My Childhood Encyclopedias1 Still Fill Me with Wonder

∷麦子 选 段会香 注

I am stuck in front of a row of sagging book spines on a bottom shelf.2. 我在放在底层书架上一排书脊快要脱落的书前站住了。stuck： 动不了的，停滞不前的；sagging：（中间部分）下垂的，下陷的；spine： 书脊。They’ve sat untouched for years: 18 reddish-orange volumes ofOur Wonderful World, An Encyclopedic Anthology for the Entire Family, published in 1957.3. untouched： 保持原样的，未被触动的；volume：卷，册；anthology： 选集。

I’m in the midst of one of those virtuous home projects: a day of decluttering.4. virtuous： 有道德的，善良的；declutter： 整理，简化或处理掉（杂乱无章或复杂的状态）。The musty pages contain mostly defunct information—yet I can’t bring myself to throw them out.5. 这些发霉书页上的内容大多是过时的信息——但是我还是舍不得把它们扔掉。musty： 有霉味的，发霉的；defunct： 不再存在的，不再起作用的。Just a glance at the faded gold titles takes me back to the childhood experience of expanding my world beyond the neighbourhood where I grew up.6. glance： 一撇，匆匆一眼；faded： 褪色的；expand：扩展，扩张。

In the pre-Google7. pre-Google： 谷歌（搜索引擎）出现之前的。era, books offered the answers to many questions. If you wanted to research anything foreign or scienti fic for a school project, you put on your shoes and walked to the library. If you wanted to explore the world beyond the little suburban house where you lived, you sprawled on the couch on a rainy afternoon and pored over page after glorious page ofOur Wonderful World.8. explore： 探索；sprawl： （懒洋洋地）伸开四肢坐着（或躺着）；pore over： 仔细阅读，钻研。

面对无处不在的网络，我们对纸质书的需求貌似在减少，因为几乎所有的信息都可以通过网络搜索得到。但是对于那些童年回忆中有书的人，有些书可能不再有用，但是却无法割舍。那些泛黄的书页，已成为永久的回忆。

Volume 5, page 4: “We live at the bottom of an ocean of air, which in many ways is like another ocean of water. The weight of the hundreds of miles of air upon our bodies can be compared to the weight of the ocean water upon fish who live in the depths of the sea.9. 我们身处数百英里的空气的压力之下，这些空气的重量堪比大海深处生活的鱼类所承受的海水重量。be compared to： 被比作，与……相提并论。”

In 2004, A. J. Jacobs, an Ivy League graduate and magazine editor, published a book about his quest to read the entireEncyclopedia Britannica.10. Ivy League： 常春藤联盟，由美国东北部之八所学校组合而成：布朗大学、哥伦比亚大学、康奈尔大学、达特茅斯学院、哈佛大学、宾夕法尼亚大学、普林斯顿大学及耶鲁大学。这八所学校有许多共同特点：它们都是美国最顶尖、最难考入的大学，是全世界接受捐款最多的学府、它们吸引无数最优秀的学生与师资。quest： 追求，探求；Encyclopedia Britannica：《不列颠百科全书》，又称《大英百科全书》，被认为是当今世界上最知名也是最权威的百科全书。He documented his quixotic feat inThe New York TimesbestsellerThe Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World.11. document： 记录；quixotic： 唐吉诃德式的，不切实际的；feat： 功绩，壮举；The New York Times：《纽约时报》，一份在美国纽约出版的日报，在全世界发行，长期以来拥有良好的公信力和权威性；bestseller： 畅销书；humble： 谦卑的，谦逊的。It was an intellectual enterprise, a re flection on knowledge by someone already immersed in the world of letters.12. 这是一种知识产业，是某个沉浸在文字世界的人对知识所作出的思考。

In 1962, J. W. Baxter, a high-school graduate and salesclerk at Mitchell Photo Supply in Montreal,wanted to nurture a quest for knowledge in his three young daughters, including me.13. salesclerk： 售货员；nurture： 培养，培育。In our modest bungalow in Pierrefonds, there was little reading material beyond the evening paper,Reader’s Digestand a fewNancy Drewmysteries.14. modest： 不大的，不算昂贵的，普通的； bungalow： 平房，小屋；Reader’s Digest： 《读者文摘》，美国杂志，1922年创刊；Nancy Drew：《神探南茜》，根据同名经典小说改编。该系列图书人公是一个叫南茜·德鲁的女学生，她的爱好是破解身边的奇案。Dad decided we needed an encyclopedia set.

One Sunday morning he asked me, the eldest, to go downtown with him to pick up a present from a work colleague: a second-hand set of encyclopedias calledOur Wonderful World.15. downtown： 市中心，闹市区；secondhand： 二手的，旧的。I was thrilled16. thrilled： 非常兴奋的，极为激动的。. A car ride beyond my neighbourhood was a major outing17. outing： 远足，短途旅游。, and time alone with Dad was precious.

The store’s bookkeeper, Eunice, lived in an old apartment on Sherbrooke Street, right in the heart of the city. Dad referred to her as a “spinster” from a well-to-do family.18. spinster： 老姑娘，未婚女人；well-to-do：富裕的，有钱的。The word sounded regal19. regal： 豪华的，庄严的。to my nine-year-old ears. I put on my best Sunday dress, clipped my hair back with barrettes, and listened to his gentle reminders about good manners when visiting.20. clip： 夹住，夹紧；barrette： 条状发夹；reminder： 提醒。

I remember sitting stif fly on the edge of Eunice’s blue brocade chester field, keeping my hands nestled in my lap and gazing with awe at the strange surroundings of that downtown world.21. 我记得自己呆呆地坐在尤妮斯的那张蓝色锦缎的睡椅边上，双手抱着膝盖，敬畏地望着市中心周围那些陌生的环境。stif fly： 生硬地，呆板地；brocade：织锦，锦缎；chesterfield： 睡椅，长靠椅；nestle： 满意地依偎或紧贴，抱，放。The high ceilings, the curlicue legs of the antique tables, and the swirls on the pastel patterned rugs were all so different from the brown wall-to-wall and chunky shapes of our living room.22. curlicue： 花体，花饰；antique： 古老的，年代久远的；swirl： 漩涡；pastel： （色彩）淡的，柔和的；chunky： 粗壮的，矮胖的。

I knew we were getting something special, and that these volumes would reveal23. reveal： 显示，揭露。things I hadn’t yet imagined.I felt a burst24. burst： 爆发，突发。of love for my dad for taking me along on this city adventure, and for thinking I was smart enough to read an encyclopedia.

Volume 15, page 109: “No true frog has the poison glands, or parotoids, found on the shoulders of true toads.25. gland： 腺；parotoid： 腮腺；toad： 蟾蜍，癞蛤蟆。”

Our Wonderful Worldcame with its own compact26. compact： 简洁的，紧凑的。, twoshelf bookcase. Dad told me that photos of us, his three daughters, inspired27. inspire： 激发，鼓舞。the gift from Eunice. Perhaps this childless woman had yearned for some small connection to those family scenes of smiling innocence: three little sisters in ruf fled bathing suits standing ankle-deep in a lake; three little sisters in homemade, red-velvet Christmas dresses perched on a bench; and, after receiving her gift, three little sisters in ballet tights posed with pointed toes before a small bookcase of encyclopedias.28. yearn for： 渴望；ruf fled： 有褶饰边的；perch： 停留，坐；tights： 紧身衣；pose： 摆姿势。Three little dreamers ready to leap into29. leap into： 跳入，跃入。the air.Those books were mesmerizing30. mesmerizing： 有吸引力的，有魅力的。. They were not staid reference tools likeBritannica,ColliersorWorld Book.31. staid： 古板的，保守的；Colliers：《科里尔百科全书》，是英语世界著名的大型综合性百科全书之一，与《大美百科全书》、《大英百科全书》合称“ABC百科全书”；World Book： 《世界大百科全书》。Our Wonderful Worldwas aimed at a junior audience, with volumes organized by theme. Many section titles sounded more like names of stories than factual summaries. “Plants That Have Travelled.” “Pirates and Outlaws.”32. pirate： 海盗；outlaw： 歹徒，罪犯。“Music from the Sea.” A more exciting world than mine beckoned33. beckon： 召唤，（招手）示意。from those pages.

Volume 18, page XII: “if you are interested in what is beneath the surface—about those things which shapedOur Wonderful Worldinto its present form, here is the story.”

There I sat decades ago, absorbed for hours in joyful discovery, the world expanding before me. Here I am now, trying to winnow a lifetime’s accumulations down to essentials.34. winnow： 筛选，辨别； accumulation： 积累，积聚； essential： 必需品，不可或缺之物。

What should I do with this outdated compendium of simpli fied facts?35. 我该如何处理这本已经过时并且装满了简单事实的书呢？compendium：概要，纲要。

I think of my father and the decision is easy. I move on to another bookcase and an old university textbook:Introduction to Educational Psychology, 1975. Maybe I’ll be able to part with36. part with： 与……分开，舍弃。this one.