《圣诞颂歌》是英国作家狄更斯倍受推崇的一部短篇小说。故事并没有落于俗套地为我们描写圣诞节的炉边夜话和风雪之夜，而是突出了当时的社会问题。主人公斯克鲁奇是一位商人，他成天与钱柜、账本和发票打交道，一生只知道攒钱，毫无人性。他克扣员工的工资，拒绝外甥的问候和祝福，不施舍分文给穷人。然而，平安夜出现的三个精灵给他展现过去、现在和未来的某些生活情景，让斯克鲁奇从自己制造的陷阱和枷锁中解脱出来，领悟到圣诞节和生活的真谛。
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卷福 朗读《圣诞颂歌》（节选）
At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house arrived. With an ill-will Scrooge dismounted from his stool, and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant clerk in the Tank, who instantly snuffed his candle out, and put on his hat.
账房关门的时间终于到了。斯克鲁奇满腹怨恨地从凳子上爬下来，默不作声地向早在小房间里盼下班的办事员示意他可以走了。办事员忙不迭地掐灭蜡烛，戴上帽子。
“You’ll want all day to-morrow, I suppose?” said Scrooge.
“那么，你明天一整天都不来了吧？”斯克鲁奇说。
“If quite convenient, Sir.”
“先生，那不会有什么不方便吧？”
“It's not convenient,” said Scrooge, “and it's not fair. If I was to stophalf-a-crown for it, you’d think yourself ill-used, I’ll be bound?”
“不方便，”斯克鲁奇说，“而且也不公平。假如为了这个缘故，我扣掉你半个克朗的工钱，我断定，你一定会叫屈吧？”
The clerk smiled faintly.
办事员勉强笑了笑。
“And yet,” said Scrooge, “you don't thinkme ill-used, when I pay a day's wages for no work.”
“可是，”斯克鲁奇说，“你不来上班，我还要付一天的工钱，你倒不觉得我有什么委屈。”
The clerk observed that it was only once a year.
办事员说一年到头也难得就这么一次。
“A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every twenty-fifth of December!” said Scrooge, buttoning his great-coat to the chin. “But I suppose you must have the whole day. Be here all the earlier next morning!”
“每年十二月二十五号，掏人一次口袋，这个借口实在不高明呀！”斯克鲁奇把大衣扣到下巴口，“看起来非得放你一整天假不可了。别忘了，后天早点儿来上班。”
The clerk promised that he would; and Scrooge walked out with a growl. The office was closed in a twinkling, and the clerk, with the long ends ofhis white comforter dangling below his waist (for he boasted no great-coat), went down a slide on Cornhill, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times, in honour of its being Christmas-eve, and then ran home to Camden Town as hard as he could pelt, to play at blindman's-buff.
办事员答应后天早点儿来；斯克鲁奇气鼓鼓地咕噜了一声，走出门去。办公室立即就关上了门，办事员的白色羊毛围巾的两头长长垂在腰下面（因为他买不起大衣），为了庆祝圣诞夜，他跟在一群小孩儿后面，沿着康希尔大街结冰路往下滑行了总有二十次，然后尽快往坎顿的家里赶，好回去同孩子玩捉迷藏。
Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern; and having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the rest of the evening with his banker's-book, went home to bed. He lived in chambers which had once belonged to his deceased partner.
斯克鲁奇在他经常去的那家冷冷清清的小酒店里，冷冷清清地吃了晚饭；接着把所有的报纸看了一遍，晚上剩下来的时间便用来把银行存折算了算，之后便回家睡觉去。他住的房子原先属于他的老搭档。
They were a gloomy suite of rooms, in a lowering pile of building up a yard, where it had so little business to be, that one could scarcely help fancyingit must have run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses, and have forgotten the way out again.
这套住房阴森森的，位于大院尽头一幢阴沉沉的建筑之内，这幢建筑同周围环境完全不相配，使人不禁会想象它谅必是在年轻时同其他房子捉迷藏，到了这儿之后找不到路回去而留下来了。
It was old enough now, and dreary enough, for nobody lived in it but Scrooge, the other rooms being all let out as offices. The yard was so dark that even Scrooge, who knew its every stone, was fain to grope with his hands.
房子年份够长、够阴郁的了；就只有斯克鲁奇一个人住在里面，其他的房间都租出去当办公室用了。院子里很暗，尽管斯克鲁奇对这里每一块石头都很熟悉，他还得用手摸索才找得着路。
The fog and frost so hung about the black old gateway of the house, that it seemed as if theGenius of the Weather sat in mournful meditation on the threshold.
房子古老黑暗的门道里雾气很浓，寒气逼人，仿佛气候之神坐在门槛上在满心哀伤地沉思一样。
