------译评2014年高考英语浙江卷阅读D篇

【短评】本文体现了人际交往中打破隔阂、展现自我的核心价值，突出了主人公通过语言表达实现自我价值的能力，彰显了阅读积累带来的文化素养，展示了城市孩童夏日街头社交的真实情境。它具有启示人们重视阅读力量、鼓励主动展示自我的社会意义，告诉我们即使身处边缘，也能凭借自身优势赢得关注与认可，实现从被忽视到受重视的转变。

【英汉对照】
A city child's summer is spent in the street in front of his home, and all through the long summer vacations I sat on the edge of the street and watched enviously the other boys on the block play baseball. I was never asked to take part even when one team had a member missing — not out of special cruelty, but because they took it for granted I would be no good at it. They were right, of course.  一个城里孩子的夏天是在家门口的街道上度过的。整个漫长的暑假，我都坐在街边，羡慕地看着街区里的其他男孩打棒球。即使有一队缺人，也没人叫我加入 —— 这并非出于特别的恶意，而是因为他们想当然地认为我不擅长。当然，他们说得没错。

I would never forget the wonderful evening when something changed. The baseball ended about eight or eight thirty when it grew dark. Then it was the custom of the boys to retire to a little stoop (门廊) that stuck out from the candy store on the corner and that somehow had become theirs. No grownup ever sat there or attempted to. There the boys would sit, mostly talking about the games played during the day and of the game to be played tomorrow. Then long silences would fall and the boys would wander off one by one. It was just after one of those long silences that my life as an outsider changed. I can no longer remember which boy it was that summer evening who broke the silence with a question; but whoever he was, I nod to him gratefully now. “What's in those books you’re always reading?” he asked casually. “Stories,” I answered. “What kind?” asked somebody else without much interest.  我永远不会忘记那个改变一切的美妙夜晚。棒球比赛大约在八点或八点半结束，那时天已经黑了。之后，男孩们习惯到街角糖果店外突出的小门廊去，不知怎的，那地方成了他们的地盘。从来没有大人坐在那里，也没人试图坐那儿。男孩们坐在那儿，大多谈论白天的比赛和明天要进行的比赛。接着会陷入长时间的沉默，然后男孩们一个接一个地离开。就在其中一次长时间沉默之后，我作为局外人的生活改变了。我再也记不清那个夏夜是哪个男孩用一个问题打破了沉默，但不管他是谁，我现在都感激地向他点头。“你总在读的那些书里写了什么？” 他随口问道。“故事。” 我回答。“什么样的故事？” 另一个人没什么兴趣地问。

Nor do I know what drove me to behave as I did, for usually I just sat there in silence, glad enough to be allowed to remain among them; but instead of answering his question, I told them for two hours the story I was reading at the moment. The book was Sister Carrie. They listened bug-eyed and breathless. I must have told it well, but I think there was another and deeper reason that made them so keen an audience. Listening to a tale being told in the dark is one of the most ancient of man's entertainment, but I was offering them as well, without being aware of doing it, a new and exciting experience.  我也不知道是什么驱使我那样做，因为通常我只是静静地坐在那里，能被允许待在他们中间就已经很高兴了；但我没有回答他的问题，而是给他们讲了两个小时我当时正在读的故事。那本书是《嘉莉妹妹》。他们瞪大眼睛，屏住呼吸地听着。我肯定讲得不错，但我觉得还有另一个更深刻的原因让他们如此热衷于当听众。在黑暗中听故事是人类最古老的娱乐方式之一，但我在不知不觉中也给他们带来了一种全新而刺激的体验。

The books they themselves read were the Rover Boys or Tom Swift or G. A. Henty. I had read them too, but at thirteen I had long since left them behind. Since I was much alone I had become an enthusiastic reader and I had gone through the books-for-boys series. In those days there was no reading material between children's and grownups' books, or I could find none. I had gone right from Tom Swift and His Flying Machine to Theodore Dreiser and Sister Carrie. Dreiser had hit my young mind, and they listened to me tell the story with some of the wonder that I had had in reading it.  他们自己读的书是《罗孚男孩》《汤姆・斯威夫特》或 G.A. 亨蒂的作品。我也读过这些书，但十三岁时我早已不再读了。因为我经常独处，所以成了一个狂热的读者，读完了所有适合男孩读的系列书籍。在那个年代，儿童读物和成人读物之间没有过渡性的阅读材料，或者说我一本也找不到。我直接从《汤姆・斯威夫特和他的飞行器》读到了西奥多・德莱塞的《嘉莉妹妹》。德莱塞的作品震撼了我年轻的心灵，他们听我讲故事时，也带着我读书时的那种惊奇。

The next night and many nights thereafter, a kind of unspoken ritual (仪式) took place. As it grew dark, I would take my place in the center of the stoop and begin the evening's tale. Some nights, in order to taste my victory more completely, I cheated. I would stop at the most exciting part of a story by Jack London or Bret Harte, and without warning tell them that that was as far as I had gone in the book and it would have to be continued the following evening. It was not true, of course; but I had to make certain of my new-found power and position. I enjoyed the long summer evenings until school began in the fall. Other words of mine have been listened to by larger and more fashionable audiences, but for that tough and athletic one that sat close on the stoop outside the candy store, I have an unreasoning love that will last forever.  第二天晚上以及此后的许多夜晚，一种心照不宣的仪式开始了。天一黑，我就会在门廊中央坐下，开始讲当晚的故事。有些晚上，为了更充分地享受胜利的滋味，我会耍点小手段。我会在讲到杰克・伦敦或布雷特・哈特故事中最精彩的部分时停下来，毫无预兆地告诉他们我就读到这儿了，得等到第二天晚上接着讲。当然，这不是真的；但我得巩固我新获得的影响力和地位。我享受着漫长的夏夜，直到秋天开学。我也曾在更大、更时髦的听众面前演讲，但对于那群坐在街角糖果店外门廊上的健壮男孩，我有着一种无法言喻的、永恒的热爱。