16. As I ate she began the first of what we later called "my lesson in living." She said that I must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy. That some people, unable to go to school, were more educated and even more intelligent than college professors. She encouraged me to listen carefully to what country people called mother wit. That in those homely sayings was couched the collective wisdom of generations.
    16)我吃着的时候，她开始了我们后来称作“我生活的一课”的第一讲。“她说我必须永远不要容忍无知，但应理解没有受过教育的人。有的人没有能够上学，却比大学教授得到过更多的教育，甚至更聪明。她鼓励我仔细倾听乡下人称作常识的话语。她说在那些朴实的格言中包含着一代又一代人的集体智慧。

    17. When I finished the cookies she brushed off the table and brought a thick, small book from the bookcase. I had read A Tale of Two Cities and found it up to my standards as a romantic novel. She opened the first page and I heard poetry for the first time in my life.
    17)我吃完点心后她把桌子掸干净，从书柜里拿来一本小小厚厚的书。我已读过《双城记》，感到这是一本达到了我心目中浪漫主义小说标准的书。她翻到第一页，于是我平生第一次听到了诗的意境。

    18." It was the best of times and the worst of times ... " Her voice slid in and curved down through and over the words. She was nearly singing. I wanted to look at the pages. Were they the same that I had read? Or were there notes, music, lined on the pages, as in a hymn book? Her sounds began cascading gently. I knew from listening to a thousand preachers that she was nearing the end of her reading, and I hadn't really heard, heard to understand, a single word.
   18)“这是最好的时代也是最糟的时代……”她的声音轻柔地滑动着，随着词抑扬顿挫。她几乎是在唱。我想看看她念的那几页，是和我过去读过的一样的书吗? 还是说是象赞美诗集里那样，书页上是一排排的音符、音乐? 她的声音开始缓缓地低落下来。从听过上千个传教士布道的经验中，我知道她已快结束朗诵，可我连一个宇也没有真正听进去，就是说没有听懂。