想了想，一点点推进吧。
IN the year 1878 I took my degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of London, and proceeded to Netley to go through the course prescribed for surgeons in the army. Having completed my studies there, I was duly attached to the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers as Assistant Surgeon.
开篇第一段介绍了作者华生的一些事情。在伦敦大学学习，医学博士生学位degree of Doctor of Medicine，伦敦大学也可以用London University表述(英语在用语法中级)，按照规定必须随军，从Netley之后又按职责在诺桑伯兰第五明火枪团(the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers)做军医助理。有职位的时候一般是as ＋职位即可。文中出现的地名或者专有名词不用刻意纠结，即使跳过去也不大影响故事的进展。
The campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster. I was removed from my brigade and attached to the Berkshires, with whom I served at the fatal battle of Maiwand. There I was struck on the shoulder by a Jezail bullet, which shattered the bone and grazed the subclavian artery. I should have fallen into the hands of the murderous Ghazis had it not been for the devotion and courage shown by Murray, my orderly, who threw me across a pack-horse, and succeeded in bringing me safely to the British lines.
之后几句话没什么难点，跳过了。华生还没到达军团的时候，阿富汗战役爆发，部队已经过了山隘，抵达战场，但华生和其他落单的战士还是尽快到达并履行自己的职责。
这场战争给太多人带来荣誉与机会，但给华生的却是不幸和灾难，是锁骨大动脉擦过的子弹，是九死一生被忠心的勤务兵救回来的侥幸。
The campaign brought honours and promotion to many, but for me it had nothing but misfortune and disaster.这句话可以作为写作句型。
brigade n.旅(军队) 常见词组fire brigade 消防队
a Jezail bullet 捷则尔是笨重的阿富汗枪(来自译文)
shatter高频词，它不仅可以表示破碎还能用在身体状态的表达上，前两天偶然见到一个句子很生动。And ever since he had been shattered in health.
orderly 做名词表示勤务员，护理工
Worn with pain, and weak from the prolonged hardships which I had undergone, I was removed, with a great train of wounded sufferers, to the base hospital at Peshawar. Here I rallied, and had already improved so far as to be able to walk about the wards, and even to bask a little upon the verandah, when I was struck down by enteric fever, that curse of our Indian possessions. For months my life was despaired of, and when at last I came to myself and became convalescent,I was so weak and emaciated that a medical board determined that not a day should be lost in sending me back to England.
这一段读下来莫名带感，句式太值得品味了，开头的伴随结尾的被动。看来文章写得好语法也要好。
华生来到当地医院本来要好转了，结果又染上了倒霉的伤寒enteric fever，好几个月的昏迷不醒估计把医生也吓到了，当华生恢复神智身体痊愈后火速被送回了伦敦。
rally: When someone or something rallies, they begin to recover or improve after having been weak. 恢复健康，好转
Convalescent means relating to convalescence. 恢复期的; 正在康复的(正式用语)
A person or animal that is emaciated is extremely thin and weak because of illness or lack of food. (因疾病或饥饿而) 消瘦的, 骨瘦如柴的
I had neither kith nor kin in England, and was therefore as free as air — or as free as an income of eleven shillings and sixpence a day will permit a man to be. Under such circumstances, I naturally gravitated to London, that great cesspool into which all the loungers and idlers of the Empire are irresistibly drained.There I stayed for some time at a private hotel in the Strand, leading a comfortless,meaningless existence, and spending such money as I had, considerably more freely than I ought. So alarming did the state of my finances become,that I soon realized that I must either leave the metropolis and rusticate somewhere in the country, or that I must make a complete alteration in my style of living.
这一段读着想笑，华生回到伦敦后，政府还给了九个月假期和津贴，于是他成了风一样自由的男人。只是------有钱又没事又没亲戚又没熟人就掉进了社会这个大染缸，钱不断花着，终于捉襟见肘进入了两难，要么去乡下，要么找一个便宜的住处。这也是与福尔摩斯相遇的起因--合租。
第一句做了笔记摘抄。可以练习写作。
gravitated to /towards受什么吸引
If you gravitate towards a particular place, thing, or activity, you are attracted by it and go to it or get involved in it. 被吸引到; 受吸引而参加
cesspool同cesspit 有点重口，仅贴英文解释
A cesspit is a hole or tank in the ground into which waste water and sewage flow.
lounger与idler同义词，闲逛者，游民懒汉
If you describe something such as a desire or force as irresistible, you mean that it is so powerful that it makes you act in a certain way, and there is nothing you can do to prevent this. 不可抵抗的; 不可抗拒的; 不能压制的
rusticate: to banish or retire to the country 下放农村，退归林下
这一段也侧面写出了伦敦大量涌动的流浪汉和居无定所的人。
On the very day that I had come to this conclusion, I was standing at the Criterion Bar, when some one tapped me on the shoulder, and turning round I recognized young Stamford,who had been a dresser under me at Barts. The sight of a friendly face in the great wilderness of London is a pleasant thing indeed to a lonely man.In old days Stamford had never been a particular crony of mine, but now I hailed him with enthusiasm, and he, in his turn, appeared to be delighted to see me. In the exuberance of my joy, I asked him to lunch with me at the Holborn, and we started off together in a hansom.
华生决定搬到一个不那么花钱的地儿，当他下定决心的那一天，在一个叫做Criterion的酒吧门前遇到了多年未见的熟人，是他曾经的一个助手。虽然两人关系没有熟到特别要好的地步，但异乡见老乡，两眼泪汪汪。并愉快得定下了共进午餐。这一段在听炸叔读自己做的序时很想笑，因为炸叔说到，如果华生没有去皮卡迪利的小酒吧，如果没有遇到熟人斯坦弗那也就没有了福尔摩斯，其实这是因为人物刻画太过出色而让我们混淆了真实与故事的界限。
the very day 强调，就是那天
dresser除了指剧组的服装员，还表示外科手术助手
crony这个词虽然表示密友，其实是略有贬义的词汇，表示花大量时间在一起的狐朋狗友。有点不赞同的意味。
Exuberance is behaviour which is energetic, excited, and cheerful. 热情洋溢; 兴高采烈; 喜气洋洋(不可数)
hansom就是小马车，很常见的文学词汇，与handsome发音相同，注意前者少两个字母。
之后是两人的一段寒暄交谈，不是很难就不全贴了。斯坦弗说哎呀你现在瘦的像块木板条子，脸色黄的像颗坚果干什么去了。You are as thin as a lath and as brown as a nut.(太好玩了)当华生说完他的遭遇以及想找个住处的想法后老友很诧异，因为这是第二个人对他说得类似的话(第一位是主人公福尔摩斯)。因为福尔摩斯是一个怪人，斯坦弗并不认为华生与他能长久，突然想起bbc的剧中女警察略带讽刺的台词Colleague, you have a colleague?
He is a little queer in his ideas — an enthusiast in some branches of science. As far as I know he is a decent fellow enough.No — I have no idea what he intends to go in for. I believe he is well up in anatomy, and he is a first-class chemist; but, as far as I know, he has never taken out any systematic medical classes. His studies are very desultory and eccentric, but he has amassed a lot of out-of-the way knowledge which would astonish his professors.
福尔摩斯在普通人眼中的形象，古怪，对科学热忱，但是正派，精于解剖，一流的药剂师，但是学的东西杂且稀奇古怪。其实福尔摩斯在书中给自己了一个职业consulting detective，探案更多是为了乐趣和正义而不是为了法律，特征之一尤其擅长法医学。
You mustn’t blame me if you don’t get on with him, I know nothing more of him than I have learned from meeting him occasionally in the laboratory. You proposed this arrangement, so you must not hold me responsible.
斯坦弗说福尔摩斯这个人现在一定在实验室，他要么几周不去，要么一呆就是从白天到晚上。吃完饭两人前去实验室，老友又警告华生，是你提议要去看看你的预备室友的，所以处不来可不是我的错。华生倒是无所谓，处不来就散伙，但对老友急急忙忙将自己摘出去很好奇(you have some reason for washing your hands of the matter.)斯坦弗表示无奈，真得不好描述。不过华生到了实验室被一下点出去过阿富汗的时候应该就明白了。
注释来自柯林斯
本来想一口气出完，实在是一章太长，写太多估计看着也累。因为刚开始进行这本书，加上好久没读书，节奏习惯需要慢慢找回来，所以第一章分两节来吧。不过读到这里的时候已经很想接着往下读了，或许这就是侦探小说的魅力吧。
白天不小心睡了会，晚上太清醒整理完继续用罗尔德大爷的好小子催眠入睡。明天争取早起早睡！