Lesson Eleven：
How I Served My
Apprenticeship
I. Outline of the Text
Part 1：(Paras.1-2)
 I became a businessman because I had to work as
soon as possible as the eldest son of poor parents.
 Part 2：(Paras.3-5)
 My parents decided to move to the U.S. because
the steam engines put my father out of business.
 Part 3：(Paras.6-13)
 ☆ I first worked in a cotton factory as a "bobbinboy". Although it was a hard job, I had to work to
support my family. And I believe that I could get a
better job some day.
 ☆ My second job was to run the steam engine in
another factory.

 Part
4：(Paras.14-18)
 How I look upon poverty.
 ☆ Many people think of poverty as a great
evil.
 ☆ I believe poor families are happier than
rich families.
 Children of the poor family have the loving
care of their parents.
 Members of the poor family are united in
their efforts to make a living.
 Poor people don't have the worries and
cares of the rich.
 ☆ Poor families have produced many
outstanding people.
 How
I Served My Apprenticeship
 我的学徒生活
 Serve one‘s apprenticeship：
 当学徒
 Serve as/for：作为，适用
Part 1：(Paras.1-2)
 But
there seems to be a question preceding
this：Why did I become a businessman?
 译文：但是在讲我的学徒经历之前，有一个
问题：为什么我成了商人?
 ahead of 在……之前
I
am sure that I should never have selected
a business career if I had been permitted to
choose：译文：我相信要是我有选择的余地，
我不会选择经商的生涯。(此句包含一虚拟条
件句。)
 should/ought to + have done 本来应该做而
没有做。
2
The eldest son of parents who were
themselves poor, I had, fortunately, to begin
to perform some useful work in the world
while still very young in order to earn a living
and therefore
Make a living谋生
What I could get to do, not what I desired, was the
question：问题是，我能找到什么活干，而不是我想
干什么活。(意思是因为人小，不易找到工作，不是
人选工作，而是有什么就干什么。)
 At work：在工作，在起作用
 Out of work：unemployment 失业
 Work：〈v.〉工作;(机器)运转;起作用
 Work hard at：在…上下工夫
 Work on sth./doing sth.从事
 例："No, but I am working on it."
 Work out sth.：制定，想出(办法等)

Part 2：(Paras.3-5)

3 When I was born my father was a well-to-do
master weaver in Scotland. This was the days
before the steam engines.
译文：在我出生的时候，我父亲是苏格兰的一个富
有经验的织布工人。那时蒸汽机还未出现。
 well-to-do：wealthy;rich 富有的
 healthy：健康的
 master：experienced有经验的

 He
wove cloth for a merchant who supplied
the material.
 他为一个提供材料的商人织布。
 Wove：weave的过去式
I
resolved then that the wolf of poverty should
be driven from our door some day：译文：我当
时下定决心总有一天我们要解决温饱问题。(也
可直译为：......总有一天我们要把穷困这只恶狼
从家门口轰走。)
 英文解析：I made up my mind then that some
day we would earn enough money to buy the
basic things we needed.
 make up one's mind 下定决心
Part 3：(Paras. 6-13)
 On
arriving, my father entered a cotton factory. I
soon followed, and served as a “bobbin-boy,”
and that was how I began my preparation for
subsequent apprenticeship as a businessman：
 译文：到这儿以后，父亲进了一家棉厂，很快我
也跟着进去了，我负责线轴工作。就这样，我开
始了后来见习办实业的前期准备工作。
 subsequent：即later/following
I
cannot tell you how proud I was when I
received my first week‘s earnings - one
dollar and twenty cents：
 我简直不知道怎么形容我拿到第一个星期挣
的1美元20美分时的自豪劲儿。
 wages周薪;salary月薪。
 It
was given to me because I had been of some
use to the world. And I became a contributing
member of my family!
 译文：这钱给了我是因为我对社会有了点用处;
还有，我已经能为家里作出点贡献了。(说明作
者自豪的原因。)
 contribute to 对……有贡献
I
think this makes a man out of a boy sooner
than almost anything else：我觉得没有别的事
情能使一个少年更快地成长为一个男子汉了。
 英文解析：This
perhaps is the best way to
enable a boy to mature.
But the genuine satisfaction I had from that one
dollar and twenty cents outweighs any
subsequent pleasure in money making：
 从那以后有成百万的美元经过我的手，可是以后
赚的任何一笔钱给我带来的欢欣，都远远比不上
那1美元20美分使我体验到的满足感。
 Genuine：〈a.〉真正的;
 Generous：〈a.〉慷慨的;
 Genius：〈n.〉天才

It was the direct reward of honest, manual labor;
 it represented a week of very hard work - so hard
that it might have been described as slavery if it
hadn't been for its aim and end：这1美元20美分代
表一个星期十分艰苦的劳动，要不是因为干活的目
的是挣钱帮父母养家，那活真可以称为奴隶般的劳
动。
 stand for代表;Aim and end：purpose 目的

 …that
is might have been described as slavery
if it hadn't been for its aim and end.
 英文解析：…I did the job to help support the
family. If it hadn't been for this purpose I
wouldn't have wanted to do the work because it
was too hard for me.
 Describe…as：描述为……
because I was set to fire the boiler in the cellar
and run the small steam engine which drove the
machinery：
 因为我既要烧地下室的锅炉，还要看管那台驱动机
器的小蒸汽机。
 Be set to do sth.被安排做某事。
 I run a company 我经营一个公司。
 Machinery是一个集合名词，是所有机器的总称。

 And
could I complain?：我怎么能抱怨呢?
 这是个修辞性疑问句，意思是说“我当然不
能怨天尤人。”
 英文解析：While both my parents toiled to
keep the family alive, I surely shouldn't tell
them about the hardship I had to suffer at
work.
13 My kind employer soon relieved me of the
strain, for he needed someone to make out bills
and keep his accounts, and finding that I could
write a plain schoolboy hand and could add up, he
made me his only clerk：
 我那好心的老板很快就解除了我的压力，他需要有
个人开账单、记账，他看我还能写出中学生水平的
字，还会做加法，就叫我当了他惟一的职员。
 Relieve sb. of sth：make sb. free from sth. 免除某
人的……

Part 4：(Paras.14-18)

16 It is because I know how sweet and happy and pure
the home of honest poverty is, how free it is from
perplexing care, from social envy and emulations, how
loving and how united its members may be in the common
interest of supporting the family, that I sympathize with the
rich man‘s boy and congratulate the poor man’s boy：

我亲身体验过正直贫困家庭里那种温馨、美满和纯真，这样的家
庭无暇为无聊的事而操心，不受他人的嫉妒，不与他人争斗，为
了养家糊口这个共同目标，家里的人互相爱护，团结一致。正是
由于这个原因我对富人家的孩子深表同情，而对穷人家的孩子表
示祝贺。
It is(was)…… that 强调句的构成。
free from：不受…约束，解除，摆脱了……的


 and
it is for these reasons that from the
ranks of the poor so many strong, eminent,
self-reliant men have always sprung and
always must spring：正是由于这些原因，穷
人的队伍中已经不断涌现出，而且一定还会
不断涌现出众多坚强、出众、依赖自己能力
的杰出人才。
 outstanding出色的;independent独立
的;spring：涌现。
17 If you will read the list of the immortals who
“were not born to die,” you will find that most of
them were born to the precious heritage of poverty：
 如果你愿意看看那些流芳百世之人的名单，你就会发现
他们当中大部分人出生于贫困这个宝贵的环境中。
 Be born to/into/of：生于(家庭，环境)
 Bear〈v.〉承担;生育;忍受(常与can/could连用，常用
于否定句)
 Bear sth. in mind：to keep sth. in mind记住
 Bear fruit：有成果

 We
should be quite willing to abolish luxury, but
to abolish honest, industrious self-denying
poverty would be to destroy the soil upon which
mankind produces the virtues which enable our
race to reach a still higher civilization than it
now possesses：
 我们应该更乐意消除奢侈，但是消除正直、勤劳、
忘我的贫困就会破坏人类产生诸多美德的土壤，
而正是这些美德能使我们人类达到比现在更高的
文明程度。
 industrious勤劳的=diligent;
 self-denying自我牺牲：sacrifice
Exercise
 encourage
sb to do sth.鼓励某人做某事。
 Congratulate sb on sth.就某事祝贺某人
 Add up to….达到……。
 Run into偶然碰到=come across
 例：我建议他和我们一起去。
 译：I
suggest that he should(可以省略)go
with us.
 Aboard指在甲板上、登船;
 abroad往海外(go
 board木板
abroad出国);