Английский язык с Робинзоном Крузо
Шрифт:
97
Have you ever thought how many things are necessary for the making of your
bread?
You have nothing to do but eat the bread after others have made it. But I had to
sow, to reap, to thrash, to grind, to sift, to mix, and to bake.
To do all these I needed many tools.
I had no plow to turn up the ground. I had no spade nor shovel with which to dig
it. But with great labor I made me a wooden spade, which was better than nothing.
After the ground was turned up, I sowed the seed by scattering it with my hands.
But it must be covered so it would grow, and I had no harrow. I cut down the branch of a
tree, and dragged it over the field. This, I think, was the way that people in old times
harrowed their ground.
The third thing to be done was to build a fence around my field. After that came
the reaping, the curing, the carrying home, the thrashing, the parting of the grain from the
chaff, the grinding.
I needed a mill to do the grinding. I needed a sieve to sift the flour. I needed yeast
and salt to mix with the dough. I needed an oven to bake it.
I had to do without the most of these things. And this made my work very slow
and hard.
I was very lucky in having saved so many tools from the wreck, and for this I was
indeed thankful. What a hard case I would have been in if I had saved nothing at all!
From time to time, as I felt the need of things I made a number of tools that
served me very well. They were not such tools as you would buy at the store, but what
did it matter?
I have already told you about the shovel which I made from a piece of hard wood.
Next to the shovel I needed a pickax most of all.
Among the many things that I had saved from the wreck, I found an old crowbar.
This I heated in the fire until it was almost white hot.
I then found that I could bend it quite easily. Little by little I shaped it until I had
made quite a good pickax of it. Of course, it was heavy and not at all pretty. But who
would look for beauty in a pickax?
Мультиязыковой
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I at first felt the need of some light baskets in which to carry my fruit and grain.
So I began to study how baskets are made.
It was not until I had searched almost every nook on the island that I found some
long slender twigs that would bend to make wicker ware. Then I [73] spent many an hour
learning how to weave these twigs together and shape them into the form of a basket.
In the end, however, I was able to make as good baskets as were ever bought in
the market.
I had quite a goodly number of edge tools. Among these there were three large
axes and a great store of hatchets; for you will remember that we carried hatchets to trade
with the savages. I had also many knives.
But all these became very dull with use. I had saved a grindstone from the wreck,
but I could not turn it and grind my tools at the same time.
I studied hard to overcome this difficulty. At last, I managed to fasten a string to
the crank of the grindstone in such a way that I could turn it with my foot.
My tools were soon sharp, and I kept them so.
I BECOME A POTTER (становлюсь
WHEN it came to making bread (когда предстояло делать хлеб), I found that I
needed several vessels (несколько сосудов). In fact, I needed them in many ways (на
деле, они нужны были мне по многим причинам).
Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www
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It would be hard to make wooden vessels (было бы тяжело делать деревянные
сосуды). Of course it was out of the question to make vessels of iron or any other metal
(конечно, не стояло вопроса = было совершенно невозможно сделать сосуды из
железа или любого другого металла). But why might I not make some earthen vessels
(но почему не мог я сделать несколько глиняных сосудов)?
If I could find some good clay (если бы я смог найти хорошую глину), I felt
quite sure that I could make pots strong enough to be of use (я чувствовал полную
уверенность, что я смогу делать горшки достаточно крепкими, чтобы быть
годными к использованию, полезными).
After much trouble I found the clay. The next thing was to shape it into pots or
jars (придать форму горшков или кувшинов).
You would have laughed to see the first things I tried to make (вы бы
посмеялись, увидев первые вещи, которые я сделал). How ugly they were (какими
уродливыми они были)!
Some of them fell in pieces of their own weight (некоторые их них распадались
на кусочки от собственного веса). Some of them fell in pieces when I tried to lift them
(когда я пытался поднять их).
They were of all shapes and sizes (всех форм и размеров).