纽约时报 居家隔离闹鬼?好恐怖!(5)

For Danielle, a 39-year-old lawyer, isolation¹ predates this pandemic.

对现年39岁的律师丹妮尔来说，隔离比疫情来得更早一些。

She has been recovering at her home in Richmond, British Columbia,

自从去年冬天感染了一种颇为严重，但与新冠肺炎无关的疾病以来，

since contracting an unrelated serious illness over the winter.

她一直在不列颠哥伦比亚省里士满的家中休养。

She first experienced strange activity in February, she said,

第一次遇到怪事是2月份，她说，

when she kept walking into her guest bedroom to find a particular lamp turned on,

当时，她发现客房有一盏灯总是亮着的，

although she had no memory of leaving it that way.

尽管她记得自己并未打开。

This happened again, and again, and again, until, on a whim², she said aloud, "Don't turn that back on."

这种情况发生了一次又一次，一次又一次，直到有一次，她一时心血来潮大声说了句，‘别再开了’，那盏灯便再没亮过。

The next time she entered the room,

但当她再次走进那个房间时，

she found the ceiling light — which she never, ever switches on — blazing.

她发现顶灯——她从来没有开过那盏灯——又亮了。

On more than one occasion, she has heard the voices of a man and a woman having a conversation she couldn't quite make out.

她还不止一次地听到一男一女说话，不过听得不是很真切。

More recently, she was sewing face masks in the same bedroom.

最近，她还在那间客房缝制口罩。

She had exactly enough fabric³ left to make one more face mask,

有一次剩的布料刚好够再做一个口罩，

but when she briefly⁴ turned away from the ironing board where she'd just pressed the double cotton gauze,

但她刚转身离开一小会儿，

the two remaining pieces disappeared.

熨衣板上剩下的两块双层棉纱就不见了。

"It was gone," Danielle said.

“不见了，”丹妮尔说。

"Like, in a 20-second period, gone.

“差不多20秒的时间，就没了。

I went and checked the garbage pail, nothing.

我看过垃圾桶了，没有。

Checked the recycling, nothing.

回收桶里也没有。

My fabric stash⁵, nothing.

布料堆里也没有。

I tore the house apart looking for these two pieces of fabric, and they have never come back."

为了找那两块布料，我把整个房子都翻了个便，结果还是没找着。”

Danielle describes herself as a highly social person,

丹妮尔称自己是一个非常重社交的人，

someone whose friends and family had worried about how she'd fare cooped up all by herself.

她的朋友和家人一直都很担心她是否受得了一个人被关在屋里。

"This kind of feels like someone popping by to cheer me up,

“那件事就好像是有人专门来给我打气，

or keep tabs, or make sure that I'm not feeling alone," she said.

来密切留意我，确保我不会觉得孤单的，”她说。

If the idea of a paranormal identity can provide someone "a little bit of social sustenance⁶"

格雷表示，如果超自然存在这一想法能弥补人们的“一点社交”，

to help them endure their solitude⁷, Mr. Gray said, then great.

帮他们度过独居的日子，那也不错。

At least, as long as the ghost isn't advising its hauntees

至少，只要那个鬼没有建议被它缠身的人

to "go into emergency rooms without a mask and French kiss everybody," he said.

“不戴口罩跑到急诊室去亲吻每个人的脸颊，”就没问题，他说。

Are you troubled by strange noises in the middle of the night?

你有没有半夜被奇怪的声音困扰过呢？

Do you experience feelings of dread⁸ in your basement or attic⁹?

你去地下室或阁楼的时候会害怕吗？

"Don't panic," said Mr. Tenney, the "Ghost Stalkers" host.

“别慌，”《鬼魂跟踪狂》的主持人坦尼说。

Take careful notes on what you observe.

仔细记下你观察到的怪事。

You may soon find a rational explanation for your fears.

说不定，你很快就能为你的恐惧找到一个合理的解释。

What if that strange noise at 2:50 p.m. every weekday is just the UPS truck clattering¹⁰ by?

万一工作日下午2：50出现的奇怪的声音只是UPS卡车咔哒咔哒开过去的声音呢？

But Mr. Tenney also offers this:

不过，坦尼也说了，

One could argue that the ghost puttering around in your kitchen is not only there,

也有人可能会说，徘徊在你厨房里的幽灵可能不止是最近才在那儿，

but that she's always been there.

而是一直都在那儿。

Maybe you're what's changed.

说不定你才是那个新来的。

Or maybe you're listening more closely in the greater quiet all around us.

说不定只是最近你所处的环境更安静了，你听得更仔细了而已。

"Perhaps we're just now starting to notice that the world is a little bit weirder¹¹ than we gave it credit for," he said.

“说不定，这一切只是因为我们才刚开始注意到，这个世界比我们想象的要诡异一些而已，”他说。

1 isolation   

n.隔离，孤立，分解，分离

参考例句：

• The millionaire lived in complete isolation from the outside world.这位富翁过着与世隔绝的生活。
• He retired and lived in relative isolation.他退休后，生活比较孤寂。

2 whim   

n.一时的兴致，突然的念头；奇想，幻想

参考例句：

• I bought the encyclopedia on a whim.我凭一时的兴致买了这本百科全书。
• He had a sudden whim to go sailing today.今天他突然想要去航海。

3 fabric   

n.织物，织品，布；构造，结构，组织

参考例句：

• The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
• I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。

4 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

5 stash   

v.藏或贮存于一秘密处所；n.隐藏处

参考例句：

• Stash away both what you lost and gained,for life continues on.将得失深藏心底吧，为了那未来的生活。
• That's supposed to be in our private stash.这是我的私人珍藏。

6 sustenance   

n.食物，粮食；生活资料；生计

参考例句：

• We derive our sustenance from the land.我们从土地获取食物。
• The urban homeless are often in desperate need of sustenance.城市里无家可归的人极其需要食物来维持生命。

7 solitude   

n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方

参考例句：

• People need a chance to reflect on spiritual matters in solitude. 人们需要独处的机会来反思精神上的事情。
• They searched for a place where they could live in solitude. 他们寻找一个可以过隐居生活的地方。

8 dread   

vt.担忧，忧虑；惧怕，不敢；n.担忧，畏惧

参考例句：

• We all dread to think what will happen if the company closes.我们都不敢去想一旦公司关门我们该怎么办。
• Her heart was relieved of its blankest dread.她极度恐惧的心理消除了。

9 attic   

n.顶楼，屋顶室

参考例句：

• Leakiness in the roof caused a damp attic.屋漏使顶楼潮湿。
• What's to be done with all this stuff in the attic?顶楼上的材料怎么处理？

10 clattering   

发出咔哒声（clatter的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• Typewriters keep clattering away. 打字机在不停地嗒嗒作响。
• The typewriter was clattering away. 打字机啪嗒啪嗒地响着。

11 weirder   

怪诞的( weird的比较级 )； 神秘而可怕的； 超然的； 古怪的

参考例句：

• Actually, things got a little weirder when the tow truck driver showed up. 事实上，在拖吊车司机出现后，事情的发展更加怪异。