纽约时报 居家隔离闹鬼?好恐怖!(1)

Quarantining With a Ghost? It's Scary

居家隔离闹鬼？好恐怖！

It started with the front door.

一开始是在前门。

Adrian Gomez lives with his partner in Los Angeles,

艾德里安·戈麦斯和同伴两人住在洛杉矶，

where their first few days of sheltering in place for the coronavirus pandemic proved uneventful.

两人正在那里隔离，头几天的日子还较平淡。

They worked remotely, baked, took a two-mile walk each morning and refinished their porcelain¹ kitchen sink.

远程办公，做做烘焙，每天早晨散步两英里，还维修了厨房里的陶瓷水槽。

But then, one night, the doorknob began to rattle² "vigorously," so loud he could hear it from across the apartment.

然而，接下来的一天晚上，前门的门把手开始“剧烈地”摇晃，声音大到他从房子的另一头都能听到。

Yet no one was there.

问题是，屋外并没有人。

In mid-April, Mr. Gomez was in bed when a nearby window shade began shaking against the window frame so intensely —

后来，4月中旬的一天夜里，已经睡下的戈麦斯突然又听到旁边一扇窗户的百叶窗在猛烈地敲打窗框——

despite the fact that the window was closed,

尽管窗户当时明明是关着的，

an adjacent window shade remained perfectly³ still, the cats were all accounted for,

而且旁边另一扇窗户的百叶窗没有任何动静，猫也确认过了，

and no bug⁴ nor bird nor any other small creature had gotten stuck there —

也没有虫子或鸟或是其他任何小生命被困在那里——

that Mr. Gomez thought it was an earthquake.

敲打之厉害，戈麦斯甚至误以为是发生了地震。

"I very seriously hid myself under the comforter, like you see in horror movies, because it really did freak me out," he said.

“我立马躲到了被子里，就跟看了恐怖片一样，因为真的把我给吓坏了，”他说。

Now, though neither he nor his partner noticed any unexplained activity at home before this,

尽管在此之前，他和同伴都没有注意到家里有任何无法莫名其妙的事情发生，

the couple can "distinctly" make out footsteps above their heads.

现在两人却能“清楚地”听到头顶有脚步声。

No one lives above them.

问题是，他们上面根本就没人住。

"I'm a fairly rational person," said Mr. Gomez, who is 26 and works in I.T. support.

“我这个人还算比较理性的，”在IT支持部门工作现年26岁的戈麦斯说。

"I try to think, 'What are the reasonable, tangible⁵ things that could be causing this?'

“我就想，‘如果是合理的，有形的东西引起的，那会是什么呢？’

But when I don't have those answers, I start to think, 'Maybe something else is going on.'"

但我实在想不出会是什么，于是我又开始想，‘说不定还真是别的什么东西在搞鬼。’”

They're not alone …possibly in more ways than one.

不光他们是这样……可能还不止是这样。

For those whose experience of self-isolation involves what they believe to be a ghost,

对那些自认为在家隔离的时候撞鬼了的人来说，

their days are punctuated⁶ not just by Zoom⁷ meetings or home schooling⁸,

隔离这段时间，闯进他们生活的不仅是视频会议和网课，

but by disembodied voices, shadowy figures, misbehaving electronics, invisible cats cozying up on couches,

还有鬼魅般的响声，模糊的影子，表现怪异的电子产品，瘫在沙发上却看不见的猫，

caresses⁹ from hands that aren't there and even, in some cases — to borrow the technical parlance¹⁰ of "Ghostbusters" —

来自根本就不存在的手的抚摸，有时甚至还有——借用《捉鬼敢死队》里的说法就是——

free-floating, full-torso vaporous apparitions¹¹.

自由漂浮，全身呈蒸气状的幽灵。

Some of these people are frightened, of course.

有些人自然是被吓坏了。

Others say they just appreciate the company.

其他人反而表示很高兴有它们陪伴。

1 porcelain   

n.瓷；adj.瓷的，瓷制的

参考例句：

• These porcelain plates have rather original designs on them.这些瓷盘的花纹很别致。
• The porcelain vase is enveloped in cotton.瓷花瓶用棉花裹着。

2 rattle   

v.飞奔，碰响；激怒；n.碰撞声；拨浪鼓

参考例句：

• The baby only shook the rattle and laughed and crowed.孩子只是摇着拨浪鼓，笑着叫着。
• She could hear the rattle of the teacups.她听见茶具叮当响。

3 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。

4 bug   

n.虫子；故障；窃听器；vt.纠缠；装窃听器

参考例句：

• There is a bug in the system.系统出了故障。
• The bird caught a bug on the fly.那鸟在飞行中捉住了一只昆虫。

5 tangible   

adj.有形的，可触摸的，确凿的，实际的

参考例句：

• The policy has not yet brought any tangible benefits.这项政策还没有带来任何实质性的好处。
• There is no tangible proof.没有确凿的证据。

6 punctuated   

v.（在文字中）加标点符号，加标点( punctuate的过去式和过去分词 )；不时打断某事物

参考例句：

• Her speech was punctuated by bursts of applause. 她的讲演不时被阵阵掌声打断。
• The audience punctuated his speech by outbursts of applause. 听众不时以阵阵掌声打断他的讲话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 zoom   

n.急速上升；v.突然扩大，急速上升

参考例句：

• The airplane's zoom carried it above the clouds.飞机的陡直上升使它飞到云层之上。
• I live near an airport and the zoom of passing planes can be heard night and day.我住在一个飞机场附近，昼夜都能听到飞机飞过的嗡嗡声。

8 schooling   

n.教育；正规学校教育

参考例句：

• A child's access to schooling varies greatly from area to area.孩子获得学校教育的机会因地区不同而大相径庭。
• Backward children need a special kind of schooling.天赋差的孩子需要特殊的教育。

9 caresses   

爱抚，抚摸( caress的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A breeze caresses the cheeks. 微风拂面。
• Hetty was not sufficiently familiar with caresses or outward demonstrations of fondness. 海蒂不习惯于拥抱之类过于外露地表现自己的感情。

10 parlance   

n.说法；语调

参考例句：

• The term "meta directory" came into industry parlance two years ago.两年前，商业界开始用“元目录”这个术语。
• The phrase is common diplomatic parlance for spying.这种说法是指代间谍行为的常用外交辞令。

11 apparitions   

n.特异景象( apparition的名词复数 )；幽灵；鬼；（特异景象等的）出现

参考例句：

• And this year occurs the 90th anniversary of these apparitions. 今年是她显现的九十周年纪念。 来自互联网
• True love is like ghostly apparitions: everybody talks about them but few have ever seen one. 真爱就如同幽灵显现：所有人都谈论它们，但很少有人见到过一个。 来自互联网