你如果问一个人,The Wind in the Willow 里面你最喜欢谁,答案可能不唯一。但是如果你问一个人,The Wind
in the Willow 里,你对谁印象最深,回答十有八九是Mr.Toad of the Toad Hall。Mr.Toad
是儿童文学中,甚至英文文学作品中最个性鲜明,令人难忘的一个角色。所以拿Mr.Toad来做Charactor
分析最合适不过。
我们先列出 Mr. Toad 的性格特征(character
traits),孩子们共想出了十来个形容词。然后我们回到原文中,找出相关的片段,看看作者是怎样通过statements,action,appearance,private
thoughts,reaction of other characters 等各种手段来塑造这些特征。
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这一章节的精彩片段:
The "poop-poop" rang with a brazen shout in their ears, they had a
moment's glimpse of an interior of glittering plate-glass and rich
morocco, and the magnificent motor-car, immense, breath-snatching,
passionate, with its pilot tense and hugging his wheel, possessed
all earth and air for a fraction of a second, flung an enveloping
cloud of dust that blinded and enwrapped them utterly, and then
dwindle to a speck in the far distance, changed back into a droning
bee once more.
这是一句话,呵呵。
作者用一句话,勾勒出了汽车卷着尘土,从身边疾驰而过的一瞬间。在这一瞬间里,我们耳朵听到汽车声从震耳欲聋到蜜蜂的嗡嗡,眼睛看到汽车由一个顷刻间独霸天地,搅动着一片遮天蔽日的尘云的庞然大物到远去的一个黑点,在这一瞬间,我们还同时瞥见了全神贯注的驾驶员,和车里豪华的内饰。。。
Descriptive Writing par excellence.