From Babbitt
by Sinclair
Lewis
The
dinner was held in a private room at the Union Club. The club was a dingy
building, three pretentious old dwellings knocked into one, and the entrance
hall resembled a potato cellar, yet Babbitt who was free of the magnificence of
the Athletic Club entered with embarrassment. He nodded to the doorman, an
ancient proud Negro with brass buttons and a blue tail-coat, and paraded
through the hall, trying to look like a member.
Sixty
men had come to the dinner. They made islands and eddies in the hall; they
packed the elevator and the corners of the private dining-room. They tried to
be intimate and enthusiastic. They appeared to one another exactly as they had
in college—as raw youngsters whose present moustaches, baldnesses, paunches,
and wrinkles were but jovial disguises put on for the evening. “You haven’t
changed a particle!” they marveled. The men whom they could not recall they
addressed, “Well, well, great to see you again, old man. What are you—Still
doing the same thing?”
Someone
was always starting a cheer or a college song, and it was always thinning into
silence. Despite their resolution to be democratic they divided into two sets:
the men with dress-clothes and the men without. Babbitt (extremely in dress-clothes)
went from one group to the other.
Notes
and comments:
a diversion—an entertainment, an amusement;
развлечение, забавление
to diversify—to variegate; разнообразявам
a diversity—a variety; разнообразие,
(прен.) пъстрота
diverse = varisided = many-sided =
versatile
to divert—1) отклонявам, отвличам
(внимание); 2) забавлявам, развличам
to divert a blow—отклонявам/парирам удар
to divert the conversation—отклонявам
темата на разговор
to divert someone’s thoughts—разсейвам
нечии мисли
I am greatly diverted by this play.—Тази
пиеса много ме забавлява.
to revert—връщам се (to)
The fields have reverted to moorland.
Reverting to your original statement, I
think…
to invert—обръщам наопаки, преобръщам,
катурвам
to invert a glass—обръщам чаша с дъното
нагоре
to pervert—1) изопачавам, представям в
недействителна светлина; 2) развращавам, покварявам
to pervert (the mind of) a child
to convert—1) превръщам, преобразувам,
обръщам (into/to); 2) обръщам (в друга вяра и пр.) (into/to)
to convert securities into cash
to convert club funds to one’s own
use—използвам клубни средства незаконно за свои собствени цели
to convert a man from atheism to
Christianity
(sg.) alumnus—(pl.) alumni = бивш
възпитаник на даден университет/училище
(sg.) alumna—(pl.) alumnae = бивша
възпитаничка на даден университет/училище
to recall = спомням си
a memory = спомен
to remind = няпомням
a reminder = няпомняне; нещо, което напомня
to memorize = запаметявам
a memorandum = меморандум, паметна бележка
to remember = помня
a remembrance = сувенир, (подарък за)
спомен
memorable = забележителен, незабравим,
паметен
to commemorate = празнувам, чествам,
отбелязвам годишнина, ознаменувам
a commemoration = 1) възпоминание, честване
(на годишнина); 2) рел. помен
in commemoration of—в памет на
to tickle—1) гъделичкам, гъдел ме е; 2)
лаская, угоднича на
ticklish—който има гъдел
to be tickled to death = карам някого да
умре от смях
The City Hall gathered 200 strong. =
Градската зала побра 200 души.
The Mobilization Act called under the
banners 500,000 strong. = Законът за всеобщата мобилизация събра под знамената
500,000 годни да носят оръжие.
to boost—to push up, to stimulate, to
promote = покачвам, повишавам, лансирам, подтиквам, подпомагам, подкрепям
to boost up a country’s economy—давам
тласък на икономиката
a booster rocket—a carrier-rocket
Mr. Boost = Mr. Upstart—Г-н Новобогаташов,
Мосю Парвеню
The Chairman of a meeting or the auctioneer
at a sale hammers with his gavel to call the house to order.
to be embarrassed—to feel uneasy
a tail-coat—фрак
dress-clothes—официално/вечерно облекло (an
evening dress)
jovial = jocund = joyful = glad
abdomen (anat.) —корем
a stomach—стомах
a tummy—коремче, шкембенце
a maw—търбух
a belly—корем
a paunch—шкембе
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