随笔
“精英”的时代――读海若海
刚刚在网络上发现海若海师兄的博客，读了几篇，相见恨晚之情充盈心间……
记得大一上学期的时候，班里组织了一次和师兄师姐谈心的交流活动。其时海若海师兄正是大四，已经保了管理学院的研究生。第一次见到海若海师兄，头次见面感觉没什么特别。但后来通过网络，通过几个同学的介绍，才了解到师兄原来是这么牛一个人。据说大一的时候，他就曾给黄校长写过一封十万来字的信，表达对学校现状的一些不满，还提出了一个十分完备的规划建议，校长一看：嗬，这小子可了不得！于是就把他叫到了校长办公室――听说长谈了三个小时。后来偶然的机会我看到这份“万言书”，便深深被师兄的文笔和思维折服，同时也生出一点自卑，同是大一新生，差距竟然这么大。师兄所说的我也不是没有想过――可以说很多中大学子都有这样的心声，但是只有海若海，把自己的心声写了下来，并发挥了它应该发挥的作用。
再后来，有段时间我经常上逸仙时空BBS，看到了许多海若海的文章，也知道了他参加挑战杯获得银奖，作为全国大学生代表讲话，还获得了许多各种各样的奖金。呵，一个大学生能够达到这样的高度，能有几人？我不禁觉得自己在这个世界上是多么渺小！小学，初中，高中，我都是同龄人中的佼佼者，来到大学，发现世界变得广阔，遇到的人也都非等闲之辈。我迷茫了，感觉有点失去目标，失去了理想。于是我选择了消极低调地生活，任由自己的天性喜恶，课业马马虎虎地应付，更多的时间花在野外游玩，踢足球、浏览各种杂志，玩实况等等之上。至今一年过半，回忆起来感觉所得寥寥。
其实我并不是一个没有理想，没有追求的人，我也曾认真想过要把人生过得更有意义。但是，我发觉自己并没有追求理想所需要的毅力和决心，也没有从小事做起踏踏实实的耐心――也许，这就是我与那些不断向理想靠近的人最大的差距。
今天，看到海若海写的一篇《二十一世纪精英的时代坐标》，他提到了了自己的榜样：许知远，称他为这个精英时代的坐标。汗颜的是，我对这个人名连听都没听过。
山外有山，人外有人。我被海若海流畅、旁征博引得文章折服，海若海则被许知远的宏大叙事和历史笔法、渊博知识折服。也许正如海若海所说：所有的崇拜都有存在的必然。每个人心中可能都会有自己的榜样。而每个人，也都在自觉不自觉地与心中的榜样做着比较。榜样的力量，有人说是无穷的，其实，真正有力量的是你自己的心灵，明白了这一点，你才会理解，生活是如此地引人入胜！
我也去找些许知远的文字来看看，看看这个我崇拜的人的榜样，这个二十一世纪精英的时代坐标，究竟是怎样的与众不同。
0European Union—The New Europe?
By T. R. Reid
欧洲联盟――新欧罗巴？
With its own parliament and currency and a common aspiration for peace, the European Union declares itself―in 11 official languages―open for business.
带着自己的议会和货币，还有一致对和平的渴望，欧盟宣布―
―用11种官方语言――将对世界贸易开放。
As the continent’s 40-odd countries move toward tighter and tighter networks, though, there are Europeans who don’t value the momentum toward unification. There is outright disdain in some quarters for the legion of Eurocrats in Brussels and their steady output of rules and regulations. In England the struggle between Europhiles and Euroskeptics is now a central element of national politics. That’s why a hardworking greengrocer named Steve Thoburn became a national hero.
尽管如今欧洲大陆上四十多个国家越来越形成一个紧密的网络，却还有欧洲人未能意识到迈向统一的价值。在一些地区人们直言不讳对在布鲁塞尔那一大帮欧洲共同市场官员以及他们稳定的规则条例输出的轻蔑。在英格兰，亲欧洲派和欧洲怀疑者们之间的争斗已成为政治的中心议题。这也就是为什么一位名为史蒂夫?托本的蔬菜水果商会成为一个国家英雄。
An intense 36-year-old with curly hair and a gold ring in his right ear, Steve was caught red-handed weighing and selling bananas by the pound at his shop in the old shipbuilding town of Sunderland. This was a violation of EU Directive 80-181-EEC, requiring that fresh produce in any EU country must be sold in metric measures―i.e., liters and kilograms. Thoburn was convicted of this crime in the city court. Britain’s national newspapers had a field day with the story―they dubbed Steve the Metric Martyr―and the Euroskeptics adopted him as the poster boy of their cause.
三十六岁的年纪，一头卷发，还有右耳朵上的金耳环，这就是热情的史蒂夫。在古老的造船镇桑德兰的一个小店中，他被发现正在用英镑来称量和出售香蕉。这违反了欧盟发布的80－181－欧洲共同体指示：任何欧盟成员国中的新鲜产品的出售都必须用公制单位――如升、公斤。托本被城市法庭指为有罪。整个英国的报纸都抓住这个故事大做文章――他们称史蒂夫为公制殉道者――而欧洲怀疑者则将他视作为他们理想张贴海报的小童。
Steve’s tiny market stall, Thoburn’s Fruit & Veg, is a veritable EU of greenery: Dutch leeks, Spanish peppers, French apples, British spinach, and, of course, Brussels sprouts. When I stopped by to see the Metric Martyr, he told me he was thoroughly uncomfortable with that title and with the way his case had been turned into a political football. “I don’t give a toss about politics,” he said. “I’ve never cast a vote. I have nothing against metrics. If somebody comes into me premises and says, ‘C’mon, love, give us a kilo of bananas,’ I’ll sell it to her. But nobody ever asks for that.” His message for the EU regulators was simple: “Leave a bloke alone so he can give his customers what they want. ”
史蒂夫那小小的市场摊位，“托本的水果＆蔬菜”，是一个真正的绿色植物欧盟：荷兰的韭菜，西班牙胡椒粉，法国苹果，英国菠菜，当然，还有布鲁塞尔汤菜。当我经过那里见到这位公制殉道者时，他告诉我他对这个称号以及他的案子如何演变成为一个政治滚球感到十分的不舒服。“我从未谈论过政治，”他说，“我从未投过一次票。我对公制也丝毫没有敌视。如果某人之前到我这里说，‘亲爱的伙计，给我一公斤香蕉，’我会卖给她的。但是从未有人提出过。”他想对欧盟官员说的话很简单：“不要去打扰一个孤独的家伙，他才能给予顾客们想要的东西“
****
While some people want to get out of the European Union, there are many on the outside pushing to get in. Currently there are 12 formal applicant countries on the waiting list, plus Turkey, which has a special status because it has not yet convinced the EU that it meets the required human rights standards. Most of the applicant nations spent half a century on the communist side of the Iron Curtain; they see EU membership as a key step in their transition to free government and free markets.
当一些人想要脱离欧盟的时候，还有很多人正在急切地想要进入。现在在候选名单上已经有12各正式的申请，加上土耳其。土耳其因为还没有让欧盟确信其已经达到了要求的人权标准而出在一个很特殊的状态。大多数申请的国家有半个世纪的时间站在铁幕时代共产主义的一边；他们意识到成为欧盟成员是他们转变为自由政府和自由市场的关键一步。
The transformation is already manifest in Estonia, a green, flat land of lakes and forests just across the Baltic from Finland. Barely a decade ago it was a neglected Soviet province that sent timber, taxes, and military draftees to Moscow, receiving little in return. Today, the 1.4 million Estonians have embraced capitalism so eagerly that the streets of Tallinn, the capital, are lit up all night long with the neon portals of a dozen casinos.
这种转变已经在爱沙尼亚出现。这个绿色，平原上布满湖泊和森林的国度，与芬兰隔着一个波罗的海。仅仅十年之前，它还只是苏联一个被忽视的省，为莫斯科提供木材、税收还有军队，而只得到很少的回报。今天，140万的爱沙尼亚人已经急切地拥抱着资本主义，首都塔林的街道上，十几家娱乐场入口的霓虹灯彻夜通明。
I ventured inside the Casino Victoria on Lauteri Street, a lavish red-carpeted palace of a place with Monaco-style baccarat dealers in tuxedos and Vegas-style waitresses in sequined minis and fishnet stockings. The croupiers spoke Estonian, Russian, Finnish, and German; my luck proved rotten in every language, and I lost a pile of the nation’s currency, Estonian kroons, at the roulette table.
我冒险进入了劳特里大街的维多利亚娱乐场，这是一个奢侈豪华的宫殿，里面有穿着摩纳哥风格夜礼服的巴拉加纸牌游戏发牌者，还有穿着拉斯维加斯风格，有亮片装饰的迷你裙和渔网长袜的服务生。赌台管理员说爱沙尼亚语、俄语、芬兰语还有德语；无论用什么语言，我的运气都被证明是极其糟糕的，我在轮盘赌桌上失去了一大堆这个国家的货币，爱沙尼亚克鲁恩。
The underground railway
地下铁道
The journey
旅途
You are a slave.
Your body, your time, your very breath belong to a farmer in 1850s Maryland. Six long days a week you tend his fields and make him rich. You have never tasted freedom. You never expect to.
你是一个奴隶，你的时间，甚至你的呼吸都属于1850年马里兰州的一个农夫。每周六天的绝大时间，你照料他的田地，使他致富。你从未品尝过自由的滋味，你从未有所希冀。
And yet . . . your soul lights up when you hear whispers of attempted escape. Freedom means a hard, dangerous trek. Do you try it?
那么……当你听到别人试图逃跑的悄悄话时，你的灵魂被点亮了。自由，意味着一场艰难、危险的跋涉。你愿意试一下吗？
“Moses” is coming!
“摩西”来了！
“Moses” is coming! You’ve heard the stories about her. She is Harriet Tubman, a former slave who ran away from a nearby plantation in 1849 but returns to rescue others. Guided by her “visions,” she has never lost a passenger. Even if Moses can’t fit you into her next group, she’ll tell you how to follow the North Star to freedom in Canada.
“摩西”来了！你一定已经听过了她的故事。她就是哈里特?塔曼，1849年，她作为一个奴隶，从附近种植园逃跑出来后，却再返回去拯救其他的人。由她的“想象”指引，从未有一位旅者落下。甚至如果摩西不能把你安排进她的下一组，她也会告诉你怎样跟随北极星到达加拿大的自由土地。
Stealing away
Every step seems louder. Twigs snap, leaves crackle. But you walk on, till you see a group of friendly faces. You join them shyly and meet “General Tubman” herself. She tells you how to sneak across the bridge over the Choptank River and where to find friends in a place called Delaware
偷偷摸摸地离开
每一步似乎都很大声。树枝树叶折断声噼里啪啦在响。但你继续走着，直到你看见一群友善的脸庞。你羞涩地加入到他们的行列中，还见到了“塔曼将军”本人。她告诉你如何偷偷越过夏普谈克河上的大桥，还有在特达华寻找到朋友们的地方。
Fearful choice
Your head says go, your feet say no. Harriet Tubman told you that a lantern on a hitching post means a safe house. But can you really knock on a white family’s door and trust them to help you?
可怕的选择
你的大脑说走，你的双脚却说不。哈里特?塔曼告诉你系留柱上挂着一个灯笼就表示是安全的住宅。但是，你真的能够去敲一个白人的家门而且相信他们能够帮助你吗？
Safe station
A warm welcome and hot food―that’s what you find inside the house. Guided by their conscience, the owners break the law by helping runaways. Yet terror still haunts you. As you fall asleep you hear bloodhounds not far away. They are looking for fugitives, looking for you. Freedom is still a long way off.
安全的车站
一个温暖的迎接还有热好的饭菜――就是你在房子里能够遇到的一切。良心的指引，让房子的主人不怕触犯法律而帮助这些逃亡者。然而恐惧还是时时萦绕在你的心头。当你要入睡时，你听到不远处寻血犬的叫声。他们正在寻找逃亡者，正在寻找你。自由，仍然是在遥远的远方。
Strange new world
You’ve never seen a city like Wilmington―the people, the streets, the houses, the noise! Now you know the plantation really is hundreds of miles away. Your host, a Quaker businessman named Thomas Garrett, smiles gently and promises you’ll see much bigger cities before you reach Canada.
A good friend of Tubman’s, Garrett has worked on The Underground Railroad for almost 40 years. A few years ago he was arrested and fined $5,400. It didn’t stop him for a minute.
奇妙的新世界
你从未见过像威尔明顿这样的城市――居民，街道，还有喧闹！现在你知道了种植园已经是在数百英里之外。招待你的主人，一个叫做托马斯?加勒特的教友派商人，和蔼地微笑着向你保证说到达加拿大之前还将看到许多更大的城市。
塔曼的一个好朋友加勒特，已经为地下铁道工作了差不多40年。几年前他被捕而且被罚款5，400美元，但这丝毫没有使他停止工作。
Breathing free
You’ve never met a man like this―not a black man, anyway. Born free, William Still is a successful, confident merchant and a leader in the fight against slavery. He can read and write―skills denied you―and takes careful notes about your journey. Watching your deep, joyous breaths of the free air of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he cautions you not to get giddy. You’ve reached a free state, it’s true, but United States law still sees you as your master’s property, and bounty hunters are everywhere. He helps you get ready for another long stretch of travel.
呼吸自由
你从未见过像他这样一种人――从任何方面看都不像是黑人。生来就是自由的威廉?斯蒂尔是一个成功、自信的商人，同时也是与奴隶制斗争的领袖。他能读能写――这是你都不会的技能――并密切关注着你的旅程。看到你正高兴地深深呼吸着宾州费城自由的空气，他提醒你不要感到眩晕。你已经到了一个自由州，但美国的法律仍然视你为你主人的财产，而且想拿悬赏金的人到处都是。他帮助你为另一个漫长的旅程做好准备。
Near the border
Weeks of trudging, including a grueling passage of almost 250 miles (402 kilometers) through the Appalachian Mountains, have brought you to Rochester. Perhaps you’ll catch a glimpse of fugitive Frederick Douglass, the fiery orator who publishes the North Star, an abolitionist paper. You meet with another noted citizen, activist Susan B. Anthony. She and her antislavery friends give you warm clothing for the hard Canadian climate and make sure you’re taken safely to Lake Erie.
靠近边境
数星期的跋涉，包括一次在阿巴拉契亚山脉几乎250英里（402公里）让人筋疲力尽的穿越，将你带到了罗切斯特。也许你将会瞥见逃亡者弗雷德里克?道格拉斯，一位有炽烈激情的演说家，废奴主义报纸《北斗星》就是他出版的。你还会见到另一位著名的公民，激进主义者苏珊?B?安东尼。她和她反对奴隶制的朋友们给予你温暖的衣物以对付加拿大严峻的气候，而且还确保你能够安全地被带到伊利湖。
Frightening frontier
Across Lake Erie lies Canada―and freedom. A few weeks earlier you might have coaxed an easy ride from a sympathetic ferry captain. But as winter takes hold, chunks of ice have begun to form. You might find someone to row you across, or you could try leaping from one ice floe to another. Either way, you’ll be freezing cold. Yet staying exposes you―and your helpers―to slave hunters. Do you try going across?
令人望而生畏的边境
越过伊利湖就是加拿大――还有自由。几个星期前你或许还能够说服一个有同情心的渡船船长搭你过去。但是随着冬天站稳脚跟，成块的冰已经开始结成。你可以找某个人划船带你过去，或者可以试着从大冰块上跳跃过去。任一条路，你都要忍受冰冷的严寒。然而留下来就意味着使你――还有帮助你的人――暴露给奴隶追捕者。你会尝试渡过吗？
The promised land
You made it! It took courage, luck, help, and incredible stamina. Here in Canada, you can finally breathe free. Not only won’t the government return you to slavery in the United States, but
you can vote and even own land. No wonder thousands have already run away to settle here. You still face challenges: finding a home, making a living, adjusting to a new place. But you face them in freedom.
幸福之乡
你成功了！这需要勇气、幸运、帮助还有难以置信的毅力。这里是加拿大，你终于可以呼吸自由。你不仅不会被政府以奴隶身份遣送回美国，而且还能够参加选举甚至拥有自己的土地。难怪成千上万的人逃到这里并定居了下来。你还将面对挑战：寻找一个家，养家糊口，适应一个崭新的地方。但是，你可以自由地面对这些。
Rising Russia
By Fen Montaigne Photographs by Gerd Ludwig
Clambering from the collapse of the U.S.S.R., Russia has emerged a decade later with four-star restaurants, cybercafés, Santa Claus, and social ills. Can it speed its halting progress?
从前苏联的崩溃中艰难爬起，十年之后的俄罗斯出现了四星级的酒店、网吧、圣诞老人还有许多的社会烦恼。所有这些能加快这个国家步履蹒跚的前进脚步吗？
A decade has passed since the U.S.S.R. ceased to exist, and during that time the Russian people have been subjected to nothing less than an economic and social revolution. Three-quarters of state enterprises have been fully or partly transferred to individual owners in a corrupt privatization drive. The Soviet social safety net has been shredded, and articles about the woes and impoverishment of the Russian people could fill volumes. But as a seven-week trip around Russia earlier this year showed, shoots of new life are springing up throughout the country.
距离前苏联的消失已经有十年，这十年中俄罗斯人所经历的无非就是一次经济和社会的变革。四分之三的国有企业都已经全部或者部分转让给个人。前苏联的安全部门已然消失，描写俄罗斯人悲剧和贫困的文章已可编成数卷。但今年初在俄罗斯七个星期的旅行，却显示出整个国家正在迅速获得新生。
Most of Russia’s economic activity is centered in Moscow, where a sizable middle class has emerged. Yet vibrant businesses also have taken root in many other cities, including Novosibirsk, Nizhniy Novgorod, St. Petersburg, Samara, and Yekaterinburg. Often the most successful enterprises are in spheres of activity that scarcely existed in the Soviet Union, such as computer software, sophisticated food processing and packaging, restaurants, and advertising. Ironically, the collapse of the ruble in 1998―which made imports prohibitively expensive―boosted domestic production. That increase, coupled with higher prices for Russian oil and gas, has at last halted the country’s economic slide; the economy grew by 5 percent in 1999 and by 8 percent in 2000.
俄罗斯大部分的经济活动集中在莫斯科，那里已经形成了一个相当可观的中产阶级。然而充满活力的贸易已经在其他许多城市扎下了根。包括新西伯利亚、诺夫格罗德、圣彼得堡、撒马拉还有叶卡特琳堡。那些最成功的企业所在的领域往往是前苏联所没有的，例如电脑软件、尖端的食品处理和包装技术、餐馆业和广告业。有讽刺意味的是，1998年卢布的崩溃――导致了进口货物令人望而却步的高价――推动了国内的生产。与之同步的还有俄罗斯石油和天然气越来越高的价格，最终阻止了这个国家经济的进一步滑落；1999年经济增长了5％，2000年8％。
That said, the financial success stories―and the middle-class workers affiliated with them―are still islands in a sea of stagnation. The official salaries of most Russian workers hover around a hundred dollars a month, although many earn some undeclared income on the side. An estimated 20 million of Russia’s 145 million people live below the official poverty line of $31 a person a month. Tax evasion is epidemic, and an estimated 25 to 40 percent of the economy is conducted underground. And every year a tiny layer of super-rich Russians―fearful of general instability and a shaky banking system―ships an estimated 20 to 25 billion dollars out of the country to foreign banks, much of it from the sale of Russia’s abundant natural resources.
即使如此，这些成功的财政故事――还有与之联系紧密的中产阶级劳动者――仍然是停滞的经济海洋中的若干小岛而已。尽管许多人挣得了一些未申报的收入，但官方出具的俄罗斯工人的薪水却徘徊在每个月一百美元左右。据估计，在1.45亿俄罗斯人中有两千万生活在每个月31美元的官方贫困线下。逃税到处流行，甚至有估计25％�D�D40％的经济是地下操作。更甚至，每年都有一小部分俄罗斯巨富――对总是不稳定且经常动摇的银行系统充满恐惧―― 将估计200到250亿美元转移到外国，而这大都是来自于出售俄罗斯丰富的自然资源所得。
Still, to focus solely on the myriad of problems is to ignore what has been accomplished in a mere decade. And, as I have discovered after a dozen years of writing about the former U.S.S.R. and being whipsawed by bouts of optimism and pessimism, you must be able to hold in your mind the dichotomy of the two Russias. One is a place of well-educated, hard-working people slowly building a humane society and the other a land where a worn-out populace endures corruption and a lack of decent civil institutions. The question is, will the second Russia overwhelm the first, or will the new Russia ultimately prevail?
尽管有以上种种，但若把注意力单独集中在这些各种各样的问题，就忽视了这短短十年来所达到的一切。而且，当我发觉自己在写了十二年关于前苏联的文字之后，却被一场乐观主义与悲观主义的较量难住了的时候，你肯定已经有了心目中的两个矛盾的俄罗斯。一个是由受过良好教育、勤奋的人们慢慢建立起来的人性化的社会；另一个是筋疲力尽的贫民忍受腐败和缺少道德的国民机构的地方。问题是，是第二个俄罗斯压倒了第一个，还是一个崭新的俄罗斯最终获胜？
2阿猫阿狗～～
记得暑假单车骑行回家的时候，到了家门口，突然闯出一条狗，对着我和另外两位同学狂吠。我向来对狗都不怎么恐惧――即使初中时被狗咬过一次――加上这还只是一只小小狗，长得也不凶，所以一番“训斥”之后，我们大踏步进了门，它也只好乖乖凑过来，这边闻闻那边嗅嗅，算是和大家认识了，刚才它只是在打招呼……这是一条很普通的雌性“土狗”，比较小的一个种，浑身灰黄的毛，尾巴尖上有一簇黑毛。现在家里人管它叫“小灰”，这名字的来历倒有点意思：那次一个叔叔带着上三年级的小孩到我家，那小孩见到这条狗，便一边摸一边说：“小灰，小灰……”，然后转过头来问我这条狗叫什么――其时我们一家还没决定好叫它什么――我就说，嗯，就叫小灰。于是小灰就成了它的名字。
暑假在家里总共待了不到两个星期，每天都是我喂的它，而且每逢开饭我都会吹个口哨，没几次就把它的条件反射调教出来了――一吹口哨，就屁癫屁癫地冲过来绕着我的腿转。最后我走的时候，它还一直跟到了巷子口，以为我像平时一样出去一会，怎会想到再次见面竟然是五个多月之后……
在学校里混了一个学期后，终于等到寒假回家。走到家门口，只见一条灰黄的狗冲了出来，对着我狂吠――嘿，这不是小灰吗，见到我竟然吠了起来，看我怎么收拾你――我装作要打它，在它头上拍了几下，又抚摸了几下。似乎是闻出了熟悉的味道，它高兴地摇着尾巴，舔着我的手心，两只眼睛高兴得似乎在说话。快到晚上，我马上去弄了一碗好吃的肉汤粥慰劳它。小灰已经长大了许多，还挺着个大肚子――哟，我们的小灰快做妈妈了，快多吃点，多吃点……
在家里待了几天，终于把小灰的条件反射恢复以前一样灵敏的状态。这时，故事的另一个主角出场了。
回家了，自然少不了到菜地里帮爸爸干活，拔菜拔草之类。家里只有我一个闲人，所以如果不帮忙做点事，似乎于心不安。回家后头次到菜地里，拔菜的时候，突然看见有一只漂亮的小猫在菜地里跑来跳去。追蜂扑蝶一阵后，跑到爸爸旁边，蹭着爸爸的裤脚。我问爸爸怎么会有这只猫，爸爸说，这是他有一天在路上看到它蜷缩在路边，可怜地喵喵直叫，于是就把它带到菜地里，养在放稻草竹棚里。爸爸说起这只猫，很是兴奋：这是只多漂亮的猫啊――这猫黄白相间，肚子和脖子大部分白色，背部和尾巴为黄色，的确很漂亮――最重要的是这只猫有“帅”气，刚把它放到竹棚里的时候，是那么小那么瘦，但没两天竹棚里的老鼠就都跑光了，啧啧，真是只好猫，真不知道当时那人怎么就把它丢在路边了……
我相信爸爸所说的话，因为这只猫看起来的确有一种很有灵气的感觉，而且动作矫健，相当活跃，唯一对它不满意的只有一点，就是我想要抚摸一下它的时候，它“呲遛”一声就跑得远远的。
爸爸每天都把弄好鱼肉、肉汤的粥带到菜地里喂它，所以每次爸爸还骑车在路上没到菜地的时候，小猫就快活地跑出来迎接老爸――老把每次说起这个就神采飞扬。
带到天气越来越冷，爸爸怕把小猫冻坏，就把它带回家里。第一次来到室内，怕它乱跑，爸爸就买了一条链绳把它套住，先让它在小范围内熟悉环境。小灰一见到“咪咪”――小妹给这只威武的雄猫取的名字，是不是有点别扭？――便“呜呜”低吼着，很想上去教训一下这个小家伙。但是被我们教训多次之后，它也只好选择与咪咪和平共处。过了几天，两个冤家一起在门口晒太阳的情景，至今想起来还是十分有趣。
绑了几天，咪咪对这个新家也十分熟悉了，我们就把它放开了。只见它这里钻钻，那里闻闻，似乎有着无穷的好奇心――好奇心有时候真的是很有害的――那天，它摸索着爬上餐桌，我爸马上一声怒喝，把它吓得一眨眼就钻到沙发下面……
爸爸真的是一个很可爱的人，对小动物有着很爱惜又很严格――如同对我们一样。他把惊魂未定的咪咪，抓到怀里，一边抚摸一边像对一个小孩讲话一样说：“餐桌不能爬上去，知道吗，要乖，听话……”惹得我们在旁边都哈哈大笑。
爸爸说得没错，其时动物都是有灵气的。他给我们说以前放牛的时候，要过溪了，如果水流太大太快，那牛就怎么拉都不过去，因为会被冲到下游，卡在一个小桥洞里；但如果水流不快，水再深它也会游过去……这些阿猫阿狗，如果你对它好，喂它照顾它，它也会对你很忠心很亲近。每天晚上，爸爸在喝茶看电视的时候，小猫总是会跳上老爸坐的沙发椅，静静地打着瞌睡，发出“呼噜呼噜”的呼吸声。
咪咪真的是没的说，来家里没几天，家中就再没有见到过老鼠。在此之前，我们家甚至出现过全家总动员围捕一只小老鼠的壮观景象――很郁闷那次没抓到。
小灰其实并不强悍，别看它吠得大声，却只要训斥几下就服服帖帖。而且小灰有个缺点――贪吃，或许是为了未出世的狗宝宝，它每天除了睡觉，就都是在寻找吃的。
今年是狗年，小灰没有在除夕或者大年初一产崽，实在是很遗憾。不过也没有等太久，大年初四的时候，我到狗窝一看，嘿，多了五个小狗狗：四只全黑的，一只是黄白相间的。我不禁思考起控制皮毛颜色的基因是怎样配对的，竟然出现这样奇妙的组合。
当了母亲，小灰每天最重要的事情就是给这些小宝宝喂奶。看着那些未开眼的小狗狗争先恐后地抢占有利地形，然后狂吸乳汁，我不禁感叹母爱真是伟大！于是每天都给小灰加饭加肉，不让它有一点瘦的趋势。
小狗们每天都待在狗窝里，饿了就吃奶，吃饱就睡觉，想不长快都难。我回校的时候，小狗们过了十二天之限，都已经睁开了眼看世界，嗓门也越来越大。已经有好几个亲戚跟我们允了小狗，看来以后这些狗兄弟姐妹们想再见面恐怕要到天堂里了。
暑假决定不回家了，不知道过年的时候回到家里，还能不能见到我可爱的阿猫阿狗……
0
雨后
昨天开始下雨，不甚大，空气变得很清新。
很喜欢那种初春清晨的感觉，有点冷，但是不至于发抖。中午的时候雨停了，本来以为下午不会下雨可以去踢踢球，但是午睡醒来又下了好一阵，风好大――在电脑前坐久了，现在竟有点冷得发抖。
昨天晚上搞了一晚的博客，也不知哪里来的竟有这样的激情！十点多本来想关机，QQ上一位很久没有聊过的好朋友却上线了，于是又聊了一个多小时。
想参加旅游协会办的家乡摄影大赛，于是想到骆驼，向他要了十几张家乡――他的家乡（不是沙漠）――的照片。感觉还不错，特别是几张屋顶的风景，让我也想起了家乡那些飞檐红瓦的闽南民居。还有几张海边照的风景，其实就是海边的几棵木麻黄、落日、还有两根沙滩上的枯木――这一组景物想来没什么能体现“家乡之美”的，因此我把希望多寄于那组《屋顶的风景》。除了家乡之美，我又选了两张相片参加我们学院的“生态之美”摄影大赛。
搞到十二点，终于下定决心关机了。现在居然不断网了，还真有点不习惯――以前是除周末外每晚十二点就断网的。
去好朋友那里借来两本很沉重的书：《人类灭绝之后的动物》※《与野兽同行》，倒不是两本书主题有什么沉重，而是两本书全都铜版印刷，重量不小，价格也不菲：前者28，后者65，RMB。浏览了一下，彷佛进入一个神秘的世界，快一点时，考虑到明天一早还有课，便放了书，想以后慢慢回味。
半本《鲁滨逊漂流记》，半本《京华烟云》还有半本《天龙八部》……现在似乎找不到多少时间来把这些看完。或许以后再看，竟要从头开始了……
0Gypsies: The Outsiders
吉普赛：流浪外乡的人
Romanticized as free spirits, hounded for being different, the people who call themselves Roma fight for their place in a world where there are few welcome mats.
自由灵魂的浪漫传奇，努力追求着与众不同，自称是Roma的他们为了在这个鲜有友善的世界上生存而战斗着。
At night the Gypsies turn the town into one huge series of parties. A favorite venue is Les Vagues (the Waves), a small bar that buzzes until dawn. As I arrive, the din of chinking glasses and smoke-scratched voices dies down at the imperious strum of acoustic guitars, and seven men launch into an up-tempo, flamenco-style ballad. This is a family sing-along by the Reyes family, the chart-topping Gipsy Kings, who come from the nearby city of Arles.
夜幕降临，吉普赛人把整个城市变成了一个巨大的派对场。最受喜爱的集合地点是拉斯维加斯（the Waves）,一个一直喧闹到黎明的小酒吧。当我到那里的时候，玻璃酒杯碰撞的叮当声和烟火的刮擦声已经湮没在非电吉他的弹奏之中，七个男子开始演奏一首急促的弗拉门戈风格的民歌。这是雷耶斯家族――来自附近阿尔勒市的排行榜冠军吉普赛国王合唱团――的一个家庭合唱。
A few days later, in another Gypsy pub, the gloomy Bar L’?cluse (the Lock), on the side of the highway near Arles, I find Jean Reyes, the patriarch of the musical dynasty, his face now lined with drink and age. He feeds a slug of pastis through a gap in his gray beard, pats his Chanel bandanna, and adjusts the sunglasses that ride high on his wild spume of white hair. “My family always used to make their living with horses, buying, breeding, breaking, betting,” he remembers. “My father was very strict―he wanted all of us to work―which is very unusual for us Gypsies.” He signals for another drink, using his left hand―his right hand, injured in a fall, is bound in a polka-dot sling. “My best horse of all was an Arabian stallion―I went to Algeria myself to find him. I used to ride without saddles or reins―just holding on to the mane. But life has changed so. When I was young, I couldn’t sleep in a normal bed. Now most of my children have nice houses. But me? I couldn’t live in a house; it would be like a jail for me.”
几天之后，我在阿尔勒附近公路边的另一个阴郁的吉普赛酒馆L’?cluse（意为“锁”）中遇到了吉恩?雷耶斯――这个音乐王朝的领袖。由于饮酒和年龄渐老，如今他的脸庞已有了皱纹，嘴的周围长满了灰色的胡须。他喝了一杯法国茴香酒，轻轻拍了拍他那条夏娜尔式的大手帕，托了托高高戴在他如海浪般狂野的白发上的太阳镜。“我们家族过去总是靠马匹谋生，购买、饲养、破坏、赌博，”他回忆道，“我的父亲非常严格――他希望我们都去工作，而这对我们吉普赛人来讲是很不寻常的。”他打招呼又要了一杯酒，用的是左手――他的右手在一次坠落中受伤，绑在有圆点花样的吊腕带中。“我骑过最好的马是一匹阿拉伯牡马――我自己到阿尔及利亚去寻找它。我习惯于不带马鞍或者缰绳骑马――只是抓着它的鬃毛。但是生活已经改变了这些。我小的时候就无法睡在正常的床上，而现在我的大多数孩子已经有了很漂亮的房子。我呢？我无法住在房子里，对我来说它就像一座监狱。”
* * *
George and Veronica Kaslov live in New York’s East Village, in a tiny first-floor apartment sandwiched between tattoo parlors and falafel joints. The front room is Veronica’s fortune-telling parlor, equipped with crystal ball, tarot cards, and a map of the palm of your hand. “Real Psychic Reader” declares her handbill. “Advisor To Your True Destiny―For Peace of Mind―Discover your internal power for happiness and success.”
乔治和维罗尼卡?卡斯罗居住在纽约的东部社区，一个很小的夹在纹身店和沙拉三明治店铺之间的单层公寓内。前面的房间是维罗尼卡的算命营业室，摆着水晶球，塔罗牌，还有一幅你的手掌的示意图。“真正的精神读者”他的传单这样宣称，“你真正命运的顾问――为了心灵的平静――为了幸福和成功发现你内心的力量。”
“There’s a will within us to survive as a people,” says Kaslov, whose grandfather, a Vlax Gypsy from Russia, arrived almost a hundred years ago. "All the other ethnic groups who came to America, they tend to assimiliate after a few generations; they lose their customs and language. But not the Rom. We hold out.”
“我们心中有一个作为普通人的信念，”卡斯罗――她祖父是一位一百年前来自俄罗斯的乌拉斯吉普赛人――说，“其他的族群来到美国，经过几代人就渐渐被同化了，失去自己的风俗和语言。但吉普赛人不会，我们坚持。”
DID YOU KNOW?
Until the mid-19th century, Gypsies were held as slaves in parts of present-day Romania. Different groups of slaves had different names, reflecting the kinds of jobs they performed. For example, the Papineshti were goose herders (papin is Romany for “goose”). Those names still identify clans among descendants of Gypsy slaves, many of whom now live in the United States. Of course, members of the Papineshti clan are no longer goose herders, since there’s not much demand for that skill. But some members of the Kalderash (coppersmith) clan―once makers of metal pots―are now in the business of scrap metal.
直到十九世纪中叶，吉普赛人在今天罗马尼亚的某些地方还被作为奴隶。根据所做工作的不同，不同的奴隶集体有不同的名称。Papineshti指牧鹅人（papin在罗马尼亚指“鹅”）。这些名称现在还在区分着吉普赛奴隶后裔的宗族，他们中很多人如今居住在美国。当然，Papineshti部族的人已经不再是牧鹅人，因为这种技艺的需求实在太少。不过，Kalderash（铜匠）部族――曾经是制造金属罐的工匠――的一些成员现在还从事着金属废料的生意。
1California’s Wild Crusade
加利福尼亚狂野的十字军
Can America"s most populous state save room for the endemic plants and animals that put it on the world map of ecological treasures?
美国人口最稠密的州能否为当地的动植物提供生存的空间，使之在生态财富世界地图上有一席之地？
Guy Wagner knows the value of a good fence. In the gated communities of Rancho Mirage―where palm trees sway against the blue sky and lawns surround the white-stuccoed houses like emerald-colored pools―he is pleased with what he doesn"t see these days. A few years back he routinely found bighorn ewes and lambs munching and frolicking on the manicured parkways. "Sheep have lived here for at least the last 10,000 years," says Wagner, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "So they think they belong here―they do belong here. But people live here now too, and they don"t want the sheep on their lawns, eating their roses, falling into their swimming pools and dying."
盖伊?瓦格纳了解一个好篱笆的价值。在Rancho Mirage那些有门的聚居地：棕榈树迎风摇摆，如祖母绿般翠绿的草坪围绕着粉刷成白色的房屋――他很喜欢这些景物，但是现在没有看到。几年前他在修剪草地的车道上还能规律性地看到母加拿大角羊带着小羊羔在大声咀嚼和嬉戏玩耍。“羊群在这里已经生活了至少10000年，”瓦格纳――U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service（美国鱼类及野生动物服务）的一位生物学家――说，“所以它们认为是属于这里的――它们也的确属于这里。但是现在居住在这里的人们也是如此，而且他们不希望看到那些羊在他们的草地上觅食，把玫瑰花啃掉，或者掉进游泳池里淹死。”
To keep man and beast apart, the Fish and Wildlife Service helped Rancho Mirage build a high fence on the hillsides to block the animals. The sheep, endangered peninsular bighorns, had been coming down from the desert canyons to feed in the valley. Fewer than 700 remain in California.
为了把人与动物隔离开，U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service帮助Rancho Mirage在山脚下建了一个高高的栅栏以阻碍那些动物。从沙漠峡谷来到河谷中觅食的半岛大角羊濒临绝种，如今在加利福尼亚只有不到700头。
The fence works. The sheep have reverted to a natural diet and returned to their former range, which at higher elevations ends at the line of dense vegetation: They simply won"t go where they can"t see mountain lions and other predators.
栅栏发挥了作用。羊群恢复了自然的食物，回到了它们原先居住的地方，一个位于高地，尽头是一片茂密植被的地方：它们只不过不想去一个看不到山狮和其他掠食者的地方。
Glorious as the sheep are, the true stars of California"s wilderness may be its plants―from giant sequoias and coastal redwoods to flowers setting meadows ablaze to tiny, brittle plants growing in the region"s infertile soils. Rocks from the Earth"s mantle seldom see the sunlight. It"s only in places where tectonic plates have collided, like California, that mantle rock―loaded with magnesium, iron, nickel, chromium, cobalt, but low in calcium―has been squeezed to the surface. Water changes the rock to serpentinite, named for its green snakeskin pattern, which, as it weathers, breaks down into nutrient-poor soil, heavy with metals. Such soils would kill most plants.
大角羊是很美丽，但加州荒野真正的明星应该是那些植物――从巨大的美洲杉和海滨的红树林到闪耀在大牧场上的鲜花，再到那些生长在贫瘠土地上的微小、柔弱的植物。来自地幔的岩石难见天日，只有在那些构造板块相互冲撞挤压的地方，就如加利福尼亚，地幔的岩石――富含镁、铁、镍、铬、钴，却含钙极少――被挤压到地面上来。水力把岩石侵蚀成为蛇纹岩，因其绿色的如同蛇皮的图案而得名。岩石风化后形成贫瘠的土壤，富含金属，足以使许多植物无法生存。
Yet only in the small scattered pockets of serpentine soils will you find Streptanthus breweri, surrounded by rocks glowing in the sun, glassy and metallic. This plant is but a rosette of grayish leaves until the spring, when it sprouts a single stem with tiny purple blossoms, gems that gave it its common name―jewelflower.
只有在那些很小的分散的蛇纹岩形成的土壤凹穴中才能找到Streptanthus breweri,一种既像玻璃又像金属的植物，被在阳光下晒得炽热的岩石所包围。这种植物只有在春天的时候萌发出一个茎干，开着紫色的小花，花美丽如玉，因此也有了一个更通俗的名字――宝石花；其他的时候，Streptanthus breweri,只是一个浅灰色的莲座型叶丛。
S. breweri has other tricks. To defend itself against the caterpillars of a butterfly that lays its eggs on the plant, S. breweri has evolved leaves edged with raised orange dots―fake eggs, designed to fool the butterflies into thinking another butterfly got there first.
Streptanthus breweri,还有其他骗局。为了保护自己免受毛虫的威胁，防止蝴蝶在其叶片上产卵，S. breweri 叶子边缘进化出了橙色突起――假的卵，使蝴蝶误认为已经有别只蝴蝶在上面产了卵。
"That"s what California"s biodiversity is all about," says ecologist Susan Harrison. "Small things giving rise to other small things." Harrison works with state agencies and local groups to encourage the setting aside of serpentine-rich lands. In public talks she stresses the rarity of these plants and how, because many are new species, they offer scientists a "natural laboratory of evolution"―a way to investigate how biodiversity comes about.
“这就是加利福尼亚生物多样性的全部，”生态学家苏珊?哈里森说，“微小的事物引发了其他微小的事物。”哈里森与州政府机构和当地团体一道为促使保留富有蛇纹岩的地区而努力工作。在公共演讲中她强调这些植物的稀有以及为什么稀有：许多植物是新的物种，可以为科学家提供“生物进化的自然实验室”――为研究生物多样性如何产生提供了一条途径。
Much of the state is so distinctive, in fact, that scientists dubbed it (with apologies to Oregon and Mexico, which contribute parcels) the California Floristic Province. With a Mediterranean climate, geology as mixed as fruitcake, and isolation behind the Sierra Nevada to the east, the province yields a remarkable floral abundance. Of its 3,488 native plant species, 60 percent can be found nowhere else on Earth. The count of
endemic animals pales by comparison: reptiles, 4 species; birds, 8; freshwater fish, 15; mammals, 18; amphibians, 25. But endemic insect species number in the thousands.
这个州的许多地方是如此地与众不同，事实上，科学家们把它（对贡献了大片土地的俄勒冈州和墨西哥州表示抱歉）称为加利福尼亚植物省。地中海气候，如同水果糕饼般混合多样的地形，在内华达山后与东部隔绝，这个省生长着令人惊讶的丰富的植物群。在当地3，488种植物中，60％是独有的。地区性动物的种类相比之下显得微不足道：爬行动物，4种；鸟类，8种；淡水鱼类，15种；哺乳动物，18种；两栖动物，25种。然而地区性昆虫种类则是数以千计。
The trouble with small things is that they are easy to ignore. If the big things get hammered (96 percent of the old-growth redwood forests have been cut, though most of the remaining stands are protected), what hope is there
for the small ones? How do you convince people―especially those living in regions of highly diverse and threatened species―about the importance of saving the shrinking store of life?
小型物种面临的问题便是它们很容易被忽视。如果大的物种都被破坏（尽管现存绝大多数红树林被保护起来，但96％较老的红树林已经被砍伐），那还有什么希望留给小的物种？怎样才能说服人们――尤其是居住在拥有高度多样性和受威胁物种地区的人们――确信挽救不断缩小的生命宝库的重要性。
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