Absorbed,Not Transmitting

Sue Wunder

I can think of no more common a sight in a college town than that of students striding through campus or along adjacent neighborhood sidewalks with earbuds in place and eyes glued to a palm-held electronic device.1. stride: 大步走，阔步行走； adjacent:邻近的，相邻的；sidewalk: 人行道；earbud: 耳塞；with eyes glued to: 目不转睛地盯着，专注于。They somehow negotiate pedestrians and traffic with aplomb, as if pinging their route with a sonar app.2. negotiate: 顺利通过，成功越过；pedestrian: 步行者，行人；aplomb: 沉着，泰然自若；ping: 声呐的一次脉冲，此处指精确定位的意思；sonar: 声呐（设备），船只或潜艇上利用声波探测水下目标位置的仪器。

I gaze in awe. How do they remain upright and unscathed3. unscathed: 未受损伤的。? And how can they bear to relinquish the delights of walking from class to class fully attuned to their actual physical

有网友调侃道：“世界上最遥远的距离，不是生与死，而是我就在你身边，你却在玩手机。”这正是许多人生活的真实写照。在大学校园中也不乏这些“低头看屏幕”的“低头族”们。究竟是什么吸引了他们的注意力？他们与一边走路一边沉迷于书中的老一辈学子、与以前边走边沉迷于路旁美景的人有什么不同呢？同样是沉迷，方向却截然不同。paths4. relinquish: 放弃，出让（权力或控制）；attune to: 对……适应，对……熟悉。—to the endless social, architectural, and natural entertainments of an eyes-forward, ears-open journey?

But navigating disengaged is the new reality.Almost all of the Indiana University students I cross paths with on a regular basis have downcast eyes as they glide along, oblivious to the newly opening daffodils, greening trees, Bloomington’s venerable limestone facades, and one another.5. downcast:（眼睛）向下看的，低垂的；glide: 静悄悄地走，滑行；oblivious: 不注意的，未察觉的；daffodil: 水仙花；Bloomington:（印第安纳州）布卢明顿市，印第安纳大学主校区所在地；venerable:（因年代久远或具有重要历史价值）令人仰慕的，神圣庄严的；limestone: 石灰石；facade: （建筑物的）正面。Clearly, stuff more compelling to them beckons from those reflective miniscreens.6. compelling: 非常有趣的，很有吸引力的；beckon: （招手）示意，召唤。And who knows? I might have fit right into such a scene had smartphones and the like been around when I was in school. Our cordless connections reached just about as far as our Frisbees7. Frisbee: 飞盘。flew.

The other day, though, one young passerby proved an exception to his peers. The expression on his downturned face was contemplative, his gait deeply familiar and engaging.8. contemplative: 沉思的，出神的；gait: 步态，步伐。I didn’t actually know him, but I knew—with a glance at his face and posture—what he was doing differently, even before I saw the book in his hand: Not a Kindle, but an actual book held his attention as he ambled9. amble: 缓行，漫步。by me. The book was hardbound, its pages ruffling in the breeze and its two halves bobbling from its spine to his quiet, pedestrian rhythm.10. ruffle: 使……波动，起伏；bobble: 上下晃动；spine: 书脊。

大学城中，再也没有比这更常见的了：学生们戴着耳塞，眼睛死死盯着掌中的电子设备，大踏步穿过校园，或沿着附近街区的人行道快走。不知怎么地，他们竟能自如穿梭在行人和车辆之间，就好像正在用声呐系统精确定位路径似的。

我满心敬畏地观察着这一切。他们究竟如何保持笔直身姿而又毫发无损？他们又怎能忍心放弃课间步旅之乐，不去用心熟悉感知这一条条路径——不瞪大双眼，竖起耳朵，将这一路无穷无尽的社会人文、建筑和自然美景尽数纳入心底？

但漠然行进是新现实。我常在路上碰到的印第安纳大学学生几乎都这样：低垂着双眼，闷不吭声地走路，完全无视那些刚刚盛开的水仙花发出新芽的绿树，布卢明顿市古老庄严的石灰岩外墙，以及身边经过的行人。显然，那些反光的迷你屏幕里有更吸引人的东西在召唤他们。谁知道呢？要是我还在上学时智能手机等设备已经像现在这么流行了的话，我有可能也成为他们的同道中人。可惜，当时我们的无线连接只有一丈之远。

然而，有一天，我看到了一位与众不同的年轻人。他低垂的脸上，是沉思的表情；他的步伐，是那么熟悉与迷人。其实我并不认识他，但我知道——仅看了一眼他的脸庞和身姿之后——他与别人不同，甚至在我注意到他手中的书之前，我就知道了：当他从我身旁经过时，令他如此全神贯注的不是Kindle电子书，而是一本纸质书。这是一本精装书，书页在微风中沙沙抖动，书身随着他无声、有节奏的步伐上下晃动着。

It got me to wondering what made him look different from his peers and so familiar to me. He was lost in a world he held in one hand. Certainly there was the element of startled nostalgia—in my college days, we all used to wander about campus with books.11. startled: 受惊的；nostalgia: 怀旧之情；wander: 漫步。These days it is a rare sight indeed. His thumb,forming the top half of a gentle human vise12. vise: 夹钳，老虎钳。that secured the slim volume, was at rest—not tapping an icon or texting. He was all about absorbing, not transmitting. Nor was he squinting to decipher words on a tiny, shiny surface.13. squint: 眯着眼看，斜着眼看；decipher: 辨认。His entire body was relaxed into the old multitasking exercise of walking with an open and wonderfully sunlit book.

It’s been years since I’ve done that, missing everything along my path en route to class or dorm. These days, I pay attention to my path simply to ensure that I remain on my feet. But I’m glad someone knows what an absorbing and centering exercise it is to lose oneself in a book, even along a trajectory14. trajectory: 轨迹。to somewhere else.

我不禁开始好奇，想弄明白是什么使他看起来与众不同，并让我感到如此熟悉。他沉迷在书的世界里。当然，这里面不免带有些忽然袭来的怀旧之情——还在上大学时，我们都曾捧着书在校园里徜徉。如今，这已是罕见之景。他的拇指轻轻夹着薄薄的书脊，像夹钳的上半部分似的，是静止不动的——而不是在点击图标或发短信。他正在吸收，而不是在发送，也不是在眯着眼睛试图辨认迷你亮屏上的字词。他一边行走，一边读着阳光下亮闪闪的书页，沉浸于这项古老的多重运动中，整个人都处在放松状态。

我已经很多年没有这么做了，因而错过了去教室或寝室路上的景色。如今，我专心致志地走路，仅是为了不要摔倒而已。但看到有人能体会到在书中（或在去往彼处的路上）迷失自我是一件多么引人入胜、关注内心的事情，我充满了喜悦之情。