Where Is Home中英对照

教材：李荫画等主编，《大学英语综合教程3》，上海：上海外语教育出版社，2006

U5 / Text B

如同春节那样，散居各处的美国人到感恩节就回家团聚。Ellen Goodman在等

待着子女回家的同时，思索着当子女长大离家，常常在远方定居之后，父母与子女

关系的不断变化。

Where Is Home

Ellen Goodman

"The kids are coming home for the holiday."

My friend announces this as we swap recipes and plans for Thanksgiving.

I stop; amused for a moment at the language we now share. "When," I ask, " did we become the people who call their adult children, 'the kids'?"

We laugh briefly at the passage of time, at thoughts of our own mothers who still refer to us as 'the girls,' and then she pauses.

"When," asks my old friend, "did our kids become the people who come hom -e only at holidays?" There is a moment as bittersweet as cranberry sauce.

This is the week when our friends bring in the younger generation, eagerly ha -rvest ing them from bulging airports. We noisily arrange children, nieces, nephew-s, cousins around tables, placing them like good china that we take out for special occasions.

These energetic offspring do not come over the river and through the woods anymore. They struggle past check-in counters and wrestle their gear into stuffed overhead bins. They migrate back on airlines whose owners pray with their over- booked hearts that the weather will hold.

It is a testimony to the joyful pull of family that Americans saturated the air and highways this week to return to the place they no longer live but nevertheless call home. To get home for the holidays.

……

Choose the best answer for each of the following:

1. The author is amused at her friend calling the children "the kids" because ____.

a. she has only recently learned the language

b. her friend was joking

c. it shows how time has passed

d. it is slang

2. When her friend speaks of their kids being the people who only come home at

holiday time, she is implying ________________________.

a.she and her friend are different from other parents

b.families no longer live together in the same place

c. their children do not care enough about them

d.she would prefer them to visit outside the holiday period

3. Her friends collect their children from ____________________________.

a. across the river

b. school

c. work

d. the airport

Translate into Chinese the underlined sentences in the essay.

1. This is the week when our friends bring in the younger generation, eagerly har-vesting them from bulging airports.

2.It is a testimony to the joyful pull of family that Americans saturated the air and highways this week to return to the place they no longer live but nevertheless call home.

译文：

何处是家?

“孩子们要回家过节了。”

我们在相互交流着感恩节的菜单和节日安排时，我的朋友郑重其事地这么说。

我愣了一下，不由对我俩用词相同感到有趣。“从什么时候起，”我问道，“咱们成了把长大成人的子女叫做‘孩子’的人？”

想到时光流逝，想到我们自己的母亲仍把我们叫做“丫头”，我俩不由得笑出声来，随后她止住了笑。

“从什么时候起，”我的老朋友问道，“我们的孩子成了到节假日才回家的人？”两人心头一时又酸又甜。

这个星期是我们的朋友们将小辈带回家的时候，是急切地把子女从人满为患的机场接回去的时候。我们忙乱地安排子女，侄子侄女，堂兄弟表姐妹什么的在餐桌旁一一就坐，就跟摆放在特殊场合才偶尔一用的精美餐具似的。

这些精力旺盛的后辈不再穿林过河而来。他们挤过检票处，使劲地把行李塞进座位上方满满的行李箱。他们搭乘着民航客机飞回家，那些公司心里想着客满的航班，祈祷着好天气持续下去。

这个星期美国人挤满飞机和公路，都想回到他们已不再居住，却仍称之为家的地方。这证明了家庭具有能给人带来喜悦的吸引力的一个明证。回家去过节。

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