Mary's Journey to Her Uncle's Lonely Manor

Little Miss Mary Nobody seemedverb.似乎 to careverb.关心 about Mary. She was bornverb.承担 in India, where her father was a British officialnoun.官员. He was busy with his work, and her mother, who was very beautiful, spent all her time going to parties. So an Indian woman, Kamala, was paid to take care of the little girl. Mary was not a pretty child. She had a thin, angry face, and thin yellow hair. She was always giving orders to Kamala, who had to obeyverb.顺从.

Mary never thought of other people, but only of herself. In factnoun.事实, she was a very selfishadj.自私的, disagreeable, bad-temperedverb.使回火 little girl. One very hot morning, when she was about nine years old, she wokeverb.醒来 up and saw that insteadadv.代替 of Kamala, there was a different Indian servantnoun.仆人 by her bed. "What are you doing here?" she asked crossly. "Go away, and send Kamala to me at once." The woman looked afraid. "I'm sorry, Miss Mary. She, she, she can't come."

Something strangeadj.陌生的 was happening that day. Some of the house servantsnoun.仆人 were missingverb.未击中, and everybody looked frightenedadj.害怕的, but nobody told Mary anything, and Kamala still did not come. So at last, Mary went out into the garden and played by herself under a tree. She pretendedverb.假装 she was making her own flower garden and picked large red flowers to push into the ground. All the time, she was saying crossly to herself, "I hateverb.恨 Kamala! I'll hitverb.打 her when she comes back!"

Just then, she saw her mother coming into the garden with a young Englishman. They did not noticeverb.注意 the child, who listened to their conversationnoun.会话. "It's very bad, is it?" her mother asked the young man in a worriedadj.担心的 voice. "Very bad," he answered seriouslyadv.严重地. "People are dying like flies. It's dangerousadj.危险的 to stay in this town. You should go to the hills, where there's no diseasenoun.病." "Ah, I know," she cried. "We must leave soon." Suddenlyadv.突然地, they heard loudadj.响亮的 cries coming from the servantsnoun.仆人' rooms at the side of the house.

"What's happened?" cried Mary's mother wildlyadv.疯狂地. "I think one of your servantsnoun.仆人 has just died. You didn't tell me the diseasenoun.病 is here in your house." "I didn't know!" She screamedverb.尖叫. "Quickadj.快的, come with me!" And together, they ran into the house. Now Mary understoodverb.(understood) 理解 what was wrong. The terribleadj.可怕的 diseasenoun.病 had already killedverb.杀死 many people in the town, and in all the houses, people were dying. In Mary's house, it was Kamala who had just died. Later that day, three more servantsnoun.仆人 died there.

All through the night and the next day, people ran in and out of the house, shoutingverb.呼喊 and crying. Nobody thought of Mary. She hid in her bedroom, frightenedverb.使惊恐 by the strangeadj.陌生的 and terribleadj.可怕的 sounds that she heard around her. Sometimesadv.有时 she cried and sometimesadv.有时 she slept. When she wokeverb.醒来 the next day, the house was silentadj.沉默的. "Perhapsadv.也许 the diseasenoun.病 has gone," she thought, "and everybody is well again. I wonderverb.想知道 who will take care of me insteadadv.代替 of Kamala.

Why doesn't someone bring me some food?" "It's strangeadj.陌生的 the house is so quiet." "But just then, she heard men's voices in the hall." "How sad," said one, "that beautiful woman." "There was a child, too, wasn't there?" said the other, although none of us everadv.在任何时候 saw her. Mary was standing in the middle of her room when they opened the door a few minutes later. The two men jumped back in surprise. "My name is Mary Lennox," she said crossly.

"I was asleep when everyone was ill, and now I'm hungry." "It's the child, the one nobody everadv.在任何时候 saw," said the older man to the other. "They've all forgotten her." "Why was I forgotten?" asked Mary angrilyadv.愤怒地. "Why has nobody come to take care of me?" The younger man looked at her very sadlyadv.. "Poor child," he said. "You see, there's nobody left aliveadj.活着的 in the house, so nobody can come." In this strangeadj.陌生的 and suddenadj.突然的 way, Mary learnt that both her mother and her father had died.

The few servantsnoun.仆人 who had not died had run away in the night. No one had remembered little Miss Mary. She was all aloneadj.单独的. Because she had never known her parents well, she did not missverb.未击中 them at all. She only thought of herself, as she had always done. "Where will I live?" she wonderedverb.想知道. "I hopeverb.希望 I'll stay with people who let me do what I want." At first she was taken to an English family who had known her parents.

She hatedverb.给……戴上帽子 their untidyadj.不整洁的 house and noisyadj.嘈杂的 children and preferred playing by herself in the garden. One day she was playing her favourite game, pretendingverb.假装 to make a garden, when one of the children, Basil, offeredverb.提供 to help. "Go away!" Cried Mary. "I don't want your helpnoun.帮手!" For a moment, Basil looked angry, and then he began to laugh. He danced roundadv.在周围 and roundadv.在周围 Mary and sang a funny little song about Miss Mary and her stupidadj.愚蠢的 flowers. This made Mary very crossverb.穿过 indeedadv.真正地.

No one had everadv.在任何时候 laughed at her so unkindly. "You're going home soon," said Basil. "And we're all very pleasedadj.开心的 you're leaving." "I'm pleasedadj.开心的 too," repliedverb.回答 Mary. "But where's home?" "You're stupidadj.愚蠢的, if you don't know that," laughed Basil. "England, of course. You're going to live with your uncle, Mr Archibald Craven." "I've never heard of him," said Mary coldly. "But I know about him because I heard father and mother talking," said Basil. "He lives in a big, lonelyadj.孤独的 old house and has no friends because he's so bad-temperedverb.使回火. He's got a crookedadj.弯曲的 back and he's horrid."

"I don't believeverb.相信 you," cried Mary. But the next day, Basil's parents explainedverb.解释 that she was going to live with her uncle in Yorkshire in the north of England. Mary looked boredadj.无聊的 and crossverb.穿过 and said nothing. After the long sea journeynoun.旅行, she was met in London by Mr Craven's housekeepernoun.女管家, Mrs Medlock. Together, they traveled northadv.在北方 by train. Mrs Medlock was a large woman with a very red face and brightadj.明亮的 black eyes. Mary did not like her, but that was not surprisingadj.令人惊讶的 because she did not usuallyadv.通常地 like people.

Mrs Medlock did not like Mary either. "What a disagreeable child!" Thoughtnoun.思考 the housekeepernoun.女管家. "But perhapsadv.也许 I should talk to her." "I can tell you a bitnoun.一点 about your uncle, if you like," she said aloudadv.出声地. "He lives in a big old house a long way from anywhereadv.在什么地方. There are nearlyadv.差不多 a hundred rooms, but mostadj.最多的 of them are shut and lockedverb.锁上. There's a big park roundnoun.圆 the house and all kinds of gardens." "Well, what do you think of that?" "Nothing," repliedverb.回答 Mary.

"It doesn't matterverb.有关系 to me." Mrs Medlock laughed. "You're a hard little girl." "Well, if you don't careverb.关心, Mr Craven doesn't either. He never spends time on anyone. He's got a crookedadj.弯曲的 back, you see, and although he's always been richadj.富有的, he was never reallyadv.真正地 happy until he marriedverb.娶." "Marriedadj.已婚的?" repeated Mary in surprise. "Yes?" "He marriedverb.娶 a sweet, pretty girl and he loved her deeplyadv.深刻地." "So when she died?" "Oh, did she die?" asked Mary, interested. "Yes, she did."

"And now he doesn't careverb.关心 about anybody. If he's at home, he stays in his room and sees nobody. He won't want to see you, so you must stay out of his way and do what you're told." Mary staredverb.以星状物装饰 out of the train window at the gray sky and the rain. She was not looking forward to life at her uncle's house. The train journeynoun.旅行 lastedverb.(使)持续 all day and it was dark when they arrived at the station. Then there was a long drivenoun.驱动器 to get to the house.

It was a cold, windyadj.有风的 night and it was raining heavilyadv.重重地. After a while, Mary began to hear a strangeadj.陌生的, wildadj.野生的 noise. She looked out of the window but could see nothing except the darknessnoun.黑暗. "What's that noise?" she asked, Mrs. Medlock. "It's not the sea, is it?" "No, that's the mua. It's the sound the wind makes blowing across the mua." "What is a mua?" "It's just milesnoun.英里 and milesnoun.英里 of wildadj.野生的 landnoun.陆地 with no trees or houses. Your uncle's house is right on the edgenoun.边缘 of the mua."