TED演讲:美国废弃的购物中心(2)

 In between these low-paying retail¹ jobs, I did what any normal teenager did in the 1990s. 在这些薪水低廉的销售工作中，我做了90年代每一个正常的青少年都会做的事。

I shoplifted. I'm just kidding. I hung out with my friends at the mall. 我偷东西了。我开玩笑的。我和我的朋友在商场里逛。

Everyone's like, "Oh my God, what kind of talk is this?" 你们可能觉得，“我的天呐，这是什么演讲啊？”

Hanging out at the mall could be fun, but it could be really lame², too, 逛商场可能会很愉快，但是也可能很没品，

like sharing a cigarette with a 40-year-old unemployed³ mall rat 比如和40岁的无业游民分享一根香烟，

who has put on black lipstick⁴ for the night while you're on your break from your crappy minimum wage job. 而他昨天晚上还涂了黑色口红，而那时候你刚从最低工资的工作中歇口气。

As I stand here today, Owings Mills has been gutted⁵ and it's ready for the wrecking⁶ ball. 今天我站在这里的时候，奥因斯米尔斯已经被彻底清空，拆迁的大锤已经准备好了。

The last time I was there, it was in the evening, and it was about three days before they closed the mall for good. 我最后一次去那里的时候是个傍晚，大概是他们关闭商场的三天前。

And you kind of felt -- they never announced the mall was closing, 你感觉好像--商场倒闭的消息从未公开，

but you had this sort of feeling, this ominous⁷ feeling, that something big was going to happen, like it was the end of the road. 但你就是有这种感觉，这种不祥的预感，有什么事要发生了，就像一条路走到了尽头。

It was a very creepy walk through the mall. Let me show you. 我在商场里走过了一段非常可怕的路。我给你们看一下。

1 retail   

v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格

参考例句：

• In this shop they retail tobacco and sweets.这家铺子零售香烟和糖果。
• These shoes retail at 10 yuan a pair.这些鞋子零卖10元一双。

2 lame   

adj.跛的，(辩解、论据等)无说服力的

参考例句：

• The lame man needs a stick when he walks.那跛脚男子走路时需借助拐棍。
• I don't believe his story.It'sounds a bit lame.我不信他讲的那一套。他的话听起来有些靠不住。

3 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

4 lipstick   

n.口红，唇膏

参考例句：

• Taking out her lipstick,she began to paint her lips.她拿出口红，开始往嘴唇上抹。
• Lipstick and hair conditioner are cosmetics.口红和护发素都是化妆品。

5 gutted   

adj.容易消化的v.毁坏（建筑物等）的内部( gut的过去式和过去分词 )；取出…的内脏

参考例句：

• Disappointed? I was gutted! 失望？我是伤心透了！
• The invaders gutted the historic building. 侵略者们将那幢历史上有名的建筑洗劫一空。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

6 wrecking   

破坏

参考例句：

• He teed off on his son for wrecking the car. 他严厉训斥他儿子毁坏了汽车。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Instead of wrecking the valley, the waters are put to use making electricity. 现在河水不但不在流域内肆疟，反而被人们用来生产电力。 来自辞典例句

7 ominous   

adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的

参考例句：

• Those black clouds look ominous for our picnic.那些乌云对我们的野餐来说是个不祥之兆。
• There was an ominous silence at the other end of the phone.电话那头出现了不祥的沉默。