太早和太晚
课文学习台
Too Early and too Late
把人物、线索、转折和结果组织成连贯叙述，理解句子里的修饰层次。
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第1段
Punctuality is a necessary habit in all public affairs in civilized society. Without it, nothing could ever be brought to a conclusion; everything would be in a state of chaos. Only in a sparsely-populated rural community is it possible to disregard it. In ordinary living, there can be some tolerance of unpunctuality. The intellectual, who is working on some abstruse problem, has everything coordinated and organized for the matter in hand. He is therefore forgiven if late for a dinner party. But people are often reproached for unpunctuality when their only fault is cutting things fine. It is hard for energetic, quick-minded people to waste time, so they are often tempted to finish a job before setting out to keep an appointment. If no accidents occur on the way, like punctured tyres, diversions of traffic, sudden descent of fog, they will be on time. They are often more industrious, useful citizens than those who are never late. The over-punctual can be as much a trial to others as the unpunctual. The guest who arrives half an hour too soon is the greatest nuisance. Some friends of my family had this irritating habit. The only thing to do was ask them to come half an hour later than the other guests. Then they arrived just when we wanted them.
在文明社会的各种公共事务中，守时是一种必要的习惯。不准时将一事无成，事事都会一团糟 。只有在人口稀少的农村，才可以忽视之。在日常生活中，人们可以容忍某些不准时。一个专心钻研某个复杂问题的知识分子，为了搞好手头的研究，要把一切都协调一致，组织周密。因此，他要是赴宴迟到了会得到谅解；另一些人却会受到谴责，他们的不准时常常由于掐钟点所致。精力充沛、头脑敏捷的人极不愿意浪费时间，因此他们常想做完一件事后再去赴约。要是路上没有发生如爆胎、改道、突然起雾等意外事故，他们决不会迟到。他们与那些从不迟到的人相比，常常是更勤奋有用的公民。早到的人同迟到的人一样令人讨厌。客人提前半小时到达是很麻烦的。我家有几个朋友就有这个令人恼火的习惯。对付他们唯一的办法就是请他们比别的客人晚来半小时。这样，他们就可以“准时” 到达了。
第2段
If you are catching a train, it is always better to be comfortably early than even a fraction of a minute too late. Although being early may mean wasting a little time, this will be less than if you miss the train and have to wait an hour or more for the next one; and you avoid the frustration of arriving at the very moment when the train is drawing out of the station and being unable to get on it. An even harder situation is to be on the platform in good time for a train and still to see it go off without you. Such an experience befell a certain young girl the first time she was traveling alone.
如果赶火车，宁可从容地提前到达，也不要迟到，哪怕只迟一点点。虽然早到可能意味着浪费一点时间，但这比误了火车等上一小时或更久才能坐下一班车浪费的时间要少，而且可以避免那种正好在火车出站时赶到车站却上不了车的悲剧。更令人难受的情况是虽然及时赶到站台上，却眼睁睁地看着那趟火车弃你而去。一个第一次单独出门的小姑娘就上演了这种悲剧。
第3段
She entered the station twenty minutes before the train was due, since her parents had impressed upon her that it would be unforgivable to miss it and cause the friends with whom she was going to stay to make two journeys to meet her. She gave her luggage to a porter and showed him her ticket. To her horror he said that she was two hours too soon. She felt in her handbag for the piece of paper on which her father had written down all the details of the journey and gave it to the porter. He agreed that a train did come into the station at the time on the paper and that it did stop, but only to take on mail, not passengers. The girl asked to see a timetable, feeling sure that her father could not have made such a mistake. The porter went to fetch one and arrived back with the station master, who produced it with a flourish and pointed out a microscopic "o" beside the time of the arrival of the train at his station; this little "o" indicated that the train only stopped for mail. Just at that moment the train came into the station. The girl, tears streaming down her face, begged to be allowed to slip into the guard's van. But the station master was adamant; rules could not be broken and she had to watch that train disappear towards her destination while she was left behind.
在火车进站20分钟前她就进了车站。因为她的父母再三跟她说，如果误了这趟车，她的东道主朋友就得接她两趟，这是不应该的。她把行李交给搬运工并给他看了车票。搬运工说她早到了两个小时，她听后大吃一惊。她在手提包里摸索出一张纸条，那上面有她父亲对这次旅行的详细说明，她把这张纸条交给了搬运工。搬运工说，正如纸条所说，的确有一趟火车在那个时刻到站，但它只停站装邮件，不载旅客。姑娘要求看时刻表，因为她确信父亲不可能犯这样的错误。搬运工跑回去取时刻表，同时请来了站长。站长拿着时刻表一挥手，指着那趟列车到站时刻旁边一个很小的圆圈标记。这个标记表示列车是装邮件的。正在这时，火车进站了。女孩泪流满面，央求让她不声不响地到押车员车厢里去算了。但站长态度坚决，不能坏了规矩。姑娘只得孤零零地看着那趟火车消逝在她要去的方向。
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。
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217—220页，2022年2月第3版。