【饥饿游戏】13

 I’ve been right not to cry. The station is swarming¹ with reporters

with their insectlike cameras trained directly on my

face. But I’ve had a lot of practice at wiping my face clean of

emotions and I do this now. I catch a glimpse of myself on the

television screen on the wall that’s airing my arrival live and

feel gratified that I appear almost bored.

Peeta Mellark, on the other hand, has obviously been crying

and interestingly enough does not seem to be trying to cover

it up. I immediately wonder if this will be his strategy in the

Games. To appear weak and frightened, to reassure² the other

tributes that he is no competition at all, and then come out

fighting. This worked very well for a girl, Johanna Mason, from

District 7 a few years back. She seemed like such a sniveling,

cowardly fool that no one bothered about her until there were

only a handful of contestants³ left. It turned out she could kill

viciously. Pretty clever, the way she played it. But this seems

an odd strategy for Peeta Mellark because he’s a baker’s son.

All those years of having enough to eat and hauling bread

trays around have made him broad-shouldered and strong. It

will take an awful lot of weeping to convince anyone to overlook

him.

We have to stand for a few minutes in the doorway⁴ of the

train while the cameras gobble up our images, then we’re allowed

inside and the doors close mercifully behind us. The

train begins to move at once.

The speed initially⁵ takes my breath away. Of course, I’ve

never been on a train, as travel between the districts is forbidden

except for officially sanctioned duties. For us, that’s

mainly transporting coal. But this is no ordinary coal train. It’s

one of the high-speed Capitol models that average 250 miles

per hour. Our journey to the Capitol will take less than a day.

In school, they tell us the Capitol was built in a place once

called the Rockies. District 12 was in a region known is Appalachia.

Even hundreds of years ago, they mined coal here.

Which is why our miners have to dig so deep.

Somehow it all comes back to coal at school. Besides basic

reading and math most of our instruction is coal-related. Except

for the weekly lecture on the history of Panem. It’s mostly

a lot of blather about what we owe the Capitol. I know there

must be more than they’re telling us, an actual account of

what happened during the rebellion. But I don’t spend much

time thinking about it. Whatever the truth is, I don’t see how it

will help me get food on the table.

The tribute train is fancier than even the room in the Justice

Building. We are each given our own chambers⁶ that have

a bedroom, a dressing⁷ area, and a private bathroom with hot

and cold running water. We don’t have hot water at home, unless

we boil it.

There are drawers filled with fine clothes, and Effie Trinket

tells me to do anything I want, wear anything I want, everything

is at my disposal. Just be ready for supper in an hour. I

peel off my mother’s blue dress and take a hot shower. I’ve

never had a shower before. It’s like being in a summer rain,

only warmer. I dress in a dark green shirt and pants.

At the last minute, I remember Madge’s little gold pin. For

the first time, I get a good look at it. It’s as if someone fashioned

a small golden bird and then attached a ring around

it. The bird is connected to the ring only by its wing tips. I

suddenly recognize it. A mockingjay.

They’re funny birds and something of a slap in the face to

the Capitol. During the rebellion, the Capitol bred a series of

genetically⁸ altered animals as weapons. The common term for

them was muttations, or sometimes mutts for short. One was a

special bird called a jabberjay that had the ability to memorize

and repeat whole human conversations. They were homing

birds, exclusively male, that were released into regions where

the Capitol’s enemies were known to be hiding. After the birds

gathered words, they’d fly back to centers to be recorded. It

took people awhile to realize what was going on in the districts, 

how private conversations were being transmitted. Then, of 

course, the rebels fed the Capitol endless lies, and the

joke was on it. So the centers were shut down and the birds

were abandoned to die off in the wild.

Only they didn’t die off. Instead, the jabberjays mated with

female mockingbirds creating a whole new species that could

replicate⁹ both bird whistles and human melodies. They had

lost the ability to enunciate¹⁰ words but could still mimic¹¹ a

range of human vocal¹² sounds, from a child’s high-pitched

warble to a man’s deep tones. And they could re-create songs.

Not just a few notes, but whole songs with multiple verses, if

you had the patience to sing them and if they liked your voice.

My father was particularly fond of mockingjays. When we

went hunting, he would whistle or sing complicated songs to

them and, after a polite pause, they’d always sing back. Not

everyone is treated with such respect. But whenever my father

sang, all the birds in the area would fall silent and listen.

His voice was that beautiful, high and clear and so filled with

life it made you want to laugh and cry at the same time. I could

never bring myself to continue the practice after he was gone.

Still, there’s something comforting about the little bird. 

1 swarming   

密集( swarm的现在分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去

参考例句：

• The sacks of rice were swarming with bugs. 一袋袋的米里长满了虫子。
• The beach is swarming with bathers. 海滩满是海水浴的人。

2 reassure   

v.使放心，使消除疑虑

参考例句：

• This seemed to reassure him and he continued more confidently.这似乎使他放心一点，于是他更有信心地继续说了下去。
• The airline tried to reassure the customers that the planes were safe.航空公司尽力让乘客相信飞机是安全的。

3 contestants   

n.竞争者，参赛者( contestant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The competition attracted over 500 contestants representing 8 different countries. 这次比赛吸引了代表8个不同国家的500多名参赛者。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency. 两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 doorway   

n.门口，(喻)入门；门路，途径

参考例句：

• They huddled in the shop doorway to shelter from the rain.他们挤在商店门口躲雨。
• Mary suddenly appeared in the doorway.玛丽突然出现在门口。

5 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

6 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网

7 dressing   

n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料

参考例句：

• Don't spend such a lot of time in dressing yourself.别花那么多时间来打扮自己。
• The children enjoy dressing up in mother's old clothes.孩子们喜欢穿上妈妈旧时的衣服玩。

8 genetically   

adv.遗传上

参考例句：

• All the bees in the colony are genetically related. 同一群体的蜜蜂都有亲缘关系。
• Genetically modified foods have already arrived on American dinner tables. 经基因改造加工过的食物已端上了美国人的餐桌。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 基因与食物

9 replicate   

v.折叠，复制，模写；n.同样的样品；adj.转折的

参考例句：

• The DNA of chromatin must replicate before cell division.染色质DNA在细胞分裂之前必须复制。
• It is also easy to replicate,as the next subsection explains.就像下一个小节详细说明的那样，它还可以被轻易的复制。

10 enunciate   

v.发音；（清楚地）表达

参考例句：

• Actors learn how to enunciate clearly in the theatrical college.演员在戏剧学院学习怎样清晰地发音。
• He is always willing to enunciate his opinions on the subject of politics.他总是愿意对政治问题发表意见。

11 mimic   

v.模仿，戏弄；n.模仿他人言行的人

参考例句：

• A parrot can mimic a person's voice.鹦鹉能学人的声音。
• He used to mimic speech peculiarities of another.他过去总是模仿别人讲话的特点。

12 vocal   

adj.直言不讳的；嗓音的；n.[pl.]声乐节目

参考例句：

• The tongue is a vocal organ.舌头是一个发音器官。
• Public opinion at last became vocal.终于舆论哗然。