新视野大学英语读写教程听力 第二册 unit04b_new

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[00:00.00]喜欢hxen.net，就把hxen.net复制到QQ个人资料中！Experiences in Exile
[00:04.79]We are in Montreal,in an echoing,dark train station,
[00:11.34]and we are squeezed together on a bench
[00:15.80]waiting for someone to give us some guidance.
[00:20.63]Eventually,a man speaking broken Polish approaches us,
[00:26.78]takes us to the ticket window, and then helps us board our train.
[00:33.52]And so begins yet another segment of this longest journey
[00:39.89]—all the longer because we don't exactly know when it will end,
[00:46.15]when we'll reach our destination.
[00:50.11]We only know that Vancouver is very far away.
[00:55.80]The people on the train look at us indirectly,and avoid sitting nearby.
[01:03.25]This may be because we've brought suitcases full of dried cake,
[01:10.20]canned sardines,and sausages,which would keep during the long journey.
[01:17.69]We don't know about dining cars,
[01:22.22]and when we discover that this train has such a thing,
[01:27.70]we can hardly afford to go there once a day
[01:32.84]on the few dollars that my father has brought with him.
[01:37.88]Two dollars could buy a bicycle, or several pairs of shoes in Poland.
[01:44.83]It seems like a tremendous sum to pay for four bowls of soup.
[01:52.07]The train cuts through infinite territory,
[01:57.54]most of it flat and boring,
[02:01.90]and it seems to me that the ceaseless rhythm of the wheels
[02:07.22]is like scissors cutting a three-thousand-mile rip through my life.
[02:14.24]From now on,my life will be divided into two parts,
[02:20.00]with the line drawn by that train.
[02:24.36]After a while,I shrink into a silent indifference,
[02:30.44]and I don't want to look at the landscape anymore;
[02:35.41]these are not the friendly fields,the farmyards of Polish countryside;
[02:42.07]this is vast, tedious,and formless.
[02:48.34]By the time we reach the Rockies,
[02:52.30]my parents try to make me look at the spectacular landscapes we're passing by.
[02:59.68]But I don't want to.
[03:02.92]These peaks and valleys,these mountain streams and enormous rocks hurt my eyes;
[03:11.38]they hurt my soul.
[03:15.12]They're too big, too forbidding,
[03:19.37]and I can't imagine feeling that I'm part of them,
[03:24.12]and that I'm in them.
[03:27.47]I retreat into sleep;
[03:31.10]I sleep through the day and the night,
[03:35.64]and my parents can't shake me out of it.
[03:39.89]My sister,perhaps recoiling even more deeply from all this strangeness,
[03:46.33]is ill with a fever and can hardly raise her head.
[03:52.42]On the second day,we briefly meet a passenger who speaks Yiddish.
[03:59.18]My father enters into a dynamic conversation with him
[04:04.73]and learns some entertaining tales.
[04:09.26]For example,there's the story of a Polish Jew who came to Canada
[04:16.21]and became prosperous (he's now a millionaire !) by producing Polish pickles.
[04:24.74]Pickles! If one can make a fortune on that,
[04:31.58]well— it shouldn't be hard to achieve prosperity in this country.
[04:37.52]My father is excited by this story,
[04:42.17]but I retreat into an even more determined silence.
[04:47.60]"Millionaire"is one of those words from a fairy tale that has no meaning to me whatsoever
[04:55.96]— like the words "emigration"; and "Canada."
[05:01.32]In spite of my parents' objections,
[05:05.39]I go back to sleep,
[05:08.95]and I miss some of the most magnificent scenery on the North American continent.
[05:15.61]By the time we've reached Vancouver,
[05:19.86]there are very few people left on the train.
[05:24.61]My mother has dressed my sister and me in our best clothes
[05:30.05]— identical navy blue dresses with sailor collars and gray coats.
[05:36.82]My parents' faces reflect anticipation and anxiety.
[05:43.76]"Get off the train on the right foot," my mother tells us.
[05:49.24]"For luck in the new life."
[05:53.20]I look out of the train window with a heavy heart.
[05:58.45]Where have I been brought?
[06:02.63]As the train approaches the station,
[06:06.59]it's a rainy day, and the platform is nearly empty.