Unit Six 
Text
Ernest Hemingway's story is about an incident
that happens between a father and his son. The small
boy's misunderstanding of the difference in measuring
temperature on aFahrenheit and a Celsius scale causes
him to believe that he is dying of a high fever. Howev
er, the father doesn't realize it until very late that
day...
A DAY'S WAIT
Ernest Hemingway
He came into the room to shut the windows while we were still in bed
and I saw he looked ill. He was shivering, his face was white, and he
walked slowly as though it ached to move.
"What's the matter, Schatz?"
5 "I've got a hesdache. "
"You better go back to bed. "
"No. I'm all right. "
"You go to bed. I'll see you when I'm dressed. "
But when I came downstairs he was dressed, sitting by the fire, look-
10 ing a very sick and miserable boy of nine years. When I put my hand on
his forehead I knew he had a fever.
"You go up to bed, " I said, "You're sick. "
"I'm all right, " he said.
When the doctor came he took the boy's temperature.
15 "What is it?" I asked him.
"One hundred and two. "
Downstairs, the doctor left three different medicines in different col-
ored capsules with instructions for giving them.One was to bring down the
fever, another a purgative, the third to overcome an acid condition. The
20 germs of influenza can only exist in an acid condition,he explained. He
seemed to know all about influenza and said there was nothing to worry
about if the fever did not go above one hundred and four degress.This was
a light epidemic of flu and there was no danger if you avoided pneumonia.
Back in the room I wrote the boy's temperature down and made a note
25 of the time to give the various. capsules.
"Do you want me to read to you?"
"All right.If you want to, " said the boy. His face was very white and
there were dark areas under his eyes. He lay still in the bed and seemed
very detached from what was going on.
30 I read aloud from Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates; but I could see he
was not following what I was reading.
"How do you feel, Schatz?" I asked him.
"Just the same, so far, " he said.
I sat at the foot of the bed and read to myself while I waited for it
35 to be time to give another capsule. It would have been natural for him to
go to sleep, but when I looked up he was looking at the foot of the bed,
looking very strangely.
"Why don't you try to sleep? I'11 wake you up for the medicine. "
"I'd rather stay awake. "
40 After a while he said to me, "You don't have to stay in here with me,
Papa, if it bothers you. "
"It doesn't bother me. "
"No, I mean you don't have to stay if it's going to bother you.
I thought perhaps he was a little lightheaded and after giving him the
45 prescribed capsules at eleven o'clock I went out for a while.It was a bright,
cold day,the ground covered with a sleet that had frozen so that it seemed
as if all the bare t rees, the bushes, the cut brush and all the grass and
the bare ground had been varnshed with ice, I took the young Irish setter
for a walk up the road and along a frozen creek, but it was difficult to
50 stand or walk on the glassy surface and the red dog slipped and slithered
and I fell twice, hard, once dropping my gun and having it slide away
over the ice.
We flushed a covey of quail under a high clay bank with overhanging
brush and i killed two as they went out of sight over the top of the bank.
Some of the covey lit in trees, but mostof them scattered into brush piles
55 nd it was necessary to jump on the ice-coated mounds of brush several
times before they would flush.Coming out while you were poised unstea-
dily on the icy, springy brush they made difficult shooting and I killed two,
missed five, and started back pleased to have found a covey close to the
house and happy there were so many left to on another day.
60 At the house they said the boy had refused to let anyone come into
the room.
"You can't come in," he said. " You mustn't get what I have."
I went up to him and found him in exactly the position I had left him,
white-faced, but with the tops of his cheeks flushed by the fever, staring
65 still, as he had stared, at the foot of the bed.
I took hes temperature.
"What is it?"
"Something like a hundred," I said. It was one hundred and two and
four tenths.
70 "It was a hundred and two," he said.
"Who said so?"
"The doctor."
"Your temperature is all right," I said. "It's nothing to worry about."
"I don't worry," he said, "but I can,t keep from thinking."
75 "Don't think," I said. "Just take it easy."
"I'm taking it easy," he said and looked straight ahead. He was evi-
dently holding tight onto himself about something.
"Take this with water."
"Do you think it will do any good?"
80 "Of course it will."
I sat down and opened the Pirate book ane commenced to read,but I
coud see he was not following, so I stopped.
"About what time do you think I'm going to die?" he asked.
"What?"
85 "About how long will it be before I die?"
"Youaren't going to die. What's the matter with you?"
"Oh, yes, I am. I heard him say a hundred and two. "
"People don't die with a fever of one hundred and two.That's a silly
way to talk. "
90 "I know they do.At school in France the boys told me you can't live
with forty-four degrees. I've got a hundred and two. "
He had been waiting to die all day, ever since nine o'clock in the
morn-ing
"You poor Schatz, " I said. "Poor old Schatz. It's like miles and kilo-
95 meters. You aren't going to die. That's a different thermometer. On that
thermometer thirty-seven is normal. On this kind it's ninety-eight. "
"Are you sure?"
"Absolutely, " I said. "It's like miles and kilometers. You know, like
how many kilometers we make when we do seventy miles in the car?"
100 "Oh, " he said.
But his gaze at the foot of the bed relaxed slowly. The hold over him-
self relaxed too, finally, and the next day it was very slack and he cried
very easily at little things that were of no importance.
New Words
shiver / v. shake, tremble, esp. from cold or fear
战栗，发抖
capsule / n. 胶囊(药)
instruction/ n. (often pl.) advice on how to do sth.;
order 用法说明;指示
instruct/ vt.
purgative /n. a medicine to produce bowel movements
泻药
acid /a. sour; marked by an abnormally high
concentra- tion of a sour substance
酸的;酸性物质过多的
germ / n. 病菌,细菌
influenza / n. a contagious disease which is like a
bad cold but more serious 流行性感冒
epidemic / n. & a. (disease) spreading rapidly among many
people in the same place for a time
流行病(的)
flu/ n. (short for) influenza
pneumonia / n. a serious illness with inflammation of
one or both lungs 肺炎
detached / a. indifferent; separate, not connected
超然的;冷漠的;分离的
detach/ vt.
pirate / n. a person who attacks and robs ships at
sea 海盗
papa/ n. father
lightheaded/a. unable to think clearly or move steadily
as during fever or after drinking alcohal;
dizzy and faint 神志不清的;眩晕的
prescribe / vt. orderor give (sth.) as a medicine or
treatment for a sick person开(药)
sleet/ n. amixture of rain and snow; rain that
freezes as it falls 雨夹雪;冻雨
brush/ n. rough low-growing bushes; small branches
bro-ken off from trees 矮灌木丛;断落
的树枝
varnish / vt. cover (sth.) with a smooth appearance
Irish /a. 爱尔兰(人)的
setter/ n. a type of dog with red hair; a hunting
dog 塞特狗
creek / n. small stream
glassy/ a. like glass, esp. (of water) smooth and
shining
slither / vi. slide unsteadily 不稳地滑动
slide / v. (cause to) move smoothly along a surface
(使)滑动
flush / v. drive (birds) up from the trees or
bushes so as to shoot; (of birds) fly
up suddenly (使)(鸟)惊飞
vi. (sides of the face) become rosy or
reddened by a sudden flow of blood to
the face (脸)发红
covey / n. a small flock or group (of small birds)
一小群(鸟)
quail /n. a kind of small bird, valued as food
鹌鹑
overhang/ v. hang over or stand out over 悬于...之上,
突出于...之上
light (lit or lighted)/ vi. land and settle 停落
scatter / vi. go off in all directions 散开
mound / n. small hill; a large pile of earth,
stones, etc. 土墩
poise /vt. balance
unsteadily / ad. shakily
unsteady/ a.
icy/ a. covered with ice; extremely cold
springy / a. flexible (as a spring moving up and
down) 有弹性的
csunmence / n. start; begin
thermomeier / n. an instrument for measuring and
showing tem- perature 温度计
absolutely/ ad. completely; certainly
gaze / vi. look long and steadily 凝视
slack / a. not tense; relaxed 松弛的;放松的
Phrases & Expressions
bring down reduce; cause to fall 减少，降低
be detached from show no interest in, be indifferent to
would rather would prefer to; would prefer that 宁愿
out of sight unable to be seen
keep from prevent oneself from (doing sth.); stop
(doing sth.)
take it easy not to work too hard; not to worry too
much 不紧张；不急
hold tight onto oneself keep firm control over oneself
Proper Name
Pyle 派尔(姓氏)
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