Nineteen Eighty-Four

Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949) by George Orwell is set in a future Britain, now called Airstrip One, part of a huge superstate named Oceania. A single Party rules every part of life. Its leader, Big Brother, watches from posters and screens, the Thought Police hunt for disloyal ideas, and the Ministry of Truth rewrites history every day. Winston Smith, a quiet office worker, begins to question the Party in secret. The novel is one of the most famous warnings ever written about the dangers of total government control, and many of its words, such as Big Brother and doublethink, are now used in everyday English.《一九八四》（Nineteen Eighty-Four，1949）是喬治·歐威爾的作品，故事背景是未來的英國，那時它被稱為「第一空降場」，屬於一個名叫「大洋國」的龐大超級國家。一個單一政黨統治生活的每一個層面。黨的領袖「老大哥」從海報和螢幕上監看一切，思想警察追查不忠誠的想法，真理部每天都在改寫歷史。溫斯頓·史密斯是一名安靜的辦公室職員，他開始在暗中質疑黨。這部小說是史上最著名的、警告極權控制之危險的作品之一，書中許多詞語，例如「老大哥」和「雙重思想」，如今已成為英文的日常用語。

Structure: three parts with twenty-four chapters in total. Part One has eight chapters, Part Two has ten, and Part Three has six. These notes cover one chapter per lesson, grouped by the book's three parts. Some editions print the last chapter of Part Two as the final section of Chapter 9; these notes follow the usual ten-chapter division. The book ends with an appendix explaining the Newspeak language, which is discussed in the Book Guide.結構：全書分三部，共二十四章。第一部有八章，第二部有十章，第三部有六章。這份筆記一章一課，依照書的三部分組。有些版本把第二部最後一章接在第 9 章後面當作最後一段；這份筆記依照通行的十章分法。書末有一篇解說「新語」的附錄，放在全書導讀中討論。

The novel is a serious political story for older readers. It includes constant surveillance, war and bombing, public executions mentioned in the background, a secret romantic relationship between adults, imprisonment, and torture. These notes describe difficult scenes briefly and without graphic detail, focusing on what they mean in the story.這是一部寫給較年長讀者的嚴肅政治小說。書中有無所不在的監視、戰爭與轟炸、作為背景被提及的公開處決、成年人之間的秘密戀情、監禁與酷刑。這份筆記對困難的場景只做簡短、不涉及細節的描述，重點放在它們在故事中的意義。

George Orwell was the pen name of Eric Arthur Blair (1903–1950). He was born in India, studied at Eton in England, and served as a police officer in Burma, an experience that made him strongly dislike imperial power. He later lived among poor workers in Paris, London, and northern England and wrote about their lives. In 1936–37 he fought in the Spanish Civil War, where he was shot in the throat and saw how political groups spread lies about their rivals. During the Second World War he worked for the BBC. He wrote Nineteen Eighty-Four on the Scottish island of Jura while seriously ill with tuberculosis, and he died a few months after it was published.喬治·歐威爾是艾瑞克·亞瑟·布萊爾（1903–1950）的筆名。他生於印度，在英國伊頓公學讀書，後來在緬甸當警察，這段經歷讓他非常厭惡帝國的權力。之後他在巴黎、倫敦和英格蘭北部和貧窮的勞工一起生活，並書寫他們的處境。1936 至 1937 年，他參加西班牙內戰，喉嚨中彈，也親眼看到政治團體如何散播關於對手的謊言。第二次世界大戰期間，他在英國廣播公司（BBC）工作。他在蘇格蘭的朱拉島上寫成《一九八四》，當時身患嚴重的肺結核，這本書出版幾個月後他就過世了。

Orwell's best-known other book is Animal Farm (1945), a short fable in which farm animals overthrow their human owner, only to be ruled by pigs. He also wrote Homage to Catalonia, about the Spanish Civil War, Down and Out in Paris and London, about poverty, and famous essays such as Politics and the English Language, which argues that unclear language helps hide dishonest ideas.歐威爾另一本最有名的作品是《動物農莊》（Animal Farm，1945），這則短篇寓言講述農場動物推翻人類主人，最後卻被豬統治。他也寫了關於西班牙內戰的《向加泰隆尼亞致敬》、關於貧窮的《巴黎倫敦落魄記》，以及著名的散文，例如〈政治與英語〉，文中主張不清楚的語言有助於掩飾不誠實的想法。