Chapter 19

 Jean was called up for examination, but with his insufficientpreparation he got hopelessly fogged in the intricacies of adifficult, tricky¹ piece of dictation and sums that were too longto be worked in the time allowed the candidates. He came home indespair. His father tried in his good-nature to reassure² him.

But a fortnight after came an unstamped letter summoning him tothe Ministry³, and after a three hours' wait he was shown intoMonsieur Bargemont's private room. He recognized his own dictationin the big man's hand.

"I am sorry," the functionary⁴ began, "to inform you that youhave entirely⁵ failed to pass the tests set you. You do not knowthe language of your own country, sir; you write _Maisons-Lafitte_without an 's' to _Maisons_. You cannot spell! and what is more,you do not cross your 't's.' You _must_ know at your age thata 't' ought to be crossed. It's past understanding, sir!"And striking fiercely at the sheet of foolscap on which the mistakeswere marked in red ink, he kept muttering: "It's past understanding,past understanding!" His face grew purple, and a swollen⁶ veinstood out on his forehead. A queer look in Jean's face gave himpause:

"Young man," he resumed in a calmer voice, "whatever I can dofor you, I will do, be sure of that; but you must not ask me todo impossibilities. We cannot enlist⁷ in the service of the Stateyoung men who spell so badly they write _Maisons-Lafitte_ withoutan 's' to the _Maisons_. It is in a way a patriotic⁸ duty for aFrenchman to know his own language. A year hence, the Ministrywill hold another examination, and I will enter your name. You havea year before you; work hard, sir, and learn your mother-tongue."Jean stood there scarlet⁹ with rage, hate in his heart, his eyesaflame, his throat dry, his teeth clenched¹⁰, unable to articulatea word; then he swung round like an automaton¹¹ and darted¹² fromthe room, banging the door after him with a noise of thunder;piles of books and papers rolled on to the floor of the Chief'soffice at the shock.

Monsieur Bargemont was left alone to digest his stupefaction; evenso his first thought was to save the honour of his Department.

He reopened the door and shouted, "Leave the room!" after Jean,who, mastered once more by his natural timidity, was flying likea thief down the corridors.

1 tricky   

adj.狡猾的，奸诈的；(工作等)棘手的，微妙的

参考例句：

• I'm in a rather tricky position.Can you help me out?我的处境很棘手，你能帮我吗？
• He avoided this tricky question and talked in generalities.他回避了这个非常微妙的问题，只做了个笼统的表述。

2 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。

3 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

4 functionary   

n.官员；公职人员

参考例句：

• No functionary may support or cover up unfair competition acts.国家官员不得支持、包庇不正当竞争行为。
• " Emigrant," said the functionary,"I am going to send you on to Paris,under an escort."“ 外逃分子，”那官员说，“我要把你送到巴黎去，还派人护送。”

5 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

6 swollen   

adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀

参考例句：

• Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因为整天站着，她的双腿已经肿了。
• A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂肿起来了。

7 enlist   

vt.谋取(支持等)，赢得；征募；vi.入伍

参考例句：

• They come here to enlist men for the army.他们来这儿是为了召兵。
• The conference will make further efforts to enlist the support of the international community for their just struggle. 会议必将进一步动员国际社会，支持他们的正义斗争。

8 patriotic   

adj.爱国的，有爱国心的

参考例句：

• His speech was full of patriotic sentiments.他的演说充满了爱国之情。
• The old man is a patriotic overseas Chinese.这位老人是一位爱国华侨。

9 scarlet   

n.深红色，绯红色，红衣；adj.绯红色的

参考例句：

• The scarlet leaves of the maples contrast well with the dark green of the pines.深红的枫叶和暗绿的松树形成了明显的对比。
• The glowing clouds are growing slowly pale,scarlet,bright red,and then light red.天空的霞光渐渐地淡下去了，深红的颜色变成了绯红，绯红又变为浅红。

10 clenched   

v.紧握，抓紧，咬紧( clench的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He clenched his fists in anger. 他愤怒地攥紧了拳头。
• She clenched her hands in her lap to hide their trembling. 她攥紧双手放在腿上，以掩饰其颤抖。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 automaton   

n.自动机器，机器人

参考例句：

• This is a fully functional automaton.这是一个有全自动功能的机器人。
• I get sick of being thought of as a political automaton.我讨厌被看作政治机器。

12 darted   

v.投掷，投射( dart的过去式和过去分词 )；向前冲，飞奔

参考例句：

• The lizard darted out its tongue at the insect. 蜥蜴伸出舌头去吃小昆虫。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The old man was displeased and darted an angry look at me. 老人不高兴了，瞪了我一眼。 来自《简明英汉词典》