前言

在读之前，了解了一下作者，然后本来想在YouTube看他脱口秀的视频的，结果呜呜呜...靠我神奇的渣渣听力，听不懂。就在b站搜了一下，竟然有。就挑了两个播放量大的看，发现Trevor Noah小哥真的不愧是脱口秀喜剧演员，天生有幽默感，把在别人看来自己的悲惨经历讲得让人捧腹大笑，虽然仍有一丝辛酸。 

记得《傲骨贤妻》里有一集，讲的是一个女喜剧演员在节目中露出了胸部，受到审查机构起诉。她请了律师，但从头到尾都是不正经地应对诉讼。她表明自己露胸是想在节目中引起大众对于乳腺癌的关注，但是又在上台前秘密地让化妆师美化自己的胸部。她没有办法在对话中保持一种完整的严肃，所以你永远都不知道，她母亲死于乳腺癌和她想出名，哪个才是真正的原因。等到官司完结了，她又把整个诉讼的过程编进了自己的脱口秀里面......

把生活中发生在自己和周围人的各种经历，尤其是操蛋经历，分解、组合、戏剧化，然后表演分享，是这种喜剧演员独有的值得佩服的精神。这种把苦涩悲惨的事情讲出笑来的乐观，是我们这些普通人做不到的，而且更多的人喜欢刻奇，甚至刻意煽情赚廉价眼泪。好了打住，入重点。

想法

关键词：church  car  Apartheid

我是用kindle看的，一边看一边听，听完了也就看完了。感觉酣畅淋漓，还想再看，果然这种偏叙述的书好读很多。第一章的开头和结尾是比较偏严肃的段落，在历史和事实方面介绍南非的种族隔离。在黑人执政后，黑人两派却起了暴力斗争。

What I do remember, what I will never forget, is the violence that followed.

中间就是作者有趣的自传故事了。

And on and on and there we were, back at it, arguing about God’s will.

We had a very Tom and Jerry relationship, me and my mom. She was the strict disciplinarian; I was naughty as shit.

有趣的描写，他几乎每天要去教堂，然后有一天不要去他就写到(Time to sin!)，哈哈！

还有妈妈叫他买东西，结果他打游戏玩掉了，他妈妈和他像猫和老鼠一样追，还叫他贼，这有个小细节，那时的高压环境下人们都谨慎唯恐多管闲事involved in other people’s business—unless it’s mob justice, and then everybody wants in.但是捉贼却人人都积极参与。

还有与妈妈数次讨论是上帝的意思让我们去不去教堂那段，她妈妈很固执，坚信上帝。“Ah, that’s the Devil talking, Trevor.   他幽默的朗读和写作让我忍不住捧腹大笑。

最后悲伤的是Trevor妈妈的二手车频繁故障，妈妈却坚持去教堂，最后只能坐巴士，遇险被他妈妈推下小巴。还好最后脱险。

 The last thing I wanted to do that Sunday morning was climb into some crowded minibus, but the second I heard my mom say sun’qhela I knew my fate was sealed.

someone'sfate is sealed 这个搭配很常见，有次在经济学人也看到了  the destiny of somene has been determined.这个词组放这里很应景。

e.g。When the driver finally saw that the bridge was out, he knew his fate was sealed.

ducking through backyards. --to move somewhere quickly, especially in order to avoid being seen 

“don’t undermine me,” “don’t underestimate me,” and “just try me.”

这几句表达很地道，口语可以借用。

精学5个表达

1...waged a long war against the white man as well, but after experiencing the futility of battle...

~ sth (against / on sb / sth) to begin and continue a war, a battle, etc.开始,发动,进行,继续(战争、战斗等):

例句：»The rebels have waged a guerrilla war since 2001.反叛者自 2001 年以来一直进行游击战争。

»He alleged that a press campaign was being waged against him.他声称有人正在对他发起新闻攻势。

造句：This country waged a long war against the terrorists.

2. I always had a blast at mixed church.

(especially NAmE) a very enjoyable experience that is a lot of fun 热闹的聚会；狂欢

例句：»We had a blast at the party.我们在聚会上玩得很开心。

造句：I had a blast at the party with my friends.

3.Bitterness festered.

这个短句很有力！可以翻译成矛盾激化，或矛盾日趋升级。

摘个字典例句：The rift within the organization reflects the growing bitterness of the dispute.组织内部严重失和反映出矛盾日趋升级。

4. but they didn’t stand a chance.

We smoked them. 

固定搭配stand a chance(of doing something)  to have a chance of doing something.

造句：Everyone stands a chance of winning the first place in this game.

chance的搭配：be in with, have, stand~~~有可能

例句After a poor start, they are now in with a chance of winning the league. 

fancy~~~猜测可能性

例句I don’t fancy our chances of getting there on time. 我认为我们不可能准时到达那。

compromise, jeopardize, lessen, minimize, prejudice, reduce, ruin, scupper, spoil~~~使机会减少；使可能性最小化；损害…的可能性；毁掉机会

on the off chance(= just in case)抱着一线希望

I rang the firm just on the off chance that they might have a vacancy. 

smoke在这里我理解为我甩掉他们了， 使他们失败的意思。

有个搭配短语是goes up in smoke,以失败告终;一事无成 it fails or ends without anything being achieved.   e.g.Their dreams went up in smoke after the collapse of their travel agency.

还有个搭配短语smoke somebody/something out

1. to fill a place with smoke in order to force someone or something to come out:

He smoked the bees out of their nest.

2. to discover who is causing a particular problem and force them to make themselves known:

an operation to smoke out double agents

5.We hadn’t gone ten feet when suddenly a minibus swerved right in front of the car and cut us off.

(especially of a vehicle 尤指车辆等) to change direction suddenly, especially in order to avoid hitting sb / sth突然转向；急转弯

让我想到veer和turn。

搭配：sudden，make，sharply, violently，away，to avoid

The car made a sudden swerve to the left. 轿车突然向左急转。

The car swerved sharply to avoid the bus. 轿车急速转弯避让公交车。

across转向冲过:The car veered out of control and swerved across the road. 轿车失去控制，突然转向冲过马路。

into转进:A lorry suddenly swerved into her path. 一辆卡车突然拐入她走的路上。

off转向离开:The vehicle swerved off the road. 这辆车转向离开了马路。

swerve from the path of duty不守本分

ps：本来还想继续做单词笔记的，完美主义害死人，但是发现写笔记查资料是看书时间的几倍，心累。想起Eric说的少而精，就不继续了。

summary

In the apartheid and violence of South Africa, Trevor mother's second-hand car frequent broke down, but she insisted on going to church, only to take the minibus. As a result, They were in danger. Then his mother pushed him out of the minibus. Fortunately, they finally out of danger.