美国国家公共电台 NPR Wisdom From YA Authors On Leaving Home: Neal Shusterman

Wisdom From YA Authors On Leaving Home: Neal Shusterman 

play pause stop mute¹ unmute max volume 00:0003:05repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser² to a recent version³ or update your Flash plugin. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: 

Do you remember the moment when you left home for good? Many young people will do just that this month as they head to college or the military or a first job. Throughout August we brought you stories and advice about this signature moment from authors who have written for young adults. It's a series we call Next Chapter.

Today, we hear from Neal Shusterman. And he's the author of "Challenger Deep," which won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. He says that in each of his books he tries to give his readers a new perspective⁴ on the world they think they know.

NEAL SHUSTERMAN: The best way to understand our world and our own lives is to get as many different angles⁵ on it as possible.

(SOUNDBITE OF GENESIS SONG, "MISUNDERSTANDING")

SHUSTERMAN: I grew up in Brooklyn and lived there until I was 16. And my father came home one day and said that his company's transferred⁶ him and we're moving to Mexico. And two weeks later, there I was, living in Mexico City.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "MISUNDERSTANDING ")

GENESIS: (Singing) There must be some misunderstanding. There must be some kind of mistake.

SHUSTERMAN: When I first arrived the first thing I noticed was how out of breath I was because of the altitude and the smog. The smog was so thick you could see it in a room.

We moved into an apartment that I hadn't seen. My father had chosen the apartment. And the second we moved in, a train came by. This apartment building was right next to this freight⁷ train track, and the entire building shook when the train went by and it honked⁸ its horn. And I was saying, this is where I'm going to live for two years?

I had always been a pretty good student. But my grades were dropping. And that had never happened before. And I was sort of just ignoring it, and it got to the point where the school was ready to expel⁹ me.

And there was this one day where I just had a little bit of a breakdown¹⁰. I mean, I just started crying and crying and crying, and I could not stop. And I didn't understand why. My parents say, what's the matter? What are you crying about. And the only thing that I could say was, I miss my stuff¹¹. I don't have my bike. I don't have my music.

And, you know, looking back, that was the culture shock, the feeling of being completely out of my element. And it got to the point where it just hit me - this is a completely different experience for me, and I don't know where I fit into it.

(SOUNDBITE OF LED ZEPPELIN SONG, "10 RIBS¹² & ALL")

SHUSTERMAN: After that that moment of just hitting rock bottom, everything got better, and it became two of the greatest years of my life. Now I was a citizen of the world. And I was meeting people from all over the world who were there at the American school. And I remember, I left to spend the summer with family in New York right after prom - the day after prom. And everybody was at the airport. We had all just graduated, and everybody was getting on different planes, going different places in the world. And it was just - it was kind of an eye opening moment.

I went to University of California Irvine, UCI. And there were a lot of kids who were having trouble adjusting, and I was surprised to find that I adjusted fairly easily. But I really attributed¹³ that to the fact that I had a much bigger adjustment to do a couple of years earlier.

Advice that I would give for kids that were leaving home - find your comfort zone and then leave it because the greatest experiences of our lives are the ones that we have when we have stepped out of our comfort zone. That's where you really grow.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "LIGHTS")

JOURNEY: (Singing) When the lights go down in the city...

SIMON: Neal Shusterman - we've been hearing music by Genesis, Led Zeppelin and Journey, the bands he was listening to when he left home. He's part of our series Next Chapter.

JOURNEY: (Singing) So you think you're lonely, well, my friend, I'm lonely, too. I want to get back...

1 mute   

n.哑子，默音字母，弱音器；adj.哑的，无声的，沉默的；vt.减音，减弱；vi.（鸟）排泄

参考例句：

• He is mute on the subject of social system.他对社会制度的问题保持沉默。
• Her daughter was mute after a serious illness.她的女儿在一场重病之后失去了说话能力。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 version   

n.版本；型号；叙述，说法

参考例句：

• His version of the events is pure supposition.他对这件事的说法纯属猜测。
• What is your version of this matter?你对这件事情的看法 怎么样？

4 perspective   

n.视角，观点，想法

参考例句：

• You can get a perspective of the whole city from here.从这里你可以看到城市的全景。
• We may get a clear perspective of the people's happy lives.我们知道人民对幸福生活的展望。

5 angles   

n.角( angle的名词复数 )；[比喻]（考虑、问题的）角度；观点；轮廓鲜明的突出体

参考例句：

• She angles her reports to suit the people she is speaking to. 她带着一定的倾向性作报告以迎合她的听众。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Angles of less than 90 degrees are called acute angles. 小于90度的角叫锐角。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 transferred   

转移，迁移( transfer的过去式和过去分词 )； 转让； 转移（感情）； 改变

参考例句：

• The remaining twenty patients were transferred to another hospital. 其余的二十名病人被转送到另一家医院去了。
• The farm has been transferred from father to son for generations. 这农场由父亲传给儿子，已传了好几代。

7 freight   

n.货物，货运；vt.运送（货物）看，装货于

参考例句：

• Tons of freight were flown into this airport every day.每天有许多吨货物被空运到这个机场。
• There is ten yuan in the bill for freight.发票中包括运费十元。

8 honked   

v.（使）发出雁叫似的声音，鸣（喇叭），按（喇叭）( honk的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I drove up in front of the house and honked. 我将车开到屋子前面然后按喇叭。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• He honked his horn as he went past. 他经过时按响了汽车喇叭。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 expel   

vt.把...开除，驱逐，放逐，排出，喷出

参考例句：

• They were told at first that they should simply expel the refugees.一开始有人告诉他们应该直接将那些难民驱逐出境。
• The headmaster may expel the boy from the school.校长可能要把那个男孩从学校开除。

10 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

11 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。

12 ribs   

n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹

参考例句：

• He suffered cracked ribs and bruising. 他断了肋骨还有挫伤。
• Make a small incision below the ribs. 在肋骨下方切开一个小口。

13 attributed   

认为…是( attribute的过去式和过去分词 )； 把…归于； 把…品质归于某人； 认为某事[物]属于某人[物]

参考例句：

• They attributed the success of their invention to Engineer Huang. 他们把发明的成功归于黄工程师。
• We attributed this saying to Shakespeare. 我们认为这句格言出自莎士比亚。