Unit 3 The Rite of Spring
Arthur Miller
1.I have never understood why we keep a garden and why over 36 years ago when I bought my first hou in the country， I started digging up a patch for vegetables before doing anything el。 When you think how easy and cheap, relatively， it is to buy a bunch of carrots or beets, why rai them? And root crops especially are hard to tell apart, when store-bought, from our own。 There is a human instinct at work here， a kind of back-breaking make-believe that has no reality. Besides， I don’t particularly like eating vegetables. I’d much rather eat something juicy and fat。 Like hot dogs.
2.Now， if you could rai hot dogs outside your window, you'd really have something you could justify without a cond’s hesitation。 As it is, though， I cannot deny that when April comes I find mylf going out to lean on the fence and look at that mirable plot of land, resolving with all my rational powers not to plant it again. But inevitably a morning arrives when, just as I am awakening， a scent wafts through the window， something like earth—拼写错误
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as-air， a scent that ems to come up from the very center of this planet. And the sun means business, suddenly， and has a different, deeper yellow in its beams on the carpet。 The birds begin screaming hysterically， thinking what I am thinking—the worms are deliciously worming their way through the melting soil.
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3.投诉英文>间接引语It is not only pleasure nding me back to stare at that plot of soil, it is really conflict. The question is the same each year—what method should we u？ The last few years we put 36-inch-wide black plastic between the rows， and it worked perfectly, keeping the soil moist in dry times and weed-free。
4.But black plastic looks so industrial， so unromantic， that I have gradually moved over to hay mulch。 We cut a lot of hay and， as it rots， it does improve the soil’s Composition. Besides, it looks lovely, and comes to us free.
5.Keeping a garden makes you aware of how delicate, bountiful， and easily ruined the surface of this little planet is. In that 50-by-70-foot patch there must be a dozen different types of soil. Tomato won't grow in one part but loves another， and the same goes for th
e other crops。 I suppo if you loaded the soil with chemical fertilizer the differences would be less noticeable, but I u it sparingly and only in rows right where eds are planted rather than broadcast over the whole area。 I’m not sure why I do this beyond the saving in fertilizer and my unwillingness to aid the weeds。
6.The attractions of gardening， I think， at least for a certain number of gardeners， are neurotic and moral. Whenever life ems pointless and difficult to grasp， you can always get out in the garden and get something done. Also， your paternal or maternal instincts come into play becau helpless living things are depending on you, require training and encouragement and protection from enemies. In some cas， as with beans and cucumbers, your children-as it were-begin to turn upon you in massive numbers， growing more and more each morning and threatening to follow you into the hou to strangle you in their vines.
7.Gardening is a moral occupation, as well， becau you always start in spring resolved to keep it looking neat this year, just like the pictures in the catalogues. But by July, you o
nce again face the chaos of unthinned carrots, lettuce and beets。 This is when my wife becomes—openly now—mistress of the garden。 A consumer of vast quantities of vegetables, she does the thinning and hand-cultivating of the tiny plants。 Squatting, she patiently moves down each row lecting which plants shall live and which she will cast aside。
8.At about this time， my wife’s 86-year-old mother, a botanist, makes her first visit to the garden。 She looks about skeptically. Her favorite task is binding the tomato plants to stakes。 She is an outspoken， truthful woman, or she was until she learned better。 Now， instead of saying， "You have planted the tomatoes in the damp part of the garden，" she waits until October when she makes her annual trip to her home in Europe; then she gives me my good-by kiss and says casually，" Tomatoes in damp soil tend more to get fungi，” and walks away to her plane。 But by October nothing in the garden matters， so sure am I that I will never plant it again.
9.I garden, I suppo， becau I must. It would be intolerable to have to pass an unplan博士英语>女士风衣外套
ted fenced garden a few times a day. There are also certain compensations, and the must be what annually turn my mind toward all that work. There are few sights quite as beautiful as a vegetable garden glistening in the sun, all dewy and glittering with a dozen shades of green at ven in the morning。 Far lovelier， in fact, than rows of hot dogs. In some pocket of the mind there may even be a tendency to change this vision into a personal reassurance that all this healthy growth, this orderliness and thrusting life must somehow reflect similar movements in one’s own spirit。 Without a garden to till and plant I would not know what April was for.
10.什么是sdh>territoryAs it is， April is for getting irritated all over again at this pointless, time—consuming hobby. I do not understand people who claim to ”love” gardening。 A garden is an extension of onelf—or lves-and so it has to be an arena where striving does not cea， but continues by other means。 As an example： you simply have to face the moment when you must admit that the lettuce was planted too deep or was not watered enough， cea hoping it will show itlf tomorrow, and dig up the row again. But you will feel better for not standing on your dignity. And that’s what gardening is all about—charac
ter building. Which is why Adam was a gardener. (And all know where it got him, too.)
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11.But is it conceivable that the father of us all should have been a weaver, shoemaker， or anything but a gardener? Of cour not. Only the gardener is capable of endlessly reviving so much hope that this year， regardless of drought, flood， typhoon, or his own stupidity, this year he is going to do it right！ Leave it to God to have picked the proper occupation for his only creature capable of such lf-delusion。
