Pig 4

4
By the time he was six years old, young Lexington had grown into a most beautiful boy with long
golden hair and deep blue eyes the colour of cornflowers. He was bright and cheerful, and already
he was learning to help his old aunt in all sorts of different ways around the property, collecting
the eggs from the chicken house, turning the handle of the butter churn, digging up potatoes in the
vegetable garden and searching for wild herbs on the side of the mountain. Soon, Aunt Glosspan
told herself, she would have to start thinking about his education.
But she couldn’t bear the thought of sending him away to school. She loved him so much now
that it would kill her to be parted from him for any length of time. There was, of course, that
village school down in the valley, but it was a dreadful-looking place, and if she sent him there she
just knew they would start forcing him to eat meat the very first day he arrived.
‘You know what, my darling?’ she said to him one day when he was sitting on a stool in the
kitchen watching her make cheese. ‘I don’t really see why I shouldn’t give you your lessons
myself.’
The boy looked up at her with his large blue eyes, and gave her a lovely trusting smile. ‘That
would be nice,’ he said.
‘And the very first thing I should do would be to teach you how to cook.’
‘I think I would like that. Aunt Glosspan.’
‘Whether you like it or not, you’re going to have to learn some time,’ she said. ‘Vegetarians like
us don’t have nearly so many foods to choose from as ordinary people, and therefore they must
learn to be doubly expert with what they have.’
‘Aunt Glosspan,’ the boy said, ‘what do ordinary people eat that we don’t?’
‘Animals,’ she answered, tossing her head in disgust.
‘You mean live animals?’
‘No,’ she said. ‘Dead ones.’
The boy considered this for a moment.
‘You mean when they die they eat them instead of burying them?’
‘They don’t wait for them to die, my pet. They kill them.’
‘How do they kill them, Aunt Glosspan?’
‘They usually slit¹ their throats with a knife.’
‘But what kind of animals?’
‘Cows and pigs mostly, and sheep.’
‘Cows!’ the boy cried. ‘You mean like Daisy and Snowdrop and Lily?’
‘Exactly, my dear.’
‘But how do they eat them, Aunt Glosspan?’
‘They cut them up into bits and they cook the bits. They like it best when it’s all red and bloody²
and sticking to the bones. They love to eat lumps of cow’s flesh with the blood oozing³ out of it.’
‘Pigs too?’
‘They adore pigs.’
‘Lumps of bloody pig’s meat,’ the boy said. ‘Imagine that. What else do they eat. Aunt
Glosspan?’
‘Chickens.’
‘Chickens!’
‘Millions of them.’
‘Feathers and all?’
‘No, dear, not the feathers. Now run along outside and get Aunt Glosspan a bunch of chives,
will you, my darling.’
Shortly after that, the lessons began. They covered five subjects, reading, writing, geography,
arithmetic, and cooking, but the latter was by far the most popular with both teacher and pupil. In
fact, it very soon became apparent that young Lexington possessed⁴ a truly remarkable⁵ talent in this
direction. He was a born cook. He was dextrous and quick. He could handle his pans like a
juggler⁶. He could slice a single potato in twenty paper-thin slivers⁷ in less time than it took his aunt
to peel it. His palate was exquisitely⁸ sensitive, and he could taste a pot of strong onion soup and
immediately detect the presence of a single tiny leaf of sage⁹. In so young a boy, all this was a bit
bewildering to Aunt Glosspan, and to tell the truth she didn’t quite know what to make of it. But
she was proud as proud as could be, all the same, and predicted a brilliant future for the child.
‘What a mercy it is,’ she said, ‘that I have such a wonderful little fellow to look after me in my
dotage¹⁰.’ And a couple of years later, she retired¹¹ from the kitchen for good, leaving Lexington in
sole charge of all household cooking. The boy was now ten years old, and Aunt Glosspan was
nearly eighty.

1 slit   

n.狭长的切口；裂缝；vt.切开，撕裂

参考例句：

• The coat has been slit in two places.这件外衣有两处裂开了。
• He began to slit open each envelope.他开始裁开每个信封。

2 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

3 oozing   

v.（浓液等）慢慢地冒出，渗出( ooze的现在分词 )；使（液体）缓缓流出；（浓液）渗出，慢慢流出

参考例句：

• Blood was oozing out of the wound on his leg. 血正从他腿上的伤口渗出来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The wound had not healed properly and was oozing pus. 伤口未真正痊瘉，还在流脓。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 possessed   

adj.疯狂的；拥有的，占有的

参考例句：

• He flew out of the room like a man possessed.他像着了魔似地猛然冲出房门。
• He behaved like someone possessed.他行为举止像是魔怔了。

5 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

6 juggler   

n. 变戏法者, 行骗者

参考例句：

• Dick was a juggler, who threw mists before your eyes. 迪克是个骗子，他在你面前故弄玄虚。
• The juggler juggled three bottles. 这个玩杂耍的人可同时抛接3个瓶子。

7 slivers   

（切割或断裂下来的）薄长条，碎片( sliver的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Margret had eight slivers of glass removed from her cheek. 从玛格列特的脸颊取出了八片碎玻璃。
• Eight slivers are drawn together to produce the drawn sliver. 在末道并条机上，八根棉条并合在一起被牵伸成熟条。

8 exquisitely   

adv.精致地；强烈地；剧烈地；异常地

参考例句：

• He found her exquisitely beautiful. 他觉得她异常美丽。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He wore an exquisitely tailored gray silk and accessories to match. 他穿的是做工非常考究的灰色绸缎衣服，还有各种配得很协调的装饰。 来自教父部分

9 sage   

n.圣人，哲人；adj.贤明的，明智的

参考例句：

• I was grateful for the old man's sage advice.我很感激那位老人贤明的忠告。
• The sage is the instructor of a hundred ages.这位哲人是百代之师。

10 dotage   

n.年老体衰；年老昏聩

参考例句：

• Even in his dotage,the Professor still sits on the committee.即便上了年纪，教授仍然是委员会的一员。
• Sarah moved back in with her father so that she could look after him in his dotage.萨拉搬回来与父亲同住，好在他年老时照顾他。

11 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。