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Sylvia_scj

The red-room was a spare chamber, very seldom slept in: I might say never, indeed, unless when a chance influx of visitors at Gateshead Hall rendered it necessary to turn to account all the accommodation it contained: yet it was one of the largest and stateliest chambers in the mansion. A bed supported on massive pillars of mahogany, hung with curtains of deep red damask, stood out like a tabernacle in the centre, the two large windows, with their blinds always drawn down, were half shrouded in festoons and falls of similar drapery; the carpet was red; the table at the foot of the bed was covered with a crimson cloth; the walls were a soft fawn colour, with a blush of pink in it; the wardrobe, the toilet-table, the chairs, were of darkly-polished old mahogany. Out of these deep surrounding shades rose high, and glared white, the piled-up mattresses and pillows of the bed, spread with a snowy Marseilles counterpane. Scarcely less prominent was an ample cushioned easy-chair near the head of the bed, also white, with a footstool before it, and looking, as I thought, like a pale throne.
influx:  A mass arrival or incoming: 汇集：大量到来或大量抵达：
      an influx of visitors to the city 大量涌入这个城市的游客
      large influxes of refugees  大量涌入的难民
stately: 庄严的, 堂皇的
mahogany: [植]桃花心木
damask: 锦锻
tabernacle: 帐篷
shroud: 遮蔽, 隐藏
festoon: 花彩装饰物
crimson: 深红色的
fawn: 浅黄褐色
counterpane: 床单, 床罩

DZ

tantrum [ 'tæntrəm ] : 一阵坏脾气

Sylvia_scj

"She never did so before," at last said Bessie, turning to the Abigail.
      "But it was always in her." was the reply. "I've told misses often my opinion about the child, and misses agreed with me. She's an underhand little thing: I never saw a girl of her age with so much cover."
      Bessie answered not; but ere long, addressing me, she said:
      "You ought to be aware, miss, that you are under obligations to Mrs. Reed: she keeps you: if she were to turn you off you would have to go to the poorhouse."
      I had nothing to say to these words: they were not new to me: my very first recollections of existence included hints of the same kind. This reproach of my dependence had become a vague singsong in my ear; very painful and crushing, but only half intelligible. Miss Abbot joined in:
      "And you ought not to think yourself on an equality with the Misses Reed and Master Reed, because missis kindly allows you to be brought up with them. They will have a great deal of money and you will have none: it is your place to be humble, and to try to make yourself agreeable to them."
      "What we tell you is for your good," added Bessie, in no harsh voice: "you should try to be useful and pleasant, then, perhaps, you would have a home here; but if you become passionate and rude, missis will send you away, I am sure."
      "Besides," said Miss Abbot, "God will punish her: he might strike her dead in the midst of her tantrums, and then where would she go? Come, Bessie, we will leave her: I wouldn't have her heart for anything. Say your prayers, Miss Eyre, when you are by yourself; for if you don't repent, something bad might be permitted to come down the chimney and fetch you away."
      They went, shutting the door, and locking it behind them.
abigail: (贵妇人的贴身)使女
underhand: 阴险的, 狡猾的，不诚实的
ere long: 不久
singsong: 平板的声调
tantrum: 一阵坏脾气
repent:  忏悔, 悔悟

Sylvia_scj

Yes, I think that's the characteristic of literature.

DZ

这些词汇都不常见哦

Sylvia_scj

^^^^ I resisted all the way: a new thing for me, and a circumstance which greatly strengthened the bad opinion Bessie and Miss Abbot were disposed to entertain of me. The fact is, I was a trifle beside myself; or rather out of myself, as the French would say. I was conscious that a moment's mutiny had already rendered me liable to strange penalties, and, like any other rebel slave, I felt resolved, in my desperation, to go all lengths.
      "Hold her arms, Miss Abbot: she's like a mad cat."
      "For shame, for shame!" cried the lady's maid. "What shocking conduct, Miss Eyre, to strike a young gentleman, your benefactress's son! Your young master."
      "Master! How is he my master? Am I a servant?"
      "No; you are less than a servant, for you do nothing for your keep. There, sit down, and think over your wickedness."
      They had got me by this time into the apartment indicated by Mrs. Reed, and had thrust me upon a stool: my impulse was to rise from it like a spring; their two pair of hands arrested me instantly.
      "If you don't sit still, you must be tied down," said Bessie. "Miss Abbot, lend me your garters; she would break mine directly."
      Miss Abbot turned to divest a stout leg of the necessary ligature. This preparation for bonds, and the additional ignominy it inferred, took a little of the excitement out of me.
      "Don't take them off," I cried; "I will not stir."
      In guarantee whereof, I attached myself to my seat by my hands.
      "Mind you don't ," said Bessie; and when she had ascertained that I was really subsiding, she loosened her hold of me; then she and Miss Abbot stood with folded arms, looking darkly and doubtfully on my face, as incredulous of my sanity.
mutiny:  反抗
benefactress: 女施主, 女恩人
garters: 袜带
divest: 脱去，脱掉
ligature: 带子
ignominy: 耻辱, 羞耻
subside: 平静下来

DZ

ok,then we'll begin the 2nd part,right?

Sylvia_scj

"Wicked and cruel boy!" I said. "You are like a murderer -- you are like a slave-driver -- you are like the Roman emperors!"
    I had read Goldsmith's HISTORY OF ROME, and had formed my opinion of Nero, Caligula, &c. Also I had drawn parallels in silence, which I never thought thus to have declared aboud.
    "What! what!" he cried. "Did she say that to me? Did you hear her, Eliza and Georgiana? Won't I tell mamma? but first --"
    He ran headlong at me: I felt him grasp my hair and my shoulder: he had closed with a desperate thing. I really saw in him a tyrant: a murderer. I felt a drop or two of blood from my head trickle down from my neck, and was sensible of somewhat pungent suffering: these sensations for the time predominated over fear, and I received him in frantic sort. I don't very well know what I did with my hands, but he called me "Rat! rat!" and bellowed out aloud. Aid was near him: Eliza and Georgiana had run for Mrs. Reed, who was gone upstairs; she now came upon the scene, followed by Bessie and her maid Abbot. We were parted: I heard the words --
    "Dear! dear! What a fury to fly at Master John!"
    "Did ever anybody see such a picture of passion!"
    Then Mrs. Reed subjoined: "Take her away to the red-room, and lock her in there." Four hands were immediately laid upon me, and I was borne upstairs.
slave-driver: 奴隶监工
tyrant: 暴君
frantic: 狂乱的, 疯狂的
bellow out: 大声喊出
fly at: 猛烈攻击
subjoin: 增补, 附加
This is the end of Chapter 1

Sylvia_scj

"That's for your impudence in answering mamma a while since, " said he, "and for your sneaking way of getting behind curtains, and for the look you had in your eyes two minutes since, you rat!"
    Accustomed to John Reed's abuse, I never had an idea of replying to it: my care was how to endure the blow which would certainly follow the insult.
    "What were you doing behind the curtain? " he asked.
    "I was reading."
    "Show the book."
    I returned to the window and fetched it thence.
    "You have no business to take our books; you are a dependant, mamma says; you have no money; your father left you none; you ought to beg, and not to live here with gentlemen's children like us, and eat the same meals we do, and wear clothes at our mamma's expense. Now, I'll teach you to rummage my bookshelves: for they are mine; all the house belongs to me, or will do in a few years. Go and stand by the door, out of the way of the mirror and the windows."
    I did so, not at first aware what was his intention; but when I saw him lift and poise the book and stand in act to hurl it, I instinctively started aside with a cry of alarm: not soon enough, however; the volume was flung, it hit me, and I fell, striking my head against the door and cutting it. The cut bled, the pain was sharp: my terror had passed its climax; other feelings succeeded.
impudence: 轻率，粗野无礼的行为
business: 权利：正确或恰当的关系或兴趣
          如：“The business of America is business”(Calvin Coolidge)
                           “美国的权利是交易”(卡尔文·柯立芝)
rummage: 翻箱倒柜的寻找
start aside: 跳开

Sylvia_scj

John had not much affection to his mother and sisters, and an antipathy to me. He bullied and punished me; not two or three times in the week, nor once or twice in a day, but continually: every nerve I had feared him, and every morsel of flesh on my bones shrank when he came near. There were moments when I was bewildered by the terror he inspired, because I had no appeal whatever against either his menaces or his inflictions; the servants did not like to offend their young master by taking my part against him, and Mrs. Reed was blind and deaf on the subject: she never saw him strike or heard him abuse me, though he did both now and then in her very presence; more frequently, however, behind her back.
antipathy: 憎恶, 反感
morsel: 小量；一点
menace: 恐吓, 威胁

    Habitually obedient to John, I came up to his chair: he spent some three minutes in thrusting out his tongue at me as far as he could without damaging the roots: I knew he would soon strike, and while dreading the blow, I mused on the disgusting and ugly appearance of him who would presently deal it. I wondered if he read that notion in my face; for, all at once, without speaking, he struck suddenly and strongly. I tottered, and on regaining my equilibrium retired back a step or two from his chair.
totter: 蹒跚, 踉跄

Sylvia_scj

John Reed was a schoolboy of fourteen years old; four years older than I, for I was but ten; large and stout for his age, with a dingy and unwholesome skin; thick lineaments in a spacious visage, heavy limbs and large extremities. He gorged himself habitually at table, which made him bilious, and gave him a dim and bleared eye with flabby cheeks. He ought now to have been at school; but his mamma had taken him home for a month or two, "on account of his delicate health." Mr. Miles, the master, affirmed that he would do very well if he had fewer cakes and sweetmeats sent him from home; but the mother's heart turned from an opinion so harsh, and inclined rather to the more refined idea that John's sallowness was owing to over-application, and, perhaps, to pining after home.
dingy: 黑暗的
lineament: 面部轮廓
visage: 脸，面容
extremity: 手足
gorge: 狼吞虎咽, 塞饱
bilious: 胆汁质的, 坏脾气的
blear: 使(眼)花, 模糊
sallowness: 菜色
pine: 怀念，常指思乡的愿望

Sylvia_scj

It's a brand new word for me too.

DZ

diffidence: 缺乏自信；胆怯

I thought it's "difference".

Sylvia_scj

With Bewick on my knee, I was then happy: happy at least in my way. I feared nothing but interruption, and that came too soon. The breakfast-room door was opened.
    "Boh! Madam Mope!" cried the voice of John Reed; then he paused: he found the room apparently empty.
    "Where the dickens is she?" he continued. "Lizzy! Georgy! (calling to his sisters) Jane is not here: tell mamma she is run out into the rain -- bad animal!"
    "It is well I drew the curtain," thought I, and wished fervently he might not discover my hiding-place: nor would John Reed have found it out himself; he was not quick either of vision or conception; but Eliza just put her head in at the door, and said at once: "She is in the window-seat, to be sure, Jack."
    And I came out immediately, for I trembled at the idea of being dragged forth by the said Jack.
    "What do you want?" I asked with awkward diffidence.
    "Say, 'What do you want, Master Reed,' " was the answer. "I want you to come here"; and seating himself in an arm-chair, he intimated by a gesture that I was to approach and stand before him.
mope: 闷闷不乐，忧郁的人或情绪低落的人
fervently: 热心地, 热诚地
diffidence: 缺乏自信；胆怯

Sylvia_scj

I cannot tell what sentiment haunted the quite solitary churchyard, with its inscribed headstone; its gate, its two trees, its low horizon, girdled by a broken wall, and its newly risen crescent, attesting the hour of eventide.
The two ships becalmed on a torpid sea, I believed to be marine phantoms.
The fiend pinning down the thief's pack behind him, I passed over quickly: it was an object of terror.
So was the black, horned thing seated aloof on a rock, surveying a distant crowd surrounding a gallows.
headstone: 墓石
girdle: 环绕
crescent: 新月
phantom: 幻影；幽灵, 鬼怪
fiend: 恶魔；妖怪
pin down: 使受约束, 阻止, 压制
gallows: 绞架

Each picture told a story; mysterious often to my undeveloped understanding and imperfect feelings, yet ever profoundly interesting: as interesting as the tales Bessie sometimes narrated on winter evenings, when she chanced to be in good humour; and when, having brought her ironing-table to the nursery-hearth, she allowed us to sit about it, and while she got up Mrs. Reed's lace frills, and crimped her nightcap borders, fed our eager attention with passages of love and adventure taken from old fairy tales and older ballads; or (as at a later period I discovered) from the pages of PAMELA, and HENRY, EARL OF MORELAND.
frill: (服装的)褶边, 装饰

Sylvia_scj

Thank you. DZ.

DZ

congratulations

Sylvia_scj

haha. Now you can tell from my users icon. And I am so happy that I became a senior member today.

DZ

maybe good girl?