核心词汇
1. suppose /səˈpoʊz/ (v.) 料想
2. extend /ɪkˈstend/ (v.) 延长
3. steadily /ˈstedəli/ (adv.) 稳步地
4. favorable /ˈfeɪvərəbl/（adj.）有利的；有帮助的
5. handle /ˈhændl/ (v.) 应付；处理
6. harshness /ˈhɑːrʃnəs/ (n.) 粗糙的事物
7. teeter /ˈtiːtər/ (v.) 摇晃；摇摇欲坠；蹒跚行走
8. delicate /ˈdelɪkət/ (adj.) 脆弱的；娇嫩的
9. stiffen /ˈstɪfn/ (v.) 变僵硬；变得不易弯曲
10. company /ˈkʌmpəni/ (n.) 作伴；陪伴；同伴
11. submerge /səbˈmɜːrdʒ/ (v.) （使）潜入水中，（使）没入水中；浸没
12. carcass /ˈkɑːrkəs/ (n.) 残骸；骨架
核心短语
1. stay with sb. 和某人待在一起
2. wait for sb./sth. 等待…；等着…
3. on one’s shoulder 在某人肩上
4. breaking point 爆发点；失控点；极限
5. pay attention to 注意
6. so that 以便；以至于
7. be afraid of 害怕…
8. kneel down 跪下
选段正文
“Fish,” he said softly, aloud, “I’ll stay with you until I am dead.”
He’ll stay with me too, I suppose (料想), the old man thought and he waited for it to be light.
It was cold now in the time before daylight (白天) and he pushed against the wood to be warm. I can do it as long as he can, he thought.
And in the first light the line extended (延长) out and down into the water. The boat moved steadily (稳步地) and when the first edge (边缘) of the sun rose it was on the old man’s right shoulder.
“He’s headed north,” the old man said. The current will have set us far to the eastward, he thought. I wish he would turn with the current. That would show that he was tiring (疲劳).
When the sun had risen further the old man realized that the fish was not tiring. There was only one favorable (有利的) sign.
The slant (倾斜) of the line showed he was swimming at a lesser depth. That did not necessarily mean that he would jump. But he might.
“God let him jump,” the old man said. “I have enough line to handle (应付) him.”
Maybe if I can increase the tension (张力) just a little it will hurt him and he will jump, he thought.
Now that it is daylight let him jump so that he’ll fill the sacks along his backbone with air and then he cannot go deep to die.
He tried to increase the tension, but the line had been taut (拉紧的) up to the very edge of the breaking point since he had hooked the fish and he felt the harshness (粗糙，这里延申为勒手) as he leaned back to pull and knew he could put no more strain on it.
I must not jerk (急拉) it ever, he thought. Each jerk widens the cut the hook makes and then when he does jump he might throw it.
Anyway, I feel better with the sun and for once I do not have to look into it. There was yellow weed (杂草) on the line but the old man knew that only made an added drag and he was pleased.
It was the yellow Gulf weed that had made so much phosphorescence (磷光) in the night.
“Fish,” he said, “I love you and respect you very much. But I will kill you dead before this day ends.” Let us hope so, he thought.
A small bird came toward the skiff from the north. He was a warbler (莺) and flying very low over the water.
The old man could see that he was very tired. The bird made the stern (船尾) of the boat and rested there.
Then he flew around the old man’s head and rested on the line where he was more comfortable.
“How old are you?” the old man asked the bird. “Is this your first trip?”
The bird looked at him when he spoke. He was too tired even to examine the line and he teetered (摇晃) on it as his delicate (娇嫩的) feet gripped (抓牢) it fast (牢固地）.
“It’s steady,” the old man told him. “It’s too steady. You shouldn’t be that tired after a windless (无风的) night. What are birds coming to?”
The hawks (鹰), he thought, that come out to sea to meet them. But he said nothing of this to the bird who could not understand him anyway and who would learn about the hawks soon enough.
“Take a good rest, small bird,” he said. “Then go in and take your chance like any man or bird or fish.”
It encouraged him to talk because his back had stiffened (变僵硬) in the night and it hurt truly now.
“Stay at my house if you like, bird,” he said. “I am sorry I cannot hoist the sail and take you in with the small breeze that is rising. But I am with a friend.”
Just then the fish gave a sudden lurch that pulled the old man down onto the bow and would have pulled him overboard if he had not braced himself and given some line.
The bird had flown up when the line jerked and the old man had not even seen him go. He felt the line carefully with his right hand and noticed his hand was bleeding (流血).
“Something hurt him then,” he said aloud and pulled back on the line to see if he could turn the fish. But when he was touching the breaking point he held steady and settled back against the strain of the line.
“You’re feeling it now, fish,” he said. “And so, God knows, am I.”
He looked around for the bird now because he would have liked him for company (作伴). The bird was gone.
You did not stay long, the man thought. But it is rougher (艰难的) where you are going until you make the shore. How did I let the fish cut me with that one quick pull he made?
I must be getting very stupid. Or perhaps I was looking at the small bird and thinking of him. Now I will pay attention to my work and then I must eat the tuna so that I will not have a failure of strength.
“I wish the boy were here and that I had some salt,” he said aloud.
Shifting the weight (重量) of the line to his left shoulder and kneeling (跪着) carefully he washed his hand in the ocean and held it there, submerged (没入水中), for more than a minute watching the blood trail away and the steady movement of the water against his hand as the boat moved.
“He has slowed much,” he said.
The old man would have liked to keep his hand in the salt water longer but he was afraid of another sudden lurch (突然的倾斜或摇晃) by the fish and he stood up and braced (支撑) himself and held his hand up against the sun. It was only a line burn that had cut his flesh (肉).
But it was in the working part of his hand. He knew he would need his hands before this was over and he did not like to be cut before it started.
“Now,” he said, when his hand had dried, “I must eat the small tuna. I can reach him with the gaff and eat him here in comfort.”
He knelt down and found the tuna under the stern (船尾) with the gaff (鱼叉) and drew it toward him keeping it clear of the coiled lines.
Holding the line with his left shoulder again, and bracing on his left hand and arm, he took the tuna off the gaff hook and put the gaff back in place.
He put one knee on the fish and cut strips (条状) of dark red meat longitudinally (纵向地) from the back of the head to the tail.
They were wedge-shaped strips and he cut them from next to the back bone down to the edge of the belly.
When he had cut six strips he spread them out on the wood of the bow (船首), wiped (擦) his knife on his trousers, and lifted the carcass (残骸) of the bonito by the tail and dropped it overboard.
