Читаем Английский язык с Джеромом К. Джеромом. Трое в лодке, не считая собаки полностью

There was a boy at our school, we used to call him Sandford and Merton. His real name was Stivvings. He was the most extraordinary lad I ever came across. I believe he really liked study. He used to get into awful rows for sitting up in bed and reading Greek; and as for French irregular verbs there was simply no keeping him away from them. He was full of weird and unnatural notions about being a credit to his parents and an honour to the school; and he yearned to win prizes, and grow up and be a clever man, and had all those sorts of weak-minded ideas. I never knew such a strange creature, yet harmless, mind you, as the babe unborn.

Well, that boy used to get ill about twice a week, so that he couldn't go to school. There never was such a boy to get ill as that Sandford and Merton. If there was any known disease going within ten miles of him, he had it, and had it badly. He would take bronchitis in the dog-days, and have hay-fever at Christmas. After a six weeks' period of drought, he would be stricken down with rheumatic fever; and he would go out in a November fog and come home with a sunstroke.


They put him under laughing-gas one year, poor lad (его усыпили веселящим газом: «положили под газ» в каком-то году, беднягу), and drew all his teeth, and gave him a false set (и вырвали все его зубы, и поставили ему искусственные челюсти; to draw a tooth; false — неверный, фальшивый; set — комплект, набор), because he suffered so terribly with toothache (потому что он так ужасно страдал от зубной боли); and then it turned to neuralgia and ear-ache (потом она сменилась невралгией и ушной болью; to turn to — превращаться). He was never without a cold, except once for nine weeks while he had scarlet fever (он никогда не был без простуды, кроме /однажды/ девяти недель, пока болел скарлатиной); and he always had chilblains (и у него всегда были обморожения). During the great cholera scare of 1871 (во время большой холерной эпидемии 1871 года; scare — внезапный испуг; паника), our neighbourhood was singularly free from it (наша местность была необычно свободной от нее = нашу округу болезнь совсем не затронула). There was only one reputed case in the whole parish (был лишь один известный случай во всем приходе): that case was young Stivvings (молодой Стиввингс).

He had to stop in bed when he was ill (ему приходилось оставаться в постели, когда он болел), and eat chicken and custards and hot-house grapes (и есть цыплят, и пудинги, и виноград из оранжереи; custard — жидкий заварной крем /подается к пудингам, пирогам с фруктами и т.д./); and he would lie there and sob, because they wouldn't let him do Latin exercises (а он лежал и рыдал, потому что ему не позволяют делать латинские упражнения), and took his German grammar away from him (и забирали у него немецкую грамматику).


false [fɔ:ls] toothache [ˈtu:Ɵeɪk] chilblain [ˈʧɪlbleɪn] cholera [ˈkɔlǝrǝ] reputed [rɪˈpju:tɪd]


They put him under laughing-gas one year, poor lad, and drew all his teeth, and gave him a false set, because he suffered so terribly with toothache; and then it turned to neuralgia and ear-ache. He was never without a cold, except once for nine weeks while he had scarlet fever; and he always had chilblains. During the great cholera scare of 1871, our neighbourhood was singularly free from it. There was only one reputed case in the whole parish: that case was young Stivvings.

He had to stop in bed when he was ill, and eat chicken and custards and hot-house grapes; and he would lie there and sob, because they wouldn't let him do Latin exercises, and took his German grammar away from him.


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