五大湖的旖旎风光（二）-异域风情-休闲英语-轻松英语-洪恩在线

The Great Lakes--2

Lake Michigan 　　The next day the ship enters Lake Huron, the second largest of the lakes. You can smell north here; the wind has the resinous taste of pine, and stings having blown a long way across cold water.

　　The ship enters St Mary's River at the upper end[1] of Huron at twilight. The river is wide and still. On either side of the river the forest comes down to the water. The country behind rises to low hunched mountains. The overwhelming impression is its absolute silence. Not even Huron itself seemed so wide, so empty, so soundless as these woods. In this silence, a gull rises beside the rail and then wheels and soars high, floats for a moment and then vanishes.

Dusk on Lake Michigan 　　Our destination now is Superior, the largest freshwater lake in the world, also the deepest of the Lakes. There is a graceful stillness on Lake Superior. The rounded humped[2] mountains along the shores look like burial mounds of the gods.

　　The ship slowly steams up to Fort William. The town wears the look of
[3] any city, but what strikes one most is the gleaming tracks and lines of cars. Forty-eight hours later we enter Lake Michigan. It is the only one of the lakes that built Chicago[4]. It is the main route of the Oceangoing ships. Its shores are green and tangled in the north and white with dunes to the east. Lake Superior

　　Now the whole lake is glassy, and the sky is black. There are distant rumbles, and suddenly the storm comes. In no time the ship begins to lift and roll. The curtains swing. Lightning illuminates the whole ship. From that windless dusk to this black age, tomorrow the ship is to reach Chicago. Chicago? Shouldn't it be a port it England or France? Well, it is better to lie and listen to the water.

注释：

1. upper end：上游。表示河或湖的上游、下游要用upper和lower。可以说upper end（lower end），也可以说upper reach（lower reach）。

2. humped：隆起的。是从hump这个词变来的。Hump作动词是“隆起”的意思；作名词有“驼背、驼峰”的意思，俚语里它还可以直接指“骆驼”，甚至可以指一支骆驼牌香烟呢！

3. wears the look of：和……一样。look是“外表”的意思，“穿着……的外表”引申地理解就是“和……一样”。Wear像这样引申含义的用法很多，再比如：wear a cheerful smile 面代快活的微笑。

4. built Chicago：密歇根湖是五大湖中唯一完全被包围在美国境内的湖，而芝加哥则位于密歇根湖的沿岸，而且其海运完全依靠密歇根湖。因此说“Michigan built Chicago.”芝加哥的兴起没有密歇根湖是不可能的。

五大湖的旖旎风光（二）

　　第二天，船进入休伦湖，五大湖第二大的湖。在这里，你可以嗅到北方气息，风儿吹来了松树的清香味，还吹来了跨越冰冷的水域远道而来的松针。

　　黎明时分船进入了休伦湖上游的圣玛丽河。这条河的河面既宽阔又平静。两岸的森林一直延伸到水边。后面是低矮的山峰。最令以人难以忘怀的是这里的幽静。即使是休伦湖本身也没有这些树林那么宽广、那么空旷、那么寂静。一片寂静中，一只欧从船栏边飞起，在空中盘旋翱翔，悠然飞了一会儿便消失得无影无踪。

　　下一个目的地是苏必利尔湖，世界上最大的淡水湖，也是五大湖中最深的湖。苏必利尔湖幽雅宁静。沿岸呈弓状隆起的那些圆形山丘看上去像神仙们的坟墓。

　　船缓缓地向威廉城堡航行。这座城镇和其他城镇一样，但它给人以最深印象的却是汽车驶过后留下的一道道发亮的痕迹。48小时后，船进入了密执安湖。它是五大湖中唯一使芝加哥得以开埠的湖，是远洋轮的主要航道。它的北岸苍翠欲滴，草木丛生；东岸是白色的沙丘。

　　湖水明净如镜，天空灰暗，远处传来隆隆的雷声，狂风暴雨骤起。船马上开始摇晃。天帘拉开了，闪电把整条船照得雪亮。经历了从风平浪静的黄昏到这个黑暗时期，船明天也许将抵达芝加哥。芝加哥？该不是英国或法国的某个港口吧？好吧，还是躺下来听浪涛声吧！