Day ３ | Daily Note | The Gay Genius

CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 童年与青年 | Chapter 3
2017年12月6日, 星期三

intermediate

As the result of terrible misrule the government had fallen into the hands of eunuchs; and the scholars rebelled against the rule of the intermediate sex.

intermediate

intermediate这个词在之前共读单词书的时候封面上有：

English Vocabulary in Use | upper-intermediate and advanced

“the intermediate sex”则让我联想到Eric在推送中对“The Gay Genius”中“gay”一词的探讨：

－《苏东坡传》的英文为什么是The Gay Genius?－

fair

The young child entered school at the age of six. It was a fair-sized school with over a hundred pupils, all of whom studied under a Taoist priest.

fair在朗文当代中“a fair size/amount/number/bit/distance etc”的用法是especially British English。
朗文搭配中还指出可以用good和nice表达相同的意思：a good/fair/nice size (=fairly big)

first love

Tungpo, however, had a younger cousin-sister, who was his first love, and for whom he showed very tender feelings till the end of his days.

这里first love应该是初恋的意思，它还有最爱的意思，比如牛津七中的例句：

• I like most sports but tennis is my first love. 大多数运动我都喜欢，而网球是我的第一爱好。

另外love有一个“零分”的意思：

• She won the first set six–love/six games to love. 她以六比零赢了第一盘。
• love all (ie neither player or pair has scored) 零比零

看到词组love is blind：when you love sb, you cannot see their faults 爱情是盲目的，爱让人蒙蔽双眼（指恋爱中的人看不到对方缺点）

想起英文歌《Love is color-blind》：

Love is color-blind 歌词

本章极力写了苏东坡的懂事"Mother, if I grow up to be a Fan Pang, will you permit it?"，聪明“The brilliant young mind quickly distinguished itself”，早慧“If we believe the records, he is supposed to have penned some extraordinary lines at the age of ten. ”，最后顺带写了一件苏洵轶闻，也对苏轼有隐约的影响：

The challenge to the powerful clan and the tone of the public denunciation show in the father something of the impetuosity and intolerance of evil that were characteristics of the poet in his later career.

这样枝枝蔓蔓的写法，不显琐碎反而趣味横生。有点儿古文当中信手拈来点到即止意味。

陈太丘与友期行，期日中，过中不至，太丘舍去，去后乃至。元方时年七岁，门外戏。客问元方：“尊君在不？”答曰：“待君久不至，已去。”友人便怒：“非人哉！与人期行，相委而去。”元方曰：“君与家君期日中。日中不至，则是无信；对子骂父，则是无礼。”友人惭，下车引之，元方入门不顾。
《世说新语·陈太丘与友期》

想来林语堂本人也是古文功底了得，有春秋笔法的味道。

以上。