课文详注 Further notes on the text

1．Children who play truant from school are unimaginative.逃学的孩子们都缺乏想像力。

（1）play truant from school表示“逃学”，上下文清楚时也可以省略 from school，直接说 play truant。truant也可以单用，表示“逃学者”。

As a boy, Tom used to play truant (from school).汤姆小时候常逃学。

The three boys who are fishing over there are truants and ought to be sent back to school.那边那3个钓鱼的孩子都是逃学者，应当被送回学校。

（2）unimaginative的反义词为imaginative（富于想像力的，爱想像的）：Painters should be imaginative.画家应当富于想像力。

He is an imaginative painter.他是位富有想像力的画家。

2．A quiet day's fishing, or eight hours in a cinema seeing the same film over and over again, is usually as far as they get.他们通常能够做到的, 至多也就是安静地钓上一天鱼，或在电影院里坐上8个小时，一遍遍地看同一部电影。

（1）这句话的主语是is前面的两个并列短语。第1个短语的主要成分是动名词fishing，第2个短语的主要成分可以看做是eight hours（作为一个时间总量，它后面要跟动词单数形式）。它实际上是省略了动名词 sitting for (eight hours)，seeing引导的为分词短语，表示伴随动作。

（2）over and over again为固定短语，表示“一再地”、“反复许多次地”：As my grandmother can't hear very well, I had to say