Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town when I first knew it. In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. Somehow, it was hotter then: a black dog suffered on a summer’s day; bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square. Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning. Ladies bathed before noon, after their three-o’clock naps, and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.
People moved slowly then. They ambled across the square, shuffled in and out of the stores around it, took their time about everything. A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer. There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County. But it was a time of vague optimism for some of the people: Maycomb County had recently been told that it had nothing to fear but fear itself.
We lived on the main residential street in town—Atticus, Jem and I, plus Calpurnia our cook. Jem and I found our father satisfactory: he played with us, read to us, and treated us with courteous detachment.
Calpurnia was something else again. She was all angles and bones; she was nearsighted; she squinted; her hand was wide as a bed slat and twice as hard. She was always ordering me out of the kitchen, asking me why I couldn’t behave as well as Jem when she knew he was older, and calling me home when I wasn’t ready to come. Our battles were epic and one-sided. Calpurnia always won, mainly because Atticus always took her side. She had been with us ever since Jem was born, and I had felt her tyrannical presence as long as I could remember.
Our mother died when I was two, so I never felt her absence. She was a Graham from Montgomery; Atticus met her when he was first elected to the state legislature. He was middle-aged then, she was fifteen years his junior. Jem was the product of their first year of marriage; four years later I was born, and two years later our mother died from a sudden heart attack. They said it ran in her family. I did not miss her, but I think Jem did. He remembered her clearly, and sometimes in the middle of a game he would sigh at length, then go off and play by himself behind the car-house. When he was like that, I knew better than to bother him.
When I was almost six and Jem was nearly ten, our summertime boundaries (within calling distance of Calpurnia) were Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose’s house two doors to the north of us, and the Radley Place three doors to the south. We were never tempted to break them. The Radley Place was inhabited by an unknown entity the mere description of whom was enough to make us behave for days on end; Mrs. Dubose was plain hell.
Day 3 学习笔记
单词学习
tired 我们常见的意思是疲惫的，此外还有陈旧的，陈腐的意思（boring because it is too familiar or has been too much）原文的意思是：梅科姆镇是一个死气沉沉的老镇
原文：... it was a tired old town …
red slop
原文： In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop
slop是污水，脏水的意思
a slop bucket 污水桶
sidewalks
原文： grass grew on the sidewalks
人行道
courthouse
这里指梅科姆镇的县政府大楼
原文：the courthouse sagged in the square 广场中央的县政府大楼摇摇欲坠
bony adj. 骨瘦如柴的
Hoover carts 是一种马车，如下图
原文：bony mules hitched to Hoover carts flicked flies in the sweltering shade of the live oaks on the square.
sweltering adj. 闷热的
wilted原意式枯萎的，这里指领子耷拉下来
原文：Men’s stiff collars wilted by nine in the morning.
talcum 滑石粉 （这里应该是类似baby power 的东西）
...and by nightfall were like soft teacakes with frostings of sweat and sweet talcum.
epic 时间长的
one-sided （结果）一边倒的
car-house 车库
短语和搭配
vague optimism 盲目乐观的时代
main residential street 居民区的主街
amble [V] 同义词 stroll
We ambled down the beach. 我们漫步向海滩走去
原文： They ambled across the square
他们慢悠悠地穿过广场。
shuffled in and out慢吞吞地进出
shuffle vi.&vt.拖着脚步走
bed slat 床板 （下图是床板的广告）
at length
原句： he would sigh at length他会长叹一口气
句子
...it had nothing to fear but fear itself. 这是罗斯福总统的一句话
罗斯福总统的原句是let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is...fear itself