Chapter 7
It was a bitter winter. The stormy weather was followed by sleet【n. 雨夹雪，冻雨；雨淞】 and snow，and then by a hard frost which did not break till well into February. The animals carried on as best they could with the rebuilding of the windmill，well knowing that the outside world was watching them and that the envious【adj. 羡慕的；嫉妒的】 human beings would rejoice and triumph if the mill were not finished on time.
那是一个寒冷的冬天。风雪交加，接着是雨夹雪，接着是严寒，一直到二月才降下来。动物们都在竭尽全力地重建风车，因为他们心里很清楚，外面的世界正在注视着他们，如果风车不能按时完工，那些嫉妒的人类将会为此而欢欣鼓舞。
Out of spite，the human beings pretended not to believe that it was Snowball who had destroyed the windmill：they said it had fallen down because the walls were too thin. The animals knew that it was not the case. Still，it had been decided to build the walls three feet thick this time instead of eighteen inches as before，which meant collecting much larger quantities of stone. From long time quarry was full of snow drifts and nothing could be done. Some progress was made in the dry frosty weather that followed，but it was cruel work，and the animals could not feel so hopeful about it as they had felt before. They were always cold and usually hungry as well. Only Boxer and Clover never lost heart. Squealer made excellent speeches on the joy of service and dignity of labour，but the other animals found more inspiration in Boxer’s strength and his never-failing cry of “I will work harder！”
那些人出于恶意，假装不相信风车是斯诺鲍破坏的，他们说风车倒了是因为墙太薄。动物们知道事实并非如此。不过，他们还是决定这一次把墙筑三英尺厚，而不是上次的十八英寸厚，这就意味着要收集多得多的石头。在很长一段时间里，采石场积满了雪，什么也做不了。接下来的干燥霜冻的天气里，他们取得了一些进展，但那是一项残酷的工作，动物们再也不像以前那样对此抱有希望了。他们总是很冷，通常也很饿。只有鲍克瑟和克拉弗没有丧失信心。斯奎拉发表了一通关于为国效力的欢乐和劳动的尊严的精彩演说，而其他动物却从鲍克瑟的力量和他那永不停止的“我要更加努力工作”的口号中，找到了更多的灵感。
