9 A Dog’s Tale, by Mark Twain

CHAPTER 9 A Dog's Tale, by Mark Twain My father was a St. Bernard dog. My mother was a collie. I'm a Presbyterian. This is what my mother told me. I'm not quite sure what big words like that mean. But my mother liked to say them. She liked to see the looks of surprise and envy on the other dogs' faces. They wondered how she got so smart. But it was only for show. Mother liked to listen in on people conversations whenever our people had company. Mother also went to Sunday

第九章狗的故事马克·吐温我父亲是个圣徒。 伯纳德狗。我妈妈是一只柯利牧羊犬。 我是长老会教徒。这是我妈妈告诉我的。 我不太清楚这样的大词是什么意思。 但我妈妈喜欢说这些话。 她喜欢看到其他狗脸上惊讶和嫉妒的表情。 他们想知道她是怎么变得这么聪明的。 但这只是做做样子。每当我们家有客人时，母亲喜欢偷听别人的谈话。 妈妈也去了星期天

school with the children, and she learned a lot of big words there. She would repeat words to herself, over and over. She would carry them around in her head like precious jewels. Then, when there was a big dog gathering, she would surprise everyone with a new big word. The dogs who knew her were proud of her vocabulary. The ones who didn't know her were always surprised by her big words. It made them feel small and embarrassed that they didn't understand what she said. When they asked her what the big words meant, she always had an answer.

和孩子们一起上学，她在那里学到了很多大词。 她会一遍又一遍地对自己重复这些单词。 她会把它们像珍贵的珠宝一样装在脑子里。 然后，当一群大狗聚集在一起时，她会用一个新的大词让大家大吃一惊。 认识她的狗都为她的词汇量感到骄傲。 那些不认识她的人总是对她的大话感到惊讶。 这让他们觉得自己很渺小，也很尴尬，因为他们听不懂她说的话。 当他们问她这些大字是什么意思时，她总是有答案。

The other dogs were so impressed with Mother's education, they never doubted what she told them. Perhaps it was because she spoke as though she were reading from the dictionary. Perhaps it was because they had no way of checking whether she was right or wrong. After all, she was the only educated dog they knew. I believed her, too. That was, until the week when she used the word "unintellectual" at eight different dog

其他的狗对妈妈的教育印象深刻，从不怀疑她所说的话。 也许是因为她说起话来就像在从字典里读一样。 也许是因为他们没有办法检查她是对还是错。 毕竟，她是他们认识的唯一受过教育的狗。 我也相信了她。直到那个星期，她用“不聪明”这个词来形容八只不同的狗

gatherings. When asked what it meant, she gave eight different answers. I said nothing, of course. But it did make me doubt how educated Mother really was. There was one word she always used, like a life preserver. It was kind of an emergency word, for times when conversations took a turn for the terrible or someone dared to doubt her. Mother's emergency word was "synonymous." She could always count on this word to catch a new dog off guard and make him speechless. For example, if some curious dog asked Mother what something meant and she didn't want to tell him exactly, she would instead reply, "It's synonymous with supererogation." I don't know what it means, either. After speaking some long word like that, Mother would go about her business, dropping big words here and there. Then the curious dog would slink off, embarrassed,

聚会。当被问及这是什么意思时，她给出了八个不同的答案。 当然，我什么也没说。 但这确实使我怀疑母亲究竟受过多少教育。 她总是用一个词，就像救生圈。 这是一个紧急的词，当谈话变得可怕或有人敢于怀疑她的时候。 母亲的紧急措词是“同义”。 她总能指望这个词让新来的狗猝不及防，说不出话来。 例如，如果有一只好奇的狗问妈妈某件事是什么意思，而妈妈又不想确切地告诉它，她就会回答：“这是supersuperogation的同义词。” 我也不知道这是什么意思。 在说了一些像那样长的单词之后，母亲就会去做她自己的事情，在这里和那里说一些大词。 然后好奇的狗会尴尬地溜走，

while Mother's crowd of admirers would wag their tails and grin with joy. It was the same with phrases. Mother would drag home a whole phrase. If it had a grand sound, she would use it every day for six days, sometimes twice on Sundays. She would give it a different meaning every time she used it. Mother never cared about the true meanings of phrases. It just amused her to use them and have the other dogs ask her to explain. Mother went so far as to recount whole stories and jokes that she learned from people. The only problem was that Mother never got the whole thing quite right. As she told the story or joke, she would leave things out. The story never quite fit together. At the end of it, she would roll on the floor with laughter even if she couldn't remember why it was so funny. The other dogs would imitate her and roll on the floor with

而母亲的一群崇拜者则摇着尾巴，高兴地笑着。 短语也是如此。 母亲会把一整句话带回家。 如果它发出响亮的声音，她就会连续六天每天都用它，有时星期天用两次。 她每次用这个词都会赋予它不同的含义。 母亲从不关心词句的真正含义。 她只是觉得使用它们很有趣，然后让其他狗问她怎么解释。 母亲甚至把从别人那里学来的故事和笑话都讲了一遍。 唯一的问题是，母亲从来没有把整件事搞对。 当她讲故事或笑话时，她会省略一些东西。 这个故事从来都不太连贯。 最后，她会笑得在地板上打滚，即使她不记得为什么这么好笑。 其他的狗也会模仿她在地板上打滚

laughter, too. But they were secretly ashamed of themselves for not understanding the joke or story. Little did they know that the fault was not with them but with Mother's bad storytelling. You can probably see by now that Mother was a bit proud and silly. She had her good points, though. She had a kind heart and gentle ways. She never held a grudge and forgave everyone easily. She taught her children to be kind. We also learned from her to be brave and quick. She showed us how to face danger, not only danger to us but also to friends and family. As you can see, there was more to Mother than just her education. My time with Mother, however, was not long enough. When I grew up, I was sold and moved away from her. She was brokenhearted. So was I. We cried and cried. She tried to comfort me as best she could.

笑声。但他们暗自为自己没有理解这个笑话或故事而感到羞愧。 他们一点也不知道，错不在他们，而在母亲讲故事的方式上。 现在你大概可以看出，母亲有点骄傲和愚蠢。 不过，她也有她的优点。 她心地善良，举止文雅。 她从不记仇，很容易原谅每个人。 她教导她的孩子要善良。 我们也从她身上学会了勇敢和敏捷。 她教我们如何面对危险，不仅是对我们的危险，而且对朋友和家人的危险。 正如你所看到的，母亲不仅仅是受教育。 然而，我和母亲在一起的时间不够长。 长大后，我被卖了，离开了她。 她心碎了。我也是。 我们哭了又哭。她尽力安慰我。