Unit 4 Unforgettable Teachers
woolenText A translate googleTake This Fish and Look at It
1 It was more than fifteen years ago that I entered the laboratory of Professor Agassiz, and told him I had enrolled my name in the Scientific School as a student of natural history . He asked me a few questions about my object in coming, my antecedents generally, the mode in which I afterwards propod to u the knowledge I might acquire, and, finally, whether I wished to study any special branch. To the latter I replied that while I wished to be well grounded in all departments of zoology, I purpod to devote mylf especially to incts.top banana
2 "When do you wish to begin?" he asked.
3 "Now," I replied.
4 This emed to plea him, and with an energetic "Very well!" he reached from a shelf a huge jar of specimens in yellow alcohol. "Take this fish," he said, "and look at it; we call it a
教师节动画haemulon; by and by I will ask what you have en."
5 With that he left me, but in a moment returned with explicit instructions as to the care of the object entrusted to me.
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6 "No man is fit to be a naturalist," said he, "who does not know how to take care of specimens."
7 I was to keep the fish before me in a tin tray, and occasionally moisten the surface with alcohol from the jar, always taking care to replace the stopper tightly. Tho were not the days of ground-glass stoppers and elegantly shaped exhibition jars; all the old students will recall the huge neckless glass bottles with their leaky, wax-besmeared corks, half eaten by incts, and begrimed with cellar dust. Entomology was a cleaner science than ichthyology, but the example of the Professor, who had unhesitatingly plunged to the bottom of the jar to produce the fish, was infectious; and though this alcohol had a "very ancient and fishlike smell," I really dared not show any aversion within the sacred precincts, and treated the alcohol as though it were pure water. Still I
was conscious of a passing feeling of disappointment, for gazing at a fish did not commend itlf to an ardent entomologist. My friends at home, too, were annoyed when they discovered that no amount of eau-de-Cologne would drown the perfume which haunted me like a shadow.阳光校园
鹿儿岛大学
8 In ten minutes I had en all that could be en in that fish, and started in arch of the Professor — who had, however, left the Muum; and when I returned, after lingering over some of the odd animals stored in the upper apartment, my specimen was dry all over. I dashed the fluid over the fish as if to resuscitate the beast from a fainting fit, and looked with anxiety for a return of the normal sloppy appearance. This little excitement over, nothing was to be done but to return to a steadfast gaze at my mute companion. Half an hour pasd — an hour — another hour; the fish began to look loathsome. I turned it over and around; looked it in the face — ghastly; from behind, beneath, above, sideways, at three-quarters' view — just as ghastly. I was in despair; at an early hour I concluded that lunch was necessary; so, with infinite relief, the fish was carefully replaced in the jar, and for an hour I was free.
旌旗的意思
9 On my return, I learned that Professor Agassiz had been at the Muum, but had gone, and would not return for veral hours. My fellow-students were too busy to be disturbed by continued conversation. Slowly I drew forth that hideous fish, and with a feeling of desperation again looked at it. I might not u a magnifying-glass; instruments of all kinds were interdicted. My two hands, my two eyes, and the fish: it emed a most limited field. I pushed my finger down its throat to feel how sharp the teeth were. I began to count the scales in the different rows, until I was convinced that was nonn. At last a happy thought struck me — I would draw the fish; and with surpri I began to discover new features in the creature. Just then the Professor returned.robust
10 "That is right," said he; "a pencil is one of the best of eyes. I am glad to notice, too, that you keep your specimen wet, and your bottle corked."
11 With the encouraging words, he added: "Well, what is it like?"
12 He listened attentively to my brief rehearsal of the structure of parts who names were still unknown to me: the fringed gill-arches and movable operculum; the pores of the
head, fleshy lips and lidless eyes; the lateral line, the spinous fins and forked tail; the compresd and arched body. When I finished, he waited as if expecting more, and then, with an air of disappointment:
13 "You have not looked very carefully; why," he continued more earnestly, "you haven't even en one of the most conspicuous features of the animal, which is plainly before your eyes as the fish itlf; look again, look again!" and he left me to my miry.
14 I was piqued; I was mortified. Still more of that wretched fish! But now I t mylf to my task with a will, and discovered one new thing after another, until I saw how just the Professor's criticism had been. The afternoon pasd quickly; and when, towards its clo, the Professor inquired:
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