宫芝蕾 选注

　　All his life<注1> Edward had lived with his parents in a big city, but he had always loved the country, and he was particularly interested in science, so when he finished school he decided to go to an agricultural college and learn how to be a farmer.

　　He studied all kinds of things at college during his first year, and when the summer vacation came he thought he was already an expert farmer<注2>.

　　He had an aunt called Jill who had a farm in the north of England, so after a week at home in the big city, he phoned her and asked whether he could come and spend a week with her. He said that, considering<注3> he had been at the agricultural college for a year already, he might be able to give her some really up-to-date<注4> ideas about farming methods which could be useful to her.

　　His aunt tried not to laugh as she answered. She asked Edward to come whenever he liked, and said she would be happy to see him and to explore all the latest agricultural ideas with him.<注5>

　　Jill had met other similarly eager young agricultural students before, and did not have a very high opinion of their knowledge<注6>. She had been farming for twenty years, and watched the early morning and weekend farming programmes on television regularly<注7>, so she suspected that she did not have much to learn about her work from a first-year student.

　　However, she went to the station to meet Edward when he turned up<注8>,- and drove him back to her farm for lunch, during which they talked mostly about the family.

　　"If only I'd been born on a farm instead of in the city!"<注9> Edward said. "I have friends who really enjoy city life, and who feel unhappy unless they're in the bright lights<注10>, but I'm just the opposite. I love the country and everything to do with it."

　　After lunch Jill said to her nephew<注11>, "I suppose you'd like to get on with looking around the farm<注12> now, so that you can give me your expert advice about what we are doing wrong."

　　Edward blushed and protested that he would probably not be able to find anything wrong at all, but Jill could see that he was saying this only out of politeness,<注13> and that he really thought himself an expert on farming.

　　She asked him to change his shoes before going out, so as not to make her carpets dirty when they came in again. Then, as they went out of the house to start their tour, Jill said, "I suppose you know that we grow a variety of vegetables on this farm, which we sell to the big markets in London and so on. We are having a lot of competition from Holland, and now also Spain and Portugal since they have joined the Common Market."<注14>

　　Edward nodded. They were entering a glasshouse<注15> full of young plants, and Jill asked Edward to tell her what he thought of them and told him not to be shy.

　　"Mm," he said solemnly<注16>, "your methods are certainly very old-fashioned<注17>. It isn't surprising you can't compete with Holland. We've had some lessons from a Dutch<注18> grower, you know. I don't suppose you get more than five kilos of tomatoes off each of those plants over there." He smiled in a superior way.<注19>

　　"I'm sure we don't," answered his aunt. "Those are cucumber<注20> plants."