1--The story of an hour 一小时的故事

American short story masterpieces

—

passage 1

Passage One

Kate Chopin

(1851-1904)

Chopin wrote

many magazine editors, at least once for being

it in December, paying Chopin ten dollars and also the compliment of presenting her

to the public as a daring writer. Chopin's work helped energize feminists in her own

day and continues to do so today. The theme of this story is autobiographical, though

the details are not. Chopin, the mother of six, was widowed at the age of thirty-two. A

month after finishing this story, she wrote in her diary that if her husband had lived,

she

have

to

forget

the

past

ten

years

of

my

growth

—

my

real

growth.

she

does

not

dismiss

marriage

as

merely

a

prison

for

women.

A

sentence later she admits that she would have given up her ten years of growth in

spirit of perfect acquiescence (

默许

).

The Story of an Hour

1.

Knowing

that

Mrs.

Mallard

was

afflicted

with

a

heart

trouble,

great

care

was

taken to break to her as gently as possible the news of her husband's death.

2.

It

was

her

sister

Josephine

who

told

her,

in

broken

sentences;

veiled

hints

that

revealed

in

half

concealing.

Her

husband's

friend

Richards

was

there,

too,

near

her.

It

was

he

who

had

been

in

the

newspaper

office

when

intelligence

of

the

railroad

disaster

was

received

with

Brently

Mallard

’

s

name

leading

the

list

of

He had only taken the time to assure himself of its truth by a second

telegraph, and had hastened to forestall (

抢先行动

) any less careful, less tender

friend in breathing the sad message.

3.

She did not hear the story as many women have heard the same, with a paralyzed

inability

to

accept

its

significance.

She

wept

at

once,

with

sudden,

wild

abandonment,

in

her

sisters

arms.

When

the

storm

of

grief

had

spent

itself

she

went away to her room alone. She would have no one follow her.

4.

There stood, facing the open window, a comfortable, roomy (

宽敞的

) armchair.

Into this she sank, pressed down by a physical exhaustion that haunted her body

and seemed to reach into her soul.

5.

She could see in the open square before her house the tops of trees that were all

aquiver

(quivering slightly)

with the new spring life. The delicious breath of rain

was in the air. In the street below a peddler was crying his wares. The notes of a

distant

song

which

some

one

was

singing

reached

her

faintly,

and

countless

sparrows were twittering in the eaves

（屋檐）

.

6.

There were patches of blue sky showing here and there through the clouds that

had met and piled one above the other in the west facing her window.

7.

She sat with her head thrown back upon the cushion of the chair, quite motionless,

except when a sob came up into her throat and shook her, as a child who has cried

itself to sleep continues to sob in its dreams.

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