8．3 Exercises练习
Passage translation．
My Life in the Country
None of us will ever forget our first winter．We were buried under five feet of snow from December through March．While one storm after another blasted huge drifts up against the house and barn，we kept warm inside burning our own wood，eating out apples and loving every minute of it．
When spring came，it brought two floods．First the river overflowed，covering much of our land for weeks．Then the growing season began，swamping us under wave after wave of produce．Our freezer filled up with cherries，raspberries，strawberries，asparagus，peas，beans and corn．Then our canned goods shelves and cupboards began to grow with preserves，tomato juice，grape juice，plums，jams and jellies．Eventually，the basement floor disappeared under piles of potatoes，squash and pumpkins，and the barn began to be filled with apples and pears．It was amazing．
The next year we grew even more food and managed to get through the winter on firewood that was mostly from our own trees and only 100 gallons of heating oil．At that point I began thinking seriously about quitting my job and starting to freelance．The timing was terrible．By then，Shawn and Amy，our oldest girls were attending expensive Ivy League Schools and we had only a few thousand dollars in the bank．Yet we kept coming back to the same question: Will there ever be a better time？The answer，decidedly，was no，and no—with my employer＇s blessings and half a year＇s pay in accumulated benefits in my pocket—off I went．
(Jim Doherty，Exploring Through Writing，2nd edition，Cambridge University Press，1998)