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王子和公主马上就要举行幸福的婚礼了，而小美人鱼也距离自己的死亡之夜越来越近。游船上因为盛大婚礼而满溢着幸福气息，小美人鱼却心里装满了悲伤，迎来了死亡降临的那个黎明。
She saw her sisters rising out of the flood: they were as pale as herself; but their long beautiful hair waved no more in the wind and had been cut off.
“We have given our hair to the witch,” said they, “to obtain help for you, that you may not die to-night. She has given us a knife: here it is, see it is very sharp.
Before the sun rises you must plunge it into the heart of the prince; when the warm blood falls upon your feet they will grow together again, and form into a fish’s tail, and you will be once more a mermaid, and return to us to live out your three hundred years before you die and change into the salt sea foam.
Haste, then; he or you must die before sunrise.Our old grandmother moans so for you, that her white hair is falling off from sorrow, as ours fell under the witch’s scissors.
Kill the prince and come back; hasten: do you not see the first red streaks in the sky? In a few minutes the sun will rise, and you must die.”
And then they sighed deeply and mournfully, and sank down beneath the waves.
The little mermaid drew back the crimson curtain of the tent and beheld the fair bride with her head resting on the prince’s breast.
She bent down and kissed his fair brow, then looked at the sky on which the rosy dawn grew brighter and brighter; she glanced at the sharp knife, and again fixed her eyes on the prince, who whispered the name of his bride in his dreams.
She was in his thoughts, and the knife trembled in the hand of the little mermaid: then she flung it far away from her into the waves; the water turned red where it fell, and the drops that spurted up looked like blood.
She cast one more lingering, half-fainting glance at the prince, and then threw herself from the ship into the sea, and thought her body was dissolving into foam.
The sun rose above the waves, and his warm rays fell on the cold foam of the little mermaid, who did not feel as if she were dying.
She saw the bright sun, and all around her floated hundreds of clouds in the sky;
their speech was melodious（悦耳的）, but too ethereal（缥缈的） to be heard by mortal ears, as they were also unseen by mortal eyes.
The little mermaid perceived that she had a body like theirs, and that she continued to rise higher and higher out of the foam.
“Where am I?” asked she, and her voice sounded ethereal, as the voice of those who were with her; no earthly music could imitate it.
“Among the daughters of the air,” answered one of them. “A mermaid has not an immortal soul, nor can she obtain one unless she wins the love of a human being. On the power of another hangs her eternal destiny.
But the daughters of the air, although they do not possess an immortal soul, can, by their good deeds（行为）, procure（获得） one for themselves.
We fly to warm countries, and cool the sultry（闷热的） air that destroys mankind with the pestilence（瘟疫）. We carry the perfume of the flowers to spread health and restoration.
After we have striven（争取） for three hundred years to all the good in our power, we receive an immortal soul and take part in the happiness of mankind.
You, poor little mermaid, have tried with your whole heart to do as we are doing; you have suffered and endured and raised yourself to the spirit-world by your good deeds;
and now, by striving for three hundred years in the same way, you may obtain an immortal soul.”
The little mermaid lifted her glorified（光彩夺目的） eyes towards the sun, and felt them, for the first time, filling with tears.
On the ship, in which she had left the prince, there were life and noise; she saw him and his beautiful bride searching for her; sorrowfully they gazed at the pearly（珍珠似的） foam, as if they knew she had thrown herself into the waves.
Unseen she kissed the forehead of her bride, and fanned the prince, and then mounted（升空） with the other children of the air to a rosy cloud that floated through the aether（蓝天）.
“After three hundred years, thus shall we float into the kingdom of heaven,” said she.
“And we may even get there sooner,” whispered one of her companions.
“Unseen we can enter the houses of men, where there are children, and for every day on which we find a good child, who is the joy of his parents and deserves their love, our time of probation（试用期） is shortened.
The child does not know, when we fly through the room, that we smile with joy at his good conduct, for we can count one year less of our three hundred years.
But when we see a naughty or a wicked child, we shed tears of sorrow, and for every tear a day is added to our time of trial!”
(共907字)
今日短语
1. cut off剪下
2. plunge…into 将…插入
3. fall off掉落
4. draw back退回…
5. glance at瞥了一眼
6. fix eyes on注视
7. take part in加入，参与
8. search for寻找
9. add to增加
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