一、解說
1. The tall, well-dressed gentleman standing before me was certainly a far cry from the old sea wolf of my imagination. 站在我面前的是一位身材高大、衣著講究的先生，與我先前想象的老海怪完全不同。
    “standing before me”是現在分詞短語，作定語，修辭“gentleman”，譯成漢語可放在句首。
    “a far cry from sth/doing sth”是習語，意思是：a very different experience from sth/doing sth與某事物[做某事物]大不相同。
    例：Life on a farm is a far cry from what I've been used to. 農場生活與我已過慣的日子迥然不同。
    “wolf”是狼的意思，“sea wolf”在這里是指海員，海員因長期在海上航行，在常人眼里有點怪異，譯作“海怪”比較貼切。

2. His air of complete self-assurance and somewhat lordly bearing would have frightened me, had it not been for his warm and hearty handshake. 他和我握手時是那樣熱情、真摯，要不然他那自信十足且略帶傲慢的神情真會使我害怕呢。
    整個句子是虛擬語氣，“had it not been for his warm and hearty handshake”是條件從句，已倒裝，相當于if引導的從句。翻譯時使用了反譯法，并把否定的意思移到了主句中。

3. He took me in from top to toe with a quick glance. 他以敏捷的眼光從頭到腳打量了我一番。
    “take sth in”意為：note sth with the eyes; observe sth注視或觀察某事物。
    例1) He took in every detail of her appearance. 他端詳了她一番。
    例2) The children took in the spectacle open-mouthed. 孩子們張著嘴注視精彩表演。
    例3) He took in the scene at a glance. 他看了一眼那里的景色。

4. Of course, I now expected to hear a loud banging of doors and a chorus of giggles and shouts, the scampering feet of youngsters

ing down the steps and sliding down the banister. 很自然，我以為會聽到“砰砰”的關門聲，嘰嘰喳喳的說笑聲，嘈雜的腳步聲，有的連蹦帶跳，有的順著扶手滑下來。
    不要一看到“course”就譯作“當然”，太生硬。
5. Instead, led by a sober-faced young girl in her early teens, an almost solemn little procession descended step by step in well-mannered silence. 可是我沒想到，這支小小的隊伍在一個十來歲的沉靜的女孩子的帶領下，規規矩矩地不聲不響地一步步走下樓來，簡直太嚴肅了。
    “instead”表示一種轉折，這里使用了增詞法，在“可是”后面加了“我沒想到”，這樣更能準確地突出這種出乎意料的感覺。

6. This push, however, was the last. 不過這一推可就完了。
    這句話很難直譯，不能將其譯作“然而這是最后的一推”，太拙劣了。應該根據上下文將其含義譯出。上文已提到這項帽子拉過兩次了，下文是帽子掉了下來，所以譯作“不過這一推可就完了”，含義準確。