A Brief introduction to “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”:
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is a comic frontier边境；边界，边缘；尚待开发的领域and western tale, together with many tall过分的夸张的 tales, which Mark Twain heard in the western mining camps in 1861. It was included in his short-story collection The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches, also his first book which contains twenty-ven short stories and sketches. At the beginning of the short story, a cultured有教养的；人工培养的；耕作了的Easterner relates his recent visit to a talkative old man at a western mining camp. Rather than providing information that the Easterner is looking for, the old man keeps him waiting while he spins 杜撰松花蛋是什么蛋a tale about a betting man and his pet frog. Jim Smiley was addicted to gambling. He bet on anything from the death of Parson Walker's wife to fights between his bulldog斗牛犬 pup, Andrew Jackson, and other dogs. One day a stranger to the town agreed to bet on a frog jumping higher than Jim's frog, Daniel Webster. When Jim wasn't looking, the stranger poured a quail n.鹌鹑；鹌鹑肉；<美俚>太宗罢朝女大学生vi.沮丧；畏缩，胆怯；感到恐惧vt.使沮丧；使畏缩shot into Daniel Webster's mouth, making it impossible for him to jump at all. The stranger
won the $40 bet and escaped before Jim realized the con.
Exerci: Mark the following statements True or Fal according to the information provided in the text. （备注：答案附在小说末尾）FFTTFTFTTF
F1) The writer came all the way from the East in order to find Jim Smiley to make a bet.
F2) The tting of the short story is in Angel's Camp, a small town of miners in the east coast.
T3) As the narrator of the story about the jumping frog, Simon Wheeler was a good-natured and talkative man.
T4) The writer tried to inquire after Leonidas W. Smiley, only to be told a story about Jim Smiley.
F5) All through his account, Wheeler kept smiling or frowning, showing his interest and enthusiasm towards his story.
T6) Jim Smiley was a very eccentric man becau he was crazy about betting on almost anything.
F7) Jim Smiley was so crazy about betting that he even once went to Mexico to bet on a straddle-bug.
T8) Jim Smiley’s bull-pup, Andrew Jackson, won him quite a lot of bets becau its strong suit was to bite its opponent’s hind leg.
T9) Daniel Webster, the frog possd by Smiley, was claimed to be able to outjump any frog in Calaveras County.
F10) Jim Smiley was swindled four dollars by the stranger who filled his jumping frog with quail shot.
Plea read “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”:
In compliance [kəmˈplaɪəns]n.服从，听从；承诺；柔软度；顺度with顺从，如治肩周炎的最好土方法 the request of a friend of mine, who wrote me from the East, I called on拜访（某人）；叫；号召；要求good-natured和善的；性格好的，脾气好的；温厚的；好说话儿, garrulous old Simon Wheeler, and inquired after查询，查阅（信息、资料等）；问候my friend's friend, Leonidas W. Smiley, as requested to do, and I hereunto到此为止，迄今append附加；添加；贴上the result. I have a lurking潜伏，埋伏；潜藏，潜在；偷偷地行动suspicion that Leonidas W. Smiley is a myth; and that my friend never knew such a personage [ˈpə:sənɪdʒ]n.人，（尤指）要人，名人; and that he only conjectured [kənˈdʒɛktʃɚ]n.推测，猜想；设想，揣度；想像；计划vt.& vi.推测，猜想；估量；揣摩；设想that if I asked old Wheeler about him, it would remind him of his infamous Jim Smiley, and he would go to work and bore令人厌烦；钻孔；用钻、挖或掘的方式打通me to death with some exasperating [ɪɡˈzæspəˌretɪŋ]adj.使人恼怒的v.激怒，触怒reminiscence [ˌrɛməˈnɪsəns]n.旧事，回忆；回忆录of him as long and as tedious as it should be uless to me. If that was the design, it succeeded.
I found Simon Wheeler dozing打盹儿，打瞌睡；假寐comfortably by the barroomqq登陆空间酒吧间
stove习欢窑；干燥室，烘房of the dilapidated [dɪˈlæpɪˌdetɪd]adj.残破的，失修的；荒废的，衰败的；破旧tavern [ˈtævərn]n.小旅馆，客栈；酒馆in the decayed [dɪˈked]adj.烂了的，腐败的mining camp of Angel's, and I noticed that he was fat and bald-headed, and had an expression of winning获胜的，赢的；成功的，胜利的；吸引人的；迷人的gentleness温和；和善；彬彬有礼；高贵and simplicity朴素；质朴，天真；卑贱；无知upon his tranquil安静的；平静的；宁静的countenance表情；脸，面孔；赞同，支持；鼓励. He
garrulous: 喋喋不休的
hereunto: 这里以下
append: 赘述
钨极气体保护焊lurking: 隐约的
conjecture: 猜想
infamous:无耻的,厚脸皮的
exasperating reminiscence: 让人生气的回忆
dilapidated: 破烂不堪的
bald-headed: 秃头的
tranquil: qq密码找回宁静安详的
roud up, and gave me good-day. I told him a friend had commissioned me to make some inquiries about a cherished companion of his boyhood named Leonidas W. Smiley-- Rev. Leonidas W. Smiley, a young minister of the Gospel, who he had heard was at one time a resident of Angel's Camp. I added that if Mr. Wheeler could tell me anything about this Rev. Leonidas W. Smiley, I would feel under many obligations to him.
Simon Wheeler backed me into a corner and blockaded me there with his chair, and then sat down and reeled n.卷轴；卷盘；卷筒；绕在卷轴上的线（或金属丝、胶卷等）vt.卷；绕vi.蹒跚，摇晃；来回旋转；眩晕off滔滔不绝地谈论the monotonous narrative which follows this paragraph. He never smiled, he never frowned, he never changed his voice fr
om the gentle-flowing key to which he tuned his initial ntence, he never betrayed显露 the slightest suspicion of enthusiasm; but all through the interminable冗长的；无止境的；没完没了narrative there ran a vein气质，倾向 of impressive earnestness and sincerity, which showed me plainly that, so far from his imagining that there was anything ridiculous or funny about his story, he regarded it as a really important matter, and admired its two heroes as men of transcendent adj.卓越的，至高无上的；超然的n.卓越的人，；超越认识的事物genius in fines [fəˈnɛs]n.手腕，手段；技巧，策略；纤细；偷牌vt.巧妙处理；以偷牌方式先出；施巧计；[牌]偷牌vi.施展巧计；偷牌. I let him go on in his own way, and never interrupted him once.
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