(e) “ ‘There are amazingly few books written by farmers, people who really work in the landscape,’ he [Rebanks] said. ‘We live in arguably the most literary landscape in the world. For 200 years, it has been defined in words by Arthur Ransome, Beatrix Potter, Wordsworth, Coleridge. So you have an outsider’s version and insiders not bothering to explain to people, this is what we have to say.’ ”
(i) These were all writers based in and writing about Lake District.
(ii) Arthur Ransome
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Ransome
(1884 – 1967; Englishl best known for children's books about the school-holiday adventures of children, mostly in the Lake District and the Norfolk Broads
(iii) Beatrix Potter
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tale_of_Peter_Rabbit
(full name: Helen Beatrix Potter; 1866 – 1943; English; The 1902 book: The Tale of Peter Rabbit; In 1913, at the age of 47, she married William Heelis, a respected local solicitor from Hawkshead)
(iv) Samuel Taylor Coleridge
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Taylor_Coleridge
(1772 – 1834; English; with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement [or Romanticism] in England and a member of the Lake Poets)
(f) “He [Rebanks] left [school] at 16 but became a voracious reader after chancing upon ‘A Shepherd’s Life: Impressions of the South Wiltshire Downs,’ a 1910 book by the English naturalist W H Hudson. At 21, Mr Rebanks began evening classes to obtain A-Levels, the qualification that is a precondition for university entrance in Britain. * * * [He] add[ed] that the average income of a hill farm in the Lake District is around $13,000 a year. ‘Farming is a subsistence activity,’ he said.
(i) William Henry Hudson
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Henry_Hudson
(1841 – 1922; born in Argentina and son of US settlers of English and Irish origin; settled in England during 1874)
(ii) A-level
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-level
(g) “Among them [Rebanks’s Twitter followers] was The Atlantic, which commissioned an article about the odd intersection of Twitter and his traditional way of life. After the article was published in late 2013, a literary agent telephoned and asked if he had ever thought about writing a book. Mr Rebanks told him that he had already written one [on the sidelines, to amuse himself].”
Herdy Shepherd, Why This Shepherd Loves Twitter. The Atlantic, November 2013.
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a ... ves-twitter/281702/
There is no need to read it, which said nothing important.
(h) “ ‘The truth is that small, old-fashioned farms are under grave economic threat,’ he [Rebanks] said. ‘We are facing mass-market realities. And millions of people simply see this as a picture-postcard landscape. I’m putting my hand up and saying, this is the history of this place, this is what we do, this is how we’ve lived here for 5,000 years and will continue to do so if we can.’ ”
(i) put one's hand up: "to raise one's hand to get attention from whomever is in charge <The student put his hand up to ask a question of the teacher>
"idioms.thefreedictionary.com/put+hand+up
(ii) Contrast
hold/put your hands up: "MAINLY UK[:] to admit that something bad is true or that you have made a mistake <I know I'm bossy and I hold my hands up to that>"
dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/british/hold-put-your-hands-up
* As if to surrender. |
发表于 6-16-2015 15:41:28
收藏
分享
支持
反对
楼主