(完整 word)课文原文 Unit 3 The Rite of Spring
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Unit 3 The Rite of Spring
Arthur Miller
1. I have never understood why we keep a garden and why over 36 years ago when I bought my
first house in the country, I started digging up a patch for vegetables before doing
anything else。 When you think how easy and cheap， relatively， it is to buy a bunch of
carrots or beets ， why raise them ？ And root crops especially are hard to tell apart ，
when store-bought, from our own 。 There is a human instinct at work here, a kind of
back-breaking make—believe that has no reality. Besides ， I don’t particularly like
eating vegetables. I’d much rather eat something juicy and fat. Like hot dogs.
2. Now, if you could raise hot dogs outside your window, you'd really have something you
could justify without a second's hesitation。 As it is, though， I cannot deny that when
April comes I find myself going out to lean on the fence and look at that miserable plot
of land, resolving with all my rational powers not to plant it again。 But inevitably a
morning arrives when ， just as I am awakening, a scent wafts through the window ，
something like earth-as—air, a scent that seems to come up from the very center of this
planet。 And the sun means business， suddenly, and has a different, deeper yellow in its
beams on the carpet. The birds begin screaming hysterically, thinking what I am
thinking-the worms are deliciously worming their way through the melting soil。
3. It is not only pleasure sending me back to stare at that plot of soil, it is really
conflict 。 The question is the same each year—what method should we use? The last few
years we put 36—inch—wide black plastic between the rows ， and it worked perfectly,
keeping the soil moist in dry times and weed-free。
4. But black plastic looks so industrial， so unromantic, that I have gradually moved over to
hay mulch。 We cut a lot of hay and, as it rots, it does improve the soil’s Composition。
Besides, it looks lovely, and comes to us free.
5. Keeping a garden makes you aware of how delicate, bountiful ， and easily ruined the
surface of this little planet is. In that 50-by—70—foot patch there must be a dozen
different types of soil。 Tomato won't grow in one part but loves another, and the same
goes for the other crops。 I suppose if you loaded the soil with chemical fertilizer these
differences would be less noticeable， but I use it sparingly and only in rows right where
seeds are planted rather than broadcast over the whole area。 I'm not sure why I do this
beyond the saving in fertilizer and my unwillingness to aid the weeds.
6. The attractions of gardening, I think, at least for a certain number of gardeners， are
neurotic and moral。 Whenever life seems pointless and difficult to grasp, you can always
get out in the garden and get something done。 Also, your paternal or maternal instincts
come into play because helpless living things are depending on you, require training and
encouragement and protection from enemies. In some cases, as with beans and cucumbers，
your children-as it were—begin to turn upon you in massive numbers, growing more and more
each morning and threatening to follow you into the house to strangle you in their vines.
7. Gardening is a moral occupation， as well， because you always start in spring resolved to
keep it looking neat this year, just like the pictures in the catalogues. But by July，
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