英文读书笔记

comments:

wuthering heights is a well-written tragedy of love. after reading the whole story i would like to talk about the main characters of the story—catherine earnshaw and heathcliff. catherine earnshaw and heathcliff do love each other very much but they do not have the right attitude towards love which leads to the tragedy.

in catherine’s life she made a very foolish decision---marrying to edgar. in fact her love for edgar can never be compared to that for heathcliff. she did so because she thought the wealth of edgar would be useful to help heathcliff. but in reality it did not work. she did not have a good understanding of love which is something pure and saint. if anyone add any purpose into love love itself lost its meaning. catherine’s wrong decision hurt two people who love her and even destroyed the happiness of their offspring.

heathcliff is a man full of retaliation. he loved catherine very much but what he did on the contrary added to the misery of catherine. in my opinion if he really loved catherine he should not walk into catherine’s life again after his disappearance. further more after the death of catherine what heathcliff did brought agony to catherine’s daughter as well as his own son.

after reading i have a better understanding of love. if you love really someone his or her happiness is the thing that most matters.

good sentences

he little imagined how my heart warmed towards him when i beheld his black eyes withdraw so suspiciously under their brows as i rode up and when his fingers sheltered themselves with a jealous resolution still further in his waistcoat as i announced my name.

we crept through a broken hedge groped our way up the path and planted ourselves on a flower-plot under the drawing-room window.

it was beautiful - a splendid place carpeted with crimson and crimson-covered chairs and tables and a pure white ceiling bordered by gold a shower of glass-drops hanging in silver chains from the centre and shimmering with little soft tapers.

isabella - i believe she is eleven a year younger than cathy - lay screaming at the farther end of the room shrieking as if witches were running red-hot needles into her.

the long light hair curled slightly on the temples; the eyes were large and serious; the figure almost too graceful.

she supposing edgar could not see her snatched the cloth from my hand and pinched me with a prolonged wrench very spitefully on the arm.

her eyes began to glisten and her lids to twinkle.

her lips were half asunder as if she meant to speak and she drew a breath; but it escaped in a sigh instead of a sentence.

my love for linton is like the foliage in the woods: time will change it i’m well aware as winter changes the trees. my love for heathcliff resembles the eternal rocks beneath: a source of little visible delight but necessary.

there was a violent wind as well as thunder and either one or the other split a tree off at the corner of the building: a huge bough fell across the roof and knocked down a portion of the east chimney-stack sending a clatter of stones and soot into the kitchen-fire.

and her teeth chattered as she shrank closer to the almost extinguished embers.

it had got dusk and the moon looked over the high wall of the court causing undefined shadows to lurk in the corners of the numerous projecting portions of the building.

a ray fell on his features; the cheeks were sallow and half covered with black whiskers; the brows lowering the eyes deep-set and singular.

linton eyed him with a droll expression - half angry half laughing at his fastidiousness.

it was about the period that my narrative has reached: a bright frosty afternoon; the ground bare and the road hard and dry.

linton lavished on her the kindest caresses and tried to cheer her by the fondest words; but vaguely regarding the flowers she let the tears collect on her lashes and stream down her cheeks unheeding.

the period of reflection succeeding this silly action compelled me to admit the necessity of smothering my pride and choking my wrath and bestirring myself to remove its effects.

her pretty face was wan and listless; her hair uncurled: some locks hanging lankly down and some carelessly twisted round her head.

i notice when i enter his presence the muscles of his countenance are involuntarily distorted into an expression of hatred; partly arising from his knowledge of the good causes i have to feel that sentiment for him and partly from original aversion.

i gave him my heart and he took and pinched it to death and flung it back to me.

there was no sound through the house but the moaning wind which shook the windows every now and then the faint crackling of the coals and the click of my snuffers as i removed at intervals the long wick of the candle.

he maintained a hard careless deportment indicative of neither joy nor sorrow: if anything it expressed a flinty gratification at a piece of difficult work successfully executed.

good things lost amid a wilderness of weeds to be sure whose rankness far over-topped their neglected growth; yet notwithstanding evidence of a wealthy soil that might yield luxuriant crops under other and favourable circumstances.

he surveyed the carved front and low-browed lattices the straggling gooseberry-bushes and crooked firs with solemn intentness and then shook his head: his private feelings entirely disapproved of the exterior of his new abode.

it was a close sultry day: devoid of sunshine but with a sky too dappled and hazy to threaten rain.

catherine’s face was just like the landscape - shadows and sunshine flitting over it in rapid succession; but the shadows rested longer and the sunshine was more transient; and her poor little heart reproached itself for even that passing forgetfulness of its cares.

good paragraphsparagraph 1

joseph was an elderly nay an old man: very old perhaps though hale and sinewy. 'the lord help us!' he soliloquised in an undertone of peevish displeasure while relieving me of my horse: looking meantime in my face so sourly that i charitably conjectured he must have need of pine aid to digest his dinner and his pious ejaculation had no reference to my unexpected advent.

paragraph 2

i removed the habit and there shone forth beneath a grand plaid silk frock white trousers and burnished shoes; and while her eyes sparkled joyfully when the dogs came bounding up to welcome her she dared hardly touch them lest they should fawn upon her splendid garments. she kissed me gently: i was all flour making the christmas cake and it would not have done to give me a hug; and then she looked round for heathcliff.

paragraph 3

he entered vociferating oaths dreadful to hear; and caught me in the act of stowing his son sway in the kitchen cupboard. hareton was impressed with a wholesome terror of encountering either his wild beast's fondness or his madman's rage; for in one he ran a chance of being squeezed and kissed to death and in the other of being flung into the fire or dashed against the wall; and the poor thing remained perfectly quiet wherever i chose to put him.

paragraph 4

it was a very dark evening for summer: the clouds appeared inclined to thunder and i said we had better all sit down; the approaching rain would be certain to bring him home without further trouble. however catherine would hot be persuaded into tranquillity. she kept wandering to and fro from the gate to the door in a state of agitation which permitted no repose; and at length took up a permanent situation on one side of the wall near the road: where heedless of my expostulations and the growling thunder and the great drops that began to plash around her she remained calling at intervals and then listening and then crying outright. she beat hareton or any child at a good passionate fit of crying.

paragraph 5

there was a carpet - a good one but the pattern was obliterated by dust; a fireplace hung with cut-paper dropping to pieces; a handsome oak-bedstead with ample crimson curtains of rather expensive material and modern make; but they had evidently experienced rough usage: the vallances hung in festoons wrenched from their rings and the iron rod supporting them was bent in an arc on one side causing the drapery to trail upon the floor. the chairs were also damaged many of them severely; and deep indentations deformed the panels of the walls.

paragraph 6

mrs. linton sat in a loose white dress with a light shawl over her shoulders in the recess of the open window as usual. her thick long hair had been partly removed at the beginning of her illness and now she wore it simply combed in its natural tresses over her temples and neck. her appearance was altered as i had told heathcliff; but when she was calm there seemed unearthly beauty in the change. the flash of her eyes had been succeeded by a dreamy and melancholy softness; they no longer gave the impression of looking at the objects around her: they appeared always to gaze beyond and far beyond - you would have said out of this world. then the paleness of her face - its haggard aspect having vanished as she recovered flesh - and the peculiar expression arising from her mental state though painfully suggestive of their causes added to the touching interest which she awakened; and - invariably to me i know and to any person who saw her i should think - refuted more tangible proofs of convalescence and stamped her as one doomed to decay.

paragraph 7

in her eagerness she rose and supported herself on the arm of the chair. at that earnest appeal he turned to her looking absolutely desperate. his eyes wide and wet at last flashed fiercely on her; his breast heaved convulsively. an instant they held asunder and then how they met i hardly saw but catherine made a spring and he caught her and they were locked in an embrace from which i thought my mistress would never be released alive: in fact to my eyes she seemed directly insensible. he flung himself into the nearest seat and on my approaching hurriedly to ascertain if she had fainted he gnashed at me and foamed like a mad dog and gathered her to him with greedy jealousy. i did not feel as if i were in the company of a creature of my own species: it appeared that he would not understand though i spoke to him; so i stood off and held my tongue in great perplexity.

paragraph 8

the intruder was mrs. heathcliff. she certainly seemed in no laughing predicament: her hair streamed on her shoulders dripping with snow and water; she was dressed in the girlish dress she commonly wore befitting her age more than her position: a low frock with short sleeves and nothing on either head or neck. the frock was of light silk and clung to her with wet and her feet were protected merely by thin slippers; add to this a deep cut under one ear which only the cold prevented from bleeding profusely a white face scratched and bruised and a frame hardly able to support itself through fatigue; and you may fancy my first fright was not much allayed when i had had leisure to examine her.

paragraph 9

heathcliff did not glance my way and i gazed up and contemplated his features almost as confidently as if they had been turned to stone. his forehead that i once thought so manly and that i now think so diabolical was shaded with a heavy cloud; his basilisk eyes were nearly quenched by sleeplessness and weeping perhaps for the lashes were wet then: his lips devoid of their ferocious sneer and sealed in an expression of unspeakable sadness. had it been another i would have covered my face in the presence of such grief. in his case i was gratified; and ignoble as it seems to insult a fallen enemy i couldn't miss this chance of sticking in a dart: his weakness was the only time when i could taste the delight of paying wrong for wrong.

paragraph 10

on an afternoon in october or the beginning of november - a fresh watery afternoon when the turf and paths were rustling with moist withered leaves and the cold blue sky was half hidden by clouds - dark grey streamers rapidly mounting from the west and boding abundant rain - i requested my young lady to forego her ramble because i was certain of showers. she refused; and i unwillingly donned a cloak and took my umbrella to accompany her on a stroll to the bottom of the park: a formal walk which she generally affected if low-spirited - and that she invariably was when mr. edgar had been worse than ordinary a thing never known from his confession but guessed both by her and me from his increased silence and the melancholy of his countenance. she went sadly on: there was no running or bounding now though the chill wind might well have tempted her to race. and often from the side of my eye i could detect her raising a hand and brushing something off her cheek. i gazed round for a means of perting her thoughts. on one side of the road rose a high rough bank where hazels and stunted oaks with their roots half exposed held uncertain tenure: the soil was too loose for the latter; and strong winds had blown some nearly horizontal. in summer miss catherine delighted to climb along these trunks and sit in the branches swinging twenty feet above the ground; and i pleased with her agility and her light childish heart still considered it proper to scold every time i caught her at such an elevation but so that she knew there was no necessity for descending. from dinner to tea she would lie in her breeze-rocked cradle doing nothing except singing old songs - my nursery lore - to herself or watching the birds joint tenants feed and entice their young ones to fly: or nestling with closed lids half thinking half dreaming happier than words can express.

paragraph 11

'no' she repeated and continued sauntering on pausing at intervals to muse over a bit of moss or a tuft of blanched grass or a fungus spreading its bright orange among the heaps of brown foliage; and ever and anon her hand was lifted to her averted face.

paragraph 12

linton did not appear to remember what she talked of and he had evidently great difficulty in sustaining any kind of conversation. his lack of interest in the subjects she started and his equal incapacity to contribute to her entertainment were so obvious that she could not conceal her disappointment. an indefinite alteration had come over his whole person and manner. the pettishness that might be caressed into fondness had yielded to a listless apathy; there was less of the peevish temper of a child which frets and teases on purpose to be soothed and more of the self-absorbed moroseness of a confirmed invalid repelling consolation and ready to regard the good-humoured mirth of others as an insult. catherine perceived as well as i did that he held it rather a punishment than a gratification to endure our company; and she made no scruple of proposing presently to depart. that proposal unexpectedly roused linton from his lethargy and threw him into a strange state of agitation. he glanced fearfully towards the heights begging she would remain another half-hour at least.

vocabulary chapter 1

landlord :the lord of a manor or of land; the owner of land or houses which he leases to a tenant or tenants.

solitary: characterized by or preferring solitude in mode of life

misanthropist : someone who dislikes people in general

desolation : the state of being decayed or destroyed

behold : see with attention

tenant : someone who pays rent to use land or a building or a car that is owned by someone else

perseverance: persistent determination

solicit: make a solicitation or entreaty for something; request urgently or persistently

wince: draw back as with fear or pain

hinder: be a hindrance or obstacle to

utter: express in speech

manifest: clearly apparent or obvious to the mind or senses

precede: be earlier in time; go back further

causeway: a road that is raised above water or marshland or sand

compound: put or add together

hale: exhibiting or restored to vigorous good health

soliloquize: talk to oneself

undertone: a quiet or hushed tone of voice

peevish: easily irritated or annoyed

sour: showing a brooding ill humor

conjecture: to believe especially on uncertain or tentative grounds

pious: having or showing or expressing reverence for a deity

ejaculation: an abrupt emphatic exclamation expressing emotion

tumult: a state of commotion and noise and confusion

slant: lie obliquely

stunted: inferior in size or quality

gaunt: very thin especially from disease or hunger or cold

limb: any of the main branches arising from the trunk or a bough of a tree

crave: plead or ask for earnestly

alms: voluntary contributions to aid the poor

grotesque: distorted and unnatural in shape or size; abnormal and hideous

lavish: expend profusely; also used with abstract nouns

wilderness: a wild and uninhabited area

surly: inclined to anger or bad feelings with overtones of menace

villainous: extremely wicked

intersperse: place at intervals in or among

chapter 2

infernal: extremely evil or cruel

extinguish: put out as of fires flames or lights

spectacle: something or someone seen (especially a notable or unusual sight)

bleak: providing no shelter or sustenance

gooseberry: spiny eurasian shrub having greenish purple-tinged flowers and ovoid yellow-green or red-purple berries

tingle: cause a stinging or tingling sensation

howl: a long loud emotional utterance

ejaculate: utter impulsively

churlish: rude and boorish

vehement: characterized by great force or energy

essay: make an effort or attempt

bid: an authoritative direction or instruction to do something

mute: expressed without speech

token: an inpidual instance of a type of symbol

amiable: disposed to please

obscure: difficult to find

apron: a garment of cloth or leather or plastic that is tied about the waist and worn to protect your clothing

poise: hold or carry in equilibrium

chapter 3

stupefy: make dull or stupid or muddle with drunkenness or infatuation

atrocious: shockingly brutal or cruel

congregation: the act of congregating

garret: floor consisting of open space at the top of a house just below roof; often used for storage

palaver: loud and confused and empty talk

hurl: make a thrusting forward movement

hearth: an area near a fireplace

asseverate: state categorically

ajar: slightly open

lachrymose: showing sorrow

vagabond: anything that resembles a vagabond in having no fixed place

ornament: something used to beautify

locality: a surrounding or nearby region

chapel: a place of worship that has its own altar

chapter 4

ensue: issue or terminate (in a specified way state etc.); end;

meditation: continuous and profound contemplation or musing on a subject or series of subjects of a deep or abstruse nature

ruddy: having any of numerous bright or strong colors reminiscent of the color of blood or cherries or tomatoes or rubies

exotic: being or from or characteristic of another place or part of the world

indigence: a state of extreme poverty or destitution

maiden: an unmarried girl

meddle: intrude in other people's affairs or business; interfere unwantedly

bustle: move or cause to move energetically or busily

crouch: bend one's back forward from the waist on down

errand: a short trip that is taken in the performance of a necessary task or mission

fiddle: bowed stringed instrument that is the highest member of the violin family

fatigue: temporary loss of strength and energy resulting from hard physical or mental work

crush: break into small pieces

morsel: a small quantity of anything

chapter 5

relentless: not to be placated or appeased or moved by entreaty

reprobate: a person without moral scruples

chide: censure severely or angrily

reproof: censure severely or angrily

bold: fearless and daring

saucy: characterized by a lightly pert and exuberant quality

insolence: the trait of being rude and impertinent; inclined to take liberties

inclination: an attitude of mind especially one that favors one alternative over others

bluster: a violent gusty wind

console: give moral or emotional strength to

chapter 6-7

parlour: reception room in an inn or club where visitors can be received

prattle: idle or foolish and irrelevant talk

tyrannical: of or relating to or associated with or resembling a dictatorship

evince: give expression to

curate: a person authorized to conduct religious worship

degradation: changing to a lower state

reprimand: an act or expression of criticism and censure

flog: beat severely with a whip or rod

contrive: come up with (an idea plan explanation theory or principle) after a mental effort

hearken: to give heed to; to hear attentively

shawl: cloak consisting of an oblong piece of cloth used to cover the head and shoulders

ramble: leisurely walk

shriek: sharp piercing cry

accusation: a formal charge of wrongdoing brought against a person; the act of imputing blame or guilt

abominable: unequivocally detestable

snort: a cry or noise made to express displeasure or contempt

vociferate: utter in a very loud voice

annihilate: kill in large numbers

chapter 8-10

rapturous: feeling great rapture or delight

zealous: marked by active interest and enthusiasm

lament: a cry of sorrow and grief

dissipation: breaking up and scattering by dispersion

fiend: a cruel wicked and inhuman person

diabolical: extremely evil or cruel

sententious: concise and full of meaning

agitation: a state of agitation or turbulent change or development

torture: extreme mental distress

dilatory: inclined to waste time and lag behind

stern: of a stern or strict bearing or demeanor

chapter 11-20

flinch: draw back as with fear or pain

perishable: liable to perish

malignity: wishing evil to others

propitiate: make peace with

mope: be apathetic gloomy or dazed

pertinacious: stubbornly unyielding

condolence: an expression of sympathy with another's grief

fugitive: someone who flees from an uncongenial situation

caress: touch or stroke lightly in a loving or endearing manner

despondency: feeling downcast and disheartened and hopeless

epistle: especially a long formal letter

ardent: characterized by intense emotion

transmit: transfer to another

incredulous: not disposed or willing to believe; unbelieving

lapse: a break or intermission in the occurrence of something

distraction: mental turmoil

bereavement: state of sorrow over the death or departure of a loved one

snivel: cry or whine with snuffling

chapter 21-30

obviate: do away with

perplexity: trouble or confusion resulting from complexity

despondency: feeling downcast and disheartened and hopeless

pacify: cause to be more favorably inclined; gain the good will of

potent: having the power to influence or convince

seclude: keep away from others

fickle: liable to sudden unpredictable change

reiterate: to say state or perform again

despite: lack of respect accompanied by a feeling of intense dislike

soliloquize: talk to oneself

sultry: burning hot; extremely and unpleasantly hot

hazy: filled or abounding with fog or mist

transient: enduring a very short time

bequeath: leave or give by will after one's death

contemplation: a long and thoughtful observation

compulsory: required by rule

chapter 31-34

chuck: pat or squeeze fondly or playfully especially under the chin

revelation: the speech act of making something evident

denial: the act of refusing to comply (as with a request)

emulous: eager to surpass others

devastate: devastate or ravage

abode: housing that someone is living in

superintend: watch and direct

delusion: the act of deluding; deception by creating illusory ideas

sidle: move sideways

scrutinize: to look at critically or searchingly

defiance: a hostile challenge

disparagement: a communication that belittles somebody or something

magnanimity: liberality in bestowing gifts; extremely liberal and generous of spirit

personification: a person who represents an abstract quality