夏季呀夏季，永恒不变的生活方式，湖水永远不褪色，树木永远不可摧毁，草地上总是长满了香蕨和杜松。夏日的时光永无尽头，这些都是背景，而湖滨沿岸的生活就是其中美妙的图案。村子里的农民们过着恬静的生活；他们小小的码头上立着旗杆，美国国旗在镶嵌着白云的蓝天里飘扬，每棵树下都有一条小径通向一座座木屋，木屋处又有小径通往厕所和洒水用的石灰罐；商店里纪念品的柜台上，摆放着用桦树皮制作的独木船的模型，而明信片上的景物也比眼前的真实景物美丽多了。在这里，美国人逃避了城市的酷热喧闹，到这个地方游玩。他们不知道那些新来的住在海湾尽头的居民是“普通老百姓”还是“贵族”，也不知道那些星期天驱车前来农舍吃饭的人，是不是被分量不足的鸡肉打发走了。
我不停地回忆这一切，感觉那些日子和那些夏日时光的回忆对我而言都是珍贵无比、值得永远珍藏的。那里有快乐，有宁静，还有所有美好的事情。能够在8月初就到达那里，这本身就是最重要的：农场的货车停在火车站外，这时又第一回闻到松木散发出的清香，第一回见到农民笑容满面的脸庞，宽大的旅行箱气派极了，而父亲在指挥这些事情时显出绝对的权威性；你坐在货车上，享受它拉着你走上10英里的感觉，当到达最后一座小山顶时，一眼就能看见那阔别了11个月之久的、无比宝贵的一片湖水；其他游客为你的到来大声欢呼。然后打开大旅行箱，卸下里面准备齐全的物品。（如今再到这里来，已经找不到昔日激动人心的场面了。你所需要做的只是静静地把车开过来，停在木屋旁的树底下，取出行李袋，把一切东西在5分钟内收拾完毕，不会有大声的喧闹，也不会忙着喊着搬行李了。）
这里宁静、美好、快乐，唯一不足的地方是有噪音，也就是舷外马达发出的让人感觉陌生又紧张的声音。这是一个很不和谐的音符，它会经常打断人们的想象，让时光流逝。在以往的夏天，全部的马达都装在舷内，当它们行驶在稍微远一点儿的地方时，发出的声音能像镇静剂那样，在夏季里催人入睡。这些发动机都是单汽缸或者双汽缸的，无论是通断开关启动，还是跳搭接触点火，它们在从水面上发出的声音都能让人昏昏欲睡。单汽缸发出的振动声噗噗作响，而双汽缸则呜呜地低鸣，这些声音都很小。但是，现在所有的游客使用的都是舷外马达，在白天酷热的上午发出一种烦躁的让人讨厌的声音；而到了晚上，夕阳的余晖铺洒在水面上，它们又像蚊子似的哼个不停。我儿子很喜欢我们租来的带舷外马达的游艇，而他最大的愿望就是自个儿操纵它，这让他觉得很有权威性。
很快，他就学会稍微控制住它一点儿（不是很多），而且掌握了如何调整针形阀。看着他，我不由得想到过去的时候，人们怎样用笨重的调速轮操纵单汽缸发动机，如果你真正用心去做，很快就能控制住它。以前的机动船没有离合器，必须在准确的时间里关掉发动机才能登陆，然后用已经熄火的舵把船停靠在岸边。不过，如果你掌握了窍门，可以先关掉开关，在调速轮就要停转的那一刻重新把开关打开，船就会对压缩产生反冲力，接着又向回行驶。如果在靠近码头时正好吹过来一阵强风，用普通的方法很难把船速降到必需的程度。一个男孩如果觉得自己已经掌握了控制马达的技巧，他将会按捺不住地要把船开过码头，然后把它退到离码头几英尺远的地方。这样做需要头脑冷静沉着，因为哪怕你只提前了1/20秒就把开关打开了，它就会以足够快的速度穿越中线，船就会猛然向前一跃，像公牛一样冲向码头。
心灵小语
宁静以致远！深邃的湖水总是有股魔力，让繁华中忙碌的我们静下心来。享受这分宁静，远离尘世的喧嚣，感觉比在天堂还要美好！
记忆填空
1. A few weeks ago this feeling got so__ I bought myself a couple of bass hooks and a spinner and returned to the__ where we used to go， for a week’s__ and to revisit old haunts.
2. It is strange how__ you can remember about places like that once you allow your mind to return into the grooves which lead back， you remember one__ ， and that suddenly reminds you of another thing.
3. The__ thing that was wrong now， really， was the__ of the place， an unfamiliar nervous sound of the outboard motors.
佳句翻译
1. 岁月就像海市蜃楼一样，似乎从来没有存在过。
译__________________
2. 我不停地回忆这一切，感觉那些日子和那些夏日时光的回忆对我而言都是无比珍贵、值得永远珍藏的。
译__________________
短语应用
1. But outside of that the vacation was a success and from then on none of us ever thought there was any place in the world like that lake in Maine.
from then on：从那时起
造__________________
2. The shouts and cries of the other campers when they saw you， and the trunks to be unpacked， to give up their rich burden.
give up：放弃，投降
造__________________
黄金国
El Dorado
罗伯特·路易斯·史蒂文森 / Robert Louis Stevenson
罗伯特·路易斯·史蒂文森(1850—1894)，英国新浪漫主义小说家兼小品文作家，生于爱丁堡，毕业于爱丁堡大学法律系，但他最大的志向是在文学方面。他的第一部散文著作《内陆航行》于1878年出版。他一生被肺病困扰，周游各地养病，其间发表了大量短篇小说和游记。
It seems as if a great deal were attainable in a world where there are so many marriages and decisive battles， and where we all， at certain hours of the day， and with great gusto and dispatch， stow a portion of victuals finally and irretrievably into the bag which contains us. And it would seem also， on a hasty view， that the attainment of as much as possible was the one goal of man’ s contentious life. And yet， as regards the spirit， this is but a semblance. We live in an ascending scale when we live happily， one thing leading to another in an endless series. There is always a new horizon for onward-looking men， and although we dwell on a small planet， immersed in petty business and not enduring beyond a brief period of years， we are so constituted that our hopes are inaccessible， like stars， and the term of hoping is prolonged until the term of life. To be truly happy is a question of how we begin and not of how we end， of what we want and not of what we have. An aspiration is a joy forever， a possession as solid as a landed estate， a fortune which we can never exhaust and which gives us year by year a revenue of pleasurable activity. To have many of these is to be spiritually rich. To those who have neither art nor science， the world is a mere arrangement of colors， or a rough footway where they may very well break their shins. It is in virtue of his own desires and curiosities that any man continues to exist with even patience， that he is charmed by the look of things and people， and that he wakens every morning with a renewed appetite for work and pleasure. Desire and curiosity are the two eyes through which he sees the world in the most enchanted colors： it is they that make women beautiful or fossils interesting： and the man may squander his estate and come to beggary， but if he keeps these two amulets he is still rich in the possibilities of pleasure. Suppose he could take one meal so compact and comprehensive that he should never hunger any more； suppose him， at a glance， to take in all the features of the world and allay the desire for knowledge； suppose him to do the like in any province of experience—would not that man be in a poor way for amusement ever after？