---
url: https://gaojian.site/new-concept/book-3/57-back-in-the-old-country.md
description: 新概念英语第三册：Back in the old country。精读、词块回忆、双向译练、句法、逻辑与FSRS复习。
---

# 重返故里

## 课文学习台 {#study}

### 第1段

I stopped to let the car cool off and to study the map. I had expected to be near my objective by now, but everything still seemed alien to me. I was only five when my father had taken me abroad, and that was eighteen years ago. When my mother had died after a tragic accident, he did not quickly recover from the shock and loneliness. Everything around him was full of her presence, continually reopening the wound. So he decided to emigrate. In the new country he became absorbed in making a new life for the two of us, so that he gradually ceased to grieve. He did not marry again and I was brought up without a woman's care; but I lacked for nothing, for he was both father and mother to me. He always meant to go back one day, but not to stay. His roots and mine had become too firmly embedded in the new land. But he wanted to see the old folk again and to visit my mother's grave. He became mortally ill a few months before we had planned to go and, when he knew that he was dying, he made me promise to go on my own.

中文理解：我停下车，让车冷却一下，同时看一下地图。我本以为离目的地不远了，但周围的一切对我来说仍很陌生。我5岁那年，父亲就带我出国，那是18年前的事了。当时我母亲在一次事故中惨死，父亲未能很快从打击与孤独中恢复过来。他身边的一切都是母亲的影子，不断揭开他的伤口。于是他决定移居他国。在这个新的国家里，父亲专心致志地为我们俩开创一种新的生活，慢慢地不伤心了。父亲没有再娶，因此，我在没有母亲的环境里长大成人。但我什么都不缺，他既当父亲又当母亲。他总想将来回国看看，但却不愿长期住下去，因为他与我一样已经把根深深地扎在异国的土地上。但是，他想看一看父老乡亲，扫扫母亲的墓。就在计划回国的前几个月，父亲突然罹患绝症。他知道自己时日不多，于是他要我答应一定单独回故乡一趟。

* **full of**：装满 / 在某人看来；filled with 与 full of 的搭配要配对记，别混成 full with。

* **so that**：以便或以致 / 尽管 / 即使 / 仿佛；先判断两部分的关系；even though 说已知情况，even if 常说假设。

* **brought up**：引起 / 提出或养育；根据宾语分辨意思，避免把 up 与 about 当可替换小词。

* **go back**：停下来 / 返回 / 处理；和动作对象一起理解；deal with 既能处理问题，也能讨论主题。

#### 这一段的读法与用法

注释：①objective = destination。②seemed alien = looked strange。 ③lacked for nothing = had everything I needed。④embedded = fixed firmly and deeply。 ⑤mortally = fatally, leading to death。

\[语法符号讲解] \[1]该句为when 引导的时间状语从句，该从句中含有一个that 引 导的宾语从句作knew 的宾语。

### 第2段

I hired a car the day after landing and bought a comprehensive book of maps, which I found most helpful on the cross-country journey, but which I did not think I should need on the last stage. It was not that I actually remembered anything at all. But my father had described over and over again what we should see at every milestone, after leaving the nearest town, so that I was positive I should recognize it as familiar territory. Well, I had been wrong, for I was now lost.

中文理解：抵达后的第二天，我租了一辆车，并买了一本详尽的地图册。在乡间行车途中，我觉得它非常有用，但我原以为最后一段路不需要它。这并不是因为我真还记得故乡的什么景物，而是父亲曾详细给我讲了，在过了离故乡最近的那个小镇后，在每一个路标处可以见到些什么。因此，我确定这段路对我来说会是很熟悉的。唉，结果我错了，我现在迷路了。

* **so that**：以便或以致 / 尽管 / 即使 / 仿佛；先判断两部分的关系；even though 说已知情况，even if 常说假设。

#### 这一段的读法与用法

注释：①这句话中有两个which 引导的并列的定语从句修饰book，第二个定语从句中还有一个省略了连接词 that 的从句作 think 的补足语。②I should…territory 为宾语从句。③comprehensive = complete, including a lot of different ones。④positive = absolutely sure。⑤familiar territory = well-known land。⑥句中 well 是话语标记，表达回过头来的感叹或转折；它不是称呼听话人的呼语。

### 第3段

I looked at the map and then at the milometer. I had come ten miles since leaving the town, and at this point, according to my father, I should be looking at farms and cottages in a valley, with the spire of the church of our village showing in the far distance. I could see no valley, no farms, no cottages and no church spire—only a lake. I decided that I must have taken a wrong turning somewhere. So I drove back to the town and began to retrace the route, taking frequent glances at the map. I landed up at the same corner. The curious thing was that the lake was not marked on the map. I felt as if I had stumbled into a nightmare country, as you sometimes do in dreams. And, as in a nightmare, there was nobody in sight to help me. Fortunately for me, as I was wondering what to do next, there appeared on the horizon a man on horseback, riding in my direction. I waited till he came near, then I asked him the way to our old village. He said that there was now no village. I thought he must have misunderstood me, so I repeated its name. This time he pointed to the lake. The village no longer existed because it had been submerged, and all the valley too. The lake was not a natural one, but a man-made reservoir.

中文理解：我看了看地图，又查了一下里程表。从小镇出来，我走了10英里。照父亲的说法，我面前应是一个山谷，有农场与村舍，还可远远望见老家村子里教堂的尖顶。可现在我连山谷、农场、村舍，还有教堂尖顶的影子都找不着。看见的只有一片湖泊。我想一定是什么地方拐错了弯。于是我驾车返回小镇，重新按路线行驶。结果又来到刚才那个拐弯处。奇怪的是那个湖没有在地图上标出。我感到自己就像平时作梦那样迷迷糊糊地闯进了恶梦境地。就像在恶梦里一样，见不到一个人可以帮助我。不过，我是幸运的，正当我走投无路之时，从地平线上出现一个骑马的人向我走来。等他走近了，问他去老家的路。他说那村子已经没有了。我想他一定误解了我的意思，于是又说了一遍村庄的名字。这次他用手指了一下那个湖。村庄已不复存在，因为已经被水所淹，山谷也被水淹没了。这不是一个天然湖泊，是一座人工修建的水库。

* **looked at**：期待 / 照顾 / 寻找 / 看；介词一变意思就变；look forward to 的 to 后接名词或 -ing。

* **according to**：根据 / 与……相反 / 与……相比；说明信息来源或比较对象，不把原作者观点直接改成事实。

* **as if**：以便或以致 / 尽管 / 即使 / 仿佛；先判断两部分的关系；even though 说已知情况，even if 常说假设。

* **no longer**：不再；这类否定常标记故事或观点的变化，复述时不能漏掉。

#### 这一段的读法与用法

注释：①on the horizon 原意为“在地平线上”，也引申为“即将来临的”，“初露端倪的”之意。另可表达为broaden/expand/widen one’s horizons，开阔某人的视野。

#### Summary 摘要

In the place of the village there was only a lake. Had he taken the wrong turning? He went back to town and retraced his route, only to finish up at the same spot. The lake was not marked. When a man on horse back appeared, the author asked the way to the old village. The horseman told him there was no village and pointed to the lake: it had been submerged with the whole valley under a man-made reservoir. (80 words)

#### Composition 作文

\[1]There is a house in another part of my home town that I would love to own. It is called the "White House", like the President's house in Washington! I think you could easily describe it as a "mansion" and it is magnificent. I have no idea how much it is worth, but that doesn't worry me. I admire the house and have always admired it.

\[2]I do not have to imagine what the house is like inside because I have, strange as it may seem, actually been inside. About three years ago the owner held an exhibition of sculptures and paintings in the house. The exhibits were distributed throughout the house so that all the visitors had a chance to see the house.

\[3]When you go in through the large heavy green front door, you find yourself in a large entrance hall with a shining black and white marble floor, rooms leading off from it in all directions, and a large open staircase leading up to the first floor. There is a large dining room on the right and a large sitting room on the left. Both rooms have big windows that look out onto the front lawn. There are always peacocks(n.孔雀) on the front lawn, and there are two large oak trees where you can sit in the shade on hot summer days.

\[4]At the back of the house is a large kitchen, a laundry and work room and a games room. Upstairs there are six bedrooms and four bathrooms. I think there are four bathrooms, but I can't quite remember.

\[5]The house is full of beautiful antique furniture and all the rooms are decorated in a classical style—lots of light blue and light green paint with white doors, and quite a lot of gold decoration.

\[6]The whole thing may sound like a dream, but one day it will be reality. One day I will own my ideal house. (322 words)

## 学完这一课

保留原段的推进关系，换成自己的经历，写或说一段四五句的话。

[Nce · 本册复习台](/new-concept/book-3/review) · [三册选择地图](/new-concept/)

*译文与解析据吴应时、何景霖整理资料及本站首轮审校稿；词伙与练习提示为本站学习设计。原PDF第205—208页，2022年2月第3版。*