Английский язык с Мюриэль Спарк (рассказы)

She did not go to church, she was above church. I had hoped to see her there, wearing different clothes and perhaps sitting with the chemist, the dentist, and their wives in the second-front row behind the count and his family; or perhaps she might have taken some less noticeable place among the congregation. But Frau Lublonitsch was a church unto herself, and even resembled in shape the onion-shaped spires of the churches around her.

I climbed the lower slopes of the mountains (я взбиралась /только на/ нижние склоны гор; slope — уклон, склон, откос) while the experts in their boots (в то время, как профессионалы: «эксперты» в своих /альпинистских/ ботинках) did the things earnestly up on the sheer crags above the clouds (забирались усердно на отвесные скалы над облаками; earnestly — серьезно, важно, убежденно, a cloud — облако, туча). When it rained (когда шел дождь; to rain — идти, литьсяодожде), they came back and reported (они возвращались и сообщали; to report — сообщать, рассказывать), "Tito is sending the bad weather (Тито шлет плохую погоду; weather — погода, буря, непогода, Josip Broz Tito /ИосифБрозТито/ —президентЮгославиив1953-1980 гг.)." The maids were bored with the joke (служанкам надоела эта шутка; joke — анекдот, шутка, острота; to bore — надоедать, скучать), but they obliged with smiles every time (но они вынужденно улыбались каждый раз; to oblige — делатьодолжение, оказыватьуслугу, smile — улыбка), and served them up along with the interminable veal (и вновь подавали им вечную: «бесконечную» телятину; veal — телятина).

The higher mountain reaches were beyond me except by bus (более высокие горные вершины были мне не доступны, кроме как на автобусе; tobebeyondsmb— быть за пределами чьих-либо возможностей). I was anxious, however, to scale the peaks of Frau Lublonitsch's nature (мне не терпелось, однако, измерить вершины натуры фрау Люблонич; tobeanxious— стремиться, гореть желанием, toscale— взвесить, измерить по масштабу).

sheer [SIq] joke [GqVk] anxious ['xNkSqs]

I climbed the lower slopes of the mountains while the experts in their boots did the things earnestly up on the sheer crags above the clouds. When it rained, they came back and reported, "Tito is sending the bad weather." The maids were bored with the joke, but they obliged with smiles every time, and served them up along with the interminable veal.

The higher mountain reaches were beyond me except by bus. I was anxious, however, to scale the peaks of Frau Lublonitsch's nature.