Florence（ from Neither Here Nor There）.doc

Florence（?from?Neither?Here?Nor?There）by?Bill?Bryson I went on the world’s slowest train to Florence.?It limped across the landscape like a runner with a pulled muscle, and it had no buffet.?At first it was crowded, but as afternoon gave way to evening and evening merged into the inkiness of night, there were fewer and fewer of us left, until eventually it was a businessman buried in paperwork and a guy who looked as if he was on his way to an Igor look-alike competition and me.?Every two or three miles the train stopped at some darkened station where no train had stopped for weeks, where grass grew on the platforms and where no one got on and no one got off. 我坐了世上最慢的列车去佛罗伦萨。列车像一位肌肉抽痉的跑者艰难地驶过大地，车上没有餐饮。起初车还拥挤，当下午过去傍晚来临，当夜色转成漆黑，车上的人越来越少，最后留下一个埋头文件的生意人，一个好像去参加伊万（代表俄罗斯男子）长相竞赛的家伙和我。列车每行驶2、3英里就要在一些昏暗的车站停下，这些车站有几个星期没有列车停过，站台上长了草，没有人在那里上下列车。?????Sometimes the train would come to a halt in the middle of nowhere, in the black countryside, and just sit.?It would sit for so long that you began to wonder if the driver had gone off into the surrounding fields for a pee and fallen down a well.?After a time the train would roll backwards for perhaps thirty yards, then stop and sit again.?Then suddenly, with a mightily whoop that made the carriage rock and the windows sound as if they were about to implode, a train on the parallel line would fly past.?Bright lights would flash by – you could see people in there dining and playing cards, having a wonderful time, moving across Europe at the speed of a laser – and then all would be silence again and we would sit for another eternity before our train gathered the energy to creep onwards to the next desolate station. 有时列车会在停在前不着村、后不着店的黑暗郊外，列车停的时光很长，你开始疑惑司机下车撒尿，到边上的地里，掉落井里了。一会儿列车会向后滚动约30码，停住不动。突然有强大的轰隆声，使车厢震动，使窗子发出即将爆裂的声响，在平行线路上有一列车飞驶而过。明亮的光闪过，可以看见那里有人在进餐、在玩牌，正渡美好的时光，那列车以激光的速度奔驰在欧洲大地上。然后又安静了，我们要没完没了地坐等列车聚集起能量爬向下一个无人的车站。 ???? It was well after eleven when we reached Florence.?I was starving and weary and felt that I deserved any l