿没有朋友。
He didn't call his Father and Mother "Father" and "Mother", but Harold and Alberta.
他不叫自己的父母"爸爸妈妈", 而是直呼他们的名字----哈罗德和艾贝塔。
They were very up-to-date and advanced people.
他们是非常时髦的人。
They were vegetarians, non-smokers and teetotallers and wore a special kind of underclothes.
是素食主义者, 不吸烟, 不喝酒, 穿特制的内衣裤。
In their house there was very little furniture and very few clothes on beds and the windows were always open.
在他们房间里, 只有很少的家具, 床上基本没有褥子和床单, 窗户总敞开着。
Eustace Clarence liked animals, especially beetles, if they were dead and pinned on a card.
尤斯塔斯·克拉伦斯很喜欢小动物, 特别是那些被制成标本的甲壳虫。
He liked books if they were books of information and had pictures of grain elevators or of fat foreign children doing exercises in model schools.
他也很喜欢看书, 尤爱知识类的书籍, 比如那些带插画的书, 上面画有谷物输送机, 或是国外的胖娃娃在他们的示范学校里做操的情景。
Eustace Clarence disliked his cousins the four Pevensies, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy.
尤斯塔斯·克拉伦斯不喜欢佩文西家的那些表兄弟姐妹---- 彼得、苏珊、爱德蒙和露茜。
But he was quite glad when he heard that Edmund and Lucy were coming to stay. For deep down inside him he liked bossing and bullying;and, though he was a puny little person who couldn't have stood up even to Lucy, let alone Edmund, in a fight, he knew that there are dozens of ways to give people a bad time if you are in your own home and they are only visitors.
但听说爱德蒙和露茜要来他们家住, 他还是非常高兴。虽然他骨子里喜欢对别人发号施令, 欺凌弱小, 但他身材矮小, 还没有露茜个子高, 更别说能打赢爱德蒙了。他已在心里盘算着, 如果露茜和爱德蒙寄住在自己家里, 他就可以用尽各种办法来捉弄他们。
Edmund and Lucy did not at all want to come and stay with Uncle Harold and Aunt Alberta. But it really couldn't be helped.
爱德蒙和露茜原本不想住尤斯塔斯家, 但他们别无选择。
Father had got a job lecturing in America for sixteen weeks that summer, and Mother was to go with him because she hadn't had a real holiday for ten years.
因为暑假他们的父亲要去美国做十六周的讲学, 母亲也要跟着去。
Peter was working very hard for an exam and he was to spend the holidays being coached by old Professor Kirke in whose house these four children had had wonderful adventures long ago in the war years.
彼得正在准备下次考试, 所以这个假期会暂住到柯克老教授家里, 柯克老教授还可以为他辅导功课。在早年的战争时期, 这几个兄弟姐妹就曾住在柯克教授家中避难, 并拥有一段难忘的经历。
If he had still been in that house he would have had them all to stay.
柯克老教授很乐意他们一起住在他家,
But he had somehow become poor since the old days and was living in a small cottage with only one bedroom to spare.
但不知怎么回事, 他的家突然就没落了, 所以不得不搬进了一幢小房子里。现在的房子只能匀出一间房给彼得住。
It would have cost too much money to take the other three all to America, and Susan had gone.
父母又实在没有钱把三个孩子都带走, 最后只带走了苏珊。
