Summer has come, with its warm sunny days, making us thing of all sorts of nice things, such as holidays in the country, picnics and haymaking①parties.

 

　　When Spring came, she  found the earth cold and  bare, but she  soon changed all that, and by the time Summer arrives, the world is a very different place. It is a green world now, green leaves on the trees, green grass in the fields, green  plants crowding in the hedges②, and flowers opening everywhere.

 

　　The days are long and the nights are short, for the sun gets up early and goes to bed late in sunny June. It is one of the best and brightest months in the year. Birds sing from sunrise till long after sunset.

 

　　As night falls, one after another the birds stop their singing, and after a few last sleepy sounds, put their heads under their wings to rest for an hour or two before beginning again. They do not all sleep, however. When other birds are silent, comes a soft cry, then, after a few moments, another, louder this time; and soon the nightingale③ pouring out his wonderful song.

 

　　Not only at night does the nightingale sing. On almost every warm day in early June, the little brown bird sings away in the roads and woods, but, as all the other birds are also singing at the same time, we do not notice his voice so much. It is at night, when he has the field all to himself, that we hear the nightingale at his best.

　　

 

　　【词语解释】

　　①haymaking [＇hei?meikiR] n．制备干草

　　②hedge [hedN] n．（矮树的）树篱

　　③nightingale [＇naitiRgeil] n．夜莺

 

　　【写作指要】

　　1）本文作者抓住“绿的世界”和“歌的昼夜”从视觉描写到听觉描写给读者描绘了一幅生机勃勃的夏日农村的美景。

　　2）第二段里“green”一词的多次重复使“绿的世界”深深留在人们的心里。在第三、四、五段里，作者把“歌声”这一概念用不同的词表达出来，如“sing”,“song”,“sounds”,“cry”,“pouring out”,“singing”,“voice”等，如此同义照应，使语义上下连贯，同时也加强和突出了“夜莺歌唱”的主题。

　　3）本文作者使用了拟人（personification）手法，文章显得格外生动：第二段Spring和Summer两个词首字母大写，用“she”指代“Spring”；第三段中的“gets up”和“goes to bed”,“birds sing”；第四段中的“sleep”,“cry”；第五段中的“his voice”,“he”和“himself”都是拟人用法。

　　4）为了使描写生动优美，作者使用了分词短语“making us think of…”，独产主格结构“green leaves on the trees…flowers opening everywhere”，省略句法“then, after a few moments, (comes) another (cry),(which is) louder this time”，以及传神的短语“all to himself”和“at hisbest”等。