作者：侯毅凌主编
出版社：外语教学与研究出版社
格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT
《英语学习》2016年1—6期合订本(精选)试读：
2016年第1期
东看西看
I Being an Adult长大By Sophie Zhang
∷闫春蕾 注
小时候我们都憧憬未来，想快点儿长大去做一番大事业，对那些享受年少时光的说法充耳不闻。当我们真的长大了，却发现一切与想象的都不一样。为工作努力的热情，拿到第一份工资的兴奋，第一次住在自己房子里的欣喜很快都在平淡的生活中消散。纵然如此，生活仍充满希望，要相信在未来的路上你会遇到更好的自己。
They say enjoy it while it lasts. Of course, children never listen.
But as I type this at my grown-up desk at my grown-up job in my grown-up office, I think about that statement regretfully and wish I could have sincerely appreciated the truth of that statement just a few months ago, when I was still a soon-to-be college graduate.
I don't feel any different than I did a few months ago. A few months ago, I sat in a familiar classroom, slumped downin my chair, staring at the clock, waiting for class to end. Today, the Friday before Labor Dayweekend, I am, once again, slumped in my chair, staring at the clock, waiting for the work day to end so I can jump in my car and begin my long weekend.
Having a job doesn't mean that I've grown up. But perhaps there is an extra level of caution and wistfulness I have now.The excitement I got at receiving my first paycheck slowly disappeared as I saw it quickly melt away in the form of my monthly rent payment, my credit card bill, and more than occasional meals out.The excitement I had at moving into my first apartment also dwindledas I dealt with buying furniture, cleaning up the mess from an overflowing toilet, and broken lightbulbs. I am young enough to feel like I am still playing adult, going through the motions of what my parents do on the daily basis. But I am afraid that after a certain point, the game will no longer be one of pretend. It will have gone for long enough that is no longer rationalto deny that, yes, I am an adult, and yes: this is my life.
A few days ago, I visited my boyfriend's college campus. I watched the incoming class of freshmen eagerly walk around, consultingtheir maps and wondering out loud how they would ever get used to such a large campus. High school is so small! College is so big. I thought about how I had never truly appreciated my own beautiful college campus. As a student, I looked at the academic buildings with hate. I saw my dorm room through the tired eyes of stress and exhaustion, with the memories of final papers, midterms, exams, and the constant pursuit of a full-time job.
I don't have those things anymore. Tests. Grade Point Averages. Classes. I have a full-time job. I have my own money, my own place, my own independence. And yet, I almost wish I could feel the exhaustion of being a student and knowing that there was something bigger waiting for me after I received my diploma. I almost feel let down—that I chased this dream and finally obtained it, only to realize that perhaps my past was better. I miss the feeling of thinking that life was going to be better. Now there is no excitement, no risk. It is a constant exercise in stability and ungratefulness. The feeling of wishing you were anywhere but here, but barely having time to do so.
Only a few months into my job, I rarely find myself dreaming the way I used to. It's not that I don't have time. It's that it doesn't occur tome. From childhood, the future always entailedsome sort of dream career, a dream job, a dream company. Now I have it and I don't know what's next. Raising a family and having even more obligations. Travel? When? With the handful ofvacation days I get a year? Probably not.
I know this is a pessimisticpiece. But there is still a very small glimmer of hopeinside of me. That somewhere down the line, there is still something bigger waiting for me. Bigger than just a job or going to happy hour after work. I can't tell you what it is yet. And it is a real effort to remain starry-eyed in the face of Excel spreadsheets at work.But all I can tell you is that I will continue to try.C Finding Your "Daily Bread" (I)“果腹”之食
By Aaron Anthony Vessup
∷张健 注
嘎吱嘎吱嘎吱，我把最后一片玉米片塞进嘴里嚼着，心里充溢着满足感。这是我自己的创作——如果没有面包片或者其他的午餐时，几片炸玉米片对我来说就是最大的美味，虽然这也有不好的一面：当同学们享受自己的金枪鱼、牛肉、三明治午餐时，我的“自制午餐”总少不了一阵围观和奚落。然而，这却避免了我跑回家现找吃食——若是被逮到做家务，恐怕下午上学都要迟到！……多少年过去了，我学会了做各式菜肴，市面上也有了各种口味的玉米片零食，然而，小时候的“果腹之食”却始终刻在我的脑海。
I hurriedly slide open my brown paper-sack lunch bag, and break off a piece from the contents inside and shove this into my mouth.My teeth crunch, and food crackles,exploding inside my head with delicious sounds. I hope no one around can hear these joyful sounds. Quickly, while everyone else was still engrossed unwrapping their tuna fish, mayonnaise and cheese, sliced beef, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, I took another bite and again the delightful tastes and affirming loud crunching sounds unite.The warming joy that slowly edges down was spreading happiness inside my empty belly. It was lunch-time at Mark Twain Elementary school. Five minutes ago, most school bells across Los Angeles county simultaneously peeled the news declaring lunch break.A long play-time recess will follow. Like clockwork, kids either sprinted home for a quick lunch, jammed the cafeteria lines loudly complaining about the daily menu, or gracefully opened their stylish, colorful metal lunch boxes to reveal edible treasures from home.
"What are you eating, and why are you eating so fast?"
"What's in that old greasy-lookingbag?"
"You're going to eat that?!"
"JeeZ! You must be poor or something!"
"Is that all your mother gave you to eat?"
"Somebody sure is mean."
Curious ears had heard my loud teeth crunching sounds. I am now smackingmy greasy lips. All eyes around the lunch table outside the cafeteria walls, beneath the open screened windows, were on my brown lunch sack. I had been careful, or so I thought, to keep this small regular sandwich size bag flat, crisp, with no creases.It looked almost new. Saved just for the occasion of having to line up my lunch from home on the closet shelf at the rear of the classroom, my lonely sad sack stood along side metal Roy Rogers, Superman, and Walt Disney's Tinker Belle, and Daffy Duck.Some food carriers are all shiny and new, against the other dinged-up lunch pails belonging to my classmates.I had never had a lunch box. Usually, when the bell rang for this long lunch period break, I would chargeout the door, and through the partially open school gates and run, run, run like the Dickensalmost all the way home. Once inside I could survey the eating options. But if my mother was home, either dozing or praying,
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