A Child's History of England.206

Ireland being now subdued, and Scotland kept quiet by plenty of forts and soldiers put there by Oliver, the Parliament would have gone on quietly enough, as far as fighting with any foreign enemy went [the Parliament走这么远){左闭右开区间}, but [except] for getting into trouble with the Dutch, who in the spring of the year one thousand six hundred and fifty-one sent a fleet into the Downs under their Admiral Van Tromp, to call upon the bold English Admiral Blake (who was there with half as many ships as the Dutch) to strike his flag [Tromp的flag]. Blake fired a raging broadside instead [猛烈的舷炮齐发], and beat off [打跑了] Van Tromp; who, in the autumn, came back again with seventy ships, and challenged the bold Blake - who still was only half as strong - to fight him. Blake fought him all day; but, finding that the Dutch were too many for him, got quietly off at night. What does Van Tromp upon this, but [except] goes cruising and boasting about the Channel, between the North Foreland and the Isle of Wight, with a great Dutch broom tied to his masthead [the top of a 主桅 on a ship], as a sign that he could and would sweep the English of the sea! Within three months, Blake lowered his [Tromp的] tone though, and his broom too; for, he and two other bold commanders, Dean and Monk, fought him three whole days, took twenty-three of his ships, shivered [粉碎] his broom to pieces, and settled his business.

If you call on/upon sb to do sth, you say publicly that you want them to do it.

Things were no sooner quiet again, than the army began to complain to the Parliament that they were not governing the nation properly, and to hint that they thought they could do it better themselves. Oliver, who had now made up his mind to be the head of the state, or nothing at all, supported them in this, and called a meeting of officers and his own Parliamentary friends, at his lodgings in Whitehall, to consider the best way of getting rid of the Parliament. It had now lasted just as many years as the King's unbridled [不受约束的] power had lasted, before it came into existence. The end of the deliberation [仔细的商议] was, that Oliver went down to the House in his usual plain black dress, with his usual grey worsted [精纺] stockings, but with an unusual party [群组团队] of soldiers behind him. These last [最后提到的人/物] he left in the lobby, and then went in and sat down. Presently [soon] he got up, made the Parliament a speech, told them that the Lord had done with them [上帝受够他们了], stamped his foot and said, 'You are no Parliament. Bring them in! Bring them in!' At this signal the door flew open [fly open = open quickly and suddenly], and the soldiers appeared. 'This is not honest,' said Sir Harry Vane, one of the members. 'Sir Harry Vane!' cried Cromwell; 'O, Sir Harry Vane! The Lord deliver [拯救] me from Sir Harry Vane!' Then he pointed out members one by one, and said this man was a drunkard [酒鬼], and that man a dissipated [spending too much time enjoying physical pleasures, 意志涣散] fellow, and that man a liar, and so on. Then he caused [使发生] the Speaker to be walked out of his chair, told the guard to clear the House, called the mace [权杖] upon the table - which is a sign that the House is sitting [议会在开会] - 'a fool's bauble [华而不实的装饰品],' and said, 'here, carry it away!' Being obeyed in all these orders, he quietly locked the door, put the key in his pocket, walked back to Whitehall again, and told his friends, who were still assembled there, what he had done.

六级/考研单词: parliament, fleet, van, bold, rage, autumn, cruise, boast, isle, broom, dean, shiver, hint, gray, stocking, lobby, physics, fellow, obey, assemble

Worsted (now Worstead) is a village in Norfolk, England.