Once, not very long ago，it was regarded primarily as [1] the period of the bride's initiation into the jollier Facts of Life [2]. I am told educational reforms have changed all that，but for the purpose of this essay I shall assrnne that the young couple whom I am invited to advise are deeply in love and that this is their first adventure together [3]. The weightiest counsel I can give is: avoid solitude. The endurances of the wedding are, today, less than they were [4]. Once upon a time the fittings，the rehearsals, the arrangement of the presents [5], left the bride，as the bachelor celebrations [6] left the bridegroom, in a state of prostration [7]. It was natural then, and to a less degree it is still natural [8], for the weary couple to suppose that the world offers nothing more desirable than a shooting-box [9] in the highlands, isolated amid miles of grouse moor [10] from the agitations of social converse [11]. That way lies stark melancholy [12] - Love provides its own peculiar isolation in the densest crowd. It also, paradoxically, calls for ostentation [13]. Each partner wants to show off to the other. Also--a simple thought rendered complex by the poverty of English syntax—each wants to show the other off to others [14]. It is perhaps for this reason, rather than for its splendours of architecture and scenery, that the traditional ground for honeymoons has always been well inside the pinching belt [15]. Venice, Porto Fino, Taormina，Brioni [16] — at all these hallowed places the populace take the keenest relish in a bride and compete in marking their appreciation (marking indeed!) by sidling [17] up to her in crowded public places and nipping [18] her like lobsters.

背景介绍
本篇节选自伊夫林▪沃（Evelyn Waugh)(1903〜1966)的《蜜月旅行》(Honeymoon Travel)。伊夫林▪沃，伦敦人，小说家。出身于出版商家庭。在牛津读书期间关注社会问题，对学院生活兴趣不大，爱好文学艺术。二十五岁发表第一部小说《表落与瓦解》，评击牛津大学、时髦人物、现代建筑等，笔调颇堪发噱，名重ー时，成为英国小说界的讽刺大家。写作手法颇有创新，将若干不连贯的情节融为有序的整体，偏好怪诞和黑色幽默，影响了年轻一代的作家。二战前游遍非洲和南美，写下游记作品《遥远的人们》和《九十二天》。除大量随笔和评论外，书信和日记也为文坛瞩目。主要作品包括《邪恶的肉体》、《独家新闻》等。

难点分析
1. it was regarded primarily as... :英译汉时，常常出现化被动为主动的现象。故译为“大家首先把……看作……”。