英语专八考试汉译英考前练习详解（17）

光绪二十六年，八国联军攻占北京。慈禧太后弃城而走，一直逃到西安。和谈开始后，她并未马上返回北京。起初，外国列强的要求里面有一项是让慈禧太后退位，由光绪帝重新执掌朝廷。不过，在与李鸿章多次会谈后，他们放弃了这一要求。

第二年正式签署和约，随后过了一个月慈禧才终于从西安动身。她对外国人万分惧怕，正像她对国人无比傲慢一样。她在河南停留了很长一段时间，到了保定又逗留多日，好不容易才回到北京。据野史记载，在这漫长的旅途中还发生了一件趣事。一位地方官员送给慈禧一只猴子，她颇为高兴，竟下旨给那只猴子穿黄马褂。后来太监报告说，有的官员发出了“人不如猴”的感慨，慈禧这才发现自己的决定有些荒唐，于是又下旨给随行官员每人一件黄马褂。得到这殊荣之后，大家真不知道该感谢慈禧还是感谢那只猴子。

In the following year, a formal peace pact was signed. About a month later, Cixi left Xi’an at last. She was utterly fearful of foreigners just as she was extremely arro-gant toward her own countrymen. She stopped far a long time in Henan and halted in Baoding for quite a few days before finally arriving in Beijing. According to unofficial accounts，an amusing episode took place during this long and drawn out journey. When a local official offered a monkey to her as a gift，she was so pleased that she ordered a yellow mandarin jacket to be conferred upon the ter, a eunuch heard some officials complaining that people were considered less worthy than a monkey and went to inform Cixi，who realized that her order had been indeed a little too whimsical. So she issued another edict granting each of the escorting officials a yellow mandarin jacket. Upon the receipt of such an unusual favor the officials did not know whether they should thank Cixi or rather the monkey for it.