A Summer Storm 夏天的暴风雨

马克·吐温(Mark Twain)

It was one of these regular summer storms. It would get so dark that it looked all blue-black outside, and lovely; and the rain would thrash along by so thick that the trees off a little ways looked dim and spider-webby ; and there would come a blast of wind that would bend the trees down and turn up the pale underside of the leaves; and then a perfect ripper of a gust would follow along and set the branches to tossing their arms as if they were just wild; and next,when it was just about the bluest and blackest, it was as bright as glory and you'd have a little glimpse of tree-tops plunging about, away off yonder in the storm, hundreds of yards further than you could see before; dark as sin again in a second, and now you'd hear the thunder let go with an awful crash and then go rumbling , grumbling , tumbling down the sky towards the under side of the world, like rolling empty barrels down stairs, where it's long stairs and they bounce a good deal.

- thrash [θræʃ] v. 打击，猛烈摆动

- spider-webby [ˈspaɪdə ˈwebɪ] a. 蜘蛛网状的

- rumble [ˈrʌmbl] vi. 隆隆响

- grumble [ˈɡrʌmbl] vi. 咕哝

- tumbling [ˈtʌmbl] vi. 翻滚

这是一场常见的夏天暴风雨。天这么黑，外面看上去墨蓝色一片，很可爱；雨点那么密集，铺天盖地，使不太远的树木看上去模糊，像残缺不全的丝丝蛛网；大风把树吹弯了腰，吹得树叶背面的浅色部分都翻转过来；尔后，突降一阵猛烈的狂风，使树枝发狂似的振臂摇曳；接着，正当天地间漆黑一团的时候，忽地电光闪耀，一瞬间在先前看不到的几百码之外，你能瞥见树冠在远处的暴风雨中翻腾狂舞；片刻之后又黑暗如墨，你会听见雷声可怖的轰鸣，接着隆隆地、嘟哝着、忽高忽低翻滚着，循入地下，就像木桶沿着楼梯往下翻滚，楼梯很长，木桶弹跳着滚落下去。

马克·吐温（Mark Twain），原名塞缪尔·兰赫恩·克莱门斯（Samuel Langhorne Clemens），是19世纪美国著名的小说家、幽默家和演说家，被誉为“美国文学之父”。他1835年11月30日出生于密苏里州的佛罗里达小镇，1910年4月21日逝世于康涅狄格州的雷丁。

他最为人熟知的作品包括《汤姆·索亚历险记》（The Adventures of Tom Sawyer）和《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》（The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn）。这些作品不仅在美国文学史上具有重要地位，也深刻影响了全球的文学创作和文化。

马克·吐温作品的特点是富有幽默感，常常通过讽刺和批判社会现象以及人性的弱点来表达他的观点。他的文笔生动而细腻，善于描绘人物的心理和对话，使读者感同身受。