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通篇文案编辑皆为手动码字，文章主体内容为英文原著《Three Men in a Boat》的摘录，开篇单词表和文末感想为原创，欢迎转载，必须标明来源。
As a person who loves reading books and records each drop of idea. I always think about to share my reading notes with you, and there is no orginal English book with clearly Vocabulary List, so I want to do a thing, to write down some articles with my thought, ideas, and my way of reading.
And this time I choose a novel I am reading which is THREE MEN IN A BOAT. It's the Stage 4 in Oxford Bookworms Library. It's totally 18,055 words, 16 chapters.
Words list
Enthusiasm [inˈTH(y)o͞ozēˌazəm]: intense and eager enjoyment, interest, or approval.
* They are full of exciting plans and enthusiasm.
Symptom [ˈsim(p)təm]: a physical or mental feature that is regarded as indicating a condition of disease.
* I realize that I have it too, and that mysymptoms are very bad
Extraordinary [ikˈstrôrd(ə)nˌerē]: very unusual or remarkable.
* It is the most extraordinary thing
Disease [dəˈzēz]: a disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant.
* I found that there was only one disease which I didn't have.
Immediately [iˈmēdēətlē]: at once; instantly.
* Sometimes just one blow made the sickness disappear and made me want to start work immediately.
Prevent [prəˈvent]: keep (something) from happening or arising.
* Harris said that a little food helped to prevent illness.
Awful [ˈôfəl]: very bad or unpleasant.
* Montmorency's idea of a good time is to collect together all the most awful dogs he can find and then go round the town, looking for other awful dogs to fight.
Blow on: come into sight.
* It is very strange, but those blows on my head often made the illness go away for a time.
Walk up and down: moving backward and forward along.
* You walk up and down on the ship
Enjoy oneself: To have a pleasurable or satisfactory time.
* you begain to enjoy yourself.
THREE MEN IN A BOAT
This is not one of those Great-Travel books: It doesn't describe sailing across the world's dangerous seas or a brave journey up the Amazon river. It's only a small journey, in a small boat. But it is still an adventure that you or I or anyone could experience... And tell stories about afterwards.
Who are the heroes of this Journey? They are George, Harris, and 'J' Three young men that we could meet anywhere, in any century. They fall in the river and lose things, they argue and laugh, and tell each other stories. They are full of exciting plans and enthusiasm, but they can't get out of bed in the morning. They want to be great adventurers, but actually, when it rains, they would prefer to be in comfortable chairs in front of a warm fire.
Do our heroes enjoy their adventures on the river? Do they ever learn to cook eggs over a camp fire? or to open a tin without a tin-opener? But this is their story: The story of three men and a dog, in a boat.
Chapter 1 We Decide To Go On Holiday
There were four of us, George, William Samuel Harris, my self, and Montmorency. We were sitting in my room, and we were smoking and talking about how bad we were, ILL, I mean, of crouse.
We were all feeling in poor health, and we were getting quite worried about it. Harris said that he felt really bad sometimes, and he did not know what he was doing. And then George said that he felt bad, too. And that he didn't know what he was doing either. With me it was my heart. I knew it was my heart because I had read something in a magazine about the symptoms of a bad heart. And I had all of them.
It is the most extraordinary thing, but every time I read about an illness, I realize that I have it too, and that my symptoms are very bad! In fact, my health has always been a worry I remember...
One day I had a little health problem, and I went to the British Museum Library to read about it. I took the book off the library shelf, and I began to read. After some time, I turned over the page and I began to read about another illness. I don't remember the name of the illness, but I know it was something really terrible. I read about half a page and then I knew that I had that disease too.
I sat there for a time, cold with horror. Slowly, I began to turn over more pages. I came to a disease which was worse than the last one. I began to read about it and, as I expected, I had that disease too.Then I began to get really interested in myself, so I went back to the begining of the book. I started with the letter 'a' and I read from 'a' to 'z'. I found that there was only one disease which I didn't have. This made me a little unhappy. Why didn't I have that disease too?
When I walked into that reading room, I was a happy healthy young man. When I left I was a very sick man, close to death...
But I was talking about my heart, nobody understood how ill I really was. I had this bad heart when I was a boy. It was with me all the time. I knew that it was my heart because I had all the symptoms of a bad heart. The main symptom was that I didn't want to work. Of crouse, nobody understood that the problem was my heart. Doctors were not so clever then. They just thought that I was lazy!
'Why, you lazy boy, you,' they used to say, 'Get up and do some work for once in your life!' They didn't understand that I was ill.
And they didn't give me medicine for this illness, they hit me on the side of the head. It is very strange, but those blows on my head often made the illness go away for a time. Sometimes just one blow made the sickness disappear and made me want to start work immediately...
Anyway, that evening, George, William Harris and I sat there for half an hour, and described our illnesses to each other. I explained to George and William Harris how I felt when I got up in the morning. William Harris told us how he felt when he went to bed. Then George stood in front of the fire, and, with great feeling, he showed us how he felt in the night.
George always thinks he's ill, but really, there is never anything the matter with him, you know.
At that moment Mrs. Poppets, my housekeeper, knocked on the door. She wanted to know if we were ready to have supper.
We smiled sadly at each other, and then we said that perhaps we should try to eat something. Harris said that a little food helped to prevent illness. So Mrs. Poppets brought the supper in. We sat down at the table, and for half an hour we managed to play with some steak and chips, and with a large cake that Mrs. Poppets had made.
When we had made ourselves eat something, we made ourselves eat something, we filled our glasses, and we lit our pipes. Then we began to talk about our health again. We weren't quite sure what was the matter with us. However, we were all quite certain of one thing, we had been doing too much work.
'We need a rest.' Harris said.
'A rest and a change.' George added.
I agreed with George, and I said that perhaps we could go to the country. We could find a nice, quite place and we could sit in the warm summer sun. We could go somewhere peaceful, far away from other people.
Harris said he thought that would be awful. He added that he had been to a place like that onc. Everyone went to bed at eight o'clock, and he had to walk for an hour to buy cigarettes and a newspaper.
'No,' Harris said.'If you want a rest and a change, then sea is the best.'
I said that this was a terrible idea. A sea trip is fine if you are going for a month or two, but not for a week. I know what it is like...
You start out on Monday and you think that you are going to enjoy yourself. You wave goodbye happily to your friends. You walk up and down on the ship, like Captain Cook, Sir Francis Drake or Christopher Columbus.
On Tuesday you wish that you had not come. On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday you wish that you were dead. On Saturday you are able to drink something. You begin to smile a little at the kind people who ask you how you are. On Sunday you start to walk again, and you eat a little. And on Monday morning, as you stand and wait to get off the ship, you begain to enjoy yourself.
I remeber that a friend of mine once took a short sea trip from London to Liverpool for his health. He bought a return ticket, but when he got to Liverpool, he sold it and he came back by train...
So I was against the sea trip, not for myself, you understand. I am never seasick, but I was afraid for George. George said he would be fine. In fact, he said that he would quite like it, but he thought that Harris and I would both be ill. Harris said he was never seasick. In fact, he had often tried to be ill, but he hadn't succeeded. It's very strange, but when you are on land, you never meet anybody who has ever been seasick!
So George said, 'Well, let's go up the riverm then.' He added, 'We'll have fresh air on the river. The hard work on the boat will make us hungry, so we'll enjoy our food. We'll sleep well, too.'
Harris replied, 'Well, you never have any trouble sleeping, anyway. In fact, you're always going to sleep!'
But in the end, Harris agreed that it was a good idea. I thought it was a good idea, too. The only one who didn't like this idea was Montmorency.
'It's different for me,' his face said. 'You like it, but I don'! There's nothing for me to do. I don't smoke. I don't li looking at the trees and the flowers, and when I'm asleep you'll play about with the boat and I'll fall over the side!'
Montmorency's idea of a good time is to collect together all the most awful dogs he can find and then go round the town, looking for other awful dogs to fight.
But we were three to one, so we decided to go anyway.