英语听书《海底两万里》第312期 第23章 珊瑚王国(9)

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　　Why were we forbidden to talk with each other!  为什么我们被阻止，彼此不能说话！

　　At least let us lead the lives of the fish that populate this liquid element, or better yet, the lives of amphibians², which can spend long hours either at sea or on shore,  至少，希望我们生活能跟繁殖在海水中的鱼类一样，或更进一步，能跟那些两栖动物一样，它们可以在长期间内，

　　traveling through their double domain³ as their whims⁴ dictate⁵! 随它们的意思，往来地上，游泳水中！

　　Meanwhile Captain Nemo had called a halt. My companions and I stopped walking, and turning around, I saw the crewmen form a semicircle around their leader.  可是尼摩船长站住了。我的同伴和我也停止前进，我回过头来，看见船员们作半圆形围绕着他们伪首领。

　　Looking with greater care, I observed that four of them were carrying on their shoulders an object that was oblong in shape. 我更细心地看，看到其中有四人肩上抬着一件长方形的东西。

　　At this locality we stood in the center of a huge clearing surrounded by the tall tree forms of this underwater forest.  我们站的是一块宽大空地的中心地方，围绕四周的是海底森林的高大突出的枝权。

　　Our lamps cast a sort of brilliant twilight⁶ over the area, making inordinately⁷ long shadows on the seafloor.  我们的照明灯在这广阔的空间中射出模糊的光线，把地上阴影拉得特别长。

　　Past the boundaries of the clearing, the darkness deepened again, relieved only by little sparkles given off by the sharp crests⁸ of coral. 空地的尽处，更是漆黑，只有珊瑚的尖刺留住了一些稀疏的亮光。

　　Ned Land and Conseil stood next to me. We stared, and it dawned on me that I was about to witness a strange scene.  尼德·兰和康塞尔站在我身边。我们留心看着，我心里想，我是要参加一个很离奇的场面了。

　　Observing the seafloor,  我观察地面，

　　I saw that it swelled⁹ at certain points from low bulges¹⁰ that were encrusted with limestone¹¹ deposits and arranged with a symmetry that betrayed the hand of man. 看到好几处，由于石灰质的堆积，由于人手的规律性的安排，有微微隆起的瘤子，地面显得鼓起来的样子。

　　In the middle of the clearing, on a pedestal of roughly piled rocks, there stood a cross of coral, extending long arms you would have thought were made of petrified¹² blood. 在空地中间，随便堆起来的石头基础上，竖起一副珊瑚的十字架，这十字架两边横出的两条长胳膊，简直使人要认为是石质的血制成的呢。

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