与蝶共舞

英语学习杂志 2015-01-22 13:56

分享到

 

 

与蝶共舞
 

Once we arrived home, I called in two of our neighbors as witnesses. Liz said that the butterfly was trying to tell me to stop working late and to “pay attention to what’s really important in life.” Gina pronounced the butterfly a reincarnation8.

I thought that was the end of it. But when I returned home the following day, Muriel exclaimed9, “He’s back!”

She had spotted the insect among the cascading leaves of our cherry tree10. For more than a month, the butterfly—that I now called Poppy—appeared whenever I returned home before dark, making 25 visits altogether, and often landing on me.11Other red admirals quickly joined Poppy in our garden. I had never seen this species before. Now they seemed to be everywhere.

I consulted Bob Robbins, curator12 of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) for the Smithsonian Institution. He suggested that Poppy might have been attracted to my sweat and found that I was a good perch from which to look for female butterflies.13

But Mr. Robbins also found it odd that for more than a month this particular butterfly had visited me almost every evening.

For the next two summers I waited in vain14for more visits. Then on July 4, 2010, during the celebration of my mother-in-law’s birthday, two red admirals appeared in her garden in St. Paul, Minn15. They landed on my shoulders. We took pictures.

After Muriel and I returned home, she spotted another butterfly above our roof. His landings continued well into August.

Then on Aug. 16 last year, a butterfly made the most auspicious16 arrival of all. Two days before our daughter’s wedding in Purchase, N.Y., Muriel told me that two red admirals were hovering17over our parked car.

The day before the wedding, I sat near the car where my wife had seen the butterflies. One red admiral landed in front of me and opened and closed its wings for about 10 minutes.

 

————————

8. reincarnation: 转世,再生。

9. exclaim: 呼喊,惊叫。

10. 她在我们那棵樱桃树纷纷落下的树叶中发现了那只蝴蝶。cascading: 如瀑布般落下的。

11. 在一个多月的时间里,每次夜幕降临我回到家时,这只蝴蝶——现在我叫它波比——总会出现,前后总共造访我家25次,经常落在我身上。

12. curator: 管理人,负责人。

13.他说,波比很可能是受到我身上汗味的吸引,发现那是一处寻觅雌蝴蝶的好地方。perch: 栖息处,栖枝。

14. in vain: 白费地,徒劳地。

15. Minn: “Minnesota”的缩写,美国明尼苏达州。

16. 然后在去年8月16日,一只蝴蝶的到访带来了最为吉利的征兆。auspicious: 吉利的,吉兆的。

17. hover: 盘旋,徘徊。

 

分享到

中国日报网英语点津版权说明:凡注明来源为“中国日报网英语点津:XXX(署名)”的原创作品,除与中国日报网签署英语点津内容授权协议的网站外,其他任何网站或单位未经允许不得非法盗链、转载和使用,违者必究。如需使用,请与010-84883561联系;凡本网注明“来源:XXX(非英语点津)”的作品,均转载自其它媒体,目的在于传播更多信息,其他媒体如需转载,请与稿件来源方联系,如产生任何问题与本网无关;本网所发布的歌曲、电影片段,版权归原作者所有,仅供学习与研究,如果侵权,请提供版权证明,以便尽快删除。

中国日报网双语新闻

扫描左侧二维码

添加Chinadaily_Mobile
你想看的我们这儿都有!

中国日报双语手机报

点击左侧图标查看订阅方式

中国首份双语手机报
学英语看资讯一个都不能少!

关注和订阅

本文相关阅读
人气排行
热搜词
 
精华栏目
 

阅读

词汇

视听

翻译

口语

合作

 

关于我们 | 联系方式 | 招聘信息

Copyright by chinadaily.com.cn. All rights reserved. None of this material may be used for any commercial or public use. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. 版权声明:本网站所刊登的中国日报网英语点津内容,版权属中国日报网所有,未经协议授权,禁止下载使用。 欢迎愿意与本网站合作的单位或个人与我们联系。

电话:8610-84883645

传真:8610-84883500

Email: languagetips@chinadaily.com.cn