A Comparison for Old English and Modern English

Original:
And now where some affirmed it was ill done of the Council to send forth men so badly provided, this uncontradictable reason will show them plainly they are too ill-advised to nourish such ill conceits: first, the fault of our going was our own; what could be thought fitting or necessary we had; but what we should find, or want, or where we should be, we were all ignorant, and supposing to make our passage in two months, with victual to live, and the advantage of the spring to work; we were at sea five months, where we both spent our victual and lost the opportunity of the time and season to plant, by the unskillful presumption of our ignorant transporters, that understood not at all what they undertook.

Source: Adventures in American Literature by Holt, Rinehart and Winston Staff Page 21

Paraphrase
And now some claimed that the Council sent us with insufficient provisions, but it is certain that those who made this claim are not aware of the situation: first, we went on our own volition; we possessed what we thought would be proper or necessary; but we were unaware of what we would be able to find, or where we would arrive, and we assumed that the journey would last two months, and thus we packed enough food for that time, thinking that we would arrive in time for spring planting time; we sailed for five months, consumed all our food, and missed the planting season, because our sailors were incompetent calculators who did not understand the nature of the journey.

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• 謝謝cheerleaders分享,周末快樂. -婉蕠- ♀ (0 bytes) () 03/13/2010 postreply 06:25:05