Goodbye, Mr. Chips. Chapter 16~17
1. He had once tried it, but had chanced to strike the Riviera during one of its carefully unadvertised cold spells.
①chance 在这里作动词，表示“碰巧/偶然发生”，后接不定式。还可以作名词，常用于“Chances are...”的句型中，相当于“It is likely that...”。也可以作形容词，表示“偶然的，意外的”，比如：
A chance remark by one of his colleagues got him thinking.
②cold spell 寒潮。 spell一词除了作动词表示“拼写"，常用于表示“某种活动、天气、疾病等持续的一段时间”，比如：
a spell of bad luck 一段倒霉的日子
2.It was the summer that he liked best, of course; apart from the weather, which suited him, there were the continual visits of old boys.
apart from 除了，意思和用法相同的短语还有：in addition to；except; except for; but; besides 以及 on top of 和save。除了最后两个是新学的，其他的都是以前知道的。但当时Eric问有哪些的时候，我却没想全。就好像前两天在课堂上提到写作文常用的过渡词，也是好多想不起来，只能例举几个之后草草收场，这说明我在归类总结上还需要下功夫。
3. He had earned the reputation of being a great jester, and jest were expected of him. Whenever he rose to speak at a meeting, or even when he talked across a table, people prepared their minds and faces for the joke. They listened in a mood to be amused and it was easy to satisfy them. They laughed sometimes before he came to the point. “Old Chips was in fine form," they would say, afterwards, "Marvellous the way he can always see the funny side of things."
这一段有点长，但我还是选出来放在这里，因为之前看过一篇报道讲黄才伦，说他在喜剧上不如沈腾、宋小宝这些人有观众缘。怎么样才算在喜剧里有观众缘呢？这段描写Chips的话就可以用来回答这个问题 —— 有些人天生就自带笑点，你看到他就觉得莫名喜感，还没说话你就想笑，特别期待他的段子。
而划线的句子既是人们对Chips的评价，也是我想用来自勉的一句话：永远要看到事情里有趣的那一面。
4. "See any break in the clouds?" "When's the tide going to turn?"
这两个句子都来自于人们向Chips提出的问题，感觉非常实用。一个是：你看情况有好转的希望么？ 另一个是：这情况什么时候能改变？
这时候的Chips因为年纪和性格，已经成为人们心里 “先知和百科全书”一样的存在，什么问题都喜欢问他，就为了听他幽默的答案。书里用了一句话来形容这样的情况：
5. They all asked him questions, as if he were some kind of prophet and encyclopaedia combined - more even than that, for they liked their answer dished up as a joke.
我对我哥（男朋友）也是这样的感觉，什么都喜欢问他，觉得他什么都知道，哈哈哈。
回到语言点上，dish up也是一个有趣的表达，原意是“上（菜）”，在这里表示：“(Chips) 把答案有滋有味地说出来”。
6. That's the style - keep indoors this weather - there's a lot of flu about. Wish I could have your life for a day or two.
about在这里不是我们平常熟悉的介词“关于”，而是作副词，表示“（疾病）流行”。而划线部分的句子也非常实用，理解为：要是我也能过上一两天你那样的日子就好了。
7. And it amused him to cap their jokes, as it were, with one of his own; to let them see that he could keep his end up, even yet.
①cap作动词，表示“超过，胜过”。
②as it were 仿佛是……；可以这么说，相当于so to speak。 注意：如果是as it was，意思就会变成“像（它）以前那样”。
③ keep one's end up = keep up one's end, 在句中理解为：“精神饱满地对付对手”。
8. I'm certainly no chicken.
注意：用no时理解为：“我（当然）不是什么小伙子了。” 而用not则按字面意思，理解为“我不是小伙子。” 两者在语气上有区别。
9. Over the fog-laden air came the bell for call-over, tremulous and muffled.
fog-laden 浓雾弥漫，其中laden作形容词，表示“充满的，装满的”，常和with搭配，相当于“filled with; full of; studded with”等。
10. Chips looked at the window, greying into twilight; it was time to light up.
grey 在这里用作用词，表示“逐渐变成灰色”。查字典的时候发现两个很实用的表达：
①Jim was greying a little at the temples. 吉姆两鬓微霜。
②a full head of greying hair 满头华发
No.2 语音知识点
usual [ˈjuʒuəl]
之前发这个词的时候，没有把/u/发出来，也就是嘴巴没有嘟起来，一直读的是[ˈjuʒəl]。