13 A drive in the motor-car

A drive in the motor-car Somehow or other I got through the first term at St Peter's, and towards the end of December my mother came over on the paddle-boat to take me and my trunk home for the Christmas holidays.

不知怎么的，我在圣彼得学校念完了第一学期。快到十二月底的时候，母亲乘划艇来接我和我的箱子回家过圣诞节。

Oh the bliss and the wonder of being with the family once again after all those weeks of fierce discipline! Unless you have been to boarding– school when you are very young, it is absolutely impossible to appreciate the delights of living at home. It is almost worth going away because it's so lovely coming back. I could hardly believe that I didn't have to wash in cold water in the mornings or keep silent in the corridors, or say 'Sir' to every grown-up man I met, or use a chamber-pot in the bedroom, or get flicked with wet towels while naked in the changing-room, or eat porridge for breakfast that seemed to be full of little round lumpy grey sheep's-droppings, or walk all day long in perpetual fear of the long yellow cane that lay on top of the corner-cupboard in the Headmaster's study. The weather was exceptionally mild that Christmas holiday and one amazing morning our whole family got ready to go for our first drive in the first motor-car we had ever

啊，经过几个星期严厉的管教，又和家人在一起是多么幸福和奇妙啊!除非你在很小的时候上过寄宿学校，否则绝对不可能体会到住在家里的乐趣。 它几乎是值得离开的，因为它是如此可爱的回来。 我几乎不能相信我没有在早晨用冷水洗或在走廊里保持沉默,或说“先生”每个成熟男人我遇到,或者使用夜壶在卧室里,或者用湿毛巾挥动裸体在更衣室的时候,早饭吃粥,似乎充满了小圆块状灰羊下,或者整天走在永恒的恐惧长的黄色的甘蔗,躺在碗橱里往外拿茶具在校长的研究。 那个圣诞假期的天气异常温和，在一个美妙的早晨，我们全家准备开着我们有生以来的第一辆汽车去兜风

owned. This new motor-car was an enormous long black French automobile called a De Dion-Bouton which had a canvas roof that folded back. The driver was to be that twelve-years-older-than-me half-sister (now aged twenty-one) who had recently had her appendix removed. She had received two full half-hour lessons in driving from the man who delivered the car, and in that enlightened year of 1925 this was considered quite sufficient. Nobody had to take a driving-test. You were your own judge of competence, and as soon as you felt you were ready to go, off you jolly well went.

所有。这辆新汽车是一辆又大又长的黑色法国汽车，名叫德·狄翁-溥顿，车顶是帆布的，可以向后折叠。 司机是那个比我大12岁的同父异母的妹妹(现在21岁)，她最近切除了阑尾。 她从送车的人那里学了整整两堂半小时的驾驶课，在开明的1925年，这被认为是足够了。 没有人需要参加驾驶考试。 你对自己的能力有自己的判断，只要你觉得自己准备好了，你就高高兴兴地出发了。

As we all climbed into the car, our excitement was so intense we could hardly bear it. 'How fast will it go?' we cried out. 'Will it do fifty miles an hour?' 'It'll do sixty!' the ancient sister answered. Her tone was so confident and cocky it should have scared us to death, but it didn't. 'Oh, let's make it do sixty!' we shouted. 'Will you promise to take us up to sixty?' 'We shall probably go faster than that,' the sister announced, pulling on her driving-gloves and tying a scarf over her head in the approved driving-fashion of the period. The canvas hood had been folded back because of the mild weather, converting the car into a magnificent open tourer. Up front, there were three bodies in all, the driver behind the wheel, my half-brother (aged eighteen) and one of my sisters (aged twelve). In the back seat there were four more of us, my mother (aged forty), two small sisters (aged eight and five) and myself (aged nine). Our machine possessed one very special feature which I don't think you see on the cars of

当我们都爬进车里时，我们兴奋得几乎无法忍受。 “它能跑多快?”我们喊道。 “时速能达到五十英里吗?”“它能跑六十英里!”年老的姐姐回答。 她的语气是如此的自信和自大，应该会把我们吓死，但它没有。 “哦，让我们把它定在六十英里吧!”我们喊道。 “你能答应给我们加到六十镑吗?”“我们可能会走得更快，”妹妹宣布，一边戴上驾驶手套，按照当时公认的驾驶方式在头上系上一条围巾。 由于天气温和，帆布引擎盖被折叠起来，使这辆车变成了一辆华丽的敞篷旅行车。 前面一共有三具尸体，司机，我同父异母的弟弟(18岁)和我的一个妹妹(12岁)。 后座上还有我们四个人，我母亲(四十岁)，两个小妹妹(一个八岁，一个五岁)和我(九岁)。 我们的机器有一个非常特别的特点，我想你在汽车上看不到

today. This was a second windscreen in the back solely to keep the breeze off the faces of the backseat passengers when the hood was down. It had a long centre section and two little end sections that could be angled backwards to deflect the wind. We were all quivering with fear and joy as the driver let out the clutch and the great long black automobile leaned forward and stole into motion. 'Are you sure you know how to do it?' we shouted. 'Do you know where the brakes are?' 'Be quiet!' snapped the ancient sister. 'I've got to concentrate!' Down the drive we went and out into the village of Llandaff itself. Fortunately there were very few vehicles on the roads in those days. Occasionally you met a small truck or a deliveryvan and now and again a private car, but the danger of colliding with anything else was fairly remote so long as you kept the car on the road. The splendid black tourer crept slowly through the village with the driver pressing the rubber bulb of the horn every time we passed a human being, whether it was the butcher-boy on his bicycle or

今天。这是后面的第二个挡风玻璃，仅仅是为了在引擎盖放下时防止微风吹到后座乘客的脸上。 它有一个长长的中心部分和两个小的末端部分，可以向后倾斜以偏转风。 当司机松开离合器，那辆又长又大的黑色汽车向前倾，悄悄地开动起来时，我们都又害怕又高兴地颤抖着。 “你确定你知道怎么做吗?”我们喊道。 “你知道刹车在哪儿吗?”“安静!”年老的姐姐厉声说。 “我得集中精神!”我们沿着车道走下去，来到了兰达夫村。 幸运的是，那时候路上的车辆很少。 你偶尔会遇到一辆小卡车或一辆送货车，偶尔也会遇到一辆私家车，但只要你把车开在路上，与其他东西相撞的危险就相当遥远。 这辆漂亮的黑色旅游车慢慢地穿过村庄，每当我们经过一个人的时候，司机就按一下橡胶灯泡的喇叭，不管那个人是骑自行车的屠夫还是屠夫

just a pedestrian strolling on the pavement. Soon we were entering a countryside of green fields and high hedges with not a soul in sight. 'You didn't think I could do it, did you?' cried the ancient sister, turning round and grinning at us all. 'Now you keep your eyes on the road,' my mother said nervously. 'Go faster!' we shouted. 'Go on! Make her go faster! Put your foot down! We're only doing fifteen miles an hour!' Spurred on by our shouts and taunts, the ancient sister began to increase the speed. The engine roared and the body vibrated. The driver was clutching the steering-wheel as though it were the hair of a drowning man, and we all watched the speedometer needle creeping up to twenty, then twenty-five, then thirty. We were probably doing about thirty-five miles an hour when we came suddenly to a sharpish bend in the road. The ancient sister, never having been faced with a situation like this before, shouted 'Help!' and slammed on the brakes and swung the wheel

只是一个在人行道上漫步的行人。 不久，我们就进入了一片绿油油的田野和高高的树篱，看不到一个人影。 “你认为我做不到，是吗?”年老的姐姐喊道，转过身来，对我们大家咧嘴一笑。 “现在你把眼睛盯着路，”我母亲紧张地说。 “更快!我们喊道。“继续!”让她开快点!坚决反对!我们每小时才开15英里!”在我们的叫喊和嘲弄的刺激下，这位年长的姐姐开始加快速度。 发动机轰鸣，车身震动。 司机紧紧抓着方向盘，就像抓着快要淹死的人的头发一样。我们都看着速度计的指针慢慢地升到20英里，然后是25英里，然后是30英里。 我们大概以每小时35英里的速度行驶，突然来到一个急转弯处。 老姐姐从来没有遇到过这样的情况，她大声喊道:“救命!然后猛踩刹车，转动方向盘