tentative(tentatively)

核心詞匯

1. virtue /?v??rt?u?/ (n.) 美德

2. annoy /??n??/ (v.) 使煩惱，打攪

3. feed /fi?d/ (v.) 喂食

4. surface /?s??rf?s/ (n.) 表面

5. annul /??n?l/ (v.) 宣布無效

6. distinguish /d??st??ɡw??/ (v.) 區分

7. tentative /?tent?t?v/ (adj.) 試探性的

8. unleash /?n?li??/ (v.) 釋放

9. delicate /?del?k?t/ (adj.) 輕微的；嬌弱的

10. gentle /?d?entl/ (adj.) 溫柔的

11. imperceptible /??mp?r?pt?bl/ (adj.) 無法察覺到的

核心短語

1. think of 想起

2. pick up 撿起

3. trickle down 一滴滴向下流

4. trade for 以…換得，貿易交換

5. reach out for 伸手去拿

6. run through 連續貫穿

7. break from 脫離，掙脫

8. slip down 滑落

9. move off 離開

選段正文

He did not remember when he had first started to talk aloud when he was by himlf.

He had sung when he was by himlf in the old days and he had sung at night sometimes when he was alone steering（駕駛）on his watch in the smacks or in the turtle boats.

He had probably started to talk aloud, when alone, when the boy had left. But he did not remember. When he and the boy fished together they usually spoke only when it was necessary.

They talked at night or when they were storm-bound（被暴風所困的）by bad weather. It was considered a virtue（美德）not to talk unnecessarily at a and the old man had always considered it so and respected it.

But now he said his thoughts aloud many times since there was no one that they could annoy（干擾）.

"If the others heard me talking out loud they would think that I am crazy," he said aloud. "But since I am not crazy, I do not care.

And the rich have radios to talk to them in their boats and to bring them the baball." Now is no time to think of baball, he thought. Now is the time to think of only one thing.

That which I was born for. There might be a big one around that school, he thought. I picked up only a straggler（流浪的動物）from the albacore（青花魚） that were feeding（進食，捕食）

But they are working far out and fast. Everything that shows on the surface（表面）today travels very fast and to the northeast.

Can that be the time of day? Or is it some sign of weather that I do not know?

He could not e the green of the shore now but only the tops of the blue hills that showed white as though they were snowcapped（被白雪覆蓋著的）and the clouds that looked like high snow mountains above them.

The a was very dark and the light made prisms（棱鏡）in the water.

The myriad（無數的）flecks（斑點，微粒）of the plankton were annulled（取消，宣告無效）now by the high sun and it was only the great deep prisms in the blue water that the old man saw now with his lines going straight down into the water that was a mile deep.

The tuna, the fishermen called all the fish of that species tuna and only distinguished（被區分開的）among them by their proper names when they came to ll them or to trade them for baits, were down again.

The sun was hot now and the old man felt it on the back of his neck and felt the sweat trickle down his back as he rowed.

I could just drift（漂流）, he thought, and sleep and put a bight of line around my toe to wake me. But today is eighty-five days and I should fish the day well.

Just then, watching his lines, he saw one of the projecting green sticks dip（下沉） sharply.

"Yes," he said. "Yes," and shipped his oars without bumping the boat. He reached out for the line and held it softly between the thumb（大拇指） and forefinger（食指）of his right hand. He felt no strain（張力） nor weight（重量） and he held the line lightly.

Then it came again. This time it was a tentative（試探性的） pull, not solid nor heavy, and he knew exactly what it was.

One hundred fathoms down a marlin（馬林魚）was eating the sardines（沙丁魚） that covered the point and the shank（柄）of the hook where the hand-forged（手工鍛造的）hook projected from the head of the small tuna.

The old man held the line delicately, and softly, with his left hand, unleashed（釋放，解放）it from the stick. Now he could let it run through his fingers without the fish feeling any tension.

This far out, he must be huge in this month, he thought. Eat them, fish. Eat them. Plea eat them. How fresh they are and you down there six hundred feet in that cold water in the dark.

Make another turn in the dark and come back and eat them. He felt the light delicate（輕微的）pulling and then a harder pull when a sardine's head must have been more difficult to break from the hook. Then there was nothing.

“Come on," the old man said aloud. "Make another turn. Just smell them. Aren't they lovely? Eat them good now and then there is the tuna. Hard and cold and lovely. Don't be shy, fish. Eat them.”

He waited with the line between his thumb and his finger, watching it and the other lines at the same time for the fish might have swum up or down. Then came the same delicate pulling touch again.

"He'll take it," the old man said aloud. “God help him to take it.” He did not take it though. He was gone and the old man felt nothing.

“He can’t have gone,” he said. “Christ knows he can't have gone. He's making a turn. Maybe he has been hooked before and he remembers something of it.”

Then he felt the gentle（溫柔的）touch on the line and he was happy.

“It was only his turn,” he said. “He’ll take it.” He was happy feeling the gentle pulling and then he felt something hard and unbelievably（無法相信得）heavy.

It was the weight of the fish and he let the line slip down, down, down, unrolling off the first of the two rerve coils（魚線卷）.

As it went down, slipping lightly through the old man's fingers, he still could feel the great weight, though the pressure of his thumb and finger were almost imperceptible（感覺不到的，極細微的）.

“What a fish,” he said. “He has it sideways in his mouth now and he is moving off with it.”

Then he will turn and swallow（吞）it, he thought. He did not say that becau he knew that if you said a good thing it might not happen.

He knew what a huge fish this was and he thought of him moving away in the darkness with the tuna held crosswi（橫向交叉，成十字的）in his mouth.

At that moment he felt him stop moving but the weight was still there. Then the weight incread and he gave more line. He tightened（加固，拉緊） the pressure of his thumb and finger for a moment and the weight incread and was going straight down.

“He’s taken it,” he said. “Now I’ll let him eat it well.”