My “Asparagus Moment”

By Ben Frederick

很多人并不知道自己真正喜欢什么，直到尝试了那件让其为之疯狂的事情。就好像没有吃过一样东西，你并不知道自己喜不喜欢吃。对于本文作者而言，芦笋就是这样的东西。他只身前往波士顿实习，并下定决心要成为真正的波士顿人。然而，他一直找不到归属感，直至身处一个人声鼎沸的体育馆里，与三万多人一起为红袜队呐喊助威。那一刻，他觉得那就是他的“芦笋时刻”。

Stepping off the plane at Logan International, I resolved to drop all ties to any other city in order to be a Bostonian.1. 当我在洛根国际机场走下飞机的那一刻，我就下定决心，要与任何其他城市割断联系，做个纯粹的波士顿人。Logan International： 洛根国际机场，位于波士顿。I’d moved there that January to complete a couple of internships and avoid the crushing2. crushing： 压倒的。weight of higher education, if only for a year. I knew two people in the whole city, but I figured that making friends couldn’t be too hard.

In the movies, friends materialize through chance encounters—you make a joke in the grocery store line and someone laughs, or a receptionist calls your last name and you both answer.3. 电影里，人们总是在机缘巧合之下交到朋友——你在杂货店排队时开了个玩笑，有人笑了起来；或接待员喊你的姓，有一个人和你同时应声。materialize： 实现；chance encounter： 邂逅，巧遇；grocery store： 杂货店；receptionist：前台接待员。At my job, one of my bosses turned to me one day and asked, “Have you spoken to anyone today?”

I hadn’t.

Then in April, two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon finish line, blocks from my apartment.4. Marathon： 马拉松赛跑；finish line：（赛跑的）终点线；block： 街区。The media painted the alleged perpetrators, two young men, as outsiders and loners—alienated from the community they had lashed out against.5.媒体称凶徒——两个年轻人——是局外人和边缘人，他们与社会格格不入，于是展开了报复行为。paint...as： 把……描述成；alleged： 声称的，所谓的；perpetrator： 犯罪者，行凶者；loner： 喜孤独者，不合群的人；alienate： 使疏远，离间；lash out against： 攻击。

Walking the streets in the weeks that followed, people seemed kinder. You could even catch a smile or two. (Boston being Boston, though, the trappings of courtesy still fell away the minute a pedestrian became a driver.6. 然而波士顿还是波士顿，一旦行人开起车来， 表面上的彬彬有礼立马消失殆尽。courtesy： 礼貌，彬彬有礼；fall away： 离开，消失；pedestrian： 路人，行人。)

The atmosphere quickly resolved itself from despair to trademark Yankee determination.7. 气氛很快就从绝望转变为美国佬标志性的坚强。resolve： 转变，改变。As the city regrouped, there was a sense of momentum building8. momentum building： 积蓄动力，打造声势。. People who had never run before started training for next year’s marathon. Boston suddenly felt more like a small town as citizens and strangers made the extra effort to connect. The community rallied behind the Red Sox, and the team quickly became a symbol of renewal and unity.9. 所有人因红袜队而团结起来，这支棒球队很快就成为重振和团结的象征。rally： 聚集，团结；Red Sox： 波士顿红袜队，一支隶属美国职棒大联盟的职业棒球队。

I saw the Sox play at Fenway Park twice that year: The first time, they beat the Texas Rangers, 17-5; the second time, they beat the Seattle Mariners after trailing,10. Fenway Park： 芬威公园，波士顿的一个棒球公园、世界知名体育场，许多世界知名的棒球赛就是在这里举行；Texas Rangers： 得克萨斯州骑兵队；Seattle Mariners： 西雅图水手队；trailing： 落后。7-2, for most of the game. The Sox scored six runs in the bottom of the ninth to win, 8-7.11. 红袜队在第九局即将结束的最后时刻拿下六分，以8：7获胜。run： 在棒球比赛中相当于“score”，得分。

By the end of that second game, with the entire stadium on its feet, breath held, all eyes on the batter, I suddenly realized I was a fan.12. 第二场比赛临近结束之时，全场所有人都站了起来，屏住呼吸，紧紧盯着击球员。在那一刻，我突然意识到我也是一名粉丝。stadium： 运动场，体育场；batter： 击球员。It wasn’t just the sport: I’d never been in a crowd of 30,000 people all hoping for the same thing to happen. It was electric13. electric： 令人激动的。—like tasting a food that you didn’t know you loved until you tried it. I’d had a similar experience with asparagus, though a stadium full of vegetable enthusiasts hadn’t surrounded me at the time.14. 我于芦笋也有类似的经历，虽然当时没有一整个体育馆的素食爱好者包围着我。enthusiast： 爱好者，狂热者。

I had found my people.

I followed the Sox all the way to October. Despite my internships, the Fenway attendant wouldn’t accept “job experience” as legal tender, and I was forced to watch the 109th World Series in my apartment.15. 尽管我有实习经历，但芬威公园在招人时并不看重“工作经验”，所以我不得不在公寓观看第109届世界大赛。attendant： 服务人员，侍者；legal tender： 法定货币。By Game 6, the Sox were set to win it all at home, at Fenway.

Police details16. detail：（军）特遣队，小分队。were positioned on nearly every street in my neighborhood.Rioting had been a problem after Boston broke the “curse of the Bambino” in 2004.17. 自从波士顿红袜队2004年打破了“贝比·鲁斯魔咒”之后，就有了骚乱问题。rioting： 骚乱，暴动；curse of the Bambino： 贝比·鲁斯魔咒，美国职棒球员贝比·鲁斯于1920年被红袜队卖给洋基队，因此诅咒红袜队无法再拿世界大赛冠军。I invited some friends over (I did eventually make some)to share this historic moment and eat pizza with me. They mostly came for the pizza, not having had their “asparagus moments” yet.

After an hour, the deliveryman called and said he couldn’t reach my street because of a police barricade.18. deliveryman： 送货员；barricade： 路障，封锁。We agreed to meet on a corner nearby. Walking back with the food, I noticed a large group of police officers standing outside my apartment looking in. I walked behind them, peering over their shoulders, hoping that pizza would stand up as an alibi in court.19. 我走到他们身后，从他们的肩头望过去，若发生什么事，希望手中的披萨饼能在法庭上用作我不在场的证明。alibi： 〈法〉不在犯罪现场的抗辩事实。

They were trying to watch the game through my front window. It was pure Boston.

I went inside, pulled all the blinds up, and angled the TV toward the street, giving the throng of Boston’s finest a big thumbs up.20. 我走进屋里，把百叶窗拉上去，把电视朝向街道，向这群波士顿警察竖起大拇指。blind： 百叶窗；angle： v.把……放置成一角度；throng： 人群；finest： 警察；thumb up： 竖起大拇指以表示赞许、满意、胜利。Later, an officer knocked on the door. I opened it, and he sheepishly21. sheepishly： 羞怯地，不好意思地。asked if we had anything to drink. We obliged with22. oblige with： 以……施恩于（某人），以……满足于（某人）。plastic cups and soft drinks.

By the last inning23. inning： （棒球的）一局。, it was clear the Sox were going to win. My friends started to leave, hoping to miss the postgame traffic. One came back inside a few moments later carrying three deep aluminum pans.24. aluminum： 铝；pan： 平底锅。The police outside had bought 150 chicken wings from another deliveryman who’d gotten lost. They’d eaten their fill, and wondered if we wanted the rest.25. 他们填饱了肚子，问我们是否想要剩下的鸡翅。eat one’s fill： 吃饱。Of course we did.

We all high-fived with greasy fingers when the Red Sox won.26. high-five：（尤指庆祝成功、表示致意等的）举手击掌；greasy： 油腻的。It may have been the food or my friends, the police outside or the Sox winning the World Series in Boston, or even the cheers of the college students out in the streets, but for the first time I felt as if I was home.27. 也许是因为食物或朋友，或是外面的警察，或是红袜队在波士顿拿下世界大赛冠军，或甚至是大街上大学生们的欢呼声，总之我第一次产生了家的感觉。

It was a good day to be a Red Sox fan, but a better one to be a Bostonian.ELL

波士顿马拉松爆炸案