2011年高考英语浙江卷 - 阅读理解D

It was Saturday. As always, it was a busy one, for “Six days shall you labor and all your work” was taken seriously back then. Outside, Father and Mr. Patrick next door were busy chopping firewood. Inside their own houses, Mother and Mrs. Patrick were engaged in spring cleaning.
那天是星期六。和往常一样，这是繁忙的一天，因为那时候“每周工作六天”的情况很严重。屋外，父亲和隔壁的帕特里克先生正忙着砍柴。在他们自己的房子里，母亲和帕特里克夫人正在进行春季大扫除。

Somehow the boys had slipped away to the back lot with their kites. Now, even at the risk of having Brother caught to beat carpets, they had sent him to the kitchen for more string. It seemed there was no limit to the heights to which kites would fly today.
不知怎么的，男孩们带着风筝偷偷溜到了后院。现在，即使冒着让伙伴被抓到清扫地毯的风险，他们还是把他送去厨房去拿更多的线。今天的风筝的飞行似乎可以飞得很高。

My mother looked at the sitting room, its furniture disordered for a thorough sweeping. Again she cast a look toward the window. “Come on, girls! Let’s take string to the boys and watch them fly the kites a minute.”
母亲看了看客厅，里面的家具乱七八糟，需要彻底打扫。她又朝窗户看了一眼。“来吧，女孩们！让我们把线给男孩们，看他们放会风筝。”

On the way we met Mrs. Patric, laughing guiltily as if she were doing something wrong, together with her girls.
在路上，我们遇到了帕特里克夫人，她和她的女儿们内疚地笑着，好像她做错了什么。

There never was such a day for flying kites! We played all our fresh string into the boys’ kites and they went up higher and higher. We could hardly distinguish the orange-colored spots of the kites. Now and then we slowly pulled one kite back, watching it dancing up and down in the wind, and finally bringing it down to earth, just for the joy of sending it up again.
从来没有这样的放风筝的日子！我们把所有的新线都给了男孩的风筝，风筝越来越高。我们几乎看不清风筝上橙色的斑点。我们不时地慢慢地把一只风筝拉回来，看着它在风中上下飞舞，最后把它带回了地面，只是为了再次把它送上天。

Even our fathers dropped their tools and joined us. Our mothers took their turn, laughing like schoolgirls. I think we were all beside ourselves. Parents forgot their duty and their dignity; children forgot their everyday fights and little jealousies. “Perhaps it’s like this in the kingdom of heaven,” I thought confusedly.
就连我们的父亲也放下工具加入了我们。我们的母亲也轮到了，笑得像个女学生。我想我们都疯了。父母忘记了自己的责任和尊严；孩子们忘记了他们每天的争吵和小小的嫉妒。“也许在天国就是这样，”我困惑地想。

It was growing dark before we all walked sleepily back to the housed. I suppose we had some sort of supper. I suppose there must have been surface tidying-up, for the house on Sunday looked clean and orderly enough. The strange thing was, we didn’t mention that day afterward. I felt a little embarrassed. Surely none of the others had been as excited as I. I locked the memory up in that deepest part of me where we keep “the things that cannot be and yet they are.”
天渐渐黑了，我们才睡意朦胧地走回屋里。我想我们吃了晚饭。我想一定是有人在整理房间，因为周日的房子看起来足够干净有序。奇怪的是，我们后来没有提到那天。我感到有点尴尬。当然，其他人都没有我那么兴奋。我把记忆锁在了我最深处，在那里我们保存着“这件不可能存在但的确存在的事”。

The years went on, then one day I was hurrying about my kitchen in a city apartment, trying to get some work out of the way while my three-year-old insistently cried her desire to “go park, see duck.”
多年以后，有一天，我在城市公寓的厨房里匆匆忙忙，想找点工作，而我三岁的孩子却坚持喊着她想“去公园，看看鸭子”。

“I can’t go!” I said. “I have this and this to do, and when I’m through I’ll be too tired to walk that far.”
“我不能去！”我说。“我有很多事要做，当我做完的时候，我会累得走不了那么远。”

My mother, who was visiting us, looked up from the peas she was shelling. “It’s a wonderful day,” she offered, “really warm, yet there’s a fine breeze. Do you remember that day we flew kites?”
来看望我们的母亲从正在剥的豌豆中抬起头来。“今天天真好，”她主动说道，“真的很温暖，还有些微风。你还记得我们放风筝的那一天吗？”

I stopped in my dash between stove and sink. The locked door flew open and with it a rush of memories. “Come on,” I told my little girl. “You’re right, it’s too good a day to miss.”
我在炉子和水槽之间的冲刺中停了下来。锁着的门敞开了，随之而来的是一连串的回忆。“来吧，”我对我的小女儿说，“你说得对，今天天气太好了，不要错过。”

Another decade passed. We were in the aftermath of a great war. All evening we had been asking our returned soldier, the youngest Patrick Boy, about his experiences as a prisoner of war. He had talked freely, but now for a long time he had been silent. What was he thinking of --- what dark and horrible things?
又过了十年，我们处于一场伟大战争的余波中。整个晚上，我们都在问我们的归国士兵，最小的帕特里克男孩，他作为战俘的经历。他曾经畅所欲言，但现在他沉默了很长一段时间。他在想什么——什么黑暗可怕的事情？

“Say!” A smile sipped out from his lips. “Do you remember --- no, of course you wouldn’t. It probably didn’t make the impression on you as it did on me.”
“嗯！”他嘴角微微一笑。“你还记得吗？不，你当然不记得。你不可能像我印象这样深刻。”

I hardly dared speak. “Remember what?”
我几乎不敢说话。“记得什么？”

“I used to think of that day a lot in POW camp, when things weren’t too good. Do you remember the day we flew the kites?”
“我之前在战俘营里，当情况不太好的时候经常会想起那一天。你还记得我们放风筝的那天吗？”