Exercise 1

Exercise 1

Bill Morrow’s Birthday Party

Several times on his trips to China, which he made as a guest of the Chinese Government, Bill’s birthday occurred while he was in Beijing. On these occasions he was given a dinner in his honor and Premier Zhou En-lai would attend. He remembered the first occasion:

比尔作为中国政府的客人访问中国，好几次都赶上在北京过生日。这时候，主人总要为他举行宴会，周恩来总理也出席。他还记得第一次生日宴会的情景：

At the hotel I always finished the meal with ice-cream and the girls there would laugh because I like it so much. Zhou En-lai was at my birthday party and at the end he got up, went over to counter and got an ice-cream and he put it down in front of me—this is the Prime Minister you know! He said ‘This is for you’. I said ‘I didn’t know you could speak English’. He laughed and he said ‘a little bit’ measuring with his finger and thumb. Sometimes when we were alone then he’d speak to me English.

我在饭店吃饭，最后总是吃冰淇淋。我吃得津津有味，惹得女服务员发笑。这次生日宴会，周恩来在场。快到结束的时候，他站起来，走到柜台前要了一杯冰淇淋，放在我面前——别忘了，他可是总理呀！他对我说：“这是为您准备的。”我说：“没想到您会说英语呀。”他笑

了起来，接着说：“一点点”。一面说着，一面用食指和拇指比画着。后来我们单独在一起，他就跟我说英语。

‘This is for you,’ Bill Morrow heard on many occasions he would never forget —such as when he was taken in a boat down the Grand Canal and every boat that passed sounded its siren in salutation. Or when he was shown over the great Nanjing bridge, built where the ferries used to carry trains across the Changjiang River. He was given a chair and asked to wait a little darkness came on, then suddenly the whole bridge was outlined in lights. ‘This is for you’. ‘You mustn’t use all that electricity to please me,’ he protested, ‘all Nanjing will enjoy it too,’ he was told.

“这是为您准备的。”这句话，比尔·莫罗在许多难忘的场合听到过——比如在他乘船沿大运河南下的时候，从旁边驶过的每一条船拉响汽笛，表示敬意。再比如参观南京长江大桥；在修这座桥以前，要靠渡船在这里运送火车过江。参观大桥的时候，天快黑了，人家给他一把椅子，请他坐下等一会儿。忽然电灯全亮了，照出了整个大桥的轮廓。“这是为您准备的。”他不满地说道：“你们不应该这么浪费这么多电，就为了让我高兴。”人家对他说：“南京人都可以欣赏嘛。”

Zhou En-lai arranged for experts from Beijing University to give Bill Morrow some up-to-date information he wanted. ‘I’m just an old bum at home,’ Bill said, ‘but here you treat me like a VIP.’ ‘We know what you have done,’ said Zhou En-lai.

比尔·莫罗想了解一些新的情况，周恩来就安排他北京大学的专家向他作介绍。比尔说：“我在国内不过是个流浪汉，而你们在这里却把我当成一位要人。”周恩来却说：“您做过些什么，我们是知道的。”