This passage is from Elizabeth Gaskell, North and South. Originally published in 1854-55. John Thornton would like his mother and his sister Fanny to pay a social visit to his friends, the Hales in Crampton.
Mr. Thornton希望自己的母亲和妹妹Fanny去拜访他的朋友——在Crampton镇的Hales一家。
Mr. Thornton had had some difficulty in working up his mother to the desired point of civility. She did not often make calls; and when she did, it was in heavy state that she went through her duties. Her son had given her a carriage; but she refused to let him keep horses for it; they were hired for the solemn occasions, when she paid morning or evening visits.
Mr. Thorton希望自己的母亲能多注重一下礼节，比如乘坐四轮马车去拜访亲朋好友，但是母亲却觉得四轮马车太隆重了。
civility n.礼貌，礼仪；solemn adj.严肃的，庄严的
She had had horses for three days, not a fortnight before, and had comfortably ‘killed off’ all her acquaintances, who might now put themselves to trouble and expense in their turn. Yet Crampton was too far off for her to walk; and she had repeatedly questioned her son as to whether his wish that she should call on the Hales was strong enough to bear the expense of cab-hire. She would have been thankful if it had not; for, as she said, ‘she saw no use in making up friendships and intimacies with all the teachers and masters in Milton; why, he would be wanting her to call on Fanny’s dancing-master’s wife, the next thing!’
母亲曾经雇了一辆马车，用了三天的时间就突击把所有的拜访搞定了。但是the Hales一家在Crampton，这地儿太远了，而且还得花钱租车。母亲抱怨道有必要跟Milton的所有老师和师傅都交朋友吗？“是不是下一个就要去拜访Fanny舞蹈老师的妻子了！”
fortnight n.两周；acquaintance n.熟人；
‘And so I would, mother, if Mr. Mason and his wife were friendless in a strange place, like the Hales.’
‘Oh! You need not speak so hastily. I am going tomorrow. I only wanted you exactly to understand about it.’
‘If you are going tomorrow, I shall order horses.’
‘Nonsense, John. One would think you were made of money.’
‘Not quite, yet. But about the horses I’m determined. The last time you were out in a cab, you came home with a headache from the jolting.’
‘I never complained of it, I’m sure.’
‘No. My mother is not given to complaints,’ said he, a little proudly. ‘But so much the more I have to watch over you. Now as for Fanny there, a little hardship would do her good.’
母亲终于决定明天就去拜访Hales一家，John马上说帮她订辆马车，两个人又产生了争执。母亲觉得这样会让别人以为咱家太有钱。John的理由是上次母亲坐普通的车晃的头晕。母亲坚称自己没有抱怨过这事。John说正是因为母亲从不抱怨，他反而更要多替母亲着想。但是——Fanny不一样，让她吃点苦头对她有利。
jolt v.摇动
‘She is not made of the same stuff as you are, John. She could not bear it.’ Mrs. Thornton was silent after this; for her last words bore relation to a subject which mortified her. She had an unconscious contempt for a weak character; and Fanny was weak in the very points in which her mother and brother were strong. Mrs. Thornton was not a woman much given to reasoning; her quick judgment and firm resolution served her in good stead of any long arguments and discussions with herself; she felt instinctively that nothing could strengthen Fanny to endure hardships patiently, or face difficulties bravely; and though she winced as she made this acknowledgment to herself about her daughter, it only gave her a kind of pitying tenderness of manner towards her; much of the same description of demeanour with which mothers are wont to treat their weak and sickly children.
母亲说Fanny跟你不一样，她可受不了坐普通的车。说完母亲突然沉默了，因为这个话有点敏感，一想到此她总会觉得难为情。她潜意识里鄙视虚弱的人，而Fanny正是这样的人。母亲不善解释，但思维敏锐。她的直觉告诉她Fanny没有勇气也没有耐心面对困难。她总是有点怜悯Fanny，所以对她就多了一些温柔。可能世上所有的母亲都对自己最弱的小孩有类似的同情。
resolution n.决心，决定；wince v.畏缩；demeanor n.行为，风度
A stranger, a careless observer might have considered that Mrs. Thornton’s manner to her children betokened far more love to Fanny than to John. But such a one would have been deeply mistaken. The very daringness with which mother and son spoke out unpalatable truths, the one to the other, showed a reliance on the firm center of each other’s souls, which the uneasy tenderness of Mrs. Thornton’s manner to her daughter, the shame with which she thought to hide the poverty of her child in all the grand qualities which she herself possessed unconsciously, and which she set so high a value upon in others — this shame, I say, betrayed the want of a secure resting-place for her affection. She never called her son by any name but John; ‘love,’ and ‘dear,’ and such like terms, were reserved for Fanny.
旁观者可能会觉得Mrs. Thornton对女儿比对儿子好得多，也更爱女儿。而事实正相反。Mrs. Thornton跟儿子说话可以直来直去而不必担心尴尬，正说明他们对彼此敞开着灵魂深处。但是当跟Fanny说话时，Mrs. Thornton总是有一种略带尴尬的温柔，这种温柔其实是一种羞耻感（the shame引导的这个分句是一个同位语，解释uneasy tenderness），用来掩饰对女儿的鄙视，说明她对女儿的爱没有一个可靠的安放之处。她从来都直接称呼她儿子为John，而“亲爱的”这种称呼是留给Fanny的。
betoken v.表示，预示；unpalatable a.不可口的；betray v.泄露（秘密）；want n.缺乏
（选自2020年3月亚太SAT阅读第一篇小说）
