Chapter 3 Tommy and Tuppence Compare Notes（1）

Chapter 3 Tommy and Tuppence Compare Notes

‘You look tired, Tuppence,’ said Tommy as at the close of dinner they wentinto the sitting-room¹ and Tuppence dropped into a chair, uttering severallarge sighs followed by a yawn.
‘Tired? I’m dead beat,’ said Tuppence.
‘What have you been doing? Not things in the garden, I hope.’
‘I have not been overworking myself physically,’ said Tuppence, coldly.
‘I’ve been doing like you. Mental research.’
‘Also very exhausting, I agree,’ said Tommy. ‘Where, particularly? Youdidn’t get an awful lot out of Mrs Griffin the day before yesterday, didyou?’
‘Well, I did get a good deal, I think. I didn’t get much out of the first re-commendation. At least, I suppose I did in a way.’
Opening her handbag, she tugged² at a notebook of rather tiresome³ size,and finally got it out.
‘I made various notes each time about things. I took some of the chinamenus along, for one thing.’
‘Oh. And what did that produce?’
‘Well, it’s not names that I write down so much as the things they say tome and tell me. And they were very thrilled at that china menu because itseemed it was one particular dinner that everyone had enjoyed very muchand they had had a wonderful meal–they hadn’t had anything like it be-fore, and apparently⁴ they had lobster⁵ salad for the first time. They’d heardof it being served after the joint⁶ in the richest and most fashionablehouses, but it hadn’t come their way.’
‘Oh,’ said Tommy, ‘that wasn’t very helpful.’
‘Well, yes it was, in a way, because they said they’d always rememberthat evening. So I said why would they always remember that evening andthey said it was because of the census⁷.’
‘What–a census?’
‘Yes. You know what a census is, surely, Tommy? Why, we had one onlylast year, or was it the year before last? You know–having to say, or mak-ing everyone sign or enter particulars. Everyone who slept under yourroof on a certain night. You know the sort of thing. On the night of Novem-ber 15th who did you have sleeping under your roof? And you have to putit down, or they have to sign their names. I forget which. Anyway, theywere having a census that day and so everyone had to say who was undertheir roof, and of course a lot of people were at the party and they talkedabout it. They said it was very unfair and a very stupid thing to have andthat anyway they thought it was really a most disgraceful thing to go onhaving nowadays, because you had to say if you had children and if youwere married, or if you were not married but did have children, andthings like that. You had to put down a lot of very difficult particulars andyou didn’t think it was nice. Not nowadays. So they were very upset aboutit. I mean, they were upset, not about the old census because nobodyminded then. It was just a thing that happened.’
‘The census might come in useful if you’ve got the exact date of it,’ saidTommy.
‘Do you mean you could check up about the census?’
‘Oh yes. If one knows the right people I think one could check up fairlyeasily.’
‘And they remembered Mary Jordan being talked about. Everyone saidwhat a nice girl she had seemed and how fond everyone was of her. Andthey would never have believed–you know how people say things. Thenthey said, Well, she was half German so perhaps people ought to havebeen more careful in engaging her.’

1 sitting-room   

n.（BrE）客厅，起居室

参考例句：

• The sitting-room is clean.起居室很清洁。
• Each villa has a separate sitting-room.每栋别墅都有一间独立的起居室。

2 tugged   

v.用力拉，使劲拉，猛扯( tug的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She tugged at his sleeve to get his attention. 她拽了拽他的袖子引起他的注意。
• A wry smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. 他的嘴角带一丝苦笑。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 tiresome   

adj.令人疲劳的，令人厌倦的

参考例句：

• His doubts and hesitations were tiresome.他的疑惑和犹豫令人厌烦。
• He was tiresome in contending for the value of his own labors.他老为他自己劳动的价值而争强斗胜，令人生厌。

4 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

5 lobster   

n.龙虾，龙虾肉

参考例句：

• The lobster is a shellfish.龙虾是水生贝壳动物。
• I like lobster but it does not like me.我喜欢吃龙虾，但它不适宜于我的健康。

6 joint   

adj.联合的，共同的；n.关节，接合处；v.连接，贴合

参考例句：

• I had a bad fall,which put my shoulder out of joint.我重重地摔了一跤，肩膀脫臼了。
• We wrote a letter in joint names.我们联名写了封信。

7 census   

n.(官方的)人口调查，人口普查

参考例句：

• A census of population is taken every ten years.人口普查每10年进行一次。
• The census is taken one time every four years in our country.我国每四年一次人口普查。