a flash of the sun’s glare temporarily blocked my vision. 迎面而来的耀眼阳光刺得我睁不开眼睛
the be-all and end-all 关键所在；一劳永逸；解决问题的灵丹妙药；
barely stepped foot outside the six-block square of the ’hood从。。。走出来的懵懵懂懂的毛头小子
got hip to the weather—the periods of gray foggy skies alternating with days of bone-chilling rain—...and the beauty wiped away all memory of the gloom. 有时赶上天公不作美，或是大雾弥漫，或是阴雨连绵，...，大自然的妙笔自会抹去心中的阴霾。
staying afloat could be a challenge. But that wasn’t going to mar my belief that I’d make it。想在这里落脚绝非易事。但是，所有这些都无法动摇我在这里活下去的决心。
in fact, over the next years, challenges helped me to reshape my dreams, to reach further, and to pursue goals with an increased sense of urgency.实际上，在接下来的几年间，正是因为困难和挑战，我才在梦想的道路上走得更远，更具紧迫感，积极实现个人的目标。
when I became a first-time father, overjoyed as I was, that sense of urgency kicked up another notch. 我初为人父，在乐不可支的同时，我更觉得要加紧努力。
, wondering if somehow in all my efforts I wasn’t trying to run up the down escalator。疑虑所付出的一切会不会灰飞烟灭？
This encounter would crystallize in my memory—almost into a mythological moment that I could return to and visit in the present tense whenever I wanted or needed its message. 这次邂逅在我脑海中仿佛生了根，每当我回顾那一刻，当时的场景就会历历在目。
of average height and slight build, he’s wearing the sharpest suit, possibly custom-made, out of a beautiful piece of cloth. 中等身材，体态匀称，衣着相当考究，很可能是为他度身定制，用料更是上乘。
the tasteful tie, the muted shirt, the pocket square, the understated cuff links and watch. Nothing obnoxious, just well put together. No fl ash, no bullshit. Just sharp. 领带相当有品位，条纹衬衫，装饰方巾，低调的袖扣和腕表，华丽自在而绝无张扬之感。
All in an instant my world turned inside out. 也就在那一瞬间，我的世界发生了天翻地覆的变化。
I had understood from then on that my job was to be Chris Gardner—whatever that was going to entail. 之后，我终于明白，我只能做好克里斯·加纳，具体怎样只能靠自己了。
the operative part of her message was that if I wanted to do something, whatever it was, I could.重要的是她说我只要想做什么，我就能做得到。
got the first inkling of a future in Wall Street,对华尔街产生非分之想
It was only later in my adulthood, after those days of wandering in the desert of homelessness, believing in the promised land my mother had told me about and then finding it, 也就在我成年后，才意识到经过那些无家可归的日日夜夜，而始终坚信母亲对我当初的承诺，以及后来我努力兑现这种承诺，这一切才更具意义.
in order to understand at last how that fire to dream got lit in me.因为只有这样才能真正了解是什么最后点燃我的梦想，并指引我一直前行。
In my memory’s sketch of early childhood, drawn by an artist of the impressionist school, there is one image that stands out above the rest在我记忆当中，幼年的岁月只剩下一个大概的轮廓，就像印象派的画作一般，留下的只是一些模糊的影像，但是有幅场景却让我难以忘怀
happily gobbling up the tasty sweetness, 开心的大吃特吃
I sense a familiarity about her, 我却莫名其妙地感受到一种从未有过的熟悉与亲切，
.The happy, safe zone of the familiar was very small, often a shifting dot on the map, while the unknown was vast, terrifying, and constant. 让我感觉熟悉感觉安全的东西其实屈指可数，甚至少得可以忽略不计，而更多的却是我无法理解的令人生畏的世界。
foster home,福利院
put an evil curse on me对我恶言恶语
“I’m gonna get you!” 看我怎么收拾你！
since she had escaped an untimely death once, 既然已经死里逃生
But as I pieced together fragments of information about our family over the years, I found the answers much harder to grasp. 但是我那几年东拼西凑出来的对自己身世的那点了解却总是让自己感到愈发的迷惑不解，
fit into the puzzle,也是个谜
In our unspoken conversation, I understood her to be saying that seeing me happy made her even happier, and so somewhere in my cells, that became my first job in life—to make her feel as good as she made me feel. 在我们无言的沟通过程中，我知道只要她能见到我就让她感到无比快乐。因此，从骨子里面我认定自己一定要让她开心，就像她让我开心一样，这似乎成了我份内的事。
a stop-you- in-your- tracks-turn- around- and-look-twice beautiful. 美得让人不由得驻足凝望
She has supernaturally strong fingernail她的手劲大得惊人
The brightness of color and the flowing layers of fabric give her an appearance I would later describe as Afro- centric. 明亮的色彩，衣着的层次感，卓显了一种别样之美。
with the trials of poverty and racism, life wasn’t easy for them.生活贫困加之种族主义作祟，他们的日子过得很是艰难。
he cried grown-man tears when he recalled what it was like...一想起这段日子就忍不住心酸落泪。
, starting with the devastating sudden death of her mother. 就在这时，宛若晴天霹雳，她的妈妈突然过世。
a domineering stepmother恶毒的继母
a new set of competitive stepsiblings还有好几个孩子各个都不好对付。
she put herself through beauty school通过美容学校的培训
she had apparently drawn an unlucky card when it came to men但她与男性交往时却屡遭不幸。
True to form, 果不出所料
. On these grounds, they put her out. 索性，干脆将她逐出家门。
the same year, auspiciously, that school segregation was ruled in violation of the Fourteenth Amend-ment by the U.S. Supreme Court. 幸运的是，也就在同一年，美国最高法院裁定学校种族隔离制违反了第十四条修正案。
my father was a figment of the vast unknown throughout my childhood.童年的我对父亲几乎一无所知，
bore a strong resemblance to和... 颇有相似，
, she was sadly mistaken. 她可真就大错特错了
No one ever laid out the sequence of events that... 没人知道是怎么回事，
the entire family must have signed an oath of secrecy because serious questions about the past were almost always shrugged off,整个家族似乎发誓要严守秘密，每当问及过去，人们都对此避而不谈.
“Well, because the past is the past. Ain’t nothing you can do about it. Things happen.”因为过去的事情就让它过去好了,无论怎样，过去都无法再改变了,生活就是这样。
To put up with the ex-tremes in the seasons, the brutal winters and scorching summers, you had to have an innate toughness and the kind of deeply practi-cal, hustling ability.为适应酷暑严寒，在这里生存需要内心的坚韧和顽强，以及脚踏实地的务实精神.
All that ambitious, pragmatic dreaming sometimes resulted in overachievement. 所有这些雄心勃勃又不失实用性的梦想有时竟能催生一些超级成就。
from the brickyards, tanneries, breweries, shipyards, and meatpacking businesses to the dominating steel factories 造砖、制皮、酿酒、造船、肉食品加工、钢铁
the steel mills and foundries and carmakers钢铁厂和汽车厂
These blue- collar jobs were far and away preferable to a life sharecropping in the sweltering heat way down south. 这些体力工作比起南方农场里挥汗如雨的田间耕作相对要好上很多.
As hard as everyone worked all week, at least in my neighbor-hood, over the weekend they played andprayed even harder. 日复一日，大家都在努力的工作，但在周末，大家则尽情嬉戏，还专心祷告，至少我家的这些邻里是这样的。
I’d come to appreciate the famil-iar rhythm of the working week. 我逐渐喜欢上了家里人每天上班的这种日子。
My mother later reinforced the importance of reading, raising me with her own credo to spend as much time at our public library as possible.后来，母亲也一再强调看书的重要，尽量找时间带我去公共图书馆
if you could read, that meant you could go in there and figure anything out. But if you couldn’t read, well. . . .如果识文断字，你就会所向披靡，无人能挡，但如果大字不识一个，那就是另一回事了……
I’d come to appreciate the famil-iar rhythm of the working week. 我逐渐喜欢上了家里人每天上班的这种日子。
The story of the Sword in the Stone made a lasting impression on me, setting up the idea that someday, somehow, I would fi nd the destiny that awaited me.《石中剑》的故事给我的印象最深，那时我就暗下决心，有朝一日，也要找到属于自己的天命。
the friendly- sounding snakes 无害的奶蛇
but no amount of placating or chiding could get me to my own bed. 就是说尽好话，我也死活不会到自己床上去。
but it was no less amazing. 但那阵势确实不一般。
the moment we’d hear that suspenseful intro music leading into the announcer’s booming “Gillette presents!” to the match itself.从悬念叠生的前奏，到主持人宣布“吉列倾情巨献”，再到比赛本身，我们分秒不差，全程跟下。
Uncle Archie had a contagious aura of calm that he maintained even during the
excitement of the fights or when crises came up. 阿奇舅舅的冷静沉着、富有感染力，无论是拳击赛高潮迭起，还是险象环生，他都不动声色。
setting an example for me about tenacity and focus.为我们树立了耐性和专注的楷模。
and on the short side but appearing taller than he was个头不高，但是显得不矮。
Never overdressed, he was immaculate in his grooming, with his short haircut and neat trim mustache and clothes that weren’t showy but always impeccable.
Always.他仪容整洁，一丝不苟，精干短发，胡须整齐挺括，衣着并不张扬，但一尘不染，而且素来如此。
superheroes who could do and have it all,简直就是超级英雄，他们无所不能，随心所欲，
In the dead of winter one year, 有一年的深冬时节
We were biding time, waiting for something or someone to come for us. 我们在等，在等着什么事情，或是什么人来到我们身边。
But those feelings were rapidly overshadowed from almost the first moment that my stepfather bulldozed his way into my life.但是这一切很快就化为乌有，因为继父闯入了我的生活。
he was my enemy from the second I laid eyes on him. 从他看到我的那一刻起，他就认定要和我作对到底。
While I had no inkling of the violence he was going to cause in our lives, I must have sensed that he was mean and seemed to take pleasure in hurting my feelings.我那时对于他的危害和暴力程度还一无所知，但我还是感觉到他的暴戾和凶狠，他似乎觉得伤害我的情感就能给他带来无尽快乐。
My hunch was confi rmed when he launched the line he loved to throw at me every chance he got, which killed me every time he said it, stirring up the sedi-ment of anger and resentment that would later erupt.我的直觉很快得到证实，只要有可能，他就会训斥我，让愤怒和怨恨在我心头一天天地积累，而这些终有一天会爆发出来。
As soon as these facts register, I ease back down into sleep, wanting to rest just a little longer. The irony is that while sleep sometimes brings nightmares, it’s the real-ity of my waking hours that can cause me the greater fear. 一想起这些，我就准备转身继续睡觉，想尽量多休息一会儿。虽然，睡觉有时也会做噩梦，但白天现实的生活还是让我更加恐惧。
life had changed drastically and mostly for the worse.生活的平静从此被打破，而且每况愈下。
but with him we all got whupped all the time, usually for no good reason other than he was an illiterate, belligerent, abu-sive, and complete drunk. 但他打我们那就是家常便饭，而这通常根本不需要任何理由，只要他喝得醉醺醺，四处撒酒疯时，我们就成了出气筒。
My early exposure to books paid off, and with Momma’s continuing encouragement, I quickly mastered reading。从幼年开始接触书本确实让我受益匪浅，加之母亲的不断鼓励，我很快就能读书认字了。
My mother still clung to the hope that she would one day ob-tain the necessary schooling
and licensing to teach in the state of Wisconsin. 母亲还一直觉得自己有一天能接受学校教育，获得在威斯康星州的教学资质。
Momma’s eyes lit up with a beautiful serenity, as if she was some-where up in the clouds, maybe dreaming of being that balloon and flying up, up, and away. I妈妈的眼睛闪着美丽而宁静的光亮，仿佛她自己也飞上了云端，也是乘着红气球一起飞，飞得越来越远。
I was sadly mistaken. 那就大错特错了。
he spent every minute waging a one-man antiliteracy campaign. 他一生孜孜不倦地独自高举反扫盲大旗，决心要把反对识字的斗争进行到底。
they could take advantage of him.他们很可能会占他的便宜。
Mix that attitude with alcohol and the result was big-time paranoia.这种情绪再与酒精相混合就产生了严重的偏执与妄想。
for
a while I was actually willing to see past them and to be on my best behavior in the hopes that he’d somehow find a fatherly side of himself with me.但是在一段时间内，我还是努力表现出自己最好的一面，希望以此感化继父，能唤醒他身上哪怕是一丁点儿的父爱。
In an odd matchup,机缘巧合 a slick motherfuc 狗娘养的
khakis卡其布 Granted的确，a pretend 养子。
This day we went through the routine,今天也毫不例外，
crisp single dollar bill崭新的一美元钞票
Happy feelings swirled up inside我心里乐开了花，周身洋溢着幸福的感觉
Probably Salter meant something along the lines of what I was feeling—that Freddie had no call to say anything, number one ’cause it was cruel and unusual punishment.
也许梭特心里想的和我不谋而合，就是弗莱迪说这些毫无道理，首先他的话实在过于伤人、过于蛮横无理。
on top of his incessant commentary about the size of my ears. 毫不留情地刻薄挖苦我的大耳朵。
like it made him a bigger man for stomping on me and my self-esteem仿佛把我踩在他的脚下，碾碎我的自尊心，就能给他带来极大快感。
which made his comments sting all the more. It didn’t matter that I would grow into them one day. 这使得他的话显得愈发刺耳，即便是我长大后，这种感觉还让我心有余悸。
a toll was being taken on my self-esteem, compounded by the gaping hole left by having no daddy.所有这些仿佛悬在我头上的利剑，时刻准备把我的自尊自信劈个粉碎，加上没有个名正言顺的父亲，对我而言这更是雪上加霜的事情。
he was never going to warm to me我从他那里是得不到丝毫温暖和善意的。、
the solemn promise暗下决心 semiconscious state半梦半醒间
he’d make good on his promise to kill us all。他不止一次声称要把我们全都干掉
take the beating myself and not be able to do anything to stop it 对我拳脚相加，而我也只能就这么忍着
，The questions followed me at school, snuck into my waking and sleeping thoughts, and stirred up the nightmares that had troubled me most of my young life,这个问题压得我喘不过气来，就连在学校也会时不时受到这个问题的困扰，我为此寝食难安，坐卧不宁。
help me escape what-ever terror was in that dream at the time. 离开梦中的是非之地。
Now I open my eyes, sitting bolt upright, taking a fast inventory. 我睁开眼睛，坐起身来，回想了一下都发生了些什么事。
a pool of blood spreading underneath and around her. 她身下和四周流了一摊血。
Fighting the paralysis of shock, I feel some other mechanism take over, and my immediate reaction is to assess what has taken place, like a crime-scene analyst. 我惊得目瞪口呆，慢慢才缓过神来，我的第一反应就是学着警察做犯罪现场分析，判断到底出了什么事。
the two- by- four木板
reassures me that the paramedics are on their way想到医护人员已经朝这里赶来，我才稍稍松了口气
is caked with a grime of an unknown lineage. 已经满是煤烟。
I commence to clean and scour with all my being, at the same time that I commence to pray. 我开始全力清洗这个大家伙，同时我不停地祈祷.
the idea that 一想到 create order in the chaos从混乱中找出条理来
A part of me shut down in a way that froze me emotionally but was also necessary for my survival. 我把自己完全封闭起来，让自己的情感冰封雪藏，也只有这样我才能熬过来。
I knew this roller coaster.We’d been on it since I could remember.这种反复我并不陌生。从我记事起，就是这样了。
Nobody knew when he’d go off, but at some point everybody knew he would. 谁也不知道他什么时候又会故伎重演，但是大家知道这是迟早的事
By the same token, 基于同样的理由
I was never going to terrorize, threaten, harm, or abuse a woman or a child不会威胁、恐吓、伤害女人和孩子
For now, I could only hate him. It was an emotional truth that lived under my skin, close to the bone. 而在当时我对他有的只是仇恨，那种渗透在我的血液里和骨子里的仇恨。
Small flickers of rebellion had begun to flare.些许报复的小火苗在悄悄燃烧，
which gave me an opening. 从这里我想出了点门道。
out of the blue,干脆,直接。 in the dead of night深夜
Moms enlisted me and the rest of us in a full-scale rebellion. 妈妈和我以及其他孩子一道准备真正意义上的反抗了。
for the umpteenth time,这已经不知是多少次了
we knew, without being told, that time was of the essence. 大家都知道此时此刻时间就是一切。
all four of us in tow四个人站成一排就准备上路了
She looked shell-shocked, completely defeated.她整个人几乎都要垮了。
a scrappy, skinny kid 瘦瘦小小的孩子 As proposed,就按我说的
I was summoned to the living room我正在客厅
A nondescript fellow in layers of winter clothes ap-propriate for the season, he was speaking in a disrespectful way that caused my mother to tremble. 那家伙穿着厚厚的冬衣，说话毫不客气，母亲在一旁吓得瑟瑟发抖。
My mother threw me a look that spoke volumes, warning me to amend my tone and my words, to be polite. 母亲瞅了我一眼，让我注意措辞和语气，要礼貌些。
dismissive, superior ton趾高气扬、居高临下的语气
Throughout my life I would battle that same reflex to want to strike back when certain individuals of a different race or class spoke to me in that way.在以后的日子里，当那些白人或有钱人这么和我说话时，我一直都在咬牙克制着自己反击的冲动。
The more immediate consequence was that需要我们马上面对的事情就是。
The roller coaster crested the top and plunged down again.他周而复始的性格反复又要开始了。
she had little financial independence, and no means of escape, but I could already sense that she was stuck between the proverbial rock and a hard place. 她经济上无法独立，所以就根本谈不上能逃脱得了，但在当时我能理解的是她确实有难处，进退维谷。
this made my need to find that remedy to fix our situation that much more urgent.T我现在当务之急是必须马上想出应对之策。
Lacking any sense of embarrassmen, he not only embraced the porcine essence of himself while eating but combined that with the apparent ability to fart, belch, and sneeze all at on他不知羞耻，不仅吃相猪样十足，而且打嗝、放屁、打喷嚏从不掩饰，样样精通。
The answers to those questions were long in coming, if ever. 不知要过多久我才能真正找出这些问题的答案。
I got to experience elements of a relatively safe and normal childhood.在那里我度过了自己相对安全和正常的孩提时光。
Safety came in part from knowing the lay of the land and also from having a sense of its boundaries.安全感从某种程度上是了解自己脚下这片土地和它的边界
，the upwardly mobile bourgeois 处于上升通道的中产阶级
stuck in between the land of movin’ on up.这些人几乎永无出头之日。
though we pretended we didn’t want to be with all the nose-in-the-air folks表面上对那些眼睛长在头顶上的傲慢家伙还是表现出不屑一顾。
one of those few splashes of white in our communit在我们这一带屈指可数的几个白人之一
extending short lines of credit to regular customer让老主顾时不时地从他那里赊点东西。
they are great characters and contributed to the inviting atmosphere.都颇有人缘，也都热情好客。
run an errand for her to pick something up 跑腿帮她去买东西
not in any pejorative sense倒不是有什么歧视
Everybody, on some level, was looking for their particular hustle, their angle to get over. 但每个人都在想法子，用自己的方式来解决这个问题。
a ringleader of a group of cats. 孩子王 lead,铅块、 window weights窗户配件
Opportunity came knocking机会来了 demolition,拆迁
to tear down condemned houses清理这些废弃的房屋
wanting to increase our profit margin, we tried to be slick a few times, but we were no match for Mr. Katz—he had invented this game. 为了多挣点钱,我们还想过一些花招，但都被凯茨先生一 一识破，因为这行当是他一手干起来的，自然什么门道都非常清楚。
he knew all the tricks, backward and forward.一眼就能识破这些鬼把戏。
My take of five or ten dollars was much less than each of their shares.给我的远比他们自己拿到的要少得多，但也有5到10美元的收入。
Not such a shabby deal. 这生意是光明磊落的。
some of cousin his other hustles weren’t necessarily on the up and up, 他忙活的另一些事情就不那么光明正大了。
, with a vaguely suspicious-sounding story about ....他说......或是怎样怎样，这种故事的可信度实在有待商榷。
Even better, 再说 touchdowns 触底得分
we were given a lot of free rein to come and go as we pleased.我们可以随处乱跑，想怎么玩就怎么玩
they were the size of professional football linemen by the time they hit adolescence. 十多岁的时候就是职业橄榄球内锋的身材了。
All at once立刻 A heavyset woman,大块头
he didn’t see it that way可他不这么看
You weren’t raised like that! 你家里不是这么教育你的吧！
this was her house and she was in charge.这里是她家，她说了算。
hands on hips, eagle-eyed watching me, 她双手叉腰，两眼盯着我
Not everybody’s family enforced the importance of manners in this way, but there were unwritten community rules for keeping kids out of trouble.倒不是各家各户都这么严格要求规矩和礼仪，但是街坊四邻都有对管教孩子的不成文规定。
In many households at the time, there was a distinction between abuse and being punished forcefully for some-thing you did wrong. Rods were definitely not spared.当时对于很多家庭而言，娇惯放纵和严加管教是分得很清楚的，必要的时候棍棒肯定必不可少。
step out of line太过分 I had flashbacks. 就不由得哆嗦一下。
then you’d have to wait for your old man to come home, and he would just mop up the floor with you again, giving you a whuppin’ worse than any of the others. 接着孩子还得等着老爸回来，等着又一顿的收拾，这顿打可比别人打得更狠、更凶。
instead, her well- chosen words, the sharp tone of her voice, and the look in her eyes said all we needed to hear.而且，她用词也恰到好处，声音的高低、眼神的严厉，足以让我们知错改错。
For my trying to shoplift a nickel bag of popcorn 就因为我想拿一袋爆米花解馋
Even though my name was a match, 虽然我的名字也叫...
letting me look through windows into other worlds.让我有机会接触和了解另外的世界。
cardboard boxes硬纸箱子
I was all for it.我举双手赞成 Before long 没多久
handyman, and hustler 装修工人，能四处挣点小钱。
Paul was somebody else’s daddy 保罗确实很有做父亲的样子.
In an eerily close reenactment of 。那场景和....出奇的相似。
to spill the beans先承认错误 Unbeknownst to us, 但没想到的是
striking terror in our souls,我们一个个胆战心惊
we all caught ricochet blows 但我们也没有幸免
we built ourselves a little clubhouse in the yard out back with some of the loose lumber lying around. 在院子里给自己盖一个小木屋，后院有的是没用的木板。
Freddie is impervious, like a human buzz saw, demonically possessed with turn-ing our annoying noisy project and me into mulch.即便这样，弗莱迪也根本不为所动，仿佛他就是把大电锯，要生生把我们的这个发出噪音的小木屋连同我一起消灭殆尽。
With a grunt, he brings his destruction to a grinding halt, defending himself by declaring,他咕噜了一声，手中的大斧停顿了片刻，还在为自己的行为辩护着：
take a stroll through the neigh-borhood 决定到附近走走
wagged his finger at me. 用手指戳着我：
I did outgrow the delayed humiliation that hit me when I found out ....但是后来当我知道....之后，我花了不少时间才从那种羞愧和自责中走了出来。
But coming up with a way to get rid of him felt like one of those impossible quests given to young inexperienced knights to go off and slay unslayable, fi re-breathing dragons. 但一想到要除掉他，那种感觉就像是让几个毫无经验的年轻骑士去杀死一头刀枪不入的喷火恶龙，任务的艰巨和难度可想而知。
with his hunting and fishing country upbringing, gunplay was a natural prevalent thing, something he’d been doing all his life.他从小就是看着大人靠打猎和捕鱼为生，舞刀弄枪他早已习以为常.
the only way he knew how to express himself when things didn’t go his way, to placate that inner rage, to settle differences when kicking somebody’s ass didn’t do the job. 仿佛当事情一不如他的意，就只知道拿枪来摆平。只有这样，他内心的愤怒才能平息，这远比不痛不痒地踢别人几脚来的过瘾。
he barreled for me. 开始破口大骂。
his huge belly acted like a bulletproof vest. 大肚子似乎是有防弹功能
Not knowing what tactic would serve me in the quest I had absolutely resigned myself to undertaking, every violent episode was further proof that I had no choice but to do away with him.因为不知道自己到底该怎么做，所以每当有这样那样的意外出现，就愈发证明了我别无选择，只能干掉这个家伙。
A dime10美分 You can’t hustle me,别挡路。
they exchange nervous glances at each other, 两人紧张地对视了一下，
Mr. Odom suffered no fools. 可不是吃素的，
was actually a coward when confronted by someone who re-fused to be bullied. 其实是吃软怕硬，当遇到比自己还厉害的人时，他立刻就服软了。
We all walked on eggshells, all of us我们几个都如履薄冰，胆战心惊
That is, until I happened to stumble over one of the only clues to her inner world that I would ever have. 直到有一天，我偶然了解到有关她内心世界的些许线索，我才有一点概念。
decided to go rummaging in drawers, 我决定要翻一翻抽屉，
he would view it as an act of treason. 会认为这是在背叛。
including a business proposition he had going in Detroit that never got off the ground. 他在底特律想做生意，但一直也没能落实。
I knew that snooping around wasn’t right. 偷看别人的东西是不对的
My first feat was to slip off with his cup, 首先，我成功地拿到了他的杯子
Without any watchful eyes, 看到左右无人
but the horrific stench was a problem. 但问题是这味道实在难闻，
flaming drinks. 烈性饮料
Depressed that my effort had come to naught, I tried to com-fort myself that it was a trial run and my next attempt would be successful. 看到自己所有努力终以失败告终，我还自我宽慰，这不过是练练手，下次一定能成功。
I discovered that she had the astonishing ability to become almost supernaturally still. 我发现她可以变得超级淡定
motionless一动不动
he gave up, blew his wad of rage, 他最终选择了放弃，不再怒不可遏
The ability to become still was born in me that night. It exists in the realm of instinct, when the choice is flight or fight. St
那一夜之后，这种处乱不惊的能力在我身上也扎下了根。似乎它就存在于本能之中，当需要作出斗争与否的选择的时候，它就有可能被激活。
enact her own plan to....兑现她所说的承诺。
out of harm’s way, 不会受到伤害
The full details were never revealed to me or my sisters. 我和姐妹们最终都不知道具体发生了些什么。
it’s where I go whenever there’s too much chaos around me, when the world seems like it’s crumbling, when I suddenly fear that everything or everyone I cherish is going to be taken from me in the blink of the eye. I get still. 但是当我周遭有着太多的喧嚣，当世界就要分崩离析，当我害怕我所珍爱的人或事将离我远去，当我担心哪怕是眼睛一眨都会让一切飘然逝去的时候，我，一动不动。
In the blink of an eye, one of my greatest fears came to pass. 转眼间，我心中最大的恐惧还是过去了。
an infinite grainy uncertainty. 充满了无数的未知和不确定。
evasive reactions 含混的答复
who had trouble conforming to rules.不服管教的
my aunt saw fi t to establish a fairly strict code of conduct. But舅母觉得必须制定一整套严格的规矩要我们遵守
there was no running from him但在他这里我无处可逃，
who was preoccupied with much more pressing worries than the execution of household chores每天自己的事情都忙不过来，更无暇顾及家里这些琐事
she really took the adage “waste not, want not” to heart.她信奉要勤俭持家
Once I got wise to her system, 我了解到她的心思之后
at a breaking point from residual anger over our situation,对我们的处境充满愤怒
she was strong-minded in her own right, she expressed her defiance by acting out.她一心要捍卫自己的权利，用行为来表示她的愤慨和反抗。
to my knowledge据我所知
Adding insult to injury,更让人不堪忍受的是
That was, until, as though choreographed, the last rocket burst into a thousand glittering chards in the sky and there was a sudden roll of thunder as the rain began to pour down. 我们到的正是时候，一大群当地人也正看得兴高采烈，焰火腾空而起，在天空中已是花海沸腾，华美壮丽。突然，空中响起一声炸雷，瓢泼大雨直泻而下。
trying to retrace and reverse our footsteps the opposite way he’d driven us只能顺他送我们来的路，一直往回走。
regular bar stool在酒吧的固定位置