A good young man is wooing, a fair maiden he loves.

窈窕淑女，君子好逑。——《周南·关雎》

I miss her whom I cannot see. One day seems long as seasons three.

一日不见，如三秋兮。——《王风·采葛》

Meet or part, live or die, we’ve made oath, you and I. Give me your hand        I'll hold, and live with me till old.

死生契阔，与子成说。执子之手，与子偕老。——《邶风·击鼓》

纤云弄巧，飞星传恨， 

银汉迢迢暗度。       

金风玉露一相逢，    

便胜却人间无数。     

柔情似水，佳期如梦，

忍顾鹊桥归路。       

两情若是久长时，     

又岂在朝朝暮暮。          ——秦观《鹊桥仙·纤云弄巧》

Clouds float like works of art, stars shoot with grief at heart.

Across the Milky Way the cowherd meets the maid.

When autumn's golden wind embraces dew of jade,

all the love scenes on earth, however many, fade.

Their tender love flows like a stream, their happy date seems but a dream.

How can they bear a separate homeward way?

If love between both sides can last for aye,

why need they stay together night and day?     

                                    ——Immortals At the Magpie Bridge

Structure of the text

Part I (Para. 1) 

This part is the introduction which prepares for the topic of love. The narrator now has two daughters who are at the age of dating.They believe that their parents had a romantic story heading for marriage from the very beginning. However, It’s not completely true. She started dating Butch not for love but for fun because she wanted to get away from her boring college life.  

Part II (Paras.2-10)

This is the major part of the narrative. It is interspersed with flashbacks of the narrator’s dating experiences. The story records the long journey of love in a time sequence and describes in detail how she felt about Butch and how they together went through ups and downs for seven years before they finally got married.

Para. III (Para. 11)

This part echoes the beginning of the narration to reiterate that their love actually started with a casual attraction only but bloomed into a mature love for life. Having weathered the storm of love, their marriage now has turned out to be a long, romantic, sometimes crazy, love story, which sums up a 29-year long honeymoon.

Summary of the text

This text is a narrative that tells a romantic story about the author herself.

Their faithful journey of love that started with a casual attraction but bloomed into a mature love proves that romantic love can last long through the ups and downs in life.

Read through the story and try to answer the following questions.

Para 1:

1. The author's two daughters are at the age of dating. What do they think of their parents' love story?

2. Does the author hold the same opinion as her daughters'? Why?

Para 2: (First date)

3. What's Butch's feeling about the author?

4. What's the author’s attitude toward Butch?

Para. 3: (After the first date)

5. What's Butch's action?

6. What's the author's response?

7. For what did the author fall in love with Butch?

8. What was her real reason to find a boyfriend?

Paras 4-5: (One night)

9. Why did the author feel worried?

10. What did Butch do one night? What about the author?

Paras 6-7: (One month later)

11. What happened to Butch?

12. What did the author do for him?

13. What's the result?

Para 8: (Later)

14. What did the author realize?

Para 9: (Two years later)

15. What happened one day?

Para 10: (Five years later)

16. What happened to them?

Para 11:

17. How did the authorsummarize their long journey of love?

Translation Skill

    定语从句的翻译——后置翻译法

翻译英语的定语从句时，除了采用前置法之外，有时会使用后置翻译法，即在译文中将定语从句放在先行词的后面，译成一个独立的句子。由于非限制性定语从句多表示对主句的补充说明，因此多数情况下会使用后置翻译法。对于定语从句较长或先行词的定语成分较多的限定性定语从句，也可以采用后置翻译法。

Linda, who’s 21, had a boyfriend in her freshman year she thought she would marry,but they’re not together anymore. (Para. 1)

译文：琳达，21岁, 在大学一年级交过一个男友，她曾以为会跟那个男孩结婚，但他们已不再来往了。

1 有时为了使译文更加通顺，往往需要在定语从句前重复一下先行词，或使用人称代词和指示代词，使整句话变得更加紧凑。再来看两个使用后置翻译法的非限定性定语从句：

1. Afterwards, they went to London, where they lived for six years.

之后，他们去了伦敦，在那儿待了六年。（增加了指示代词“那儿”）

1. A five-year-old boy can speak two foreign languages, which surprises all of us.

一个五岁的小男孩能说两门外语，这让我们所有人都很惊讶。（增加指示代词“这”）

2 后置翻译法并非只能用在非限定性定语从句中，限定性定语从句也常常会用到。

The two countries finally reached an agreement on the issue of agriculture which was a major barrier for their bilateral relations since 1990s.

两国最终就农业问题达成了一致，这个问题自20世纪90年代以来一直是两国双边关系的主要障碍。

    定语从句的翻译——融合法

3 除了前置法和后置法之外，有时还可以将定语从句译作句子的谓语，译文句子不再有主、从句之分，这种方法叫融合法。融合法一般适用于定语从句的动词在整个复合句中分量较重的句子，因此定语从句可直接用作译文的谓语。

1. We have a social and political system which differs in many aspects from your own.

我们的社会政治体系在许多方面和你们的不同。

1. True, he’d sometimes take the liberty of displaying his love by planting a kiss on my lips right in front of my astonished friends who watched and disapproved.(Para. 8)

的确，他有时会在我朋友面前亲吻我的嘴，擅自表达他的爱。我的朋友看到了很惊讶，也很不以为然。（astonished、watched、disapproved相互融合，构成译文的谓语部分。）

拓展：汉语中用作补充说明的成分，可译作英语的非限制性定语从句，有时也可译作限制性定语从句。

1）华山是秦岭的一部分，秦岭不仅分隔陕南与陕北，也分隔华南与华北。

分析：该句重点描写华山，第二句中“秦岭”是次要内容，补充说明前面句中“秦岭”的情况。

Huashan Mountain constitutes part of Qinling Mountains, which not only divide Southern and Northern Shaanxi, but also separate South China and North China.

2）这里有许多温泉，其泉水有助于防治皮肤病。

分析：“其泉水……”描述温泉的好处，对其做补充说明，可译作英语的非限制性定语从句。

The area abounds in hot springs, whose water is conductive to the prevention and treatment of skin diseases.

I. Learn the structure of a narrative essay.

In this unit, you will learn how to write a narrative. At times we make a statement clear by relating in detail something that has happened. In the story we tell, we present the details in the order in which they happened. A person might say "I was embarrassed yesterday", and then go on to illustrate the statement with a narrative. His details could make his moment of embarrassment vivid and real for us, and we can understand just why he felt as he did.

A narrative, in some sense, is simply a story that illustrates a point. That point is often about an emotion you felt: anger, jealousy, confusion, thankfulness, loneliness, sadness, terror, or relief. It's not difficult to see that a key word illustrates a point and is usually embedded in a narrative. For example, if the key word is sad, it may make you think of the time when you visited your ex-girlfriend and found out she was dating someone else. In this case, your narrative should present your feeling of sadness. A good way to bring an event to life is to include some dialogs, which helps make a situation come alive. Besides, time signals and feelings are also important. In brief, when you write a narrative, you may go through several steps:

1 Write down whatever comes to your mind about the experience without worrying about spelling or grammar.
2 Write your thesis statement and make sure it contains the emotion you will focus on. For example, "The first day I saw my wife, my college sweetheart, was one of the happiest occasions in my life."
3 Make up a list of all the details involved in the experience. Then number these details according to the order in which they occurred.
4 Write a rough draft based on the listed details. Use time signals such as first, then, after, next, while, during, and finally to help connect details as you move from the beginning to the middle and to the end of the narrative. Make sure to include not only what happened but also how you felt about what was going on. You may make the experience vivid by using dialogs.

Now, take a look at Paragraph 2 of Text A. From this paragraph, you can see how the love story started.