【饥饿游戏】12

The baker¹ sits awkwardly on the edge of one of the plush

chairs. He’s a big, broad-shouldered man with burn scars from

years at the ovens. He must have just said goodbye to his son.

He pulls a white paper package from his jacket pocket and

holds it out to me. I open it and find cookies. These are a 

luxury we can never afford.

“Thank you,” I say. The baker’s not a very talkative man in

the best of times, and today he has no words at all. “I had

some of your bread this morning. My friend Gale² gave you a

squirrel for it.” He nods, as if remembering the squirrel. “Not

your best trade,” I say. He shrugs³ as if it couldn’t possibly 

matter.Then I can’t think of anything else, so we sit in silence 

until a Peacemaker summons him. He rises and coughs to clear 

his throat. 

“I’ll keep an eye on the little girl. Make sure she’s eating.”

I feel some of the pressure in my chest lighten at his words.

People deal with me, but they are genuinely fond of Prim⁴.

Maybe there will be enough fondness to keep her alive.

My next guest is also unexpected. Madge walks straight to

me. She is not weepy or evasive, instead there’s an urgency

about her tone that surprises me. “They let you wear one

thing from your district in the arena⁵. One thing to remind you

of home. Will you wear this?” She holds out the circular gold

pin that was on her dress earlier. I hadn’t paid much attention

to it before, but now I see it’s a small bird in flight.

“Your pin?” I say. Wearing a token from my district is about

the last thing on my mind.

“Here, I’ll put it on your dress, all right?” Madge doesn’t

wait for an answer, she just leans in and fixes the bird to my

dress. 

“Promise you’ll wear it into the arena, Katniss?” she

asks. “Promise?”

“Yes,” I say. Cookies. A pin. I’m getting all kinds of gifts today.

Madge gives me one more. A kiss on the cheek. Then she’s

gone and I’m left thinking that maybe Madge really has been

my friend all along. Finally, Gale is here and maybe there is 

nothing romantic between us, but when he opens his arms I 

don’t hesitate to go into them. His body is familiar to me — 

the way it moves, the smell of wood smoke, even the sound 

of his heart beating I know from quiet moments on a hunt — 

but this is the first time I really feel it, lean and hard-muscled 

against my own.

“Listen,” he says. “Getting a knife should be pretty easy, but

you’ve got to get your hands on a bow. That’s your best

chance.”

“They don’t always have bows,” I say, thinking of the year

there were only horrible spiked⁶ maces that the tributes had to

bludgeon one another to death with.

“Then make one,” says Gale. “Even a weak bow is better

than no bow at all.”

I have tried copying my father’s bows with poor results. It’s

not that easy. Even he had to scrap⁷ his own work sometimes.

“I don’t even know if there’ll be wood,” I say. Another year,

they tossed everybody into a landscape of nothing but 

boulders⁸ and sand and scruffy⁹ bushes. I particularly hated 

that year.Many contestants¹⁰ were bitten by venomous snakes 

or went insane from thirst.

“There’s almost always some wood,” Gale says. “Since that

year half of them died of cold. Not much entertainment in

that.”

It’s true. We spent one Hunger Games watching the players

freeze to death at night. You could hardly see them because

they were just huddled¹¹ in balls and had no wood for fires or

torches or anything. It was considered very anti-climactic in

the Capitol, all those quiet, bloodless deaths. Since then,

there’s usually been wood to make fires.

“Yes, there’s usually some,” I say.

“Katniss, it’s just hunting. You’re the best hunter I know,”

says Gale.

“It’s not just hunting. They’re armed. They think,” I say.

“So do you. And you’ve had more practice. Real practice,”

he says. “You know how to kill.”

“Not people,” I say.

“How different can it be, really?” says Gale grimly.

The awful thing is that if I can forget they’re people, it will

be no different at all.

The Peacekeepers are back too soon and Gale asks for more

time, but they’re taking him away and I start to panic. “Don’t

let them starve!” I cry out, clinging to his hand.

“I won’t! You know I won’t! Katniss, remember I —” he

says, and they yank us apart and slam the door and I’ll never

know what it was he wanted me to remember.

It’s a short ride from the Justice Building to the train station.

I’ve never been in a car before. Rarely even ridden in wagons¹².

In the Seam, we travel on foot.

1 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

2 gale   

n.大风，强风，一阵闹声（尤指笑声等）

参考例句：

• We got our roof blown off in the gale last night.昨夜的大风把我们的房顶给掀掉了。
• According to the weather forecast,there will be a gale tomorrow.据气象台预报，明天有大风。

3 shrugs   

n.耸肩（以表示冷淡，怀疑等）( shrug的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany shrugs off this criticism. 匈牙利总理久尔恰尼对这个批评不以为然。 来自互联网
• She shrugs expressively and takes a sip of her latte. 她表达地耸肩而且拿她的拿铁的啜饮。 来自互联网

4 prim   

adj.拘泥形式的，一本正经的；n.循规蹈矩，整洁；adv.循规蹈矩地，整洁地

参考例句：

• She's too prim to enjoy rude jokes!她太古板，不喜欢听粗野的笑话！
• He is prim and precise in manner.他的态度一本正经而严谨

5 arena   

n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台

参考例句：

• She entered the political arena at the age of 25. 她25岁进入政界。
• He had not an adequate arena for the exercise of his talents.他没有充分发挥其才能的场所。

6 spiked   

adj.有穗的；成锥形的；有尖顶的

参考例句：

• The editor spiked the story. 编辑删去了这篇报道。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They wondered whether their drinks had been spiked. 他们有些疑惑自己的饮料里是否被偷偷搀了烈性酒。 来自辞典例句

7 scrap   

n.碎片；废料；v.废弃，报废

参考例句：

• A man comes round regularly collecting scrap.有个男人定时来收废品。
• Sell that car for scrap.把那辆汽车当残品卖了吧。

8 boulders   

n.卵石( boulder的名词复数 )；巨砾；（受水或天气侵蚀而成的）巨石；漂砾

参考例句：

• Seals basked on boulders in a flat calm. 海面风平浪静，海豹在巨石上晒太阳。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The river takes a headlong plunge into a maelstrom of rocks and boulders. 河水急流而下，入一个漂砾的漩涡中。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 scruffy   

adj.肮脏的，不洁的

参考例句：

• Despite her scruffy clothes,there was an air of sophistication about her.尽管她衣衫褴褛，但神态老练世故。
• His scruffy appearance does not reflect his character.他邋遢的外表并不反映他的性格。

10 contestants   

n.竞争者，参赛者( contestant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The competition attracted over 500 contestants representing 8 different countries. 这次比赛吸引了代表8个不同国家的500多名参赛者。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency. 两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 huddled   

挤在一起（huddle的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• We huddled together for warmth. 我们挤在一块取暖。
• We huddled together to keep warm. 我们挤在一起来保暖。

12 wagons   

n.四轮的运货马车( wagon的名词复数 )；铁路货车；小手推车

参考例句：

• The wagons were hauled by horses. 那些货车是马拉的。
• They drew their wagons into a laager and set up camp. 他们把马车围成一圈扎起营地。