“Will, where are you?” Ser Waymar called up. “Can you see anything?” He was turning in a slow circle, suddenly wary, his sword in hand. He must have felt them, as Will felt them. There was nothing to see. “Answer me! Why is it so cold?”
 “威尔,你在哪里?”威玛爵士朝上方喊,“你看到什么了吗?”他突然提高警觉,手中持剑缓缓转圈。他一定也和威尔一样感觉到了。然而四周却空无一人。“快回答我!这里为什么这么冷?”

wary, 由于预知可能有危险或者会受到伤害,而提高警惕,小心翼翼,谨慎。相当于careful, 不过careful 的含义则指避免犯错。

must have felt 这里是must have done,用情态动词表示对过去的肯定推测。特别需要注意的是情态动词跟动词的原形。

It was cold. Shivering, Will clung more tightly to his perch. His face pressed hard against the trunk of the sentinel. He could feel the sweet, sticky sap on his cheek.
这里真的非常冷。威尔颤抖着抱紧树干,面颊贴住哨兵树的树皮。黏稠而甜腻的树汁流到他脸上。

Shivering, shiver, 因寒冷或者恐惧而哆嗦、颤抖, to shake slightly because of cold or frightened. 这里用的是现在分词作伴随状语,表示状态是同时伴随的而且是主语主动发生的(如果是承受动作的,则使用过去分词)。

clung, 是cling的过去式和过去分词,cling 指紧紧地抓住或者抱住,尤其是当感到不安时。to hold someone or something tightly. 不过cling的本意还是指粘着,黏着,缠绕的含义。

一个黏人的女友,就可以说是a clinging girlfriend

而湿身就可以说成wet cloth cling to sb’s body

perch, 高处的树枝。

A shadow emerged from the dark of the wood. It stood in front of Royce. Tall,it was, and gaunt and hard as old bones, with flesh pale as milk. Its armor seemed to change color as it moved; here it was white as new-fallen snow, there black as shadow, everywhere dappled with the deep grey-green of the trees. The patterns ran like moonlight on water with every step it took.
一道阴影突然自树林暗处冒出,站到罗伊斯面前。它的体型十分高大,憔悴坚毅浑似枯骨,肤色苍白如同乳汁。它的盔甲似乎会随着移动而改变颜色,一会儿白如新雪,一会儿黑如暗影,处处点缀着森林的深奥灰绿。它每走一步,其上的图案便似水面上的粼粼月光般不断改变。

emerged,emerge浮现,出现,相当于appear 和come out。

太阳从云层后显露出来就可以说,The sun emerges from the clouds.

也可以说是真相大白于天下, Eventually the truth emerged.

it was,这里是插入语,对tall 的一种肯定,成了一种强调。

gaunt, 非常消瘦而且显得苍白,和drawn是同义词。(someone who has a thin pale face, because of illness or continued worry)。

armor,铠甲,这里是美式的拼写方式,英式的拼写是armour,后边的color(美)-colour(英)也是这样的。一般美式会将英式拼写中不发音的u 去掉。还有如honour(英)-honor(美), favourite(英)-favorite(美), behaviour(英)-behavior(美), flavour(英)-flavor(美), labour(英)-labor(美)。

seemed to changeseem又被称为半情态动词,它的用法比较灵活,其实只要归类一下就很好掌握了。

(1)seem作为实意动词

①后边跟动词不定式, seem 和不定式一起作复合谓语,正如本句所使用的。

②seem 后跟that 引导的主语从句,这里的it 是形式上的主语,它替代了后边一整句话,这样就不会头重脚轻了。

e.g.: It seems that no one knows what has happened. à正常语序[That no one knows what has happened] seems.

(2)seem作为系动词

①作用和be 一样,也可以加上不定式to be

Tom seems a clever boy. = Tom seems to be a clever boy.

②如同there be 的用法, seem 的作用和be 一样,同样可以加上不定式to be

There seems no need to wait longer. = There seems to be no need to wait longer.

(3)要强调的是seem 的否定形式既可以使用助动词,将not 提前; 也可以直接在seem 后边加not。

e.g.: The boss seems not to like the idea. = The boss doesn’t seem to like the idea. 看来老板不喜欢这个主意啊。

here …, there …想当于汉语里的这边…, 那边 …。描写手法是一样。 句子原本可以说It was white here, and it was black there. 而把here … there 提前,则更加强调了地点的转换。英语一般是重要的词句放在前边。

dappled斑驳,这词有点文邹邹的,是指有颜色的点状。这里是指光影的变化。

就如同这个小水塘所呈现出的样子, a dappled pool

需要注意的是dapple 这里是动词,指使得某物斑驳(mark something with spots of color)。 在原文中是动词的过去式表过去时。而a dappled pool 则是动词的过去分词作形容词的用法。

patterns, 图案,花式式样。

with every step it took,这里虽然只有5个词,但是却有嵌套的语法现象。第一层是一个介宾短语with every step, with (介词+)step (名词)。第二层step 是我们要修饰的中心词, 后边的本身是一个从句,it took every step, 其中every step用that/which 来替代、提前就变成了every step (which /that) it took, 而由于替代部分在从句里作宾语所以还可以省略,就变成了with every step it took.

【阿天提示】语法处处在,语法可以帮助我们说正确而且简洁又好的句子,并不是负担。

声明:本文系阿天授权沪江英语独家发布,严禁转载。中文翻译选自重庆出版社屈畅的版本,讲解为阿天原创作品。

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