我的“游戏”童年.docVIP

我的“游戏”童年 　　在没有电子游戏、手机和平板电脑的年代，除了那些传统游戏，孩子们仍旧能够轻易找到各种各样无穷的乐趣：在郊外研究蚂蚁，在家里寻找“宝藏”，到户外发现“新”的领地……谁能说这些不是其乐无穷的游戏呢？ 　　I was an apprentice1） entomologist2）. 　　我是一个实习昆虫学家。 　　I spent many happy hours belly down on the grass in my backyard， observing ants foraging3） for food and carrying it back to their forever active and freshly dug ant hills. 　　Interestingly， I havent seen any ant hills here in the Pacific Northwest4） since moving here in 2006. At least， not like the ones back east. They were everywhere in upstate5） New York. Alabama had a lot of ant hills too， but they were home to the red ant variety6） and you didnt want to be belly down too close to those！ 　　In New York， we had the medium and large-sized， black ants. I remember being mesmerized7） by the antennae8） greetings as they passed each other at the portal9） to their complex chambers underground. I always imagined that they were high-fiving10） each other as they passed―but deep down， I knew it was more significant than that. 　　Hey， I was curious！ 　　我曾趴在我家后院的草坪上，观察蚂蚁们搜寻食物并把食物搬回它们那新挖的、永远热闹繁忙的蚁穴里，就这样度过了很多快乐的时光。 　　有趣的是，自从2006年搬到太平洋西北地区以来，我还从来没有在这儿见过蚁穴，至少没有见过以前在东部见到的那种。在纽约北部，那种蚁穴到处都是。阿拉巴马州也有很多蚁穴，但里面住的都是红蚂蚁一族（编注：这种蚂蚁会蜇人），你绝对不会想要趴得离它们太近！ 　　而纽约的蚂蚁是那种体型中等和偏大的黑蚂蚁。我记得那时令我非常着迷的是，蚂蚁们在它们错综复杂的地下巢穴入口碰到时会用触须来打招呼。我当时总是想象它们在经过对方身边时是在相互击掌示意，但在内心深处，我知道它们这么做的意义可不仅如此。 　　嗨，我是小好奇！ 　　I will admit that it was during this same period of entomological curiosity when I experimented with the magnification11） of the suns rays. What can I say？ Curiosity combined with childhood sometimes leads to bad decisions. And with that childhood blanket defense， I may as well confess that I also explored the magnification of the suns rays on the backs of my schoolmates necks when we were standing in line at the Assumption School. But， everybody was doing it. Ouch！ 　　我要承认，就在我对昆虫学极其好奇的这段时间里，我还试验了用放大镜来聚焦阳光。我能说些什么呢？又好奇又年幼有时候会导致错误的决定。不过嘛，“小孩犯错，天经地义”，我就不妨坦白了吧：当年在萨普学校，我和同学们在太阳下站成一列时，我还曾经拿放大镜把阳光聚焦在他们脖子上。但是，那时每个人都在这么做啊。哎哟，好疼！ 　　I was an archeologist.