A Child's History of England.34

'Prince!' said Fitz-Stephen, 'before morning, my fifty and The White Ship shall overtake [超过, 别和take over与overthrow搞混] the swiftest vessel in attendance on your father the King, if we sail at midnight!'

in attendance on: look after, serve
make merry: enjoy yourself by drinking, singing, laughing, etc. LDOCE: make love (to/with sb)，to很常见，要是再有人说with不对，to才对，就拿词典砸them (used when talking about sb who may be male or female, to avoid saying 'him or her')

Then the Prince commanded to make merry; and the sailors drank out the three casks of wine; and the Prince and all the noble company danced in the moonlight on the deck of The White Ship.

When, at last, she shot out of the harbour of Barfleur, there was not a sober seaman on board. But the sails were all set, and the oars all going merrily. Fitz-Stephen had the helm. The gay young nobles and the beautiful ladies, wrapped in mantles of various bright colours to protect them from the cold, talked, laughed, and sang. The Prince encouraged the fifty sailors to row harder yet, for the honour of The White Ship.

shot out... 运动会。发令枪一响，同学们就像脱缰的野狗般射了出去。
A panda walks into a restaurant. He is shown to his seat and orders some food. When he is done eating, he pulls out a gun and shoots the waiter. The chef runs out of the kitchen and asks the panda "what did you do!?!?" The panda responds, "I'm a panda, look it up" and walks away. the chef looks on his phone and looks up panda. The first result says "pandas eat shoots and leaves (嫩nen芽和树叶)"

Crash! A terrific cry broke from three hundred hearts. It was the cry the people in the distant vessels of the King heard faintly on the water. The White Ship had struck upon a rock - was filling - going down!

Fitz-Stephen hurried the Prince into a boat, with some few Nobles. 'Push off,' he whispered; 'and row to land. It is not far, and the sea is smooth. The rest of us must die.'

But, as they rowed away, fast, from the sinking ship, the Prince heard the voice of his sister Marie, the Countess of Perche, calling for help. He never in his life had been so good as he was then. He cried in an agony, 'Row back at any risk! I cannot bear to leave her!'

They rowed back. As the Prince held out his arms to catch his sister, such numbers [人(数)] leaped in, that the boat was overset. And in the same instant The White Ship went down.

Only two men floated. They both clung to the main yard of the ship, which had broken from the mast, and now supported them. One asked the other who he was? He said, 'I am a nobleman, Godfrey by name, the son of Gilbert de l'Aigle. And you?' said he. 'I am Berold, a poor butcher of Rouen,' was the answer. Then, they said together, 'Lord be merciful to us both!' and tried to encourage one another, as they drifted in the cold benumbing [be-numb-ing] sea on that unfortunate November night.

By-and-by [later, 时间走了又走], another man came swimming towards them, whom they knew, when he pushed aside his long wet hair, to be Fitz-Stephen. 'Where is the Prince?' said he. 'Gone! Gone!' the two cried together. 'Neither he, nor his brother, nor his sister, nor the King's niece, nor her brother, nor any one of all the brave three hundred, noble or commoner, except we three, has risen above the water!' Fitz-Stephen, with a ghastly face, cried, 'Woe! woe, to me!' and sunk to the bottom.

六级/考研单词: princess, overtake, overthrow, swift, vessel, sail, midnight, merry, noble, deck, shot, harbor, sober, oar, gay, gorgeous, wrap, chef, crash, terrific, faint, haste, agony, leap, float, cling, mercy, drift, niece