【雅思阅读】17-1-3（To catch a king）（精读）

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文章目录

• 原文以及翻译
• • **A**
  • **B**
  • **C**
  • **D**
  • **E**
  • **F**

https://ielts.itongzhuo/business/ielts/student/jumpSingleReport.do?sId=1545&type=4

原文以及翻译

A

Charles Spencer’s latest book, To Catch a King, tells us the story of the hunt for King Charles II in the six weeks after his resounding defeat at the Battle of Worcester in September 1651.
(查尔斯·斯宾塞的最新著作《捕获国王》讲述了查尔斯二世国王在1651年9月沃斯特战役惨败后的六周内被追捕的故事。)
And what a story it is.
(多么精彩的故事啊。)
After his father was executed by the Parliamentarians in 1649, the young Charles II sacrificed one of the very principles his father had died for and did a deal with the Scots, thereby accepting Presbyterianism* as the national religion in return for being crowned King of Scots.
(在他的父亲于1649年被议会党人处决后，年轻的查尔斯二世放弃了他父亲为之牺牲的原则之一，与苏格兰人达成了协议，从而接受长老宗教*作为国教以换取苏格兰王冠。)
His arrival in Edinburgh prompted the English Parliamentary army to invade Scotland in a pre-emptive strike.
(他抵达爱丁堡促使英格兰议会军队先发制人地入侵苏格兰。)
This was followed by a Scottish invasion of England.
(这之后是苏格兰对英格兰的入侵。)
The two sides finally faced one another at Worcester in the west of England in 1651.
(1651年，两军最终在英格兰西部的沃斯特相遇。)
After being comprehensively defeated on the meadows outside the city by the Parliamentarian army, the 21-year-old king found himself the subject of a national manhunt, with a huge sum offered for his capture.
(在城外的草地上被议会军队彻底击败后，这位21岁的国王发现自己成了全国性追捕的对象，悬赏巨额以捕获他。)
Over the following six weeks he managed, through a series of heart-poundingly close escapes, to evade the Parliamentarians before seeking refuge in France.
(在接下来的六周里，他通过一系列令人心跳加速的濒临逃脱的情形，成功逃避议会党人，然后寻求在法国的避难。)
For the next nine years, the penniless and defeated Charles wandered around Europe with only a small group of loyal supporters.
(在接下来的九年里，一贫如洗、战败的查尔斯带着一小群忠诚的支持者在欧洲漂泊。)

B

Years later, after his restoration as king, the 50-year-old Charles II requested a meeting with the writer and diarist Samuel Pepys.
(多年后，在他恢复王位时，50岁的查尔斯二世请求与作家兼日记作者塞缪尔·佩皮斯会面。)
His intention when asking Pepys to commit his story to paper was to ensure that this most extraordinary episode was never forgotten.
(他请佩皮斯将其故事记录在纸上的意图是确保这一非凡的历史片段永不被遗忘。)
Over two three-hour sittings, the king related to him in great detail his personal recollections of the six weeks he had spent as a fugitive.
(在两次各三小时的会谈中，国王详细地向他回忆了他作为逃犯的那六周的经历。)
As the king and secretary settled down (a scene that is surely a gift for a future scriptwriter), Charles commenced his story: ‘After the battle was so absolutely lost as to be beyond hope of recovery, I began to think of the best way of saving myself.’
(当国王和秘书安顿下来时（这一幕肯定是未来剧本作家的福音），查尔斯开始讲述他的故事：“当战斗完全失败，无望恢复时，我开始思考如何最好地拯救自己。”)

C

One of the joys of Spencer’s book, a result not least of its use of Charles II’s own narrative as well as those of his supporters, is just how close the reader gets to the action.
(斯宾塞的书带来的一大乐趣，至少部分是因为它使用了查尔斯二世自己的叙述以及他的支持者的叙述，这使得读者感觉非常接近事件的核心。)
The day-by-day retelling of the fugitives’ doings provides delicious details: the cutting of the king’s long hair with agricultural shears, the use of walnut leaves to dye his pale skin, and the day Charles spent lying on a branch of the great oak tree in Boscobel Wood as the Parliamentary soldiers scoured the forest floor below.
(对逃亡者行为的日常复述提供了诱人的细节：使用农用剪刀剪掉国王的长发、使用胡桃叶染色他的苍白皮肤，以及查尔斯在波斯科贝尔森林的大橡树的一个分枝上躺了一整天，而议会兵在下方搜索森林。)
Spencer draws out both the humour – such as the preposterous refusal of Charles’s friend Henry Wilmot to adopt disguise on the grounds that it was beneath his dignity – and the emotional tension when the secret of the king’s presence was cautiously revealed to his supporters.
(斯宾塞描绘了幽默——例如查尔斯的朋友亨利·威尔莫特因为觉得低于他的尊严而荒谬地拒绝伪装——以及当国王存在的秘密小心地向他的支持者透露时的情绪紧张。)

D

Charles’s adventures after losing the Battle of Worcester hide the uncomfortable truth that whilst almost everyone in England had been appalled by the execution of his father, they had not welcomed the arrival of his son with the Scots army, but had instead firmly bolted their doors.
(查尔斯在沃斯特战役败后的冒险掩盖了一个不舒服的真相：尽管几乎所有英格兰人都对他父亲的处决感到震惊，但他们并没有欢迎他与苏格兰军队的到来，而是坚决地关上了门。)
This was partly because he rode at the head of what looked like a foreign invasion force and partly because, after almost a decade of civil war, people were desperate to avoid it beginning again.
(部分原因是他带领着一支看似外来的入侵军队，部分原因是在近十年的内战之后，人们迫切希望避免战争再次爆发。)
This makes it all the more interesting that Charles II himself loved the story so much ever after.
(这使得查尔斯二世本人之后更加喜爱这个故事，更显得有趣。)

• This makes it all the more interesting that Charles II himself loved
  the story so much ever after.

  我想把这句话改成：

  This makes it more interesting that Charles II himself loved the story
  so much after.

  有什么不妥？

• 你提出的句子修改减少了原句中的强调程度。原文中的“all the more interesting”用于增强语气，表示这个事实更加有趣。而修改后的“more interesting”虽然也表示比较级，但语气较弱，没有原文那么强烈的强调效果。
  此外，原文中的“ever after”通常意味着“从那以后一直”，是一个较为童话式的表达，带有一种时间上的持续和不变的意味。而你的修改为“after”，这使得时间感变得比较即时和短暂，缺少了一种长期性的含义。
  如果想保持原文的意味和强调，建议不做修改；如果要根据你的改动调整，可以考虑是否需要保留原句的强调和时间上的延续性。

As well as retelling it to anyone who would listen, causing eyerolling among courtiers, he set in train a series of initiatives to memorialise it.
(他不仅向任何愿意倾听的人重述这个故事，引起朝臣们的翻白眼，还启动了一系列纪念活动。)

“Set in train” 是一个英语短语，意思是启动或引发一系列事件或活动的开始。这个表达常常用来描述某人或某事通过某些行动触发了一连串的事件或过程。在你提供的这个句子中，这个短语用来说明某人通过他的行为开始了一系列的倡议或活动来纪念某个事件。这种表达方式通常用于正式或书面语境中。

There was to be a new order of chivalry, the Knights of the Royal Oak.
(设立了一个新的骑士团——皇家橡树骑士团。)

问：
There was to be a new order of chivalry, the Knights of the Royal Oak.
直接用There was to be a new chivalry不行吗？还有所谓的“chivalry”指的是什么？

答：
在英语中，“There was to be a new order of chivalry”
这个表达形式是用来预示未来某件事将要发生的计划或预期，这里的 “order of chivalry” 指的是一种骑士团体或荣誉团体。如果你使用 “There was to be a new chivalry”，这句话的意思会变得模糊，因为 “chivalry” 本身指的是一种与中世纪骑士相关的行为准则或理想，比如勇敢、礼貌和尊重女性等价值观。

“Chivalry”一词在历史和文化上有着丰富的内涵，它源自中世纪的欧洲，特别是与骑士精神和行为准则相关。随着时间的推移，这个词也被用来形容高尚、礼貌和保护弱者的行为。因此，在你的句子中，“order of chivalry”（骑士团）指的是一种组织形式，成员遵守某种高尚的行为标准，而不仅仅是“chivalry”这个概念本身。

A series of enormous oil paintings depicting the episode were produced, including a two-metre-wide canvas of Boscobel Wood and a set of six similarly enormous paintings of the king on the run.
(制作了一系列巨大的油画来描绘这一情节，包括一幅宽两米的波斯科贝尔森林画布和六幅类似巨大的国王逃亡画作。)
In 1660, Charles II commissioned the artist John Michael Wright to paint a flying squadron of cherubs* carrying an oak tree to the heavens on the ceiling of his bedchamber.
(1660年，查尔斯二世委托艺术家约翰·迈克尔·赖特在其卧室天花板上绘制一队携带橡树飞向天堂的小天使*。)
It is hard to imagine many other kings marking the lowest point in their life so enthusiastically, or indeed pulling off such an escape in the first place.
(很难想象还有其他国王会如此热情地纪念他们生命中的最低点，或者说根本就能成功逃脱。)

E

Charles Spencer is the perfect person to pass the story on to a new generation.
(查尔斯·斯宾塞是将这个故事传给新一代的完美人选。)
His pacey, readable prose steers deftly clear of modern idioms and elegantly brings to life the details of the great tale.
(他的文笔流畅、易读，巧妙地避开现代习语，优雅地展现了这个伟大故事的细节。)

steer clear of 意为“避开”

He has even-handed sympathy for both the fugitive king and the fierce republican regime that hunted him, and he succeeds in his desire to explore far more of the background of the story than previous books on the subject have done.
(他公正地同情逃亡的国王和追捕他的严酷共和政权，同时成功地实现了自己的愿望，探索了这个故事的背景，远超以往关于这个主题的书籍所做的。)

on the subject作定语，修饰books：关于这个主题的书籍

Indeed, the opening third of the book is about how Charles II found himself at
Worcester in the first place, which for some will be reason alone to read To Catch a King.
(实际上，书的开头三分之一部分讲述了查尔斯二世最初是如何发现自己在沃斯特的，对一些人来说，这就是阅读《捕获国王》的理由。)

常在英文中，“third” 确实可以表示“第三”的意思，而“one third” 表示“三分之一”。不过，在描述序列或者部分时，“the third” 可以表示“第三个”，但当涉及到整体被分成几部分的情况时，“a third” 或者 “the opening third” 通常被用来指“三分之一”。

在例句中，“the opening third of the book”指的是“书的前三分之一”，即整本书分成三部分中的第一部分。所以这里的“third”翻译为“三分之一”是准确的。

F

The tantalising question left, in the end, is that of what it all meant.
(最后留下的挑逗性问题是，这一切意味着什么。)

that of这个太难理解了，可以尝试把它去掉：is what it all meant，翻译出来还是“最后留下的挑逗性问题是，这一切意味着什么”。

在这个句子中，“that of” 是一个指代性短语，用来避免重复并且增加句子的流畅性和正式感。具体来说，“that of” 的作用如下：

1. 指代：“that” 作为代词，指代前文提及的内容，即“the tantalising question”（引人入胜的问题）。这样做避免了直接重复“the question”，从而使句子更为优雅。

2. 连接：“of” 是一个介词，用来连接"that"和后面的从句"what it all meant"。这个从句作为整个短语的补充部分，解释了“that”（即这个问题）具体是指什么。

为什么使用 “that of”：

• 避免重复：使用"that of"避免了在句子中重复“the question”，使得表述更加简洁而精炼。
• 强调内容的关联性：通过使用"that of"，作者强调了问题的内容与之前叙述或讨论的直接关联。
• 提高文本的正式度：在学术写作或正式文本中，这种表达方式可以增加语言的正式性和文体的严谨性。

总之，"that of"在这里是一个非常有用的结构，它帮助读者清晰地理解被提及的问题的本质是什么，即这个问题究竟指的是哪些意义，增强了语言的连贯性和精确性。

Would Charles II have been a different king had these six weeks never happened? The days and nights spent in hiding must have affected him in some way.

标记处是had引导的条件状语从句，原句等同于：Would Charles II have been a different king if these six weeks had never happened?

(如果这六周从未发生，查尔斯二世会是一个不同的国王吗？躲藏的日日夜夜一定以某种方式影响了他。)
Did the need to assume disguises, to survive on wit and charm alone, to use trickery and subterfuge to escape from tight corners help form him? This is the one area where the book doesn’t quite hit the mark.

tight corner紧要关头
hit the mark击中要害

(“依靠伪装、仅凭机智和魅力生存、使用诡计和隐秘手段从困境中脱身，这些是否帮助塑造了他的性格？这正是这本书表现得不够到位的一个方面。”)

Instead its depiction of Charles II in his final years as an ineffective, pleasure-loving monarch doesn’t do justice to the man (neither is it accurate), or to the complexity of his character.

pleasure-loving爱好享乐的。
instead后没有加逗号“,”，害我理解了好长时间，其实在这个句子里，instead是完全独立的，不跟后面句子或单词有任何连接。
neither is it accurate是一个倒装句。

(相反，该书描绘查理二世晚年时期作为一个无能、好享乐的君主的形象，并没有公正地对待这位人物（也不准确），也未能展现他性格的复杂性。)
But this one niggle aside, To Catch a King is an excellent read, and those who come to it knowing little of the famous tale will find they have a treat in store.
(但抛开这一小点不谈，《捕获国王》是一本非常精彩的读物，那些对这个著名故事知之甚少的人会发现它是一场视觉盛宴。)

“Come to it” 在这个上下文中是指读者开始接触或阅读这本书。这个短语可以在多种情景中使用，通常用来描述一个人或一群人接近、到达或开始处理某件事情或某个话题。在这里，“come to it” 强调的是读者对这本书的初次接触，尤其是那些之前对书中讲述的故事不太了解的人。

“In store” 是一个固定搭配，意味着预期将要发生的事情，常用来描述未来的情况或事件。这个短语经常用于表达有某些积极或值得期待的事情等待某人，比如在这个例子中，指的是那些对这个故事不熟悉的读者将会发现这本书是一种享受。使用
“in store” 通常带有一种正面的预期和期待。

本文标签： 雅思kingCatch