乔布斯传 第24期:奇特的一对,两个史蒂夫(5)

 　　Jobs had formed a club at Homestead High to put on music-and-light shows and also play pranks². (They once glued a gold-painted toilet seat onto a flower planter.)

　　乔布斯在家园高中的时候曾经组织过一个俱乐部，进行音乐灯光表演，也搞些恶作剧（他们曾经把一个刷了金色漆的马桶坐垫粘到了一个花盆上）。

　　It was called the Buck³ Fry Club, a play on the name of the principal.

　　他们的俱乐部叫做“巴克鱼苗”（Buck Fry Club)，借以取笑校长的名字。

　　Even though they had already graduated, Wozniak and his friend Allen Baum joined forces with Jobs, at the end of his junior year, to produce a farewell gesture for the departing seniors.

　　当时已经毕业的沃兹尼亚克和朋友艾伦·鲍姆（Allen Baum)也在乔布斯高中三年级结束的时候加入了他的校内圈子，欢送即将毕业的四年级学生。

　　Showing off the Homestead campus four decades later, Jobs paused at the scene of the escapade and pointed⁴.

　　40年后，当乔布斯再一次回到校园时，他在当年那场恶作剧发生的地方停了下来，指给我看：

　　"See that balcony? That's where we did the banner prank¹ that sealed our friendship."

　　“看见那个阳台了吗？我们就是在那儿挂的标语，也是在那儿锁定了我们的友谊。”

　　On a big bedsheet Baum had tie-dyed with the school's green and white colors, they painted a huge hand flipping⁵ the middle-finger salute⁶.

　　在鲍姆家的后院里，他们拿出一张已经扎染成学校标志性绿白相间颜色的大号床单，在上面画了一只巨大的竖起中指的手。

　　Baum's nice Jewish mother helped them draw it and showed them how to do the shading and shadows to make it look more real.

　　鲍姆慈爱的犹太人母亲甚至帮他们一起画，还告诉他们怎么处理色彩渐变和阴影部分，好让整个画面看上去更加真实。

　　"I know what that is," she snickered.

　　“我知道这是什么意思。”她窃笑着说。

　　They devised a system of ropes and pulleys so that it could be dramatically lowered as the graduating class marched past the balcony,

　　他们设计了一个由绳子和滑轮组成的装置，这样一来，在毕业生们行进到阳台下方时，床单会缓缓落下，

　　and they signed it "SWAB JOB," the initials of Wozniak and Baum combined with part of Jobs's name.

　　他们还在上面签上了巨大的字母“SWABJ0B”，这是取自三个人名字中的字母，意思是“沃兹尼亚克-鲍姆-乔布斯联合出品”。

　　The prank became part of school lore—and got Jobs suspended one more time.

　　这场恶作剧成了学校的传奇，也让乔布斯再一次被停学处分。

　　Another prank involved a pocket device Wozniak built that could emit TV signals.

　　在另一场恶作剧中，使用到了沃兹尼亚克发明的一个可以发射电视信号的便携装置。

　　He would take it to a room where a group of people were watching TV, such as in a dorm, and secretly press the button so that the screen would get fuzzy with static.

　　他会带着这个装置走进一个大家都在看电视的房间，比如说宿舍，然后悄悄按下按钮，电视屏幕就会受到静电千扰而变得模糊。

　　When someone got up and whacked⁷ the set, Wozniak would let go of the button and the picture would clear up.

　　有人站起来猛敲电视机的时候，沃兹就松开按钮，于是画面就会恢复正常。

　　Once he had the unsuspecting viewers hopping⁸ up and down at his will, he would make things harder.

　　一旦那些毫不怀疑的观众们开始顺着他的意愿不断起身，他就会提高难度。

　　He would keep the picture fuzzy until someone touched the antenna⁹.

　　他会让画面一直模糊着，直到有人去碰一下天线。

　　Eventually he would make people think they had to hold the antenna while standing¹⁰ on one foot or touching¹¹ the top of the set.

　　最终他会让一群观众以为扶着天线的同时还必须单脚着地或者手放在电视机顶部。

　　Years later, at a keynote presentation where he was having his own trouble getting a video to work, Jobs broke from his script and recounted the fun they had with the device.

　　多年以后，在一场主题演讲上，乔布斯也遇到了视频无法播放的麻烦，他放下演讲稿，讲述了当年和沃兹一起玩这个装置时的快乐。

　　"Woz would have it in his pocket and we'd go into a dorm . . . where a bunch of folks would be, like, watching Star Trek¹²,

　　“沃兹会把它装在口袋里，然后走进一间宿舍，那里会有一群人在看《星际迷航》，

　　and he'd screw up the TV, and someone would go up to fix it, and just as they had the foot off the ground he would turn it back on, and as they put their foot back on the ground he'd screw it up again."

　　他就开始在电视机上捣乱，这时就会有人站起来准备去修，他脚刚抬起来沃兹就会让电视恢复正常，脚落地之后沃兹又再次让电视画面变模糊。”

　　Contorting himself into a pretzel onstage, Jobs concluded to great laughter, "And within five minutes he would have someone like this."

　　乔布斯站在台上作出扭曲的表情，笑着说：“不出五分钟，就会有人被气成我现在这个样子。”

1 prank   

n.开玩笑，恶作剧；v.装饰；打扮；炫耀自己

参考例句：

• It was thought that the fire alarm had been set off as a prank.人们认为火警报警器响是个恶作剧。
• The dean was ranking the boys for pulling the prank.系主任正在惩罚那些恶作剧的男学生。

2 pranks   

n.玩笑，恶作剧( prank的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Frank's errancy consisted mostly of pranks. 法兰克错在老喜欢恶作剧。 来自辞典例句
• He always leads in pranks and capers. 他老是带头胡闹和开玩笑。 来自辞典例句

3 buck   

n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃

参考例句：

• The boy bent curiously to the skeleton of the buck.这个男孩好奇地弯下身去看鹿的骸骨。
• The female deer attracts the buck with high-pitched sounds.雌鹿以尖声吸引雄鹿。

4 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

5 flipping   

讨厌之极的

参考例句：

• I hate this flipping hotel! 我讨厌这个该死的旅馆！
• Don't go flipping your lid. 别发火。

6 salute   

vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮

参考例句：

• Merchant ships salute each other by dipping the flag.商船互相点旗致敬。
• The Japanese women salute the people with formal bows in welcome.这些日本妇女以正式的鞠躬向人们施礼以示欢迎。

7 whacked   

a.精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• She whacked him with her handbag. 她用手提包狠狠地打他。
• He whacked me on the back and I held both his arms. 他用力拍拍我的背，我抱住他的双臂。

8 hopping   

n. 跳跃 动词hop的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The clubs in town are really hopping. 城里的俱乐部真够热闹的。
• I'm hopping over to Paris for the weekend. 我要去巴黎度周末。

9 antenna   

n.触角，触须；天线

参考例句：

• The workman fixed the antenna to the roof of the house.工人把天线固定在房顶上。
• In our village, there is an antenna on every roof for receiving TV signals.在我们村里，每家房顶上都有天线接收电视信号。

10 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。

11 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

12 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。