Eleventeen
美音、自然拼读、分级阅读与词汇复习
Sarah turned eleventeen yesterday, which made it a very special day.
莎拉昨天11: 17, 这使得这是一个非常特殊的一天。
A person can turn eleventeen only once, and most people never turn eleventeen at all.
一个人只有一次可以转出1119分,大多数人从不转出1119分.
In fact, I’ll let you in on a little secret.
事实上,我会告诉你一个小秘密。
Sarah is the only person who has ever turned eleventeen.
莎拉是唯一一个11岁的人
Ever!
永远!
Not a single other living soul has done it.
没有一个活生生的灵魂这样做过。
Not a single other dead soul has done it either.
没有一个死人也做过
You’re probably wondering how Sarah accomplished this rare and extraordinary feat.
你可能想知道莎拉是如何完成这一罕见而非凡的事业的。
This, of course, is that story.
当然,这是那个故事。
“I’m bored,” said Sarah, as she walked into the kitchen for breakfast one Saturday morning.
Sarah说:「我很无聊,
“Would you like to invite a friend over?”
“你想邀请一个朋友过来吗? “
asked her mother.
问她妈妈
“No,” said Sarah, “that’s not the problem.
Sarah说,“不是,这不是问题。
I’m bored being ten.”
我厌倦了10岁。 “
“Well, your birthday is only a few weeks away,” said her mother, “so you won’t have to be ten much longer.”
她母亲说:「你生日只有几周, “
“I’m bored being eleven,” Sarah said.
Sarah说:“我11岁就无聊了。”
“You’ve never even been eleven!”
“你从来没有11岁!”
interjected her big sister, Kate, entering the room.
她的姐姐凯特进了房间
“I guess you want to be a teenager, just like me.”
“我想你想成为青少年, “
“I want to be like you about as much as I want to be a snail,” Sarah retorted, proud that she could think of a comeback so quickly.
“我想和你一样想成为蜗牛。” Sarah反悔地骄傲地说,她能想到如此快的回来。
“Well, that’s funny because you are as slow as one,” said Kate.
凯特说,“这很有趣,因为你像一个人一样慢,”
Uh-oh.
糟糕。
Sarah needed another comeback, quick, and she didn’t have one on the tip of her tongue.
Sarah需要另一回回来,
Her eight-year-old brother, Noah—as usual, at the breakfast table before anyone else—saved her.
她的八岁弟弟诺亚,像往常一样,在别人面前的早餐桌上,拯救了她。
“I wish you were both eighteen,” Noah said.
诺亚说:“我希望你们俩都十八岁。”
“Why?”
“为什么?”
asked Mom.
问妈妈。
“Because then they’d both go away to college, and I’d have Mommy all to myself.”
因为他们都去上大学, “
“What about Daddy?”
“爸爸怎么办? “
asked Sarah.
问莎拉。
“What about me?”
“我怎么办? “
Dad said as he walked into the kitchen, opening the newspaper and not looking where he was going.
爸爸说,当他走进厨房, 打开报纸,没有看他要去哪里。
Noah smirked and “humphed,” as if to say that everyone knows dads are not nearly the problem that big sisters are.
诺亚一笑一笑,“胡说,”仿佛人人都知道爸爸不是大姐姐的问题。
“Sarah’s bored being ten,” Mom said to Dad.
" Sarah在10岁时感到无聊",
He looked up and noticed everyone looking at him.
他抬头看,注意到大家看着他
“Well, her birthday is only a few weeks away,” he said brightly, as if he were sure he had this one figured out.
他说,“她的生日只有几星期后,”他明白地说,好像他确信他已经想通了。
“She won’t have to be ten much longer,” he concluded.
他最后说,
“We’ve been through that,” Sarah and Kate said in unison.
莎拉和凯特一致表示,
“Oh,” Dad said, “so what’s wrong with being eleven?”
“哦,”爸爸说,“11岁有什么问题? “
“It’s too far away from eighteen,” said Noah.
诺亚说,“离18岁太远了。
“So what’s the big rush to be eighteen?”
“那么,18岁是怎样的? “
asked Dad, clearly confused.
问爸爸,很困惑。
“Oh, never mind,” Sarah said, getting up from the table.
莎拉说,“没关系,”从桌子上站起来。
“Aren’t you going to eat your breakfast?”
“你不吃早餐吗? “
Mom asked.
妈妈问的
“I’m not hungry,” Sarah said.
Sarah说:“我不饿,
“Right,” piped in Kate, her voice dripping with adolescent sarcasm, “she’s too busy being bored to be hungry.”
“对,”在凯特口中写道, 她的嗓子被青少年讽刺, “
“Kate, you’re being mean!”
「凯特,
said Sarah, storming out of the kitchen.
莎拉说,冲出厨房。
As she left, she heard her father say, for the millionth time, “Kate, be nice to Sarah.”
当她离开时,她听到她父亲第100万次说:“凯特,对莎拉好一点。 “
Sarah went to her room.
莎拉去了她的房间。
She needed some silence, some time to think.
她需要一些沉默,一些时间思考。
She had to admit that anything that ended with “teen” sounded better than anything that didn’t.
她不得不承认,以“16”结尾的任何东西听起来都比没有的更好。
“Eleven” isn’t bad, really.
“Eleven”确实不错。
At least it has more than one syllable.
至少它有一个以上的音节.
But then Sarah realized she’d have to spend a whole year being twelve, and twelve sounded just awful.
但莎拉意识到她得花一整年才12岁,
Nothing very exciting could happen to someone called “twelve,” she supposed.
她认为一个叫"十二"的人不会发生什么令人兴奋的事情。
She needed to be a teenager, but that was too far away even to think about.
她需要是一个青少年, 但那是太远甚至想不起来。
It was a dilemma, no doubt about that.
这无疑是一个难题。
Whenever Sarah had a dilemma, her father would tell her to “weigh the facts.”
当Sarah陷入困境时,她父亲会告诉她“了解事实。 “
She was never sure whether he was kidding or thought dilemmas really could be solved by putting facts on some kind of scale.
她从不知道他是在开玩笑 还是认为把事实放在某种规模上 就能解决困境
Anyway, she’d never weighed the facts.
她从未权衡过事实。
But then, she’d never solved any dilemmas, either.
她也从未解决任何难题。
Maybe there was something to Dad’s advice.
可能爸爸有什么建议。
Sarah took out her drawing pad and two colored pencils.
莎拉拿出了她的画板和两把有色铅笔.
She decided a table would be her scale to weigh the facts.
她决定用一张桌子来衡量事实
The first column was labeled “being a teenager” and was in lavender because it would be wonderful to be a teenager.
第一栏被贴上“青少年”的标签,放在了薰衣草中,因为做青少年会很棒。
The second column was labeled “being eleven” and was in royal blue because the color was full of possibilities.
第二栏被贴上“11岁”的标签,是皇家蓝色的,因为颜色充满了各种可能性。
The whole rest of the page was blank.
整页是空白的
Sarah started thinking about teenagers and eleven-year-olds so she could decide what to write.
莎拉开始思考青少年和11岁的孩子,这样她就可以决定写什么.
She wanted to list all the good things about being a teenager and all the good things about being eleven.
她想列举所有关于少年时代的好东西和关于11岁的所有好东西.
She could then compare the good things about each age and see which was better.
然后她可以比较每个年龄的好东西,看看哪个更好。
Sarah started to think about what she’d put in the “being eleven” column.
Sarah开始思考自己在“11岁”一栏中所写的内容。
Now that she was turning eleven, she would have more responsibility for herself and others.
现在她已经十一岁了 她对自己和其他人更有责任
She and Alika, her best friend, would be able to jog down to the park to play soccer.
她和她最好的朋友艾莉卡 可以跑去公园踢足球
They could go any time they wanted as long as it was before dark and they told their parents where they were going.
他们可以随时随地去,只要天黑之前,他们告诉父母他们要去哪里。
Sarah was a good athlete, one of the fastest kids in class, and great at the standing long jump.
Sarah是个好运动员 班上最快的小孩之一 站在长跑里跳得很好
The park was more fun than the mall.
公园比商场更好玩.
But she had been dying to go to the mall by herself.
但她一直想一个人去商场
It was definitely exciting to be able to go to the mall without your parents or your big sister.
没有你父母或你大姐 能够去商场绝对令人兴奋
The few times that Kate had taken Sarah to the mall, she had made Sarah feel as though she was even younger than ten.
凯特带莎拉去商场的几次,她让莎拉感觉自己甚至比十岁还小.
Sarah had big dreams about walking into stores as a cool teenager.
莎拉做了一个大梦,想作为一个酷的少年走进商店.
She would choose how long she stayed at each store, which store to go to next, or to stay another ten minutes just looking at the kittens.
她会选择在每家商店呆多久, 哪个商店去隔壁, 或者再呆十分钟 看着小猫。
As Sarah looked down her table’s columns, she began to realize something.
她开始意识到一些事情。
She liked babysitting because she could earn money.
她喜欢看孩子 因为她能赚钱
Sixteen-year-olds got to babysit all the time.
十六岁的孩子总得照顾孩子
When Sarah turned eleven, her parents said she could babysit Noah and they would pay her.
当莎拉11岁的时候,她的父母说她可以照顾诺亚,他们会给她报酬.
She would still be too young to babysit other people’s children, but at least she could babysit Noah.
但至少她可以照顾诺亚。
Sarah thought that in that way, she would be close to being sixteen.
莎拉认为那样的话 她就快十六岁了
At eleven she could babysit Noah and earn money and buy the things she wanted, like blue nail polish.
十一岁时她可以照顾诺亚 赚钱买她想要的东西 比如蓝指甲油
In fact, that was another way she would be like a sixteen-year-old.
事实上,这是另一种方式 她会像一个16岁。
She could use her own money and buy things she wanted.
她可以用自己的钱买她想要的东西
It wasn’t like an allowance, with her parents still saying yes or no to what she bought.
她的父母仍然对她买的东西说是或否。
She would earn the money so the decisions about what she could spend it on would be hers—just like a sixteen-year-old.
她能挣到钱 所以她能花在什么上面的决定 是她的 就像16岁的孩子一样
Eleventeen!
1119号!
That’s what she would be!
她也会这样!
Like a teenager—responsible, able to earn money, and make her own decisions about how to spend it—but not yet a teenager in years.
像一个青少年,负责,能够赚钱,并且自己决定如何花钱,但多年来还没有青少年。
Besides, she thought, it’s more important to act older than to be older.
她认为,
Her dad was right—when you have a dilemma, all you have to do is weigh the facts.
她爸爸是对的 当你陷入困境时 你只需要权衡事实
Sarah knew people might ask her what she meant when she told them she’s eleventeen, but that was no problem.
Sarah知道人们可能会问她, 当她告诉他们她已经11岁时,
She would tell them, “Oh, someday you’ll find out, when you’re eleventeen.”
她会告诉他们,“哦,有一天你会发现,当你11岁的时候。 “
But of course they wouldn’t, because no one had ever been eleventeen before, and probably no one would ever be again!
但当然不会, 因为以前没有人是11岁,
Sarah completed the last line in the table: can spend my money on what I want.
Sarah完成了桌子上最后一行:可以把我的钱花在我想要的东西上.
Then it was there in lavender and blue.
然后是用紫外衣和蓝色的
At eleven, she would be a whole lot closer to being sixteen than she was at ten.
十一岁时 她比十岁时更接近十六岁
Actually, if you look at it one way, eleven was only five words away from sixteen.
事实上,如果你从一个角度来看, 11个字和16个字只有5个字。
That’s when it dawned on her.
这时,