综合教程5课文与课文翻译.docxVIP

THE FOURTH OF JULY Audre Lorde The first time I went to Washington D.C. was on the edge of the summer when I was supposed to stop being a child. At least thats what they said to us all at graduation from the eighth grade. My sister Phyllis graduated at the same time from high school. I don t know what she was supposed to stop being. But as graduati on prese nts for us both, the whole family took a Fourth of July trip to Washington D.C., the fabled and famous capital of our country. Detailed Readi ng It was the first time rd ever bee n on a railroad train duri ng the day. When I was little, and we used to go to the Connecticut shore, we always went at night on the milk train , because it was cheaper. Preparati ons were in the air around our house before school was eve n over. We packed for a week. There were two very large suitcases that my father carried, and a box filled with food. I n fact, my first trip to Washington was a mobile feast; I started eating as soon as we were comfortably ensconced in our seats, and did not stop until somewhere after Philadelphia. I remember it was Philadelphia because I was disappo in ted not to have passed by the Liberty Bell. My mother had roasted two chickens and cut them up into dainty bite-size pieces. She packed slices of brow n bread and butter, and gree n pepper and carrot sticks. There were little violently yellow iced cakes with scalloped edges called marigolds, that came from Cushmans Bakery. There was a spice bun and rock-cakes from Newt ons, the West In dia n bakery across Lenox Avenue from St. Marks school, and iced tea in a wrapped mayonnaise jar. There were sweet pickles for us and dill pickles for my father, and peaches with the fuzz still on them, in dividually wrapped to keep them from bruis ing. And, for n eat ness, there were piles of n apk ins and a little tin box with a washcloth dampe ned with rosewater and glyceri ne for wipi ng sticky mouths. I wan ted to eat in the dining car because I had read all about