2. 外语
  3. Chancing to take a memorable walk by moonlight some years ago, I resolved to take more such walks, and make acquaintance with an

Chancing to take a memorable walk by moonlight some years ago, I resolved to take more such walks, and make acquaintance with an

admin2014-12-11  28
问题     Chancing to take a memorable walk by moonlight some years ago, I resolved to take more such walks, and make acquaintance with another side of Nature: I have done so.
    Is not the midnight like Central Africa to most of us? Are we not tempted to explore it, to penetrate to the shores of its Lake Tchad, and discover the source of its Nile, perchance the Mountains of the Moon? Who knows what fertility and beauty, moral and natural, are there to be found? In the Mountains of the Moon, in the Central Africa of the night, there is where all Niles have their hidden heads. The expeditions up the Nile as yet extend but to the Cataracts, or perchance to the mouth of the White Nile; but it is the Black Nile that concerns us.
    I shall be a benefactor, if I conquer some realms from the night, if I report to the gazettes anything transpiring about us at that season worthy of their attention, if I can show men that there is some beauty awake while they are asleep, if I add to the domains of poetry.
    Night is certainly more novel and less profane than day. I soon discovered that I was acquainted only with its complexion; and as for the moon, I had seen her only as it were through a crevice in a shutter, occasionally. Why not walk a little way in her light?
    Suppose you attend to the suggestions which the moon makes for one month, commonly in vain, will it not be very different from anything in literature or religion? But why not study this Sanscrit? What if one moon has come and gone, with its world of poetry, its weird teachings, its oracular suggestions, so divine a creature freighted with hints for me, and I have not used her? One moon gone by unnoticed?
    I think it was Dr. Chalmers who said, criticizing Coleridge, that for his part he wanted ideas which he could see all round, and not such as he must look at away up in the heavens. Such a man, one would say, would never look at the moon, because she never turns her other side to us. The light which comes from ideas which have their orbit as distant from the earth, and which is no less cheering and enlightening to the benighted traveler than that of the moon and stars, is naturally reproached or nicknamed as moonshine by such. They are moonshine, are they? Well, then, do your night-traveling when there is no moon to light you; but I will be thankful for the light that reaches me from the star of least magnitude. Stars are lesser or greater only as they appear to us so. I will be thankful that I see so much as one side of a celestial idea, one side of the rainbow and the sunset sky.
    Men talk glibly enough about moonshine, as if they knew its qualities very well, and despised them; as owls might talk of sunshine, — None of your sunshine! — but this word commonly means merely something which they do not understand, which they are abed and asleep to, however much it may be worth their while to be up and awake to it.
    It must be allowed that the light of the moon, sufficient though it is for the pensive walker, and not disproportionate to the inner light we have, is very inferior in quality and intensity to that of the sun. But the moon is not to be judged alone by the quantity of light she sends to us, but also by her influence on the earth and its inhabitants. "The moon gravitates toward the earth, and the earth reciprocally toward the moon." The poet who walks by moonlight is conscious of a tide in his thought which is to be referred to lunar influence. I will endeavor to separate the tide in my thoughts from the current distractions of the day. I would warn my hearers that they must not try my thoughts by a daylight standard, but endeavor to realize that I speak out of the night. All depends on your point of view. In Drake’s "Collection of Voyages", Wafer says of some Albinos among the Indians of Darien, "They are quite white, but their whiteness is like that of a horse, quite different from the fair or pale European, as they have not the least tincture of a blush or sanguine complexion... Their eyebrows are milk-white, as is likewise the hair of their heads, which is very fine... They seldom go abroad in the daytime, the sun being disagreeable to them, and causing their eyes, which are weak and poring, to water, especially if it shines towards them; yet they see very well by moonlight, from which we call them moon-eyed."
What does the author think of Dr. Chalmers?
选项 A、Dr. Chalmers was serious with his own thoughts.
B、Dr. Chalmers could understand ideas coming from afar.
C、Dr. Chalmers never walked under moonlight.
D、Dr. Chalmers was wrong when he criticized Coleridge.
答案D
解析 推理判断题。第六段首句提到Dr. Chalmers在批评Coleridge时说：他想要的思想是他能够全面看清的，而不是那种向天空远眺才能找到的：接下来写到有人会说“这样的人一定不会赏月，因为月亮不会把另一面转向我们”：从作者对月光的喜爱和感激可以推断作者对Dr. Chalmers的看法是持批判态度的，即作者认为他对Coleridge的批判是错误的，故答案为[D]。[A]项是对第六段首句中“he wanted ideaswhich he could see all round”的过度推断，可排除，由“not such as he must look at away up in the heavens”可排除[B]。[C]文章没有提到，可排除。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/pasYFFFM
0

专业英语八级

相关试题推荐
随机试题
最新回复(0)