向前一步:第40期 往桌前坐(8)

 Once, back in high school, we both had Saturday night dates who canceled on us in the late afternoon. 在高中时，我们都在某个周末下午被约会对象通知取消晚上的约会。

I spent the rest of the weekend moping around the house, wondering what was wrong with me. 那一个周末我都闷闷不乐地在家里打转儿，想知道自己到底哪里出了错。

David laughed off the rejection¹, announcing, "That girl missed out on a great thing," and went off to play basketball with his friends. 而戴维却对遭到女友拒绝的事一笑了之，先是说“这女孩儿错过好事啦”，随后便跑出去和朋友打篮球。

Luckily, I had my younger sister, wise and empathetic way beyond her years, to console me. 还好有我的妹妹安慰我，那个时候她就已经显露出超出同龄人的智慧和同情心。

A few years later, David joined me at college. 几年后，戴维也进了哈佛大学。

When I was a senior and he was a sophomore², we took a class in European intellectual history together. 当时我已经上大四，他上大二，我们一起选修“欧洲思想史”这门课。

My roommate, Carrie, also took the class, which was a huge help since she was a comparative literature major. 我的室友卡丽也上这门课，因为她的专业是法国文学，这门课给了她很大的帮助。

Carrie went to all of the lectures and read all ten of the assigned books—in the original languages (and by then, I knew what those were). 她不但每堂课必去，而且读完了课程指定的10本书，重要的是这些书都是原著（OK，这个时候的我已经知道“原著”意味着什么了）。

I went to almost all of the lectures and read all of the books—in English. 我也每堂课都去，也读完了课程指定的10本书……不过，是英文版的。

David went to two lectures, read one book, and then marched himself up to our room to get tutored for the final exam. 戴维只上过两次课，而且只读了其中一本，然后在期末考试前他冲进我们的宿舍，要求我们帮他进行考前辅导。

We all sat together for the test, scribbling³ furiously for three hours in our little blue books. 考试时我们3个人坐在一块，在试卷上奋笔疾书了3个小时。

When we walked out, we asked one another how it went. 走出考场时，我们询问彼此考得如何。

I was upset. I had forgotten to connect the Freudian id to Schopenhauer's conception of the will. 我很不开心，因为忘记了将弗洛伊德的“本我”概念与斯宾诺莎的“意志”概念联系起来。

Carrie, too, was concerned and confessed that she hadn't adequately explained Kant's distinction between the sublime⁴ and the beautiful. 卡丽也很发愁，后悔自己没有充分地解释康德对“崇高”和“优美”的区别。

 

1 rejection   

n.拒绝，被拒，抛弃，被弃

参考例句：

• He decided not to approach her for fear of rejection.他因怕遭拒绝决定不再去找她。
• The rejection plunged her into the dark depths of despair.遭到拒绝使她陷入了绝望的深渊。

2 sophomore   

n.大学二年级生；adj.第二年的

参考例句：

• He is in his sophomore year.他在读二年级。
• I'm a college sophomore majoring in English.我是一名英语专业的大二学生。

3 scribbling   

n.乱涂[写]胡[乱]写的文章[作品]v.潦草的书写( scribble的现在分词 )；乱画；草草地写；匆匆记下

参考例句：

• Once the money got into the book, all that remained were some scribbling. 折子上的钱只是几个字！ 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
• McMug loves scribbling. Mama then sent him to the Kindergarten. 麦唛很喜欢写字，妈妈看在眼里，就替他报读了幼稚园。 来自互联网

4 sublime   

adj.崇高的，伟大的；极度的，不顾后果的

参考例句：

• We should take some time to enjoy the sublime beauty of nature.我们应该花些时间去欣赏大自然的壮丽景象。
• Olympic games play as an important arena to exhibit the sublime idea.奥运会，就是展示此崇高理念的重要舞台。