【饥饿游戏】15

Chapter 4

For a few moments, Peeta and I take in the scene of our

mentor¹ trying to rise out of the slippery vile² stuff from his

stomach. The reek³ of vomit⁴ and raw spirits almost brings my

dinner up. We exchange a glance. Obviously Haymitch isn’t

much, but Effie Trinket is right about one thing, once we’re in

the arena⁵ he’s all we’ve got. As if by some unspoken 

agreement, Peeta and I each take one of Haymitch’s arms and 

help him to his feet.

“I tripped?” Haymitch asks. “Smells bad.” He wipes his hand

on his nose, smearing⁶ his face with vomit.

“Let’s get you back to your room,” says Peeta. “Clean you up

a bit.”

We half-lead half-carry Haymitch back to his compartment⁷.

Since we can’t exactly set him down on the embroidered 

bedspread, we haul him into the bathtub and turn the shower 

on him. He hardly notices.

“It’s okay,” Peeta says to me. “I’ll take it from here.”

I can’t help feeling a little grateful since the last thing I want

to do is strip down Haymitch, wash the vomit out of his chest

hair, and tuck him into bed. Possibly Peeta is trying to make a

good impression on him, to be his favorite once the Games

begin. But judging by the state he’s in, Haymitch will have no

memory of this tomorrow. “All right,” I say. “I can send one 

of the Capitol people to help you.” There’s any number on the

 train. Cooking for us. Waiting on us. Guarding us. Taking care 

of us is their job.

“No. I don’t want them,” says Peeta.

I nod and head to my own room. I understand how Peeta

feels. I can’t stand the sight of the Capitol people myself. But

making them deal with Haymitch might be a small form of 

revenge. So I’m pondering the reason why he insists on taking

care of Haymitch and all of a sudden I think, It’s because he’s

being kind. Just as he was kind to give me the bread.The idea 

pulls me up short. A kind Peeta Mellark is far more dangerous 

to me than an unkind one. Kind people have a way of working 

their way inside me and rooting there. And I can’t let Peeta do 

this. Not where we’re going. So I decide, from this moment on, 

to have as little as possible to do with the baker’s son.

When I get back to my room, the train is pausing at a platform

to refuel. I quickly open the window, toss the cookies

Peeta’s father gave me out of the train, and slam the glass

shut. No more. No more of either of them.

Unfortunately, the packet of cookies hits the ground and

bursts open in a patch of dandelions by the track. I only see

the image for a moment, because the train is off again, but 

it’s enough. Enough to remind me of that other dandelion 

in the school yard years ago . . .

I had just turned away from Peeta Mellark’s bruised⁸ face

when I saw the dandelion and I knew hope wasn’t lost. I

plucked it carefully and hurried home. I grabbed a bucket and

Prim⁹’s hand and headed to the Meadow and yes, it was dotted

with the golden-headed weeds. After we’d harvested those,

we scrounged along inside the fence for probably a mile until

we’d filled the bucket with the dandelion greens, stems, and

flowers. That night, we gorged¹⁰ ourselves on dandelion salad

and the rest of the bakery bread.

“What else?” Prim asked me. “What other food can we

find?”

“All kinds of things,” I promised her. “I just have to remember

them.”

My mother had a book she’d brought with her from the

apothecary¹¹ shop. The pages were made of old parchment and

covered in ink drawings of plants. Neat handwritten blocks

told their names, where to gather them, when they came in

bloom, their medical uses. But my father added other entries

to the book. Plants for eating, not healing. Dandelions, 

pokeweed, wild onions, pines. Prim and I spent the rest of the 

night poring over those pages.

The next day, we were off school. For a while I hung around

the edges of the Meadow, but finally I worked up the courage

to go under the fence. It was the first time I’d been there

alone, without my father’s weapons to protect me. But I 

retrieved¹² the small bow and arrows he’d made me from a 

hollow tree. I probably didn’t go more than twenty yards into 

the woods that day. Most of the time, I perched up in the 

branches of an old oak, hoping for game to come by. After 

several hours, I had the good luck to kill a rabbit.

I’d shot a few rabbits before, with my father’s guidance. But

this I’d done on my own.

We hadn’t had meat in months. The sight of the rabbit

seemed to stir something in my mother. She roused herself,

skinned the carcass, and made a stew¹³ with the meat and some

more greens Prim had gathered. Then she acted confused and

went back to bed, but when the stew was done, we made her

eat a bowl.

The woods became our savior, and each day I went a bit

farther into its arms.

1 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

2 vile   

adj.卑鄙的，可耻的，邪恶的；坏透的

参考例句：

• Who could have carried out such a vile attack?会是谁发起这么卑鄙的攻击呢？
• Her talk was full of vile curses.她的话里充满着恶毒的咒骂。

3 reek   

v.发出臭气；n.恶臭

参考例句：

• Where there's reek,there's heat.哪里有恶臭，哪里必发热。
• That reek is from the fox.那股恶臭是狐狸发出的。

4 vomit   

v.呕吐，作呕；n.呕吐物，吐出物

参考例句：

• They gave her salty water to make her vomit.他们给她喝盐水好让她吐出来。
• She was stricken by pain and began to vomit.她感到一阵疼痛，开始呕吐起来。

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 smearing   

污点，拖尾效应

参考例句：

• The small boy spoilt the picture by smearing it with ink. 那孩子往画上抹墨水把画给毁了。
• Remove the screen carefully so as to avoid smearing the paste print. 小心的移开丝网，以避免它弄脏膏印。

7 compartment   

n.卧车包房，隔间；分隔的空间

参考例句：

• We were glad to have the whole compartment to ourselves.真高兴，整个客车隔间由我们独享。
• The batteries are safely enclosed in a watertight compartment.电池被安全地置于一个防水的隔间里。

8 bruised   

[医]青肿的，瘀紫的

参考例句：

• his bruised and bloodied nose 他沾满血的青肿的鼻子
• She had slipped and badly bruised her face. 她滑了一跤，摔得鼻青脸肿。

9 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

10 gorged   

v.（用食物把自己）塞饱，填饱( gorge的过去式和过去分词 )；作呕

参考例句：

• He gorged himself at the party. 在宴会上他狼吞虎咽地把自己塞饱。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The men, gorged with food, had unbuttoned their vests. 那些男人，吃得直打饱嗝，解开了背心的钮扣。 来自辞典例句

11 apothecary   

n.药剂师

参考例句：

• I am an apothecary of that hospital.我是那家医院的一名药剂师。
• He was the usual cut and dry apothecary,of no particular age and color.他是那种再普通不过的行医者，说不出多大年纪，相貌也没什么值得一提的。

12 retrieved   

v.取回( retrieve的过去式和过去分词 )；恢复；寻回；检索（储存的信息）

参考例句：

• Yesterday I retrieved the bag I left in the train. 昨天我取回了遗留在火车上的包。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He reached over and retrieved his jacket from the back seat. 他伸手从后座上取回了自己的夹克。 来自辞典例句

13 stew   

n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑

参考例句：

• The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
• There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。