Until tonight.Something was different tonight. There was an edge to this darkness that?made his hackles rise. Nine days they had been riding, north and northwest and then north again, farther and farther from the Wall, hard on the track of a band of wildling?raiders. Each day had been worse than the day that had come before it. Today was the worst of all. A cold wind was blowing out of the north, and it made the treesrustle like living things. All day, Will had felt as though something were watching him, something cold and?implacable that loved him not. Gared had felt it too. Will wanted nothing so much as to ride?hellbent for the safety of the Wall, but that was not a feeling to share with your commander.
然而今晚是個(gè)例外,迥異往昔,四方暗幕中有種莫可名狀、讓他汗毛豎立的驚悚。他們輕騎北出長(zhǎng)城,中途轉(zhuǎn)向西北,隨即又向北,九天來(lái)晝夜加急、不斷推進(jìn),緊咬一隊(duì)土匪的足跡。環(huán)境日益惡化,今天已降到谷底。陰森北風(fēng)吹得樹(shù)影幢幢,宛如猙獰活物,威爾整天都覺(jué)得自己受到一種冰冷且對(duì)他毫無(wú)好感的莫名之物監(jiān)視,蓋瑞也感覺(jué)出了。此刻威爾心中只想掉轉(zhuǎn)馬頭,沒(méi)命似地逃回長(zhǎng)城。但這卻是萬(wàn)萬(wàn)不能在長(zhǎng)官面前說(shuō)出的念頭。

until: 表示直到… 為止。 一般來(lái)說(shuō)until 可以和till 互換,但是在句首的時(shí)候一般只能用until。 前邊已經(jīng)說(shuō)了Will已經(jīng)由毛頭小兵嘎子變成了富有經(jīng)驗(yàn)的老兵,對(duì)這片林子不再畏懼。這里until tonight, 表示直到今晚為止,他又感到了恐懼。

hackle: 本指的是鳥(niǎo)或者野獸脖子上在受到驚嚇或者表示警告時(shí),會(huì)豎立起來(lái)的毛(想象一下斗雞),后軍隊(duì)用這種羽毛來(lái)裝飾鎧甲來(lái)威嚇敵人。

?

女士們用來(lái)裝飾的頭飾羽毛也可以叫做hackles

sb’s hackles rise?指某人勃然大怒,raise sb’s hackles = make someone angry 惹得某人勃然大怒。文章是指恐怖的環(huán)境,使得人像受驚的動(dòng)物一樣。

hard on: 是緊緊跟隨。

track這里是這個(gè)詞的本意,指腳印,蹤跡。后來(lái)這個(gè)詞引申為… 軌道。 可以指跑道, 衛(wèi)星的軌道,火車(chē)的行駛軌道,磁盤(pán)記錄的軌道等。

raider:入侵者。

rustle 發(fā)出沙沙的聲音。

implacable:?im-表示相反,place 表示安置放置,-able,表某種能力的形容詞詞根。 不能被撫平的,難以平息的。英語(yǔ)是不是如同漢語(yǔ)一樣呢?大量的英語(yǔ)詞匯都可以通過(guò)詞根詞綴再加上聯(lián)想記憶的方法迅速突破。但是詞根詞綴也不是完美無(wú)缺的,這需要看學(xué)習(xí)者的階段不斷地去累積。在沒(méi)有一定詞匯量的前提下,就又去多加很多不知道含義的詞根反而是負(fù)擔(dān)。多接觸單詞后,相同部分的東西你就會(huì)進(jìn)行總結(jié),再有一些綱要式的指引,詞匯會(huì)立馬倍增。詞匯是英語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)的基礎(chǔ),但是并非沒(méi)有規(guī)律和方法的。要正確的認(rèn)識(shí)和對(duì)待。不僅僅要了解簡(jiǎn)明漢語(yǔ),要字和音的結(jié)合,這樣就不會(huì)有“聽(tīng)到也不知道,想說(shuō)卻無(wú)法表達(dá)”的尷尬了。學(xué)到后邊還要去理解這個(gè)詞的確切含義,去看英英字典,分階段量力而行。

that loved him not. 這個(gè)是文學(xué)手法,相當(dāng)于? that didn’t love him.

hellbent:?決意地,不顧一切地