Lesson 57: Back in the old country 重返故里
Listen to the tape then answer the question below.
听录音，然后回答以下问题。
Did the narrator find is mother's grave?
I sTOPped to let the car cool off and to study the map. I had expected to be near my objective by now, but everything still seemed alien to me. I was only five when my father had taken me abroad, and that we eighteen years ago. When my mother had died after a tragic accident, he did not quickly recover from the shock and loneliness. Everything around him was full of her presence, continually reopening the wound. So he decided to emigrate. In the new country he became absorbed in making a new life for the two of us, so that he gradually ceased to grieve. He did not marry again and I was brought up without a woman's care; but I lacked for nothing, for he was both father and mother to me. He always meant to go back on day, but not to stay. His roots and mine bad become too firmly embedded in the new land. But he wanted to see the old folk again and to visit my mother's grave. He became mortally ill a few months before we had planned to go and, when he knew that he was dying, he made me promise to go on my own.
I hired a car the day after landing and bought a comprehensive book of maps, which I found most helpful on the cross|country journey, but which I did not think I should need on the last stage. It was not that I actually remembered anything at all. But my father had described over and over again what we should see at every milestone, after leaving the nearest town, so that I was positive I should recognize it as familiar territory. Well, I had been wrong, for I was now lost.
I looked at the map and then at the millimeter. I had come ten miles since leaving the town, and at this point, according to my father, I should be looking at farms and cottages in a valley, with the spire of the church of our village showing in the far distance. I could see no valley, no farms, no cottages and no church spire || only a lake. I decided that I must have taken a wrong turning somewhere. So I drove back to the town and began to retrace the route, taking frequent glances at the map. I landed up at the same corner. The curious thing was that the lake was not marked on the map. I left as if I had stumbled into a nightmare country, as you sometimes do in dreams. And, as in a nightmare, there was nobody in sight to help me. Fortunately for me, as I was wondering what to do next, there appeared on the horizon a man on horseback, riding in my direction. I waited till he came near, then I asked him the way to our old village. He said that there was now no village. I thought he must have misunderstood me, so I repeated its name. This time he pointed to the lake. The village no longer existed because it had been submerged, and all the valley too. The lake was not a natural one, but a man|made reservoir.
New words and expressions 生词和短语
alien
adj. 异国的，外国的
emigrate
v. 移居（海外）
absorb
v. 全神贯注于
embedded
adj. 扎牢的
mortally
adv. 致命地
comprehensive
adj. 广泛的；丰富的
milestone
n. 里程碑
territory
n. 领地；区域
milometer
n. 计程表
spire
n. （教堂的）塔尖
retrace
v. 返回，重走
stumble
v. 趔趄地走
horizon
n. 地平线
reservoir
n. 水库
参考译文
我停下车，让汽车发动机冷却一下，同时查询一下地图。我本想离目的地已经不远，但周围所有对我仍非常陌生。我5岁那年，爸爸就带我出了国，那是18年前的事了。当时我妈妈在一次事故中惨死，爸爸未能非常快从悲痛与孤独中恢复过来。他身边的所有都是妈妈的影子不断勾起他的伤感。于是他决定移居他国。在这个新的国家，爸爸一心一意地为大家两个开创一种新的生活，慢慢地不伤心了。爸爸没再娶，因此，我在没妈妈的环境里长大成人。但我却什么都不缺，他既当爸爸又当妈妈。他总想以后回国看看，但却不愿长期住下去，由于他与我一样已经把根深深地扎在异国的土地上。 但，他想看一看家乡父老乡亲，为我的妈妈扫墓。就在他计划回国的前几个月，他忽然身患绝症。他了解自己已奄奄一息，于是他要我答应肯定单独回故乡一趟。
我下飞机后租了一辆车，并买了一本详尽的地图册。在乡间行车途中，我感觉它很有用，但快到家了，我倒感觉它没什么用了。这倒并不是是我背熟了地图，而是爸爸曾详细给我讲了，在过了离故乡近期的那个小镇后，在每个路标处可见到些什么。因此，我相信这段路对我来讲会是很了解的。唉，实质我错了，我目前迷失方向了。
我看了看地图，又查了一下里程表。从小镇出来，我走了10英里。照爸爸的说法，我面前应是一个山谷，有农场与村舍，还可远远望见老家村子里的教堂的尖顶。可目前我却看不出山谷，看不见农舍，也看见教学尖顶，看见只不过一片湖泊。我想肯定是什么地方拐错了弯儿。于是我开车返回小镇，重新按路线行驶。结果又来到刚刚那个拐弯处。奇怪的是那个湖没在地图上标出。我感到自己就像平常作梦那样迷迷糊糊地闯进了恶梦境地。就像在恶梦里一样，见不到一个人可以帮助我。不过，我是幸运的，正当我走投无路之时，从天边出现一个骑马的人向我骑来。等他走近了，问他去老家的路。他说那村子已经没了。我想他肯定误解了我的意思，于是又说一遍村庄的名字。这次他用手指了一下那个湖。村庄已不复存在，由于已经为水所淹，山谷也被水淹没了。这不是一个天然湖泊，是一座人工修建的水库。
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自学导读
Notes on the text
课文注解
1 I had expected to be near my objective by now，我本以为这个时候已经接近目的地了。
expect的过去完成时+不定式的一般式，表示过去想做而未做的事。
2 become（be）absorbed in，作一心一意于、全神贯注于讲。
3 lack for nothing，什么也不缺。
4 he made me promise to go on my own，他要我答应肯定单独回故乡一趟。
promise是不带to的动词不定式，作宾语补足语；on one's own作单独、靠我们的力量解。
5 It was not thatat all. 和下文的 Butterritory，这里两个句子实质用的是一个完整的句型：not thatbutthat（不是由于而是由于）。
Multiple choice questions
多项选择题
Choose the correct answers to the following questions.
Comprehension 理解
1 When the author thought he was near his objective, he sTOPped because |||||| .
a．it was too hot for him to concentrate on where he was going
b．he wanted to find his way back to the nearest town
c．he realized that he must have taken a wrong turning
d．he did not recognize any familiar landmarks
2 Why did the author's father want his son to go back on his own?
a．He feared that his wound would reopen if he were to return himself.
b．He wanted to hear what had happened to his village before dying.
c．He was too ill to accompany his son on the cross|country journey.
d．He had always intended that his son should see the land of their birth.
3 What made the author feel he had stumbled into a nightmare country?
a．According to his father, he should already have reached the village.
b．Nothing he saw corresponded to what he had expected to see.
c．He did not know how he could get to the other side of the lake.
d．He was curious to know more about the lake but there was no one to ask
Structure 结构
4 I was only five when I |||||| , and that was eighteen years ago. (11. 3|4)
a．had been taken abroad by my father
b．took abroad with my father
c．had taken with my father abroad
d．was taken by my father abroad
5 |||| and I was brought up |||||| . (1. 9)
a．without a care of women
b．without care by a woman
c．without a woman to care for me
d．careless of a woman
6 |||| leaving the town. It was here that my father had told me I |||||| farms and cottages(11. 19|20)
a．could see
b．would see
c．would be seeing
d．should have seen
7 I waited for his approach |||||| I asked him (1. 27)
a．until
b．when
c．before
d．so that
8 I asked him |||||| to our old village. (1. 27)
a．what way it was
b．if he knows the way
c．which way to go
d．how to get
Vocabulary 词语
9 Everything around him |||||| , continually reopening (11. 6|7)
a．reminded him of her
b．presented her to him
c．recalled him to her
d．remembered her for him
10 But my father had described |||||| what we should see(11. 16|18)
a．incessantly
b．overmuch
c．repeatedly
d．extensively
11 |||| the lake was not |||||| on the map. (1. 24)
a．signed
b．written
c．shown
d．spotted
12 The lake was not a natural one. It was one. (11. 29|30)
a．an unnatural
b．a man|made
c．an unreal
d．a manufactured
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