读者文摘:我和我的父亲(1)

Growing up, I understood one thing about my dad: He knew everything.

在成长过程中，我了解了父亲的一件事：他无所不知。

This was our relationship, in sum: I asked him questions and he told me the answers.

这就是我们的关系，总而言之：我问他问题，他告诉我答案。

Is there really a man in the moon? How do sailboats work? What is the highest score anyone’s ever gotten in Pac-Man?

月球上真的有人类吗？帆船是如何工作的？吃豆人游戏的最高分是多少？

In my teen years, he taught me things I’d need to know to survive in the real world. How to drive a stick shift.

在我十几岁的时候，他教会了我在现实世界中生存所需要知道的东西。如何驾驶手动挡。

How to check your car tire’s pressure (though the gauge¹ he bought me 20 years ago still sits untouched in my glove box).

如何检查汽车轮胎的气压（尽管他20年前给我买的计量器现在还没动过，放在我的手套箱里）。

The correct knife to use to cut a cantaloupe.

切哈密瓜要用的刀。

When I moved out on my own, I called him at least once a week, usually when something broke in my apartment and I needed to know how to fix it:

当我自己搬出去住的时候，我每周至少给他打一次电话，通常是当我的公寓出了问题，我需要知道如何修理的时候：

the toilet; the air-conditioning; the wall, once, when I threw a shoe at a terrifying spider.

厕所；空调；有一次，我把一只鞋子扔向一只可怕的蜘蛛。

But then, eventually, I needed him less.

但后来，我不再那么需要他了。

I got married, and my husband had most of the knowledge I lacked about gutter² cleaning and water heaters and nondestructive insect removal.

我结了婚，我丈夫掌握了我所缺乏的大部分知识，比如清洁排水沟、热水器和非破坏性昆虫清除。

For everything else, we had Google. I don’t know when it happened, but our conversations when I called devolved into six words.

其他的事情我们都可以用谷歌。我不知道这是什么时候发生的，但当我打电话时，我们的对话变成了六个字。

Me: “Hi, Dad.” Him: “Hi, sweets. Here’s Mom.” (Because her, I still needed—What’s your chicken parm recipe?

我：“嗨，爸爸。他：“嗨，甜心。”这是妈妈。（因为她，我仍然需要——你的烤鸡是怎么做的？

Do I need to call the doctor for my daughter’s fever? Can you read this draft of my novel?)

我女儿发烧了，我需要叫医生吗？你能看一下我小说的草稿吗？）

I loved my dad, of course, but I wondered at times if maybe he had already shared everything I needed to know.

当然，我爱我的父亲，但有时我怀疑他是否已经分享了我需要知道的一切。

Maybe I’d heard all his stories. Maybe, after knowing a man for 40 years, there’s nothing left to say.

也许我听过他所有的故事。也许，在认识一个男人40年后，已经没什么可说的了。

Then, this past summer, my husband, our four kids, and I moved in with my parents for three weeks while our house was being renovated³.

然后，在刚刚过去的这个夏天，我们的房子正在翻新时，我和我的丈夫，我们的四个孩子，搬去和我的父母住了三个星期。

They own a lake house, and Dad asked me to help him rebuild the bulkhead at their dock.

他们在湖边有一栋房子，爸爸让我帮他重建他们码头的舱壁。

I didn’t balk—it was the least I could do for free rent—but I was dreading⁴ it. It was hard, manual labor⁵.

我没有退缩——这是我为免房租所能做的最起码的事——但我很害怕。这是艰苦的体力劳动。

We got wet and sandy, and I’m fairly certain a deadly bacteria was unleashed⁶ from the innards of the rotted wood we hacked⁷ away from the old retaining wall.

我们身上又湿又沙，我敢肯定，一种致命的细菌从我们从旧挡土墙上砍下来的朽木内部释放出来。

1 gauge   

v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器

参考例句：

• Can you gauge what her reaction is likely to be?你能揣测她的反应可能是什么吗？
• It's difficult to gauge one's character.要判断一个人的品格是很困难的。

2 gutter   

n.沟，街沟，水槽，檐槽，贫民窟

参考例句：

• There's a cigarette packet thrown into the gutter.阴沟里有个香烟盒。
• He picked her out of the gutter and made her a great lady.他使她脱离贫苦生活，并成为贵妇。

3 renovated   

翻新，修复，整修( renovate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He renovated his house. 他翻修了房子。
• The house has been renovated three years earlier. 这所房子三年前就已翻新。

4 dreading   

v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• She was dreading having to broach the subject of money to her father. 她正在为不得不向父亲提出钱的事犯愁。
• This was the moment he had been dreading. 这是他一直最担心的时刻。

5 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

6 unleashed   

v.把（感情、力量等）释放出来，发泄( unleash的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The government's proposals unleashed a storm of protest in the press. 政府的提案引发了新闻界的抗议浪潮。
• The full force of his rage was unleashed against me. 他把所有的怒气都发泄在我身上。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 hacked   

生气

参考例句：

• I hacked the dead branches off. 我把枯树枝砍掉了。
• I'm really hacked off. 我真是很恼火。