读者文摘:魔术改变了我的生活(3)

She marched toward me and demanded to know what was going on.

她朝我走了过来，问我发生了什么事。

The coin vanished for her too.

她也看到硬币不见了。

"Do it again,"she said, and I did.

“再来一次，”她说，我又做了一遍。

I'm sure my hands were shaking, but when I looked up, everything had changed.

我确信我的手在颤抖，但当我抬起头时，一切都变了。

I will remember the look on her face—the look of wide-eyed, openmouthed wonder—forever.

我永远都不会忘记她脸上的表情——睁大眼睛、惊叹不已。

Two certainties.

确定的事情有两件。

First, this was clearly the greatest thing in the world.

首先，这显然是世界上最伟大的事。

I kept seeing my teacher's face—the stern, authoritarian¹ facade² melting into shock, fear, elation³, and joy, all at once.

我一直看着老师严厉、专制的外表瞬间转变成震惊、恐惧、欢欣和喜悦。

The kids' too.

像孩子一样。

My classmates had been transformed for a moment from a vaguely⁴ indifferent, vaguely hostile pack of scavengers and carnivores into real people.

我的同学们曾一度从一群淡漠、充满敌意的食腐动物变成了活生生的人。

If you could make people feel like this, why wouldn't you do it all the time? Why didn't everyone do this?

如果你能让人们有这种感觉，为什么不一直这样做呢？为什么每个人不这样做呢?

For anyone—but especially for a nine-year-old boy at a new school—this transformation⁵ is almost indistinguishable from real magic.

对任何人，尤其对一所新学校的9岁男孩来说，这种转变几乎与真正的魔法无异，

The second certainty was harder to reconcile.

第二个更难调和。

The more I thought about it, the stranger it became, and even now it intrigues⁶ me as much as it did that day on the playground.

我越想它，越觉得它陌生，即使是现在，我的兴趣依然不减，心情和那天操场上一样。

Here it is: All of it—the chaos⁷, the shouting, the wideeyed wonder—came from a coin trick.

所有混乱、叫喊、睁大眼睛的惊愕表情都来自于硬币戏法。

I knew that it was just a trick and I was just a kid.

我知道这只是个恶作剧，我只是个孩子。

But the reactions of the students and the teacher were so much greater than the sum of these modest parts that I didn't know how to explain them.

但是学生和老师的反应远远超过了事物本身，我不知道如何解释。

1 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。

2 facade   

n.(建筑物的)正面，临街正面；外表

参考例句：

• The entrance facade consists of a large full height glass door.入口正面有一大型全高度玻璃门。
• If you look carefully,you can see through Bob's facade.如果你仔细观察，你就能看穿鲍勃的外表。

3 elation   

n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意

参考例句：

• She showed her elation at having finally achieved her ambition.最终实现了抱负，她显得十分高兴。
• His supporters have reacted to the news with elation.他的支持者听到那条消息后兴高采烈。

4 vaguely   

adv.含糊地，暖昧地

参考例句：

• He had talked vaguely of going to work abroad.他含糊其词地说了到国外工作的事。
• He looked vaguely before him with unseeing eyes.他迷迷糊糊的望着前面，对一切都视而不见。

5 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

6 intrigues   

n.密谋策划( intrigue的名词复数 )；神秘气氛；引人入胜的复杂情节v.搞阴谋诡计( intrigue的第三人称单数 )；激起…的好奇心

参考例句：

• He was made king as a result of various intrigues. 由于搞了各种各样的阴谋，他当上了国王。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Those who go in for intrigues and conspiracy are doomed to failure. 搞阴谋诡计的人注定要失败。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。