Английский язык с У. С. Моэмом. На окраине империи. Рассказы / W. S. Maugham: Stories

Cooper was watching him. His brown eyes, deep in their sockets, were hard and supercilious, and on his lips was a mocking smile, he had heard a good deal about Mr. Warburton in Kuala Solor, not a bad sort, and he ran his district like clockwork, they said, but by heaven, what a snob! They laughed at him good-naturedly, for it was impossible to dislike a man who was so generous and so kindly, and Cooper had already heard the story of the Prince of Wales and the game of baccarat. But Cooper listened without indulgence. From the beginning he had resented the Resident`s manner.

He was very sensitive, and he writhed under Mr. Warburton`s polite sarcasms (он был очень впечатлительным, и он тяжело переносил вежливый сарказм мистера Уорбертона; sensitive — чувствительный; сенсорный;впечатлительный, чуткий; ранимый; to writhe — скручивать, сплетать; корчиться /от боли/; to writhe under sth. — терзаться чем-либо). Mr. Warburton had a knack of receiving a remark of which he disapproved with a devastating silence (у мистера Уорбертона было умение получать замечание/высказывание, которое он не одобрял, с опустошающим = убийственным молчанием; knack — умение, сноровка; ирон. склонность, "особый талант"). Cooper had lived little in England and he had a peculiar dislike of the English (Купер мало жил в Англии и у него была особая неприязнь к англичанам). He resented especially the public-school boy since he always feared that he was going to patronise him (он обижался в особенности на учеников привилегированных школ, так как всегда боялся, что они будут смотреть на него свысока: «собираются относиться к нему свысока»; to patronize— заботиться, опекать, покровительствовать; относиться свысока). He was so much afraid of others putting on airs with him that (он так сильно боялся, чтобы другие не задирали перед ним нос, что; putting on airs— важничать, зазнаваться, кичиться; задирать нос, напускать на себя важность), in order as it were to get in first (словно для того, чтобы опередить их), he put on such airs as to make everyone think him insufferably conceited (он напускал на себя такую важность, чтобы заставить каждого = всех считать его несносно самодовольным).

sarcasm ['sQ: kxzm], writhe [rQIр], insufferably [In'sAfqrqblI], conceited [kqn'si: tId]

He was very sensitive, and he writhed under Mr. Warburton`s polite sarcasms. Mr. Warburton had a knack of receiving a remark of which he disapproved with a devastating silence. Cooper had lived little in England and he had a peculiar dislike of the English. He resented especially the public-school boy since he always feared that he was going to patronise him. He was so much afraid of others putting on airs with him that, in order as it were to get in first, he put on such airs as to make everyone think him insufferably conceited.

"Well, at all events the war has done one good thing for us (ну, во всяком случае, война сделала одну хорошую вещь для нас; at all events — во всяком случае)," he said at last (произнес он наконец). "It`s smashed up the power of the aristocracy (она разгромила власть аристократии; to smash up — разбивать вдребезги; ломать;разгромить). The Boer War started it, and 1914 put the lid on (бурская война начала это, а 1914 /год/ положил /ей/ конец; to put the lid on — довершить дело, положить конец;lid — крышка)."