2024年3月19日发(作者：显卡天梯图笔记本)

Lesson 13

In My Day

Introduction to the Text

This text is taken from Baker’s autobiography, and it deals with two human problems: aging

and the generation gap.

Old age is sometimes described romantically as the beautiful setting sun, throwing its last

beams upon the golden pond. Bertrand Russell compares it to the slowdown of a mighty river

before it joins the great sea. However we all know that this last phase of human life is not always a

happy one. “Old age is not for cowards” goes an old saying, because during this period we go

through many physiological and psychological changes. Our movement becomes slow, our hair

turns gray, our teeth begin to fall out, our sight and hearing start to go. Things can actually get a

lot worse. But apart from their physical and mental deterioration, old people also suffer from

loneliness, boredom and lack of love, like Russell Baker’s mother. That is why the author believed

that his mother’s mind wandered free because she wanted to go back to the old days when she was

needed and loved, because she wanted to recapture her happiness.

However Baker did not understand his mother so well before she became senile, and this led

him to ponder the weaving of past and present that flows through all families. His regret over his

loss of contact with his mother made him feel keenly the problem of the generation gap. The

disconnection between parents and children of course is not a new subject, but in this article Baker

looks at this issue from both the point of view of a son and the point of view of a father, thus

making his views much more balanced. Unlike some articles in which the old blame the young or

the young blame the old, in this article, the author discusses the responsibilities of both

generations. He points out that young people should understand the importance of their past; they

should have more interest and respect for what their parents stand for—their legacy. On the other

hand, he also advises old people to show understanding to young people’s greater interest in the

future, and warns them not to keep lecturing the young starting with the expression “In My Day”.

Perhaps we can read this article in yet another way and take it as a touching story of a

courageous woman who lived her life as a soldier fighting a battle, and he son, the author, who has

such fond memories of his mother and deeply regrets not having been a better son. It is in this

sense that we might say that this article is somewhat similar to Zhu Ziqing, the famous Chinese

writer’s beautiful essay describing his last memory of his father as he disappears in the distance

(朱自清：“背影”).

Detailed discussion of the Text

1. On others she presided over family dinners cooked on Sunday afternoon for children

who were now gray with age. (1)

On other days, her thought came to the scene when she cooked dinner on Sunday afternoon

for the children whose hair now turned gray and white because of age.

for children who were now old people with gray hair.

On others为时间状语，与前句的Some days照应。定语从句who were now gray with age

修饰children；with在这里的意思是because of。此句中运用了借代的修辞手法，用gray

代表年老。

with: because

More examples: His face was blue with anger; She was beaming with excitement; her fingers

were numb with cold.

2. … traveling among the dead decades with a speed and ease beyond the gift of physical

science. (1)

… traveling among the decades that were past and gone very quickly, so quickly and easily

that no physical science would be able to do it. (not even jet plane or spaceship would have

the same speed.)

gift: here: ability, talent, e.g.

She is a very gifted pianist.

He has many natural gifts.

3. nursing home. (2)

a private hospital or residential home for old people, similar to “养老院”in China.

4. She gazed at this improbably overgrown figure out of an inconceivable future and

promptly dismissed it. (4)

Because that day she thought she was a young country wife, she could not recognize me

because I had become much too big. She could not conceive of the future when her little

Russell would be that tall and big. Therefore she immediately put that thought out of her

mind.

该句用and连接两个并列谓语gazed at和dismissed。介词out of an inconceivable future

修饰this improbably overgrown figure。

5. That day she was a young country wife in the backyard with a view of hazy blue Virginia

mountains behind the apple orchard, and I was a stranger old enough to be her father.

(5)

That day she was a young country wife in the backyard behind the apple orchard, from which

she could see the hazy blue Virginia Mountains. She could not associate this stranger old

enough to be her father with her son who was only two feet from the floor at that time.

介词短语with a view意为“有...的风景”或“从某地可以看见...的风景”，在这里修饰the

backyard；形容词短语old enough to be her father作后置定语修饰stranger。

6. “Are you coming to my funeral today?” she asked. (6)

It was clearly an indication that her mind was going the way she talked about her own funeral

first thing in the morning. Just a moment ago she might have been still a young country

woman in Virginia. It showed how her mind could wander free in time.

7. It was an awkward question with which to be awakened. (7)

One expects to hear an important and urgent message when they are awakened so early in the

morning. But what Russell heard was simply a question which was silly and impossible to

answer.

awkward: here: difficult, unpleasant, uncomfortable, difficult to handle

8. “I’m being buried today,” she declared briskly, as though announcing an important

social event. (8)

“I’m going to be buried today,” she said quickly and practically, as if announcing an important

social event (social gathering with friends).

social: related to the meeting of friends

Notice that the present continuous tense (passive) is used to denote the future.

9. (There had always been a fierceness in her.) It showed in that angry challenging thrust of

the chin when she issued an opinion, and a great one she had always been for issuing

opinions. (10)