原版英文故事与诗歌：Scarlett

 　　Here’s Scarlett, in the garden of a friend’s house in London on a sunny summer morning, the kind of mornings that are unusual in England. Scarlett is twelve years old (“thirteen in November” she tells me), and is trying to understand the world around her. She asks questions about everything, all the time.

 

　　I tell her that I want to ask her a question, and I ask her why she’s called “Scarlett”, and what the name means, and if it comes from anywhere in particular, and she says:

 

　　“No it’s just a stupid name my parents chose because they liked it. It doesn’t mean anything.”

 

　　I wonder if her parents named her after the heroine of a favourite film, perhaps, but then again, I know her dad and this sounds unlikely¹. I think they probably chose it just because they liked the sound of it.

 

　　Scarlett is worried about changing school after the summer, she worries that she’s too short for her age and that the other children at the school will make fun of her. She shows me some pictures of the school she is at now, and her classmates. I look at the picture and it shows children of all heights and shapes and sizes. Some are tall, some are short, some are fat and some are thin. Some are black and some are white, and most of them are somewhere in between. Some have red hair and some have blond² hair, some have long hair and some have short hair.

 

　　I tell her not to worry about the new school, tell her that she’ll be OK, and ask her about the new subjects she’ll be studying. She tells me that she’s worried about learning³ French, and I tell her not to worry, that it isn’t a very difficult language. She tells me that she already knows five languages.

 

　　“Five languages!” I shout. “That’s impossible! How do you already know five languages?”

 

　　“Because I’ve got five languages in my body” she says.

 

　　I ask her what she means, and she starts to tell me the story of her family. Some of the story I already know. I’ve already heard stories about her grandfather. He was from Scotland⁴; he was a sailor, but not a very good sailor, so he only got as far as Portsmouth, a big navy⁵ town on the south coast of England, not very far from Scotland at all. When he got to Portsmouth, he stopped there, left the navy and became a boxer⁶. He lost fights and drank a lot. However, he still managed to see the world by meeting a woman who came from Laos. Nobody really knows how this woman had ended up in Portsmouth, but she still lives there, and I tell Scarlett that she should try and find out her grandmother’s story.

 

　　“No, she’s too old now” says Scarlett, “and anyway, she’s lived in Portsmouth nearly all her life.”

 

　　Scarlett’s grandparents were only together long enough to produce a son, probably one of the only Scottish-Laotians in the world. They called him Bill, which is usually short for “William”, but his name was just “Bill”. Bill inherited⁷ his father’s personality and his mother’s looks, so the only thing he thought he could do was become a rock star. He never really managed to become a rock star, though, so now he works⁸ as a graphic⁹ designer.

 

　　I don’t know Scarlett’s mum, so I ask her to tell me about her mum.

 

　　“My mum’s Polish” she says, “Well, not really, because she was born in Brighton, but her mum and dad are from Poland. But they’ve lived there, like, for always. But I know that her mum was from somewhere that was Germany, and then became Poland, so she’s really German, I suppose. So that’s another language that I’ve got in my body.”

 

　　I ask Scarlett if she can actually speak all the languages that she says she has “in her body”, and she looks at me like I’m stupid.

 

　　“Of course not” she says. “But I’ve still got them in me!”

 

　　We count up her “languages”: Scottish, Laotian, German, Polish.

 

　　“That’s only four!” I tell her.

 

　　“No, there’s English too!”

 

　　“Of course there is” I say. And then I look at Scottish–Laotian–German–Polish–English Scarlett, with her name that comes from nowhere and I ask her,

 

　　“And you Scarlett, where are you from?”

 

　　She thinks for a long time, such a long time that I think perhaps she hasn’t heard my question. But then before I can repeat it she looks up and at me.

 

　　“I’m from here”, she says. “I’m from London”.

1 unlikely   

adj.未必的，多半不可能的；不大可能发生的

参考例句：

• It was very unlikely that he would do that.他不见得会做那种事。
• It is unlikely that she will come. 她不大可能来了。

2 blond   

adj.金发的；n.白肤碧眼金发的人

参考例句：

• Her long blond hair spilled down over her shoulders.她那淡黄色的长发披垂在双肩。
• This blond man delivers newspaper every morning.这个白肤金发碧眼的男人每天早晨送报纸。

3 learning   

n.学问，学识，学习；动词learn的现在分词

参考例句：

• When you are learning to ride a bicycle,you often fall off.初学骑自行车时，常会从车上掉下来。
• Learning languages isn't just a matter of remembering words.学习语言不仅仅是记些单词的事。

4 Scotland   

n.苏格兰

参考例句：

• He has been hiking round Scotland for a month.他围着苏格兰徒步旅行了一个月。
• Scotland is to the north of England.苏格兰在英格兰之北。

5 navy   

n.海军，海军人员，海军军力，藏青色

参考例句：

• My brother is in the navy.我兄弟在海军服役。
• He has transferred from the army to the navy.他从陆军转到海军。

6 boxer   

n.制箱者，拳击手

参考例句：

• The boxer gave his opponent a punch on the nose.这个拳击手朝他对手的鼻子上猛击一拳。
• He moved lightly on his toes like a boxer.他像拳击手一样踮着脚轻盈移动。

7 inherited   

adj.通过继承得到的，遗传的；继承权的v.继承( inherit的过去式和过去分词 )；经遗传获得（品质、身体特征等）接替（责任等），继任

参考例句：

• She had not inherited her mother's forgiving nature. 她没有承袭她母亲的宽厚天性。
• She inherited a fortune from her father. 她从她父亲那里继承了一大笔财富。

8 works   

n.作品，著作；工厂，活动部件，机件

参考例句：

• We expect writers to produce more and better works.我们期望作家们写出更多更好的作品。
• The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。

9 graphic   

adj.生动的，形象的，绘画的，文字的，图表的

参考例句：

• The book gave a graphic description of the war.这本书生动地描述了战争的情况。
• Distinguish important text items in lists with graphic icons.用图标来区分重要的文本项。