Why was the village silent?

In this much-travelled world, there are still thousands of places which areinaccessible to tourists. We always assume that villagers in remote places arefriendly and hospitable. But people who are cut off not only from foreigntourists, but even from their own countrymen can be hostile to travellers.Visits to really remote villages are seldom enjoyable -- as my wife and Idiscovered during a tour through the Balkans.

We had spent several days in a small town and visited a number of oldchurches in the vicinity. These attracted many visitors, for they were not onlyof great architectural interest, but contained a large number of beautifullypreserved frescoes as well. On the day before our departure, several bus loadsof tourists descended on the town. This was more than we could bear, so wedecided to spend our last day exploring the countryside. Taking a path which ledout of the town, we crossed a few fields until we came to a dense wood. Weexpected the path to end abruptly, but we found that it traced its way throughthe trees. We tramped through the wood for over two hours until we arrived at adeep stream. We could see that the path continued on the other side, but we hadno idea how we could get across the stream. Suddenly my wife spotted a boatmoored to the bank. In it there was a boatman fast asleep. We gently woke him upand asked him to ferry us to the other side. Though he was reluctant to do so atfirst, we eventually persuaded him to take us.

The path led to a tiny village perched on the steep sides of a mountain.The place consisted of a straggling unmade road which was lined on either sideby small houses. Even under a clear blue sky, the village looked forbidding, asall the houses were built of grey mud bricks. The village seemed deserted, theonly sign of life being an ugly-looking black goat on a short length of ropetied to a tree in a field nearby. Sitting down on a dilapidated wooden fencenear the field, we opened a couple of tins of sardines and had a picnic lunch.All at once, I noticed that my wife seemed to be filled with alarm. Looking up Isaw that we were surrounded by children in rags who were looking at us silentlyas we ate. We offered them food and spoke to them kindly, but they remainedmotionless. I concluded that they were simply shy of strangers. When we laterwalked down the main street of the village, we were followed by a silentprocession of children. The village which had seemed deserted, immediately cameto life. Faces appeared at windows. Men in shirt sleeves stood outside theirhouses and glared at us. Old women in black shawls peered at us from doorways.The most frightening thing of all was that not a sound could be heard. There wasno doubt that we were unwelcome visitors. We needed no further warning. Turningback down the main street, we quickened our pace and made our way rapidlytowards the stream where we hoped the boatman was waiting.

New words and expressions 生词与短语

inaccessible

adj. 难接近的,达不到的

hospitable

adj. 不好客的新概念英语视频

hostile

adj. 不友好的,有敌意的

vicinity

n. 周围,近邻

architectural

adj. 建筑的

fresco

n. 壁画

abruptly

adv. 突然地,意外地

tramp

v. 徒步行进

moor

v. (用绳、链、锚)系(船)

ferry

v. (用渡船)运

straggle

v. 蔓延，散乱分布

sardine

n. 沙丁鱼，沙丁鱼罐头

rag

n. 破烂衣服

procession

adj. 不动的

shawl

n. 披巾，围巾

peer

v. 凝视，盯着

quicken

v. 加快

本文参考译文

在这个旅游频繁的世界上，仍有成千上万个游人足迹未至的地方。人们总是以为偏僻的地方的村民们热情好客。但是，那些不但与外国旅游者隔绝，而且与本国同胞隔绝的人们有可能对游客抱有敌意。到真正偏僻的村庄去旅游并不是一件愉快的事情。我与妻子在一次周游巴尔干半岛时对此深有体会。

我们在一座小镇上逗留了几天，参观了附近的许多古老的教堂。这些教堂吸引大量游客，不仅是因为建筑风格奇特，而且还有大量保存完好的壁画。我们离开小镇的前一天，镇上来了几辆满载游客的公共汽车。人多得使我们难以忍受，于是我们决定利用最后一天去乡间一游。我们走上了一条出镇的小路，穿过几块农田，来到一片茂密的树林。我们原以为小路会到此突然终止。没想到它到树林中继续向前延伸。我们在树林中跋涉了两个多小时，到了一条深溪边。我们可以看到小路在深溪对岸继续向前伸展，但却不知如何越过这道深溪。突然，妻子发现岸边泊着一条小船，船上有一船夫在呼呼大睡。我们轻轻地把他唤醒，请他把我们摆渡过溪。一开始，他很不愿意，但经劝说，终于同意了。

顺着小路，我们来到一个座落在陡峭山坡上的小村庄。这儿有一条未经修筑的弯弯曲曲的道路，路两边排列着一些矮小的农舍。农舍全用灰色的土坯建成，因此，即使在晴朗的蓝天底下，村庄看上去也会令人感到难以亲近。村里似乎无人居住，唯一的生命迹象是附近田里一只面目可憎的黑山羊，用一截短绳拴在一棵树上。我们在田边一堵东倒西歪的篱笆墙上坐下来，打开几听沙丁鱼罐头，吃了一顿野外午餐。突然，我注意到妻子十分惊恐。我抬头一看，发现我们被一群衣衫褴褛的小孩团团围住了，他们在默不作声地看着我们吃饭。我们给他们东西吃，客客气气地同他们交谈，但他们却一动也不动。我认为这不过是他们在陌生人面前表现出的害羞。后来，我们在村里的主要街道上行走的时候，一队默不作声的孩子跟在我们后头。刚才还似乎空荡荡的村庄一下子活跃了起来，窗口露出了一张张面孔，只穿着衬衣的男人们站在屋子外面凶狠地盯着我们，披黑纱巾的老妇人站在门口偷偷地瞅着我们。最令人害怕的是到处没有一点声音。毫无疑问，我们的来访是不受欢迎的。我们不需要进一步的警告了。便掉转身子，沿着那条主要街道加快步伐，快速地朝深溪边走去，希望船夫还在那儿等着我们。

(兼职编辑：张博)