劍橋雅思17Test1Passage3閱讀原文翻譯To catch a king抓捕國王

劍橋雅思17 Test1 Passage3閱讀原文翻譯

第1段

Charles Spencer’s latest book,To Catch a King,tells us the story of the hunt for King Charles II in the six weeks after his resounding defeat at the Battle of Worcester in September 1651.And what a story it is.After his father was executed by the Parliamentarians in 1649,the young Charles II sacrificed one of the very principles his father had died for and did a deal with the Scots,thereby accepting Presbyterianism*as the national religion in return for being crowned King of Scots.His arrival in Edinburgh prompted the English Parliamentary army to invade Scotland in a pre-emptive strike.This was followed by a Scottish invasion of England.The two sides finally faced one another at Worcester in the west of England in 1651.After being comprehensively defeated on the meadows outside the city by the Parliamentarian army,the 21-year-old king found himself the subject of a national manhunt,with a huge sum offered for his capture.Over the following six weeks he managed,through a series of heart-poundingly close escapes,to evade the Parliamentarians before seeking refuge in France.For the next nine years,the penniless and defeated Charles wandered around Europe with only a small group of loyal supporters.

Charles Spencer最近完成的一本書，《抓捕國王》，向我們講述了1651年9月在查爾斯二世于伍斯特戰(zhàn)役中大敗之后抓捕他的故事。這是個精彩非凡的故事。在其父親于1649年被國會議員處決之后，年輕的查爾斯二世放棄了他父親為之而死的原則之一，與蘇格蘭人達成協(xié)議，從此接受“長老派”為英國國教，以換取自己加冕為蘇格蘭國王。他駕臨愛丁堡的舉動促使英國議會軍隊采取先發(fā)制人的策略，入侵蘇格蘭。隨后，蘇格蘭也對英格蘭發(fā)起了進攻。1651年，雙方最終在英格蘭西部的伍斯特相遇。在城外的草原上被議會軍隊徹底擊敗之后，年僅21歲的國王發(fā)現(xiàn)他成為全國上下追捕的目標。抓住他的人將獲巨額賞金。在接下來的六周里，他經(jīng)歷了一系列驚心動魄的死里逃生，最終擺脫議會軍隊，前往法國尋求庇護。隨后的九年里，身無分文、丟盔卸甲的查爾斯在一小撮忠實支持者的陪伴下，流亡歐洲各地。

第2段

Years later,after his restoration as king,the 50-year-old Charles II requested a meeting with the writer and diarist Samuel Pepys.His intention when asking Pepys to commit his story to paper was to ensure that this most extraordinary episode was never forgotten.Over two three-hour sittings,the king related to him in great detail his personal recollections of the six weeks he had spent as a fugitive.As the king and secretary settled down(a scene that is surely a gift for a future scriptwriter),Charles commenced his story:‘After the battle was so absolutely lost as to be beyond hope of recovery,I began to think of the best way of saving myself.’

多年之后，已重歸王位的五十歲的查爾斯要求與作家和日記作者Samuel Pepys會面。他請求Pepys將其故事付諸紙面，以確保這段非同尋常的人生插曲永遠都不會被忘記。在兩三個小時的會晤中，國王向他詳細講述了自己在六周的時間里作為逃犯的回憶。在國王和記錄員坐下之后（未來的劇作家一定會將這一幕視為珍寶），查爾斯開始了他的故事：“戰(zhàn)斗徹底失敗，毫無任何卷土重來的可能，我開始思考拯救自己的最佳方式”，

第3段

One of the joys of Spencer’s book,a result not least of its use of Charles II’s own narrative as well as those of his supporters,is just how close the reader gets to the action.The day-by-day retelling of the fugitives’doings provides delicious details:the cutting of the king’s long hair with agricultural shears,the use of walnut leaves to dye his pale skin,and the day Charles spent lying on a branch of the great oak tree in Boscobel Wood as the Parliamentary soldiers scoured the forest floor below.Spencer draws out both the humour–such as the preposterous refusal of Charles’s friend Henry Wilmot to adopt disguise on the grounds that it was beneath his dignity–and the emotional tension when the secret of the king’s presence was cautiously revealed to his supporters.

閱讀Spencer作品的樂趣之一就在于讀者能夠無限接近當時的情景，尤其是在使用查爾斯二世自己和其支持者的口吻之后。對逃亡者每日舉動的復述提供了寶貴的細節(jié)。例如，用農(nóng)家羊毛剪剪去了國王的長發(fā)，用核桃樹的樹葉對其蒼白的皮膚進行染色，以及當議會士兵在Boscobel樹林里四處搜索的時候，查爾斯就躺在上面一顆大橡樹的枝杈上。Spencer不但描繪出了幽默感–比如查爾斯的朋友Henry Wilmot荒謬地拒絕在地上進行偽裝，因為這有損其尊嚴–而且還寫出了當國王藏身之處的秘密被小心翼翼地透露給其支持者時的緊張情緒。

第4段

Charles’s adventures after losing the Battle of Worcester hide the uncomfortable truth that whilst almost everyone in England had been appalled by the execution of his father,they had not welcomed the arrival of his son with the Scots army,but had instead firmly bolted their doors.This was partly because he rode at the head of what looked like a foreign invasion force and partly because,after almost a decade of civil war,people were desperate to avoid it beginning again.This makes it all the more interesting that Charles II himself loved the story so much ever after.As well as retelling it to anyone who would listen,causing eye-rolling among courtiers,he set in train a series of initiatives to memorialise it.There was to be a new order of chivalry,the Knights of the Royal Oak.A series of enormous oil paintings depicting the episode were produced,including a two-metre-wide canvas of Boscobel Wood and a set of six similarly enormous paintings of the king on the run.In 1660,Charles II commissioned the artist John Michael Wright to paint a flying squadron of cherubs carrying an oak tree to the heavens on the ceiling of his bedchamber.It is hard to imagine many other kings marking the lowest point in their life so enthusiastically,or indeed pulling off such an escape in the first place.

查爾斯在伍斯特戰(zhàn)役失敗之后的冒險掩蓋了令人不快的事實，雖然每個英格蘭人都為其父親的處決感到震驚，但他們并不歡迎他的兒子帶著蘇格蘭軍隊的到來，反而牢牢鎖住了自家大門。這部分是由于他率領(lǐng)著一支看起來像外國入侵者的武裝力量，另一部分原因則在于，在將近十年的內(nèi)戰(zhàn)之后，人們迫切想要避免重啟戰(zhàn)爭。查爾斯二世在此之后如此喜歡這段經(jīng)歷就更加耐人尋味。除了向任何愿意傾聽的人復述之外（這引發(fā)朝臣的不快），他還啟動了一系列的舉措來紀念它。他建立了一支新的、名為皇家橡樹的騎士團。一系列描述這一經(jīng)歷的巨幅油畫被創(chuàng)作出來。其中包括一幅以Boscobel樹林為主題的、兩米寬的畫作，以及一套六幅類似尺寸的展現(xiàn)在逃國王的大幅繪畫。1660年，查爾斯二世命令藝術(shù)家John Michael Wright在自己臥室的天花板上創(chuàng)作了這樣一幅畫：一隊小天使扛著橡樹飛向天堂。很難想象其他國王會如此熱衷于紀念自己人生的最低點，或者首先就不會有很多國王能夠完成這樣一場逃亡。

第5段

Charles Spencer is the perfect person to pass the story on to a new generation.His pacey,readable prose steers deftly clear of modern idioms and elegantly brings to life the details of the great tale.He has even-handed sympathy for both the fugitive king and the fierce republican regime that hunted him,and he succeeds in his desire to explore far more of the background of the story than previous books on the subject have done.Indeed,the opening third of the book is about how Charles II found himself at Worcester in the first place,which for some will be reason alone to read To Catch a King.

Charles Spencer是將這一故事傳遞給下一代的絕佳人選。他筆下節(jié)奏緊湊，頗為可讀的散文熟練地避開了現(xiàn)代習語，優(yōu)雅地為這一傳奇故事的細節(jié)賦予了鮮活的生命。他對逃亡的國王和追捕他的兇猛的共和派政權(quán)給予了一視同仁的共情。他也成功實現(xiàn)了自己的愿望，相比于之前同一主題的圖書而言，更進一步探索故事的背景。確實，書的前三分之一用于描述查爾斯二世如何一路走到了伍斯特。對于一些人來說，單單這一點就足以成為他們閱讀《抓捕國王》的原因。

第6段

The tantalising question left,in the end,is that of what it all meant.Would Charles II have been a different king had these six weeks never happened?The days and nights spent in hiding must have affected him in some way.Did the need to assume disguises,to survive on wit and charm alone,to use trickery and subterfuge to escape from tight corners help form him?This is the one area where the book doesn’t quite hit the mark.Instead its depiction of Charles II in his final years as an ineffective,pleasure-loving monarch doesn’t do justice to the man(neither is it accurate),or to the complexity of his character.But this one niggle aside,To Catch a King is an excellent read,and those who come to it knowing little of the famous tale will find they have a treat in store.

最終只剩下了這樣一個撩人心弦的問題，這一切到底是為了什么。如果這六周的故事從來都沒有發(fā)生過的話，查爾斯二世會是一個不一樣的國王嗎？那些東躲西藏的日日夜夜一定以某種形式影響了他。需要披上偽裝，只能依靠智慧和魅力生存下去，利用詭計和權(quán)謀來死里逃生的經(jīng)歷是否幫助塑造了他？本書恰恰在這一領(lǐng)域未能一語中的。相反，它對查爾斯二世晚年無所作為，熱衷享樂的描述并不公正（也不準確），也沒能真實地反映出其性格的復雜性。但瑕不掩瑜，《抓捕國王》是本精彩的讀物。那些對這段著名的故事知之甚少的人們在商店里打開它時，會發(fā)現(xiàn)自己即將享受一場閱讀盛宴。

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