Mary Discovers a Secret Garden and Reflects on Her New Life

Mary in Yorkshire They arrived at a very large old house. It looked dark and unfriendlyadj.不友好的 from the outside. Inside, Mary looked around the big shadowyadj.朦胧的 hall and felt very small and lostverb.失去. They went straight upstairsadv.在楼上. Mary was shown to a room where there was a warm fire and food on the table. "This is your room," said, Mrs. Medlock. "Go to bed when you've had some suppernoun.晚餐. And remember you must stay in your room. Mr. Craven doesn't want you to wanderverb.漫游 all over the house."

When Mary wokeverb.醒来 up the next morning, she saw a young servant girl cleaning the fireplacenoun.壁炉. The room seemedverb.似乎 dark and ratheradv.宁可 strangeadj.陌生的 with pictures of dogs and horses and ladies on the walls. It was not a child's room at all. From the window, she could not see any trees or houses, only wildadj.野生的 landnoun.陆地 which looked like a kind of purple sea. "Who are you?" she asked the servantnoun.仆人 coldly. "Martha, missverb.未击中," answered the girl with a smile.

"And what's that outside?" Mary continuedverb.继续. "That's the mower!" Smiledverb.微笑 Martha. "Do you like it?" "No," repliedverb.回答 Mary immediatelyadv.立即. "I hateverb.恨 it." "That's because you don't know it. You will like it." "I love it. It's lovely in spring and summer when there are flowers. It always smellsverb.闻出 so sweet. The air so fresh and the birds sing so beautifullyadv.美丽地. I never want to leave the mower." Mary was feeling very bad-temperedverb.使回火. "You're a strangeadj.陌生的 servantnoun.仆人," she said. "In India, we don't have conversationsnoun.会话 with servantsnoun.仆人. We give orders and they obeyverb.顺从 and that's that."

Martha did not seemverb.似乎 to mindverb.介意 Mary's crossness. "I know. I talk too much," she laughed. "Are you going to be my servantnoun.仆人?" asked Mary. "Well, not reallyadv.真正地. I work for, Mrs. Medlock. I'm going to clean your room and bring you your food. But you won't need a servantnoun.仆人 except for those things." "But who's going to dress me?" Martha stopped cleaning and staredverb.以星状物装饰 at Mary. "But can I dress this, then?" She asked, shockedverb.使休克. "What do you mean? I don't understandverb.(understood) 理解 your language."

"Oh, I forgot. We all speak the Yorkshire dialectnoun.方言 here. But, of course, you don't understandverb.(understood) 理解 that. I meant to say, 'Can't you put on your own clothes?'" "Of courseadv.当然 not. My servantnoun.仆人 always used to dress me." "Well, I think you should learn to dress yourself." "My mother always says people should be ableadj.有能力的 to take care of themselves, evenadv.甚至 if they're richadj.富有的 and importantadj.重要的." Little Miss Mary was furiousadj.狂怒的 with Martha. "It's different in India where I come from. You don't know anything about India or about servantsnoun.仆人 or about anything.

You—you—" She could not explainverb.解释 what she meant. Suddenlyadv.突然地, she felt very confusedadj. and lonelyadj.孤独的. She threw herself down on the bed and started crying wildlyadv.疯狂地. "Now, now, don't cry like that," Martha said gentlyadv.有礼貌地. "I'm very sorry. You're right. I don't know anything about anything. Please stop crying, Miss." She soundedverb.听（诊） kindadj.善良的 and friendlyadj.友好的, and Mary began to feel better and soon stopped crying. Martha went on talking as she finished her cleaning. But Mary looked out of the window in a boredadj.无聊的 way and pretendedverb.假装 not to listen.

"I've got eleven brothers and sisters, you know, Miss. There's not much money in our house, and they all eat so much food. Mother says it's the good, fresh air on the moornoun.沼地 that makes them so hungry. My brother, Dickon, is always out on the moornoun.沼地. He's twelve, and he's got a horse, which he ridesverb.使摆脱 sometimesadv.有时." "Where did he get it?" asked Mary. She had always wanted an animal of her own, and so she began to feel a little interestnoun.兴趣 in Dickon.

"Oh, it's a wildadj.野生的 horse, but he's a kind boy, and animals like him, you see. Now, you must have your breakfast, Miss. Here it is, on the table." "I don't want it," said Mary. "I'm not hungry." "What?" cried Martha. "My little brothers and sisters would eat all this in five minutes." "Why?" asked Mary coldly. "Because they don't get enough to eat. That's why. And they're always hungry." "You're very lucky to have the food, Miss." Mary said nothing, but she drank some tea and ate a little bread.

"Now, put a coat on and run outside to play," said Martha. "It'll do you good to be in the fresh air." Mary looked out of the window at the cold, greyadj.灰色的 sky. "Why should I go out on a day like this?" she asked. "Well, there's nothing to play with indoors, is there?" Mary realizedverb.实现 Martha was right. "But who will go with me?" she said. Martha staredverb.以星状物装饰 at her. "Nobody. You'll have to learn to play by yourself. Dickon plays by himself on the moorsnoun.沼地 for hours with the wildadj.野生的 birds and the sheep and the other animals."

She looked away for a moment. "Perhapsadv.也许 I shouldn't tell you this, but one of the walled gardens is lockedverb.锁上 up. Nobody's been in it for ten years. It was Mrs Craven's garden, and when she died so suddenlyadv.突然地, Mr Craven lockedverb.锁上 it and buriedverb.埋葬 the key. Oh, I must go. I can hear Mrs Medlock's bell ringing for me." Mary went downstairsadv.在楼下 and wanderedverb.漫游 through the great empty gardens. Many of the fruit and vegetable gardens had walls roundverb.环绕…而行 them, but there were no locked doors.

She saw an old man diggingverb.掘 in one of the vegetable gardens, but he looked crossadj.交叉的 and unfriendlyadj.不友好的, so she walked on. "How uglyadj.难看的 it all looks in winter," she thought. "But what a mysterynoun.神秘 the locked garden is. Why did my uncle buryverb.埋葬 the key? If he loved his wife, why did he hateverb.恨 our garden? Perhapsadv.也许 I'll never know. I don't supposeverb.猜想 I like him if I everadv.在任何时候 meet him, and he won't like me, so I won't be ableadj.有能力的 to ask him."

Just then she noticedverb.注意 a robinnoun.知更鸟 singing to her from a tree on the other side of a wall. "I want that trees in the secretadj.秘密的 garden," she told herself. "There's an extraadj.额外的 wall here, and there's no way in." She went back to where the gardenernoun.园丁 was diggingverb.掘 and spoke to him. At first he answered in a very bad-temperedverb.使回火 way, but suddenlyadv.突然地 the robinnoun.知更鸟 flew down near them and the old man began to smileverb.微笑. He looked a different person then, and Mary thought how much nicer people looked when they smiledverb.微笑.

The gardenernoun.园丁 spoke gentlyadv.有礼貌地 to the robinnoun.知更鸟 when the prettyadv.[主口]相当地 little bird hoppedverb.单足跳跃〔跳行〕 on the ground near them. "He's my friend," he is, said the old man. "There aren't any other robinsnoun.知更鸟 in the garden, so he's a bitnoun.一点 lonelyadj.孤独的." He spoke in strong Yorkshire dialectnoun.方言, so Mary had to listen carefullyadv.小心地 to understandverb.(understood) 理解 him. She looked very hard at the robinnoun.知更鸟. "I'm lonelyadj.孤独的 too," she said. She had not realisedverb.了解 this before. "What's your name?" she asked the gardenernoun.园丁.

"Ben Weatherstaff. I'm lonelyadj.孤独的 myself. The robinnoun.知更鸟's my onlyadj.唯一的 friend, you see." "I haven't got any friends at all," said Mary. Yorkshire people always say what they are thinking, and old Ben was a Yorkshire Moor man. "We're alikeadv.类似于, you and me," he told Mary. "We're not pretty to look at, and we're both very disagreeable." Nobody had everadv.在任何时候 said this to Mary before. "Am I reallyadv.真正地 as uglyadj.难看的 and disagreeable as Ben?" she wonderedverb.想知道. Suddenlyadv.突然地, the robinnoun.知更鸟 flew to a tree near Mary and started singing to her.

Ben laughed loudlyadv.大声地. "Well," he said, "I want to be your friend." "Oh, would you please be my friend?" she whisperedverb.低声地讲 to the robinnoun.知更鸟. She spoke in a softadj.软的, quiet voice, and old Ben looked at her in surprise. "You said that reallyadv.真正地 nicelyadv.漂亮地," he said. "You soundverb.听（诊） like Dickon when he talks to animals on the moornoun.沼地." "Do you know Dickon?" asked Mary. But just then, the robinnoun.知更鸟 flew away. "Oh, look, he's flown into the garden with no door., please, Ben, how can I get into it?" Ben stopped smilingverb.微笑 and picked up his spadenoun.铲.

"You can't, and that's that. It's not your businessnoun.商业. Nobody can find the door. Run away and play, will you? I must get on with my work." And he walked away. He did not evenadv.甚至 say goodbye. In the next few days, Mary spent almostadv.几乎 all her time in the gardens. The fresh air from the moornoun.沼地 made her hungry and she was becoming stronger and healthier. One day, she noticedverb.注意 the robinnoun.知更鸟 again. He was on top of a wall singing to her.

"Good morning. Isn't this fun? Come this way," he seemedverb.似乎 to say as he hoppedverb.单足跳跃〔跳行〕 along the wall. Mary began to laugh as she danced alongadv.向前 beside him. "I know the secretadj.秘密的 gardens on the other side of this wall," she thought excitedly. "And the robinnoun.知更鸟 lives there. But where's the door?" That evening, she asked Martha to stay and talk to her beside the fire after suppernoun.晚餐. They could hear the wind blowing round the old house, but the room was warm and comfortableadj.舒适的.

Mary only had one ideanoun.想法 in her head. "Tell me about the secretadj.秘密的 garden," she said. "Well, alright then, Miss, but we aren't supposedverb.猜想 to talk about it, you know." It was Mrs Craven's favourite garden she and Mr Craven used to take care of it themselves. They spent hours there reading and talking, very happy they were. They used the branchnoun.树枝 of an old tree as a seat. But one day, when she was sitting on the branchnoun.树枝, it brokeverb.打破 and she fell.

She was very badlyadv.坏 hurt and the next day she died. That's why it hatesverb.给……戴上帽子 the garden so much and won't let anyone go in there. "How sad!" Said Mary. "Poor Mr Craven!" It was the first time that she had everadv.在任何时候 felt sorry for anyone. Just then, as she was listening to the wind outside, she heard another noise in the house. "Can you hear a child crying?" she asked Martha. Martha looked confusedadj.. "No!" She repliedverb.回答. "No! I think it must be the wind."

But at that moment, the wind blew open their door and they heard the crying very clearlyadv.明白地. "I told you!" Cried Mary. At once, Martha shut the door. "It was the wind!" She repeated, but she did not speak in her usualadj.通常的 naturaladj.自然界的 way and Mary did not believeverb.相信 her. The next day, it was very rainyadj.下雨的, so Mary did not go out. Insteadadv.代替, she decidedverb.决定 to wanderverb.漫游 roundadj.圆的 the house, looking into some of the hundred rooms that Mrs Medlock had told her about.

She spent all morning going in and out of dark, silentadj.沉默的 rooms which were full of heavy furniture and old pictures. She saw no servantsnoun.仆人 at all and was on her way back to her room for lunch when she heard a cry. "It's a bitnoun.一点 like the cry that I heard last night," she thought. Just then, the housekeepernoun.女管家, Mrs Medlock appearedverb.出现 with her keys in her hand. "What are you doing here?" she asked crossly. "I didn't know which way to go and I heard someone crying," answered Mary.