60 · 太早和太晚
Too Early and too Late
读懂长句与段落衔接，分清事实、推断和观点，再连贯复述或说明。
课文精读整篇课文
点选一句，句末即可听读；连起意思，大声读一遍。
Punctuality is a necessary habit in all public affairs in civilized society. Without it, nothing could ever be brought to a conclusion; everything would be in a state of chaos. Only in a sparsely-populated rural community is it possible to disregard it. In ordinary living, there can be some tolerance of unpunctuality. The intellectual, who is working on some abstruse problem, has everything coordinated and organized for the matter in hand. He is therefore forgiven if late for a dinner party. But people are often reproached for unpunctuality when their only fault is cutting things fine. It is hard for energetic, quick-minded people to waste time, so they are often tempted to finish a job before setting out to keep an appointment. If no accidents occur on the way, like punctured tyres, diversions of traffic, sudden descent of fog, they will be on time. They are often more industrious, useful citizens than those who are never late. The over-punctual can be as much a trial to others as the unpunctual. The guest who arrives half an hour too soon is the greatest nuisance. Some friends of my family had this irritating habit. The only thing to do was ask them to come half an hour later than the other guests. Then they arrived just when we wanted them.
If you are catching a train, it is always better to be comfortably early than even a fraction of a minute too late. Although being early may mean wasting a little time, this will be less than if you miss the train and have to wait an hour or more for the next one; and you avoid the frustration of arriving at the very moment when the train is drawing out of the station and being unable to get on it. An even harder situation is to be on the platform in good time for a train and still to see it go off without you. Such an experience befell a certain young girl the first time she was traveling alone.
She entered the station twenty minutes before the train was due, since her parents had impressed upon her that it would be unforgivable to miss it and cause the friends with whom she was going to stay to make two journeys to meet her. She gave her luggage to a porter and showed him her ticket. To her horror he said that she was two hours too soon. She felt in her handbag for the piece of paper on which her father had written down all the details of the journey and gave it to the porter. He agreed that a train did come into the station at the time on the paper and that it did stop, but only to take on mail, not passengers. The girl asked to see a timetable, feeling sure that her father could not have made such a mistake. The porter went to fetch one and arrived back with the station master, who produced it with a flourish and pointed out a microscopic "o" beside the time of the arrival of the train at his station; this little "o" indicated that the train only stopped for mail. Just at that moment the train came into the station. The girl, tears streaming down her face, begged to be allowed to slip into the guard's van. But the station master was adamant; rules could not be broken and she had to watch that train disappear towards her destination while she was left behind.
本课原文与译文
展开完整文本 · 便于查阅与检索
整篇课文
Punctuality is a necessary habit in all public affairs in civilized society. Without it, nothing could ever be brought to a conclusion; everything would be in a state of chaos. Only in a sparsely-populated rural community is it possible to disregard it. In ordinary living, there can be some tolerance of unpunctuality. The intellectual, who is working on some abstruse problem, has everything coordinated and organized for the matter in hand. He is therefore forgiven if late for a dinner party. But people are often reproached for unpunctuality when their only fault is cutting things fine. It is hard for energetic, quick-minded people to waste time, so they are often tempted to finish a job before setting out to keep an appointment. If no accidents occur on the way, like punctured tyres, diversions of traffic, sudden descent of fog, they will be on time. They are often more industrious, useful citizens than those who are never late. The over-punctual can be as much a trial to others as the unpunctual. The guest who arrives half an hour too soon is the greatest nuisance. Some friends of my family had this irritating habit. The only thing to do was ask them to come half an hour later than the other guests. Then they arrived just when we wanted them.
If you are catching a train, it is always better to be comfortably early than even a fraction of a minute too late. Although being early may mean wasting a little time, this will be less than if you miss the train and have to wait an hour or more for the next one; and you avoid the frustration of arriving at the very moment when the train is drawing out of the station and being unable to get on it. An even harder situation is to be on the platform in good time for a train and still to see it go off without you. Such an experience befell a certain young girl the first time she was traveling alone.
She entered the station twenty minutes before the train was due, since her parents had impressed upon her that it would be unforgivable to miss it and cause the friends with whom she was going to stay to make two journeys to meet her. She gave her luggage to a porter and showed him her ticket. To her horror he said that she was two hours too soon. She felt in her handbag for the piece of paper on which her father had written down all the details of the journey and gave it to the porter. He agreed that a train did come into the station at the time on the paper and that it did stop, but only to take on mail, not passengers. The girl asked to see a timetable, feeling sure that her father could not have made such a mistake. The porter went to fetch one and arrived back with the station master, who produced it with a flourish and pointed out a microscopic "o" beside the time of the arrival of the train at his station; this little "o" indicated that the train only stopped for mail. Just at that moment the train came into the station. The girl, tears streaming down her face, begged to be allowed to slip into the guard's van. But the station master was adamant; rules could not be broken and she had to watch that train disappear towards her destination while she was left behind.
在文明社会的公共事务中，守时是一种必不可少的习惯。没有它，事情便无法顺利完成，一切都会陷入混乱。只有在人烟稀少的乡村社会里，才可能不那么讲究准时。日常生活中，偶尔迟到，也可以有些宽容。一个正在钻研深奥问题的学者，心思和安排都围着手头的研究运转，因此即使赴晚宴迟了，也往往能得到谅解。但有些人挨批评，其实只是把时间算得太紧。精力充沛、头脑敏捷的人不愿浪费时间，常忍不住想在赴约前再做完一件事。只要途中没有爆胎、交通改道或突然起雾等意外，他们就能准时赶到。他们往往比那些从不迟到的人更勤奋，也为社会做出更多贡献。过分讲究准时、甚至提前到场的人，给别人造成的麻烦，可能和迟到者一样大。最让人头疼的，就是早到半小时的客人。我家的一些朋友就有这个恼人的习惯，唯一的办法，是把约定时间比其他客人推迟半小时。这样，他们反而刚好在我们希望的时间到达。
赶火车时，宁可从容地早到，也不要迟上哪怕片刻。早到也许会浪费一点时间，可总比误车后，等下一班一个小时甚至更久要少；也能免去那种眼看火车正在驶出站台，自己却怎么也上不去的懊恼。还有一种处境更难受：明明早早到了站台，却仍只能看着火车把自己留下，开走了。一个年轻姑娘第一次独自出门，就碰上了这种事。
姑娘比火车预定时间提前二十分钟进站。父母反复叮嘱过她，千万不能误车，否则要让接待她的朋友来车站跑两趟，那就太不应该了。她把行李交给搬运工，给他看车票；没想到，对方竟说她早到了两个小时，她一下慌了神。她从手提包里摸出一张纸，上面是父亲写的全部行程细节，交给搬运工看。对方承认，纸上那个时间确实有一班列车进站，也确实会停，但只装邮件，不上旅客。姑娘坚信父亲不可能犯这种错误，要求看时刻表。搬运工去拿，回来时还带来了站长。站长郑重其事地亮出时刻表，指着本站到达时间旁一个小得几乎看不清的“o”，说明这个标记表示：停车只为装邮件。就在这时，列车进站了。姑娘泪流满面，央求让她悄悄登上列车员的车厢，可站长毫不通融：规章不能破坏。她只好眼睁睁看着列车朝自己的目的地驶去，独自被留在了站台上。
学完这一课
把 Only in… is it possible to… 还原正常语序，再明确唯一适用条件。
译文依据整理稿，由本站按中文表达重新校订；解析据吴应时、何景霖整理资料及首轮审校稿；词伙与练习提示为本站学习设计。原PDF第217—220页，2022年2月第3版。