纽约时报 居家隔离闹鬼?好恐怖!(4)

Since then, other small objects, including a set of keys, have moved to strange new places inside her apartment.

那以后，公寓里的其他小物品，包括一串钥匙，也出现在了莫名其妙的地方。

The reappearance of the camera lens in particular struck her as a "mischievous," playful gesture —

在她看来，这一连串的怪事，尤其是相机镜头的失而复得，彰显了一种“淘气”、顽皮的姿态——

perhaps even a thoughtful suggestion that this could be the perfect time for Ms. Hill,

甚至可能还传达了一个体贴的建议：出身电影专业的她

who majored in film in college, to pick her old hobby back up.

是时候拾起旧时的爱好了。

Kerry Dunlap shares a one-bedroom apartment in the Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens with his girlfriend, Alexandra Cohl.

克里·邓拉普和女友亚历山德拉·科尔在皇后区里奇伍德社区租了一套一居室。

Mr. Dunlap, a 31-year-old teacher, rapper and concert promoter, believes he first met their resident ghost last summer.

现年31岁的邓拉普是一名教师，还是说唱歌手，演唱会策划，在他看来，去年夏天他们就已跟鬼打过照面。

He saw her in the bathroom, in the middle of the night: wearing green scrubs, standing¹ an arm's length away from him.

那天半夜，穿着绿色的手术服她出现在了他的洗手间，距离他仅一臂之遥。

She appeared to be glowing.

整个人似乎都发着光。

The woman vanished when he turned on the light.

他刚打开灯，那个女人就消失了。

Mr. Dunlap knew that one of the friends the couple is subleasing from had spotted² a ghost in the apartment;

二人是从朋友手里转租的这套公寓，邓拉普知道，那位朋友也曾在这套公寓里看见过鬼；

both agreed they'd seen an older Asian woman of small stature³.

他们二人都认为自己看到的是一位身材矮小，有一定年龄的亚洲女性。

Mr. Dunlap and Ms. Cohl, a 27-year-old writer and editor,

过去，邓拉普和女友、现年27岁的作家兼编辑科尔常常发现，

used to find themselves in a routine late-night tug⁴ of war over the too-small comforter they shared.

他们三天两头就会陷入一场深夜拉锯战，原因是两人盖的被子太小了。

Several weeks ago, Mr. Dunlap woke late at night to the sensation of what he assumed

几周前的一天深夜，邓拉普迷迷糊糊感觉有人在理他脚边的被子，

was Ms. Cohl adjusting the blanket at his feet to spread it evenly across the bed.

似乎是要将被子铺平整，他以为那个人是女友科尔。

When the movement stopped and he didn't feel his girlfriend climb into bed beside him, he called out to her.

“女友”停止整理被子后，他却并未感觉到“女友”躺回他身旁，他便喊了喊她。

She didn't answer.

没有回答。

Then she came back in from the bathroom.

接着，她从洗手间回来了。

"It was so weird⁵, dude," Mr. Dunlap said. "It was so weird."

“太诡异了，兄弟，”邓拉普说。“真的是太诡异了。”

But the incident left him and Ms. Cohl with a lingering positive impression:

不过，这件事给他和科尔留下的却是正面的印象：

like whoever — or whatever — it was, it had been trying to make the couple feel more comfortable,

不管它是谁，又或者，不管它是什么东西，它都是想让这对情侣能感觉舒服一点，

or to mediate⁶ a potential conflict between them before it happened.

也可能是想调和二人之间的潜在冲突。

Kurt Gray, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel⁷ Hill,

北卡罗来纳大学教堂山分校副教授库尔特·格雷研究的就是

studies how we perceive and treat the minds of other entities⁸, including animals, machines and the dead.

我们感知以及对待其他存在，比如动物、机器、逝者等的思想的方式。

Times of great unease or malaise, when there is an increased drive to find meaning in chaos⁹,

他说，人在极度不安或极度不适的时候格外需要从混乱中寻找有意义的存在，

can lend themselves to perceived hauntings, he said —

这时的确有可能产生被鬼缠身的感觉，

not to mention that disease itself shares certain psychological parallels with a "malevolent¹⁰ spirit,"

更不用说，疾病本身与“恶灵”对人心理的影响就有某种程度的相似之处 ，

creeping invisibly upon its unsuspecting victims.

它们都会不动声色地爬到毫无戒心的受害者身上。

This phenomenon could also be a side effect of the loneliness of our time.

我们这个时代带来的孤独感也有可能引发闹鬼这一现象。

"In quarantine, you are physically¹¹ confined and also psychologically confined.

“隔离的时候，大家受限的不仅是行动，还有心理。

Your world narrows," Mr. Gray said.

因为你的世界变小了，”格雷说。

"You're trapped at home, you're needing human contact —

“你被困在了家里，但你又需要与他人保持联系——

it's comforting to think that there's a supernatural agent here with you."

有一个超自然的存在在陪你，你应该感到安慰才对。”

1 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

2 spotted   

adj.有斑点的，斑纹的，弄污了的

参考例句：

• The milkman selected the spotted cows,from among a herd of two hundred.牛奶商从一群200头牛中选出有斑点的牛。
• Sam's shop stocks short spotted socks.山姆的商店屯积了有斑点的短袜。

3 stature   

n.（高度）水平，（高度）境界，身高，身材

参考例句：

• He is five feet five inches in stature.他身高5英尺5英寸。
• The dress models are tall of stature.时装模特儿的身材都较高。

4 tug   

v.用力拖(或拉)；苦干；n.拖；苦干；拖船

参考例句：

• We need to tug the car round to the front.我们需要把那辆车拉到前面。
• The tug is towing three barges.那只拖船正拖着三只驳船。

5 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

6 mediate   

vi.调解，斡旋；vt.经调解解决；经斡旋促成

参考例句：

• The state must mediate the struggle for water resources.政府必须通过调解来解决对水资源的争夺。
• They may be able to mediate between parties with different interests.他们也许能在不同利益政党之间进行斡旋。

7 chapel   

n.小教堂，殡仪馆

参考例句：

• The nimble hero,skipped into a chapel that stood near.敏捷的英雄跳进近旁的一座小教堂里。
• She was on the peak that Sunday afternoon when she played in chapel.那个星期天的下午，她在小教堂的演出，可以说是登峰造极。

8 entities   

实体对像； 实体，独立存在体，实际存在物( entity的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our newspaper and our printing business form separate corporate entities. 我们的报纸和印刷业形成相对独立的企业实体。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities. 北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

9 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

10 malevolent   

adj.有恶意的，恶毒的

参考例句：

• Why are they so malevolent to me?他们为什么对我如此恶毒？
• We must thwart his malevolent schemes.我们决不能让他的恶毒阴谋得逞。

11 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。