My Childhood Encyclopedias1 Still Fill Me with Wonder

∷麥子 選 段會香 注

I am stuck in front of a row of sagging book spines on a bottom shelf.2. 我在放在底層書架上一排書脊快要脫落的書前站住了。stuck： 動不了的，停滯不前的；sagging：（中間部分）下垂的，下陷的；spine： 書脊。They’ve sat untouched for years: 18 reddish-orange volumes ofOur Wonderful World, An Encyclopedic Anthology for the Entire Family, published in 1957.3. untouched： 保持原樣的，未被觸動的；volume：卷，冊；anthology： 選集。

I’m in the midst of one of those virtuous home projects: a day of decluttering.4. virtuous： 有道德的，善良的；declutter： 整理，簡化或處理掉（雜亂無章或復雜的狀態(tài)）。The musty pages contain mostly defunct information—yet I can’t bring myself to throw them out.5. 這些發(fā)霉書頁上的內(nèi)容大多是過時的信息——但是我還是舍不得把它們?nèi)拥?。musty： 有霉味的，發(fā)霉的；defunct： 不再存在的，不再起作用的。Just a glance at the faded gold titles takes me back to the childhood experience of expanding my world beyond the neighbourhood where I grew up.6. glance： 一撇，匆匆一眼；faded： 褪色的；expand：擴展，擴張。

In the pre-Google7. pre-Google： 谷歌（搜索引擎）出現(xiàn)之前的。era, books offered the answers to many questions. If you wanted to research anything foreign or scienti fic for a school project, you put on your shoes and walked to the library. If you wanted to explore the world beyond the little suburban house where you lived, you sprawled on the couch on a rainy afternoon and pored over page after glorious page ofOur Wonderful World.8. explore： 探索；sprawl： （懶洋洋地）伸開四肢坐著（或躺著）；pore over： 仔細閱讀，鉆研。

面對無處不在的網(wǎng)絡，我們對紙質(zhì)書的需求貌似在減少，因為幾乎所有的信息都可以通過網(wǎng)絡搜索得到。但是對于那些童年回憶中有書的人，有些書可能不再有用，但是卻無法割舍。那些泛黃的書頁，已成為永久的回憶。

Volume 5, page 4: “We live at the bottom of an ocean of air, which in many ways is like another ocean of water. The weight of the hundreds of miles of air upon our bodies can be compared to the weight of the ocean water upon fish who live in the depths of the sea.9. 我們身處數(shù)百英里的空氣的壓力之下，這些空氣的重量堪比大海深處生活的魚類所承受的海水重量。be compared to： 被比作，與……相提并論?！?/p>

In 2004, A. J. Jacobs, an Ivy League graduate and magazine editor, published a book about his quest to read the entireEncyclopedia Britannica.10. Ivy League： 常春藤聯(lián)盟，由美國東北部之八所學校組合而成：布朗大學、哥倫比亞大學、康奈爾大學、達特茅斯學院、哈佛大學、賓夕法尼亞大學、普林斯頓大學及耶魯大學。這八所學校有許多共同特點：它們都是美國最頂尖、最難考入的大學，是全世界接受捐款最多的學府、它們吸引無數(shù)最優(yōu)秀的學生與師資。quest： 追求，探求；Encyclopedia Britannica：《不列顛百科全書》，又稱《大英百科全書》，被認為是當今世界上最知名也是最權(quán)威的百科全書。He documented his quixotic feat inThe New York TimesbestsellerThe Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World.11. document： 記錄；quixotic： 唐吉訶德式的，不切實際的；feat： 功績，壯舉；The New York Times：《紐約時報》，一份在美國紐約出版的日報，在全世界發(fā)行，長期以來擁有良好的公信力和權(quán)威性；bestseller： 暢銷書；humble： 謙卑的，謙遜的。It was an intellectual enterprise, a re flection on knowledge by someone already immersed in the world of letters.12. 這是一種知識產(chǎn)業(yè)，是某個沉浸在文字世界的人對知識所作出的思考。

In 1962, J. W. Baxter, a high-school graduate and salesclerk at Mitchell Photo Supply in Montreal,wanted to nurture a quest for knowledge in his three young daughters, including me.13. salesclerk： 售貨員；nurture： 培養(yǎng)，培育。In our modest bungalow in Pierrefonds, there was little reading material beyond the evening paper,Reader’s Digestand a fewNancy Drewmysteries.14. modest： 不大的，不算昂貴的，普通的； bungalow： 平房，小屋；Reader’s Digest： 《讀者文摘》，美國雜志，1922年創(chuàng)刊；Nancy Drew：《神探南茜》，根據(jù)同名經(jīng)典小說改編。該系列圖書人公是一個叫南茜·德魯?shù)呐畬W生，她的愛好是破解身邊的奇案。Dad decided we needed an encyclopedia set.

One Sunday morning he asked me, the eldest, to go downtown with him to pick up a present from a work colleague: a second-hand set of encyclopedias calledOur Wonderful World.15. downtown： 市中心，鬧市區(qū)；secondhand： 二手的，舊的。I was thrilled16. thrilled： 非常興奮的，極為激動的。. A car ride beyond my neighbourhood was a major outing17. outing： 遠足，短途旅游。, and time alone with Dad was precious.

The store’s bookkeeper, Eunice, lived in an old apartment on Sherbrooke Street, right in the heart of the city. Dad referred to her as a “spinster” from a well-to-do family.18. spinster： 老姑娘，未婚女人；well-to-do：富裕的，有錢的。The word sounded regal19. regal： 豪華的，莊嚴的。to my nine-year-old ears. I put on my best Sunday dress, clipped my hair back with barrettes, and listened to his gentle reminders about good manners when visiting.20. clip： 夾住，夾緊；barrette： 條狀發(fā)夾；reminder： 提醒。

I remember sitting stif fly on the edge of Eunice’s blue brocade chester field, keeping my hands nestled in my lap and gazing with awe at the strange surroundings of that downtown world.21. 我記得自己呆呆地坐在尤妮斯的那張藍色錦緞的睡椅邊上，雙手抱著膝蓋，敬畏地望著市中心周圍那些陌生的環(huán)境。stif fly： 生硬地，呆板地；brocade：織錦，錦緞；chesterfield： 睡椅，長靠椅；nestle： 滿意地依偎或緊貼，抱，放。The high ceilings, the curlicue legs of the antique tables, and the swirls on the pastel patterned rugs were all so different from the brown wall-to-wall and chunky shapes of our living room.22. curlicue： 花體，花飾；antique： 古老的，年代久遠的；swirl： 漩渦；pastel： （色彩）淡的，柔和的；chunky： 粗壯的，矮胖的。

I knew we were getting something special, and that these volumes would reveal23. reveal： 顯示，揭露。things I hadn’t yet imagined.I felt a burst24. burst： 爆發(fā)，突發(fā)。of love for my dad for taking me along on this city adventure, and for thinking I was smart enough to read an encyclopedia.

Volume 15, page 109: “No true frog has the poison glands, or parotoids, found on the shoulders of true toads.25. gland： 腺；parotoid： 腮腺；toad： 蟾蜍，癩蛤蟆。”

Our Wonderful Worldcame with its own compact26. compact： 簡潔的，緊湊的。, twoshelf bookcase. Dad told me that photos of us, his three daughters, inspired27. inspire： 激發(fā)，鼓舞。the gift from Eunice. Perhaps this childless woman had yearned for some small connection to those family scenes of smiling innocence: three little sisters in ruf fled bathing suits standing ankle-deep in a lake; three little sisters in homemade, red-velvet Christmas dresses perched on a bench; and, after receiving her gift, three little sisters in ballet tights posed with pointed toes before a small bookcase of encyclopedias.28. yearn for： 渴望；ruf fled： 有褶飾邊的；perch： 停留，坐；tights： 緊身衣；pose： 擺姿勢。Three little dreamers ready to leap into29. leap into： 跳入，躍入。the air.Those books were mesmerizing30. mesmerizing： 有吸引力的，有魅力的。. They were not staid reference tools likeBritannica,ColliersorWorld Book.31. staid： 古板的，保守的；Colliers：《科里爾百科全書》，是英語世界著名的大型綜合性百科全書之一，與《大美百科全書》、《大英百科全書》合稱“ABC百科全書”；World Book： 《世界大百科全書》。Our Wonderful Worldwas aimed at a junior audience, with volumes organized by theme. Many section titles sounded more like names of stories than factual summaries. “Plants That Have Travelled.” “Pirates and Outlaws.”32. pirate： 海盜；outlaw： 歹徒，罪犯。“Music from the Sea.” A more exciting world than mine beckoned33. beckon： 召喚，（招手）示意。from those pages.

Volume 18, page XII: “if you are interested in what is beneath the surface—about those things which shapedOur Wonderful Worldinto its present form, here is the story.”

There I sat decades ago, absorbed for hours in joyful discovery, the world expanding before me. Here I am now, trying to winnow a lifetime’s accumulations down to essentials.34. winnow： 篩選，辨別； accumulation： 積累，積聚； essential： 必需品，不可或缺之物。

What should I do with this outdated compendium of simpli fied facts?35. 我該如何處理這本已經(jīng)過時并且裝滿了簡單事實的書呢？compendium：概要，綱要。

I think of my father and the decision is easy. I move on to another bookcase and an old university textbook:Introduction to Educational Psychology, 1975. Maybe I’ll be able to part with36. part with： 與……分開，舍棄。this one.