下面小编给大家整理的我的小天地的双语美文（共含6篇），希望大家喜欢!同时，但愿您也能像本文投稿人“szapollo”一样，积极向本站投稿分享好文章。
关于我的小天地的双语美文
My room at home was too small for me. I barely had room for all the little knickknacks I'd collected over the years. There were so many things I had to pack away in boxes and store in closets all over the house. Oftentimes I didn't quite remember exactly where everything was
.我在家里的房间很小，偏偏我平时又喜欢搜集一些可爱的小玩意，几年下来，各种各样小玩意就渐渐摆满了我的房间。对那些摆放不下的东西，我只好忍痛将他们打包放进纸箱里，然后再塞进家里大大小小的储物柜里面，通常情况下我都不记得这些东西的具体存放位置。
There were all the notes my girlfriends and I passed throughout junior high, along with all the goofy poems my first boyfriend paid his friends to write and passed along to me as his originals. I also had a separate box for rose petals collected from past birthdays, Valentine's Days, anniversaries, and proms. I kept all my pictures in neatly organized albums on the bottom shelf of my bookcase. I had jewelry that I never wore but I thought I might someday need stashed away all over my room. I also saved birthday and Christmas cards, leaves that had fallen from the trees the previous fall, and medals I won for participating in piano recitals. On another shelf of my bookcase I even had a brick I found on the playground at my elementary school.
在这些小玩意当中，有我和初三的女伴们互传的小纸片，还有我的第一任男朋友的蹩脚情诗－－还不是他自己写的，是他掏腰包请他的朋友代写的，然后大言不惭地跟我说是他自己写的。我还有一个专门放玫瑰花瓣的箱子，花瓣都是我在历年的生日、情人节、各种周年纪念日和舞会上收集回来的。我还把照片整理成相册，整整齐齐地放在书架的底层上。我还留着一些自己从来都没戴过的首饰，想着哪一天要把它们好好藏在房间的每一个角落。我仍然保存着各式各样的生日卡和圣诞卡，去年秋天的落叶，还有我参加钢琴演奏会时赢回来的奖牌。在书架的另外一层甚至还摆着一块砖头，那还是我上小学的时候在操场上拾回来的。
I'm not exactly sure why I saved everything, but I have some sort of idea. I never wanted to forget the great times I'd had growing up. I always feared I'd become one of those adults who couldn't relate to children because they simply couldn't remember having been children themselves. I wanted to remember the flowers my brother gave me when no other boy would. I wanted to someday look back at pictures of my first trip to Panama City. For some strange reason, I wanted to remember the day my playmates and I found that broken brick on the playground and thought our school was being broken into.我也不清楚为什么自己要保留这些东西，我只能说一些模糊的理解，我觉得是想让自己铭记成长
过程中的美好时光。有些成年人不能理解孩子的想法，因为他们根本不记得自己也曾是一个孩子，而我总是害怕会变成这样的人。当没有其他男孩子送花给我的时候，哥哥送了花给我，我想永远记住那些花儿。我也希望可以通过看照片回想起自己第一次去巴拿马城的情景。我还记得那天我和玩伴在操场上发现那块烂砖头的时候，我们还以为学校遭打劫了呢。我也说不出为什么，我就希望当自己看回这块砖头的时候，我还能回想起当时的想法。So I kept my life stored away in my bedroom, tucked neatly into boxes, stacked high up in my closet, on display on my bookcases, stashed discreetly away in my underwear drawer in hopes I'd never forget anything. I loved my room because it was all about me. I didn't have to share it with anyone else. My memories didn't have to mingle with a sibling's or roommate's. My room at home was just that ... my room, full of my things.
于是我将我的生活点滴就这样储存在我的卧室里，整整齐齐地叠放在箱子里，高高地堆放在储物柜里，或是陈列在书架里，小心翼翼地藏在存放内衣的抽屉里，惟恐自己遗漏了什么。我很喜欢自己的房间，因为它处处充满了我的气息。我不用与任何人共用房间，我的回忆也不会与兄弟姐妹或室友的相混杂。我在家的房间是我自己私人的世界，到处都是我自己的`东西。
Now that I'm away from home, enrolled in college, and sharing ten cubic feet with another girl, my old bedroom doesn't seem so small. I try my hardest to make my half of the room personal to me, but in a space so small, that proves almost impossible. Occasionally her books will find their way to my half of the desk, or her shoes will be near my closet. Sometimes crumbs from the crackers she's eating litter my half of the carpet, and every so often, her hair brush begins to hang around with mine.
后来我考进了大学，也就离开了家，和一个女孩共住一间十立方英尺的宿舍，现在我再也不觉得家里的房间小了。我竭尽全力地维护属于自己的一半领地，可地方实在太窄了，事实证明我的努力都是徒劳的。有时候她的书会很自然地出现在我的半边桌子上，或是我的鞋柜里冒出她的鞋子。有时候，在她吃饼干的时候，饼干屑还会掉落在我的半边地毯上。她的梳子也开始和我的梳子混在了一起。
I don't have room for all the little memories I cherish. I only brought a handful of pictures from home, left behind all my yearbooks, as well as my dried flowers and “who loves who” notes. Perhaps the worst part about the whole ordeal is that I don't have room to start any new collections. The threat is there that I won't have anything to remind me of my college years. That's a really scary thought for me. This place where I sleep and study isn't my room. It's just a room.由于没有地方摆放所有记载着珍贵记忆片段的物品，我也没有从家里带来年鉴和干花，也没有拿来写着“
谁爱谁”的纸条，只带了一叠相片过来。我想开始收集其它东西，却没有地方存放，这可是这段苦难最惨痛的部分啊。而由此造成的危害是：我将没有能让自己记起大学岁月的物品。想到这，我就心慌意乱。我睡觉和学习的这个地方不再是属于我的天地；它只是一个房间而已。
404 South Carrick Hall is just a place to sleep, study, and watch my roommate watch TV. It's filled with textbooks, CD-ROMs, and dishes ... things that aren't supposed to be in a bedroom. There's only room for one stuffed animal and three posters which have a hard time staying on brico-block walls. I hate the fact that there's a microwave and refrigerator in the room where I sleep, and I hate that I'm responsible for filling them.
南卡尔克宿舍404房只是一个睡觉、学习和看着我室友看电视的地方。房间里摆满了课本、光碟和盘子，尽是一些不应该出现在卧室里的东西。剩下的空间只够放一只毛公仔和三张海报，要呆在粗糙的墙壁上，这些海报可真够呛的。我讨厌把微波炉和电冰箱摆在我睡觉的地方，也讨厌自己总要往里面塞放食物。
Maybe even worse than my new room's lack of personality is the lack of privacy it offers. Occasionally, and especially during home-coming, my roommate comes in after I've gone to sleep. She doesn't mean to wake me up, but when she starts her nightly contact-removal ritual, I can't help but hear what seems like thousands of different cleaning solution bottles bumping around the sink. I've been known to bother her too. During the day when I'm trying to study, my typing interferes with her enjoyment of “The Loveboat,” “Days of Our Lives,” and “Another World.”
我的新居没有个性，这已经够糟糕了，但更糟糕的是我老是要受到干扰。有时候，尤其在晚上室友回宿舍的时候她总要把我从梦中吵醒。她也不是故意要吵醒我，可是她每晚睡前例行的“脱隐形眼镜仪式”总让我心烦意乱，我觉得仿佛有上千瓶的隐形眼镜清洗液在洗手盆里摇来晃去。当然了，我也有干扰她的时候。当我集中精神学习的时候，我打字的声音也让她很扫兴，这样她就不能专注地追那些肥皂剧，像《爱之舟》、《我们的生活》和《异度空间》。
My roommate is not the only one who deprives me of privacy and makes 404 a room that is not really my own. The girls next door to me see me as a back-up grammar check when their computers don't catch every mistake. I can't lock them out because it's not my room to lock. I can't say, “Go away,” because they've gotten to be really good friends and I can't be rude to people I care about.
我的室友剥夺了我的私人空间，使404室不能真正成为我自己的房间，而她也不是唯一这样做的人。隔壁的女孩们把我当作后备的“语法检测器”，当她们的电脑不能找出文章的每处语法错误时，她们就跑来求救。我不能要她们吃闭门羹，因为这不只是我的房间，我不能把它紧锁。我也不能对她们说：“走开”，因为她们都是我要好的朋友，我不能粗鲁地对待那些我所关心的人。
The lack of privacy thing really bothers me. Not only do I live in a room that acts as a bedroom, study, kitchen, living room, and bathroom, I don't even get to be miserable in it by myself. Sometimes misery does not love company. Rather, it is created by company. If I can't decorate my room to my liking, I should at least be able to suffer in it alone. But dormitories are not for being alone - I've been told - they're about learning to get along with others. (Maybe I'll see the positive results of this nightmare when I'm giving advice to my own children when they begin college, but for the moment, I'm completely oblivious to them.)
没有私人空间真的让我很苦恼。我住的房间既是卧室，也是书房、厨房、起居室和卫生间，而且我还不能一个人在里面痛苦受罪。有时候，一个痛苦的人是不喜欢别人陪伴的。其实痛苦往往就是源于陪伴。如果我不能按照自己的喜好装饰房间，至少也得让我独自呆在里面受苦啊。但已经有人告诉过我了，宿舍不是你独处的地方，而是让你学会和别人相处的地方。（也许到了将来某一天，在我给开始上大学的儿女提建议的时候，我可以意识到住宿舍的好处。可现在在我看来，住宿舍就是一场噩梦，我没有发现其中的任何好处。）
There is some good news, however. Though she annoys me to no end, sometimes my roommate is just the person I want to see. I didn't get to know her habits so well without her taking in a few of mine. She oftentimes knows what I'm going to say even before I do, and most of the time she knows exactly when not to say anything to me at all. She's friend as well as foe, and I'd probably miss her if she left. The same sentiments apply to my neighbors. It's really quite flattering that they, even if somewhat mistakenly, consider me some sort of grammar goddess.
然而，好处还是有的。对于我的室友，虽然我总是不胜其烦，但有时她正是我想见到的人。如果她没有接纳我的一些习惯，我也不会对她的习惯了如指掌。通常，我还没开口她就知道我要说什么了；而且，在我不想和人答腔的时候，她都能感受到，并做到缄口不言。她集朋友和敌人于一身，如果她离开了，我就会挂念她。对于我的隔壁宿舍的邻居们，我也有同样的感觉。她们把我当作－－即使是“误”当作－－语法女神，我还是觉得非常荣幸。
And perhaps most important is the next thought. While I don't live in a room that's completely mine anymore, and probably won't ever again, I do find comfort in the knowledge that somewhere there's a pink, green, and white bedroom with a brick on the bookshelf, a diary in the underwear drawer, and an air of privacy that belongs strictly to me. It may not be my room as often as I'd like, but it will wait for me, just like I sit and wait for it.
也许接下来的想法才是重要的：虽然现在我不住在完全属于我的房间里，也许以后也不会，可是我相信在某个地方有个完全属于我的私人空间－－卧房是粉红色、绿色和白色相间的，书架上放了一块砖头，内衣抽屉里面还放着一本日记本，想到这些我就觉得油然欣慰。这个房间不总是如我所愿，可它会等着我这个主人，正如我现在在宿舍里坐着等它。
My Forever Valentine
The traditional holidays in our house when I was a child were spent timing elaborate meals around football games. My father tried to make pleasant chitchat and eat as much as he could during halftime. At Christmas he found time to have a cup or two of holiday cheer and do his holly-shaped bow tie1. But he didn't truly shine until Valentine's Day.
I don't know whether it was because work at the office slowed during February or because the football season was over. But Valentine's Day was the time my father chose to show his love for the special people in his life. Over the years I fondly2 thought of him as my “Valentine Man.”
My first recollection3 of the magic4 he could bring to Valentine's Day came when I was six. For several days I had been cutting out valentines for my classmates. Each of us was to decorate a “mailbox” and put it on our desk for others to give us cards. That box and its contents ushered in5 a succession6 of bittersweet7 memories of my entrance into a world of popularity8 contests marked by the number of cards received, the teasing about boyfriends/girlfriends and the tender care I gave to the card from the cutest boy in class.
That morning at the breakfast table I found a card and a gift- wrapped package at my chair. The card was signed “Love, Dad”, and the gift was a ring with a small piece of red glass to represent my birthstone9, a ruby10. There is little difference between red glass and rubies to a child of six, and I remember wearing that ring with a pride that all the cards in the world could not surpass11.
As I grew older, the gifts gave way to heart shaped boxes filled with my favorite chocolates and always included a special card signed “Love, Dad”. In those years my “thank-yous” became more of a perfunctory12 response. The cards seemed less important, and I took for granted the valentine that would always be there. Long past the days of having a “mailbox” on my desk, I had placed my hopes and dreams in receiving cards and gifts from “significant others”, and “Love, Dad” just didn't seem quite enough.
If my father knew then that he had been replaced, he never let it show. If he sensed any disappointment over valentines that didn't arrive for me, he just tried that much harder to create a positive atmosphere, giving me an extra hug and doing what he could to make my day a little brighter.
My mailbox eventually had a rural address, and the job of hand delivering candy and cards was relegated13 to the U.S. Postal Service. Never in ten years was my father's package late-- nor was it on the Valentine's Day eight years ago when I reached into the mailbox to find a card addressed to me in my mother's handwriting.
It was the kind of card that comes in an inexpensive assortment14 box sold by a child going door-to-door to try to earn money for a school project. It was the kind of card that you used to get from a grandmother or an aging aunt or, in this case, a dying father. It was the kind of card that put a lump in your throat and tears in your eyes because you knew the person no longer was able to go out and buy a real valentine. It was a card that signaled15 this would be the last you receive from him.
The card had a photograph of tulips16 on the outside, and on the inside my mother had printed “Happy Valentine's Day”. Beneath it, scrawled17 in barely legible18 handwriting, was “Love, Dad”.
His final card remains on my bulletin board today. It's a reminder of how special fathers can be and how important it had been to me over the years to know that I had a father who continued a tradition of love with a generosity of spirit, simple acts of understanding and an ability to express happiness over the people in his life.
Those things never die, nor does the memory of a man who never stopped being my valentine.
我的信念双语美文
When the 1)scruffy orange cat showed up in the prison yard, I was one of the first to go out there and 2)pet it. I hadn't touched a cat or a dog in over 20 years. It was an amazing bit of grace to feel him under my hand and know that I was enriching the life of another creature with something as simple as my care. I believe that caring for something or someone in need is what makes us human.
当那只脏兮兮的橘黄色猫儿出现在监狱的院子里时，我是第一批走上前去抚摸它的人之一。我已经有二十多年未曾摸过一只猫或狗了。感觉到它在我的手掌下，知道自己只不过用一丝简单的关怀就让另一个生命的日子变得充实起来，这真是一种令人惊叹的恩典。我相信，对有需要的人或物表示关怀，是我们作为人所应有的特质。
Over the next few days, I watched other prisoners responding to the cat. Every yard period, a group of prisoners gathered there. They stood around talking and taking turns petting the cat. These were guys you wouldn't usually find talking to each other. Several times I saw an officer in the group—not chasing people away, but just watching and seeming to enjoy it along with the prisoners.
在接下来的几天里，我看到其他犯人纷纷对这只猫表示关注。每次放风的时候，总有一群犯人围在那里。他们站在那里聊天，轮流抚摸着猫儿。平时，你不会看到这些家伙彼此交谈。还有几次，我看见一位狱警也站在人群里——不是为了把人们赶开，而是就在那里看着，似乎和犯人一起享受这难得的时光。
Bowls of milk and water appeared, along with bread, wisely placed under the edge of the 3)dumpster to keep the seagulls from getting it. The cat was obviously a 4)stray and in pretty bad shape. One prisoner brought out his small, 5)blunt-tipped scissors, and 6)trimmed 7)burrs and 8)matted fur from his 9)coat.
有人放下几碗牛奶和清水，还有面包;它们都被巧妙地放在大垃圾箱边缘的下方，以防海鸥抢食。这显然是一只流浪猫，健康状况相当糟糕。一名犯人拿出他的钝头小剪刀，给它修剪身上的芒刺和纠缠的毛团。
People said, “That cat came to the right place. He's getting treated like a king.” This was true. But as I watched, I was also thinking about what the cat was doing for us.
大家都说：“这只猫算是来对地方了。我们把它当国王一般款待。”确实如此。不过当我看着(人与猫的互动)，我也在思考这只猫为我们带来了什么。
There's a lot of talk about what's wrong with prisons in America. We need more programs; we need more 10)psychologists or treatment of various kinds. Some even talk about making prisons more kind, but I think what we really need is a chance to practice kindness ourselves. Not receive it, but give it.
许多人在讨论美国监狱到底出了什么问题。我们需要更多(改造)项目;我们需要更多心理学家或各种治疗法。有些人甚至说要让监狱更加人性化，但我认为，我们真正需要的是一个让我们表现善意的机会。不是接受，而是给予。
After more than two decades here, I know that kindness is not a value that's encouraged. It's often seen as weakness. Instead, the culture encourages keeping your head down, minding your own business and never letting yourself be 11)vulnerable.
在这里呆了二十多年后，我知道监狱并不鼓励善意善行——它通常会被视为软弱。相反，这里提倡的监狱文化是低调做人，别管闲事，而且绝对不能让人觉得你是好欺负的。
For a few days, a 12)raggedy cat 13)disrupted this code of prison culture. They've taken him away now—hopefully to a 14)decent home—but it 15)did my heart good to see the effect he had on me and the men here. He didn't have a 16)Ph.D., he wasn't a 17)criminologist or a psychologist, but by simply saying, “I need some help here,” he did something important for us. He needed us, and we need to be needed. I believe we all do.
在那几天，一只邋遢的小猫打乱了这种监狱文化的法则。现在他们把它抱走了——很可能送到某个靠谱的家庭——但是看到它对我以及这里的人所产生的影响，我的心灵得到了救赎。它并没有博士学位，也不是犯罪学家或心理医生。它只不过简单地说了一句“我需要帮助”，就为我们带来了非常重要的影响。它需要我们，而我们也渴望被人需要。我相信人皆如此。
当我还是小孩子的时候，我们家过传统节日时总是把精心准备的节日餐安排在足球赛时间。我父亲在中场休息时尽量聊些愉快的事儿并尽可能多吃东西。在圣诞节他会找时间为庆祝节日干上一两杯，然后戴上他那冬青叶形状的领结。但父亲真正光彩熠熠的时候是情人节。
我不知道这是否是因为他班上的工作在二月份不那么紧了，还是由于足球赛季结束了。但情人节这天，是父亲用来向在他生活中占有特殊位置的人表达爱心的日子。多少年来，我天真地把他看作是我“最思念的人”。
在我6岁那年的情人节，他给我带来了第一次美妙的回忆。一连好几天我都忙于为我的同学制作情人节礼物。我们每个人都要装饰一个“信箱”，然后把它放在书桌上，这样别人就可以投放贺卡。这个信箱和里面的东西带来了一连串苦乐参半的回忆：我进入了一个“人缘竞赛”的世界，所收卡片的多少则显示了比赛结果，对于男朋友和女朋友的揶揄，以及我对班里最聪明男孩给我的贺卡的精心爱护。
那天早上吃早饭时，我在餐桌上发现了一张贺卡，并且在我的椅子上发现了一个礼品包装纸的包裹。卡片上写有“爱你的，爸爸”，礼物是一个戒指，上面镶着一片红色的玻璃来象征我的诞生石--红宝石。对一个6岁的孩子来说，红玻璃和红宝石并没有什么区别;我还记得我骄傲地戴着它，感到世界上所有的贺卡都无法与之相比。
当我长大了一点儿，礼物变成装满了我最喜爱的巧克力的心形盒子，并且里面总是有一个贺卡写着“爱你的，爸爸”。在那些岁月里，我的感谢更多地成了一种敷衍的反应。贺卡似乎不再那么重要，而且我认为情人节礼物理所当然总会在那儿。在我的书桌上放个“信箱”的日子早已过去，我已经把我的希望和梦想都寄托在从 “其他重要的人”那里收到贺卡和礼物，而“爱你的，爸爸”就似乎不那么重要了。
不知爸爸那时是否知道他已经被取代，他从来没表现出来过。如果他感觉到我因没收到某些情人节礼物而失望，他就努力营造出一种欢快的氛围，多拥抱我一下或是尽可能设法让我这一天过得开心一点。
我的信箱终于有了一个乡下的地址;原来亲手赠送糖果和贺卡的工作都归了美国邮政局管。在这里爸爸给我寄的包裹从来不会晚--8年前的情人节父亲给我的贺卡依然准时到达，只是那张贺卡上是我母亲的笔迹。
这张贺卡是一盒整套买的那种，价格便宜，是由为了给学校的某个项目筹款的小男孩挨家挨户推销的那种。这是一种你过去经常从祖母或年迈的姑妈那里收到的那种贺卡，而这次却从不久于人世的父亲那儿收到了。这种贺卡使你嗓子哽咽，双眼噙泪，因为你知道给你寄贺卡的人已无法外出去买一个真正的情人节礼物了。这张贺卡预示着这将是你最后一次从他那儿收到情人节礼物。
这张贺卡的封面是一张郁金香花的照片，里面我母亲工整地写着“情人节快乐”，在下面是父亲歪歪扭扭难以辨认的字迹“爱你的，爸爸”。
他最后一次送给我的这张贺卡如今仍保存在我的记事牌上。它提醒我父亲是多么地不同寻常，以及这些年来对我是多么地重要，我知道我有这样一位父亲，他以慷慨的胸怀、朴素的理解和一生中向他的亲人表达祝福的能力，来保持着爱的传统。
这些事情永远也不会消失，我将永远记着他，他是我永远最思念的人。
1.bow tie 蝶形领结
2.fondly adv.充满感情地，深情地
3.recollection n.回忆
4.magic n.魅力，魔力，施魔法
5.usher vt.(与in搭配)展示，预报…的来到
6.succession n.(前后相接的)一系列
7.bittersweet adj.又苦又乐的
8.popularity n.得人心，声望
9.birthstone n.诞生石(象征出生月份表示吉祥的宝石，从1月至12月通常分别为，石榴石、紫晶、血纹绿宝石、金刚石、绿宝石、珍珠、红宝石、缠丝玛瑙、蓝宝石、蛋白石、黄玉、绿松石)
10.ruby n.红宝石，红宝石制品
11.surpass vt.胜过
12.perfunctory adj.敷衍的
13.relegate vt.交付，托付
14.assortment n.分类
15.signal vt.表明，标志着
16.tulip n.[植]郁金香
17.scrawl vi.涂写
18.legible adj.清楚的
我怎样白手起家双语美文
By Howard Schultz
霍华德·舒尔茨
[1]When I was a child growing up in public-housing projects in Canarsie, Brooklyn, I remember lying in bed at night thinking: what if I had a crystal ball『水晶球』and could see the future? But I quickly shut out『摒弃』the thought. I realized I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. All I knew was I had to get out of the projects, get out of Brooklyn.
[1]小时候我住在纽约市布鲁克林区卡纳西的房租低廉的住宅区，有一天夜里躺在床上思量：要是我有个水晶球能窥见未来，我会怎么样呢?不过我迅即抛开了这个念头。我知道自己在人生路上仍然漫无目标，只知道必须设法离开这里，离开布鲁克林。
【额外知识】Brooklyn：美国纽约市的五大行政区之一(其余四区是曼哈顿、布朗克斯、昆斯和里士满)，为黑人和穷人聚居区。
[2]I was fortunate to go to college, but I didn't know what to do next. I had no mentor 『导师;良师』to help me sort out my options『选择』. My main goal was to escape the struggles my working-class parents lived with every day.
[2]后来我有幸上了大学，却不知道下一步该怎么走，也没有人替我指点迷津。我的父母都是工人阶级，每天都必须操劳，而我当时最大的愿望就是不步他们的后尘。
[3]Eventually I discovered I had a talent for sales, and was hired by a Swedish housewares corporation. By age 28, I was vice president in charge of sales in the United States. I had an excellent salary and a co-op『合作』apartment in New York City, and was happily married to a beautiful woman, Sheri. My parents couldn't believe I had come so far so fast. The life I was leading was beyond their best dreams for me.
[3]我发现自己善于推销，便进入了一家瑞典人开的家庭用品公司工作。我表现出色，28岁就晋升为主管国内销售的副总裁，薪金优厚。我买了套住宅，又娶了如花似玉的妻子--雪瑞，生活舒适愉快。连我的父母都不敢相信我会如此飞黄腾达。他们从未梦想过我能过上这样的生活。
[4]Most people would be satisfied with all this. But I was getting antsy『热锅上蚂蚁般的;坐立不安的』. I wanted to be in charge of my own destiny 『命运』. It was around this time, in the early 1980s, that I became aware of a strange phenomenon. A little retailer『零售商』in Seattle was placing large orders for a drip coffee maker: a simple plastic cone 『圆锥体』set on a thermos『保温瓶』. The company, Starbucks Coffee and Tea, had only four small stores, yet it was buying our product in quantities larger than Macy's was. Why was Seattle so taken with this coffee maker when the rest of the country was using electric coffee makers?
[4]一般人有了如此成就，也许会志得意满，我却还想更上一层楼，决意要主宰自己的命运。就在这个时候(80年代初期)，一个奇特现象引起了我的注意。西雅图有家经营零售业的小公司向我们订购滴滤式咖啡壶。这家公司名叫“明星咖啡连锁公司”，只有4家小店，向我们买这种产品的数量却超过百货业巨擘梅西公司。当时美国各地普通使用电气咖啡壶。何以此器具在西雅图那么受欢迎?
【额外知识】
Seattle：美国西北部华盛顿州首府。濒临太平洋，著名的波音(Boeing)飞机制造公司坐落于此。
Macy's：即R. H. Macy & Co.梅西公司。美国资格最老、最著名的百货公司，总部设在纽约。
[5]I had to find out, so I went to Seattle.
[5]为了查明原委，我前往西雅图。
Fresh Approach
浓郁香气扑鼻而来
[6]Starbucks's flagship store was modest『朴素的』but full of character. The minute the door opened, a heady『刺鼻的;浓烈的』aroma『芳香』of coffee drew me in. Behind a wooden counter stood bins containing coffees from all over: Sumatra, Kenya, Ethiopia, Costa Rica. Along one wall was a shelf full of coffee-related merchandise『商品;货物』, including our thermos-and-cone coffee maker.
[6]明星咖啡连锁公司的总店朴实无华，却别具风格。我一推开店门，浓郁醉人的咖啡香气便扑鼻而来。木柜台后面有一列箱子，分别装盛从苏门答腊、肯尼亚、埃塞俄比亚和哥斯达黎加世界各地进口的咖啡。靠着墙的货架上摆满各种咖啡用具，包括我们生产的滴滤式咖啡壶。
[7]The counterman scooped『用勺舀』out Sumatran coffee beans, ground『grind的过去式。磨;碾碎』them, put the grounds in a filter『过滤器』 in the cone and poured hot water over them to give me a sample of their product. When he handed me the coffee, the aroma enveloped『笼罩;掩盖』my entire face. I took a tentative『实验性的;试探性的』sip.
[7]柜台服务员用勺子舀出少许苏门答腊咖啡豆，磨成粉，倒入滴滤式咖啡壶的滤格，浇下热水，冲一杯咖啡供我品尝。他把杯子递过来时，咖啡的香气笼罩了我的脸。我浅尝了一口。
[8]Whoa. My eyes shot wide open. It was stronger than any coffee I had ever tasted. By comparison, I realized, the coffee I had been drinking was swill『洗碟水;泔水』. That night I had dinner with one of Starbucks's owners, Jerry Baldwin. I had never heard anyone talk about a product the way Jerry talked about coffee. He wasn't just calculating『算计』 how to maximize『使增加/扩大到最大限度』 sales. He and his partner, Gordon Bowker, believed they were providing customers with something they ought to enjoy. It was an approach to business that was fresh and appealing『动人的;有吸引力的』to me.
[8]“哇!”我心里赞叹，不由得两眼圆睁。这是我有生以来所喝过的最浓烈的咖啡，以前喝的咖啡相形之下像洗碟水。当晚我跟明星咖啡连锁公司的股东杰里·巴登一起吃饭。我以前从未见过有谁像他谈咖啡那样谈论某些产品。巴登不只是努力推销而已：他和合伙人戈登·博格都相信，他们所卖的都是顾客会喜爱的东西。这样的经商态度令我耳目一新，也为之心折。
Inexplicable Attraction
不可言喻的吸引力
[9]I tried to persuade Jerry Baldwin to hire me-although it did not seem to be a logical career move. Taking a job at Starbucks would mean giving up my job and Sheri's job-and for what? Moving across the country to join a tiny outfit 『公司;机构』with four coffee stores? It didn't make sense to my friends or family, especially my mother. “You're doing well-you have a future,” she argued. “Don't give it up for a small company nobody's heard of .”
[9]我想说服巴登雇用我--老实说，此举似乎并不明智。我如果去明星咖啡连锁公司上班，就必须辞去现在的职位，而我的妻子也必须放弃现在的工作。我的亲友，尤其是母亲，都认为我的想法没有道理。“你现在干得很不错--前途远大，”她劝道：“不要为一个谁都没有听说过的小公司而放弃现在的工作。”
[10]I thought of the loss of security『保障』, remembering how when I was seven my father had broken his ankle at work. He was stuck at home for more than a month. He was a truck driver delivering diapers『尿布』, so when he didn't work, he didn't get paid. Our family had no income, no health insurance『保险』-nothing to fall back on. That image of my father-slumped『垂头弯腰地坐』on the couch, leg in a cast-was burned into my mind.
[10]我考虑的是失去保障，不禁想起7岁那年父亲工作时摔断踝骨，在家里困了一个多月的往事。他的职业是开卡车运送尿布，不上班就没有工资，我们一家人的生活顿时陷入困境。他一条腿裹着石膏颓然坐在长沙发上的情景，深深印在我的记忆中。
扩展：泥石流词汇
Mudslide 泥石流
mudslide-stricken region 泥石流受灾地区
the lake's water volume 湖水水量
landslide 山体滑坡
rain-triggered landslide 暴雨引发的山体滑坡
raised riverbed 抬高的河床
geological disasters 地质灾害
secondary disaster 次生灾害
barrier lake 堰塞湖
upper reaches 上游河段
the water level of the lake 湖水水位
mountain torrents 山洪
flood peak 洪峰
blackout 断电/停电
Rescue 救援
mass evacuation 大规模疏散
voluntary rescue work 志愿救援工作
bamboo bed 竹床
disinfectant 消毒剂
living subsidy 生活补助
resettlement 重新安置
the emergency rescue headquarters 紧急救援指挥部
excavator 开凿机
controlled explosions 受控爆炸
discharge flood waters 分流洪水
flood prevention ability 防洪能力
downstream residences 下流住宅
golden window 救援黄金时间
relief vehicles 救援车辆
epidemic prevention 传染病预防
psychological trauma 心理创伤
death toll
双语美文我在学校学到了什么
The 1)tumult over 2)state budgets and 3)collective bargaining rights for public employees has spilled over into resentment toward public school teachers, who are increasingly 4)derided as “5)glorified baby sitters” whose pay exceeds the value of the work they do.
有关国家财政预算和公职人员集体谈判权的争吵愈演愈烈，已经蔓延成对公立学校教师的憎恨，人们嘲笑他们只不过是“光鲜体面的保姆”，称他们的工作价值不足以获得当前的薪金。
But how exactly do we measure the value of a teacher?
但我们应该怎样确切地衡量一位教师的价值呢?
As a writer, I often receive feedback from readers I have never met. But the other day, I received a most unexpected message in response to one of my essays: “I am so proud of you and all you have accomplished. I shared your opinion from 6)The L.A.Times with my family and 7)reminisced about you as my student at Hibbing High School.” It was signed Margaret Leibfried, who was my English teacher—a teacher who appeared at a critical 8)juncture in my life and helped me believe that I could become a writer.
作为一名作家，我经常会收到读者的反馈，却与他们从未谋面。但前不久，我的一篇文章却得到完全出乎我意料的回应：“我为你和你所取得的成就感到骄傲。我与家人很认同你发表在《洛杉矶时报》上的观点，我还回想起当年你还是我的学生，在希宾公立高中就读。”这则信息的署名是玛格丽特·雷布弗雷德，我的英语老师。她在我人生中重要的时刻出现，是她让我相信我可以成为一名作家。
Thirty years ago, in Hibbing, a town in northern 9)Minnesota that is 10)home to the world's largest 11)open-pit iron mine, I entered high school as a 12)bookish 13)introvert made all the more shy because I was the school's only nonwhite student. I always felt in danger of being swept away by 14)a sea of 15)statuesque blond athletes. By 10th grade, I'd developed a 16)Quasimodo-like posture and 17)crabwise walk, hoping to escape being teased as a “18)brain” or a “19)chink,” and then finding being ignored almost equally painful. I spent a lot of time alone, reading and 20)scribbling stories.
希宾是美国明尼苏达州北部的一个小镇，也是世界上最大的露天铁矿所在地。30年前，我在这里上高中。那时候，我书生气十足并且性格内向，由于我是学校里唯一的非白人学生，所以我更加害羞胆怯。学校里遍地都是金发碧眼、轮廓优美的运动型学生，与他们相比，我总害怕自己被淹没在人群之中。到十年级时，我已经学会了加西莫多般的姿势和小心翼翼的走路方式，为的是避免被人嘲笑成“书呆子”或“中国佬”。与此同时，我发现被人忽略的滋味也一样很痛苦。大部分时间，我都是一个人看看书或者胡乱写点东西。
Ms. Leibfried taught American literature and composition grammar, which involved the usual—memorizing vocabulary and 21)diagramming sentences—but also, thrillingly, reading novels. Thrilling to me, that is. Many of my classmates expressed 22)disdain for novels because they were “not real.” For once, I didn't care what they thought. Ms. Leibfried seemed to notice my interest in both reading and writing, and she took the time to 23)draw me out; she even offered reading suggestions, like one of her favorite novels, 24)The Bell Jar.
雷布弗雷德老师教授美国文学和写作语法课程，自然少不了要教授这些课程的惯例内容：背诵词汇和分析句子，但也有令人兴奋的部分：阅读小说。至少对我来说，这是件令人兴奋的事情。因为小说“非真实”，我的许多同学都对其不屑一顾。但这回，我可不在乎他们怎么想。雷布弗雷德老师似乎注意到我对阅读和写作的兴趣，她甚至在课余时间与我交流，还给我提出了阅读建议，例如她向我推荐她最喜欢的一本小说——《钟形罩》。
That year's big 25)project was a book report, to be read aloud to the class. However, Ms. Leibfried took me aside and suggested I do something “a little different.” Instead of a report, I was to pick a passage from a book, memorize it and recite it in front of the class. While I longed for the safety and routine of the report, I was curious how this new assignment might work out. By then obsessed with The Bell Jar, I chose a passage that I thought showed off the 26)protagonist's growing depression as well as Sylvia Plath's 27)sly humor.
那年的课外自修项目是写一篇读书报告，还要在同学们面前朗读。但是雷布弗雷德老师把我叫到一边，建议我弄点“别出心裁的东西”。她建议我不用写读书报告，而是从某本书中选取一段文字，然后在同学们面前背诵出来。虽然我很想写读书报告，因为写读书报告既保险，又可按照例行程序完成，但我又按捺不住对新任务的好奇心。那时，我沉迷于《钟形罩》，于是我选择了其中的一段，认为这段文字能展现主人公日益浓烈的忧郁和作者西尔维娅·普拉斯的狡黠诙谐。
The morning of the presentations, I remember my palms sweating so badly as I walked to the front of the class that I held my hands 28)cupped in prayer formation, so I wouldn't wipe them on my shirt.
我还记得做汇报的那个上午，当我走到全班同学面前时，我的掌心直冒汗，于是，我只好将双手握紧成祈祷状，好让自己别把汗水揩到衬衫上。
I saw the days of the year stretching ahead like a series of bright, white boxes, and separating one box from another was sleep, like a black shade. Only for me, the long perspective of shades that 29)set off one box from the next had suddenly snapped up, and I could see day after day glaring ahead of me like a white, broad, infinitely desolate avenue.
我眼中的日子仿佛一连串雪白明亮的盒子，无穷无尽，绵延不绝，只有宛如黑影的睡眠相间。只是于我而言，这些隔开盒子的长长阴影突然断开，之后日复一日的岁月，在我眼前便成了一束刺眼的强光，如同一条白色宽广又极尽荒凉的大街。
It seemed silly to wash one day when I would only have to wash again the next.
It made me tired just to think of it.
I wanted to do everything 30)once and for all and 31)be through with it.
Dr. Gordon 32)twiddled a silver pencil. “Your mother tells me you are 33)upset.”
如果明天照样还得洗漱，那么今天的洗漱是不是有点可笑。
仅仅是想想这件事情都会让我疲惫不堪。
无论什么事情，我都想一锤定音，一劳永逸。
戈登医生旋弄着手中的银色铅笔，对我说：“你妈妈说你心烦意乱。”
I finished and, to my surprise, the class broke out in applause. “As a writer and a good reader, Marie has picked out a particularly sensitive piece of prose and 34)delivered it beautifully,” Ms. Leibfried said, beaming. I felt, maybe for the first time, confident.
出乎我意料的是，当我背诵完毕，教室里掌声雷动。雷布弗雷德老师笑逐颜开地说：“玛丽是一位作家，也是一位优秀的读者，她挑选了一段特别有表现力的散文，并且诵读得如此优美。”我想，也许那是我生平第一次感到自信。
Ms. Leibfried was followed the next year by Mrs. Borman, quiet, elderly and almost as shy as I was. She surprised everyone when she excused me from her grammar class, saying my time would be spent more 35)productively writing in the library. I took the work seriously, and 36)on a whim submitted an essay I'd come up with to 37)Seventeen magazine. When they published it, it was big news for the high school—it was even announced on the 38)P.A. system. Mrs. Borman wasn't mentioned, nor did she ever take any 39)credit; in her mind she was just doing her job.
第二年，接替雷布弗雷德老师的是博尔曼老师，她上了年纪，寡言少语，几乎跟我一样害羞。她免除了我的语法课，说我利用这个时间在图书馆写作会比上她的课更有成效，这决定让所有人都感到震惊。我很重视这个“任务”，还一时心血来潮，将自己写的一篇文章投给了《十七岁》杂志。这篇文章后来被发表了，成了学校里的大新闻，连校内广播系统都做了相关报道。博尔曼老师并未被提及，她也没为自己邀功;在她看来，她只是在做自己的本职工作而已。
I can now appreciate how much courage it must have taken for those teachers to let me deviate so broadly from the lesson plan. With today's pressure on teachers to “teach to the test,” I wonder if any would or could take the time to 40)coax out the potential in a single, shy student.
现在我能领悟到，那些老师当年让我远远偏离课程计划，这需要多大的勇气啊!如今的教师面临着“应试教育”的压力，我不知道是否还会有老师不惜花时间去挖掘一个孤单而害羞的学生的潜能。
If we want to understand how much teachers are worth, we should remember how much we were formed by our own schooldays. Good teaching helps make productive and fully realized adults—a result that won't show up in each semester's test scores and statistics.
倘若我们想知道教师的价值，就应该想想我们的学生时代对自身的影响和塑造。良好的教育帮助孩子成长为富有创造力、能够充分实现自我的成年人，但这一结果并不会显示在每个学期的测试分数和统计数据中。
That's easy to forget, as budget battles rage and teacher performance is viewed through the cold 41)metrics of the 42)balance sheet. While the love of literature and confidence I gained from Ms. Leibfried's class shaped my career and my life, after only four short years at Hibbing High School, she was laid off because of budget cuts, and never taught again.
由于预算之争甚嚣尘上，而教师的业绩只能通过资产负债表上一些冷冰冰的度量标准来呈现，所以这一点很容易被遗忘。在雷布弗雷德老师的课上，我逐渐爱上了文学并从中获得了自信，这造就了我的职业和生活。然而，雷布弗雷德老师在希宾公立高中教学短短四年之后，便因学校缩减预算而被辞退，从此，她再也没有从事过教学工作。
★ 永不低头双语美文
★ 美式烹饪双语美文
★ 我的小天地说明文
★ 我的小天地课件
