新世纪大学英语阅读教程2课文翻译

Unit3

Desire for a Child Was Nearly Tragic In the small seafaring town on Plymouth Bay there live an

attractive young woman named Harriet Magnis. She had an obsession. She wanted a baby for

her husband. Above all things on earth, she wanted a baby for Richard. But she couldn’t have

one.

Obsessions

drive

people

to

do

all

sorts

of

strange

things.

Harriet

Magnis’s

obsession

drove her to commit one of the strangest crimes in history. Richard was a gunner in the Royal

Navy. Even though he was at sea for two or three years at a stretch, and was home for only a

few days at a time, Harriet loved him deeply and her tragic failure to provide him with a child

haunted her. To make it worse, she feared that her husband would find some other woman on

his

travels,

a

woman

who

could

give

him

what

she

could

not,

and

that

he

would

leave

her

forever.

But

this

day,

as

she

wrote

to

her

husband,

she

said,

“My

darling,

Go

d

has

finally

smiled on us! I am at last with child! By the time you get home again, our child will have been

born

and

you

will

be

the

father

you

have

always

wante4d

it

to

be.”

Sealing

the

letter

in

an

envelope, she addressed it to the next port that her h

usband’s ship would touch, and she took

it to the post office. There was only one thing wrong. Harriet wasn’t pregnant. She had lied to

her

husband

for

one

reason.

Her

letter

would

reach

him

on

Christmas.

And

she

wanted

to

make him happy! Months passed. A

letter came from her absentee husband. Had the baby

come? Was it a boy or a girl? It would have saved Harriet endless grief had she now told him

the truth, but she couldn’t do that. It would hurt him too much. So she said that the baby had

come, and that it was a boy. What she would do when her husband came home and wanted to

see his son. Harriet apparently had no idea. She worried about it a great deal, then worried a

great deal more when she learned that her husband’s ship was coming home in a few days.

W

hen Richard’s ship came in, Harriet rushed across to Portsmouth to meet him. “Where is my

son?” he shouted. Harriet thought fast. “Oh, my dear,” she said. “I didn’t expect you so soon.

The

doctor

felt

the

sea

air

was

bad

for

him,

so

I

took

him

to

stay

with

his

grandparents

in

Sussex.” She knew perfectly well that Richard would be in port for only a few days, not long

enough for him to go to Sussex. So she was safe for the time being. The next time he came

home,

she

had

another

excuse.

Next

time,

still

another.

But

he

was

growing

suspicious.

It

didn’t dawn on him that there wasn’t any child at all. He only suspected that she was hiding the

child because it was another man’s. So he laid down the law to Harriet. Next time he came

home, he would see his son ----and no excuse would be accepted. Poor Harriet! Her lies had

gotten her into really deep water now. she had succe4eded in deceiving him for three years,

but now she knew that she either had to produce a three-year-old boy who looked like Richard,

or had to spill the

一个孩子的愿望，

在普利茅斯湾有一个迷 人的年轻女人名叫哈丽特

magnis

航海的小镇几乎

是悲剧。她有一种痴迷。她想要个孩子，她的丈夫。在地球上所有的东西，她想要个孩子，

李察。但她做不到。强迫观念驱使人去做各种奇怪的事情。哈丽特

ma gnis

的痴迷使她犯了

一个在历史上最奇怪的犯罪。

李察是英国皇家海军的一名炮手。

尽管他在海上连续两年或三

或是只有几天的时间里，

哈丽特深深地爱着他 ，

她悲惨的失败给他一个孩子总是缠着她。

更糟糕的是，

她担心她的丈夫会在旅途中找到一些其他的女人，

一个女人能给他什么 她不能，

那他就会永远的离开她。

但是这一天，

她给她丈夫，

她说，

“

亲爱的 ，

上帝终于向我们微笑！

我最后的孩子！你再回家的时间，我们 的孩子已经出世，你将是爸爸你一直

wante4d

它。

”

在信封封口的信，她写给丈夫的船会碰下一口，她把它带到邮局。< /p>

只有一件事是错的。

哈丽

特没有怀孕。她 欺骗了她的丈夫的原因之一。

她的信会在圣诞节到他。

她想让他 快乐！

几个

月过去了。

从她出走的丈夫 寄来的一封信。

有了宝宝来吗？是个男孩还是女孩？它将挽救哈

丽特无尽的悲伤她现在告诉他真相，但她做不到的。这会伤害他太多。所以她说宝宝来了，

说那是一个男孩。她会做什么，当她的丈夫回家，想看看他的儿子。哈丽特显然没有想到。

她担心一个伟大的交易，

然后很担心当她得知丈夫的船回家几天。

< br>当李察的船来了，

哈丽特

冲到朴茨茅斯去见他。