Always Eating Time

都是吃饭时间

By Pervez Heroes ■陶陶 选注

Mr and Mrs Jones were farmers. They had a small farm, on which they had worked very hard for ages, and they had five children. They had to look after their animals every day from sunrise to sunset, so they never had time for holidays.1

But when Mrs Jones was sixty, and Mr Jones was sixty-five, they decided to let two of their children, who had stayed on2 on the farm after leaving school, run it for them for two weeks while they went off and had a holiday for the first time at the seaside.

They decided to go to Bournemouth in their old car, and to do some sightseeing3 in it if possible during their week by the sea. They booked4 a room in a nice hotel and studied maps to see where they would go for their sightseeing trips in the Bournemouth area.

They started out fairly early one Monday morning in the car, after milking5 the cows, and reached Bournemouth at eleven o'clock. There they stopped and asked a nice policeman who looked like their son the way to their hotel,6 and were soon registering at the desk7 there. Parking the car was no problem, because there was a car park just behind the hotel,8 and soon they were in a nice room from which they could see the sea and the beautiful sandy beach.

After they had unpacked their cases,9 they discussed what to do the rest of that day. The sun was shining brightly, and the sea was calm, so they thought they would go down on10 to the beach. There were already a lot of other people there, bathing, playing games or just lying in the sun.11

"We can wait till tomorrow for our first trip," Mrs Jones said. "Let's go and see Salisbury then, shall we? We've always wanted to go there."

"All right," said her husband, "that's a good idea." They changed into suitable cool cotton clothes for a walk by the sea, but as they were about to leave the room to go downstairs, Mrs Jones saw a notice on the inside of the door of their room. It said, "Breakfast 7.00-10.00. Lunch 11.30-2.30. Tea 3.00-5.30. dinner 6.30-12.00."

"Look at this, dear," she said to her husband. He looked for a few seconds and then said in a disappointed voice, "That doesn't allow us much time for sightseeing, does it?"

1. 他们每天从早到晚都得照看农场的牲口，所以一直都抽不出时间去度假。
2. stay on: 继续留下。
3. sightseeing: 观光，游览。
4. book: 预定，预约。
5. milk: 挤奶。
6. 他们在那儿停下来，向一个友善的、长相有点像他们儿子的警察打听了去旅馆的路。
7. 在服务台办理登记手续。desk: （旅馆的）服务台。
8. 前一个park是动词，“停放（车辆），泊（车）”，后一个park是名词，“停车场”。
9. 打开箱子取出东西。
10. on: 这里是副词，（继续）下去。
11. 那儿已经有很多人在游泳，玩游戏或者干脆就在太阳底下躺着。此句中的三个动名词为独立主格结构，表示伴随动作。