2. Translate the following similes.
1. There was a mile of clear road ahead, straight as a die. 2. I came into her room half an hour before the bridal dinner, and found her lying on her bed as lovely as the June night in her flowered dress — and as drunk as a monkey. 3. It had begun to rain. Umbrellas sprouted like mushrooms to right and left. 4. Here and there, among the more familiar things, plants of cactus stood up like the listening ears of strange animals. 5. All day since reading that letter there'd been a queer taste in my mouth, like copper, like blood. 6. He makes most people with so-called principles look like empty tin cans. 7. Luckily the night was mild. He won't have caught pneumonia. Besides, he's as strong as an ox. 8. The sanitation won't bear looking at. In a dry summer the kids die like flies with infantile cholera. 9. All were packed, despite the elongation of the vehicle, like herrings in a tin. 10. Mary would be all right now, right as rain.
APPENDIX 3
Exercise 3. Translate the following extract into Russian from the story “Will you walk into my parlour?” by Th. Dreiser. Compare your translation with the published one and answer the questions.
It was a sweltering noon in July, Gregory, after several months of meditation on the warning given him by his political friend, during which time nothing to substantiate it had occurred was making ready to return to the seaside hotel to which his prosperity entitled him. It was a great affair, the Triton, about sixty minutes from his office, facing the sea and amid the pines and sands of the island. His wife, «girl» as he conventionally referred to her, had been compelled in spite of the plot which had been revealed or suggested, owing to the ailing state of their child, to go up the mountains to her mother for advice and comfort.
Owing to the imminence of the fall campaign, however, he could riot possibly leave. Week-days and Sundays, and occasionally nights he was busy ferreting out and substantiating one fact and another in regard to the mismanagement of the city, which was to be used as ammunition a little later on. The Mayor and his «ring», as it was called, were to be ousted, at all costs. He, Gregory was certain to be rewarded if that came to pass. In spite of that he was eminently sincere as to the value and even the necessity of what he was doing. The city was being grossy mismanaged. What greater labor than to worm out the details and expose them to the gaze of an abused and irritated citizenship?
Был душный июльский полдень. Поразмыслив несколько месяцев над предостережением, которое сделал ему приятель и политический единомышленник и которое за это время никак не подтвердилось, Грегори собирался поехать в приморский отель; право на пребывание там давало, достигнут тое им благополучие. Это был роскошный отель «Тритон», всего в часе езды от его конторы, расположенный у моря, среди сосен и песков Айленда. Несмотря па то, что против Грегори, видимо, готовился заговор, жена его, «девочка», как обычно он называл ее, была вынуждена из-за болезненного состояния их ребенка поехать в горы к своей матери, чтобы посоветоваться с ней и отдохнуть.
В связи с близостью осенней предвыборной кампании ему, однако, нельзя было совсем оставить город. И в будние дни и в воскресенье до поздней ночи он был занят поисками и обоснованием фактов, вскрывавших преступность городского управления, их надлежало использовать в качестве боевого снаряжения некоторое время спустя. Любой иеной надо было свалить мэра и его клику. Грегори был убежден, что, если это произойдет, он не останется в накладе. В то же время он искренне верил в необходимость того, что делал. Городом управляли преступники. Разыскать упрятанные в воду концы и выставить их для обозрения оскорбленных и возмущенных граждан — что может быть важнее!
Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: |