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A New Toy
一样新玩具
I was eight years old when our neighbors across the hall got a television. It was very small and very expensive, but that didn't matter. IT WAS WONDERFUL. Everyone in the building came up to the fifth floor to see this latest wonder of the modem world. Some people, the lucky ones, stayed for a while and got to watch a whole program. That was in 1948.
我八岁那年，我们家对门的邻居买了台电视机。电视机既小又昂贵，可那算不了什么。这玩意儿太奇妙了。大楼里人人都上五楼来，争睹这一当今世界的最新奇迹。有些人——运气好的人——还能多待一会，看完整档节目。那是在1948年。
Soon a lot of people got new televisions, but not us. My parents didn't like television. They didn't think it was good for children. Being a good, docile son, I didn't argue with them. But I did secretly watch television — at my friends' homes.
不多久，好多人家都买了新电视机，可我们没有。我父母不喜欢电视，认为它对孩子没好处。我是个听话的乖孩子，没跟他们争吵。不过我的确偷看过电视——在朋友家里看。
By 1955 televisions weren't so expensive and they were much larger. My parents still thought television wasn't good for us, but my sisters insisted. They said we were the only people in the neighborhood who didn't have one. All their friends talked about certain programs and actors, but my sisters couldn't. Their friends laughed at them, and my sisters felt wretched, very unhappy.
到了1955年，电视机不再那么昂贵了，而且也大了许多。可我父母还是认为电视对我们没好处。我的几个妹妹不服气。她们说附近一带就我们家没电视机。她们的朋友个个都在谈论某些电视节目和演员，可她们插不上嘴。朋友们都笑话她们，为此她们感到非常委屈，十分苦恼。
One day, my youngest sister came from school and started to cry. She said she was never going back to school and that life without a television wasn't worth living. She cried and sobbed. My parents' usual arguments only made her more inconsolable. Nothing they said made her feel any better. Well, what could they do?
有一天，小妹放学一回到家就哭了。她说她决不再去上学了，还说生活中没有电视机活着不值得。她不停地哭着，抽泣着。爸妈搬出的那老一套理由，反倒更令她伤心。他们说的话，一点也宽慰不了她。唉，他们有什么法子呢？
The next morning, without telling us, my parents went out and got a new TV. That afternoon an antenna was put on the roof. Suzanne came home from school and ran into the house.
第二天上午，爸妈什么也没说，便出去买了台崭新的电视机。到了下午，屋顶上竖起了电视天线。苏珊放学回家，连奔带跑进了屋子。
Where is it? Where is it? she cried. "I know it's here." She was breathless, and her eyes were shiny with excitement.
“在哪儿？哪儿？”她嚷道。“我知道就在家里。”她气喘吁吁，两眼兴奋得闪闪发光。
"It's in the living room," my mother said as my sister ran off to look at, to admire, this beautiful thing called a television.
“在客厅里，”母亲话音刚落，小妹就跑过去，打量、赞赏这个名为电视机的尤物。
