大学英语第二册第二单元课文狗的比喻
The Dog of Pompeii
Louis Untermeyer
This is the cond part of a story about a dog and a boy, t in the ancient city of Pompeii just before its destruction by earthquake and volcano in AD 79. The boy, Tito, was a blind orphan boy of twelve or thirteen. The dog, Bimbo, was not only dog, but nur, pillow, playmate, mother and father to Tito. The day before the volcano, Bimbo had snatched from the bakery some raisin and sugar cakes for Tito's breakfast.
The next morning there were two of the beloved raisin and sugar cakes for his [Tito's] breakfast. Bimbo was unusually active and thumped his bit of a tail until Tito was afraid he would wear it out. The boy could not imagine whether Bimbo was urging him to some sort of game or was trying to tell something. After a while, he cead to notice Bimbo. He felt drowsy. Last night's late hours had tired him. Besides, there was a heavy mist in the air—no,
a thick fog rather than a mist—a fog that got into his throat and scraped it and made him cough. He walked as far as the marine gate to get a breath of the a. But the blanket of haze had spread all over the bay and even the salt air emed smoky.
He went to bed before dusk and slept. But he did not sleep well. He had too many dreams—dreams of ships lurching in the Forum, of losing his way in a screaming crowd, of armies marching across his chest, of being pulled over every rough pavement of Pompeii.
He woke early. Or, rather, he was pulled awake. Bimbo was doing the pulling. The dog had dragged Tito to his feet and was urging the boy along. Somewhere. Where, Tito did not know. His feet stumbled uncertainly; he was still half asleep. For a while he noticed nothing except the fact that it was hard to breathe. The air 高中三年总结
was hot. And heavy. So heavy that he could taste it. The air, it emed, had turned to powder—a warm powder that stung his nostrils and burned his sightless eyes.
Then he began to hear sounds. Peculiar sounds. Like animals under the earth. Hissings
and groanings and muffled cries th乱扔垃圾的图片
at a dying creature might make dislodging the stones of his underground cave. There was no doubt of it now. The nois came from underneath. He not only heard them—he could feel them. The earth twitched; the twitching changed to an uneven shrugging of the soil. Then, as Bimbo half pulled, half coaxed him across, the ground jerked away from his feet and he was thrown against a stone fountain.
The water—hot water—splashing in his face revived him. He got to his feet, Bimbo steadying him, helping him on again. The nois grew louder; they came clor. The cries were even more animal-like than before, but now they came from human throats. A few people, quicker of foot and more hurried by fear, began to rush by. A family or two—then a ction—then, it emed, an army broken out of bounds. Tito, bewildered though he was, could recognize Rufus as he bellowed past him, like a water buffalo gone mad. Time was lost in a nightmare.
It was then the crashing began. First a sharp crackling, like a monstrous snapping of twig
s; then a roar like the fall of a whole forest of trees; then an explosion that tore earth and sky. The hea什么歌曲好听
vens, though Tito could not e them, were shot through with continual flickerings of fire. Lightnings above were answered by thunders beneath. A hou fell. Then another. By a miracle the two companions had escaped the dangerous side streets and were in a more open space. It was the Forum. They rested here a while—how long he did not know.
Tito had no idea of the time of day. He could feel it was black—an unnatural blackness. Something inside—perhaps the lack of breakfast and lunch—told him it was past noon. But it didn't matter. Nothing emed to matter. He was getting drowsy, too drowsy to walk. But walk he must. He knew it. And Bimbo knew it; the sharp tugs told him so. Nor was it a moment too soon. The sacred ground of the Forum was safe no longer. It was beginning to rock, then to pitch, then to split. As they stumbled out of the square, the earth wriggled like a caught snake and all the columns of the temple of Jupiter came down. It was the end of the world—or so it emed. To walk was not enough now. They must run. Tito was too frightened to know what to do or where to go. He had lost all n of direction. He st
arted to go back to the inner gate; but Bimbo, straining his back to the last inch, almost pulled his clothes from him. What did the creature want? Had the dog gone mad?
Then suddenly, he understood. Bimbo was telling him the way out—urging him there. The a gate, of cour. The a gate—and then the a. Far from falling buildings, heaving ground. He turned, Bimbo guiding him across open pits and dangerous pools of bubbling mud, away from buildings that had caught fire and were dropping their burning beams. Tito could no longer tell whether the nois were made by the shrieking sky or the agonized people. He and Bimbo ran on—the only silent beings in a howling world.
New dangers threatened. All Pompeii emed to be thronging toward the marine gate and, squeezing among the crowds, there was the chance of being trampled to death. But the chance had to be taken. It was growing harder and harder to breathe. What air there was choked him. It was all dust now—dust and pebbles, pebbles as large as beans. They fell on his head, his hands—pumice stones from the black heart of Vesuvius. The mountain was turning itlf inside out. Tito remembered a phra that the stranger had sa
id in the Forum two days ago: "Tho who will not listen to men must be taught by the gods." The people of Pompeii had ref有书真好
ud to heed the warnings; they were being taught now—if it was not too late.
