文字难度：★★★
It’s 7:28 a.m. and I 2)crack open my laptop and take a 3)crafty peek at my email. I’m not yet out of bed but it’s a simple task to reach across the 4)duvet and pull my 5)MacBook towards me. Emails checked, I click on to my Facebook page, in case I’m missing anything. That’s when I notice my 13-year-old son (and FB friend) is online and doing exactly the same thing. “Get off the damned computer and go downstairs for breakfast. NOW!!!!” I 6)message. Frantic footsteps rush past my bedroom door. The night before, as his food sat cooling on the dining room table and he sat in his bedroom, I had texted my middle son: “Dinner ready now! Get down here immediately!!!” Two minutes later, he was down the stairs and sitting at the table. Then there are the crucial messages I need to pass on to my eldest: “I’m working late tonight”; “Your rugby training is cancelled”; “Where’s the 10 7)quid you owe me?”; “Can you return my entire collection of 8)mugs, plates and glasses from your room, please??!!!” All sent by email because they have more chance of reaching his brain than actual, face-to-face human-being exchanges.What has happened to my family? We’re in danger of never speaking to one another again... 
早上7点28分,我打开手提电脑,熟练地瞄了瞄我的电子邮箱。我还没有起床,但是伸手越过羽绒被,将苹果笔记本电脑拉到跟前来是一件很简单的事情。查收完邮件之后,为免错过任何东西,我点进了我的“脸谱网”页面。此时,我发现我13岁的儿子(兼“脸谱网”好友)也在线上做着同样的事情。我给他发了一条信息:“放下‘该死的’电脑,到楼下吃早餐。马上!!!”继而,我房门外传来杂乱的脚步声。前一晚,餐桌上的饭菜都凉了,我的二儿子仍在自己的卧室里,我便给他发短信:“晚餐都做好了!马上下来!!!”两分钟之后,他走下楼梯,坐到了桌子跟前。还有些我给大儿子发的重要信息:“我今晚要加班”;“你的橄榄球训练取消了”;“你欠我的10英镑呢?”“请问你能把你房间里那一整套杯子,碟子和玻璃杯还给我吗??!!!”这些全部都是用电子邮件发送的,因为比起真实的,面对面的人际交流,电邮信息更有可能被他的大脑接收。我家发生什么事了?我们陷入不再与对方说话的危险中了……
I’m not kidding myself that we’d normally be gathered round the dining table discussing anything meaningful—with teenage hormones raging and parental resentment 9)kicking in, I’ve become adept at translating 10)grunts. But I’ve suddenly realized these kids have sucked me into their hi-tech way of doing things. Now I’m communicating with them via message boards, phones and computers—just like their friends. Gone are the days when we 11)tripped over each other in the kitchen or12)slumped happily against each other on the sofa to watch a family film. I should thank my lucky stars we had our children before the age of cheap laptops and mobile phones for primary school children, otherwise we might never have known those times.
我不是自欺欺人,过去我们常常会围坐在餐桌边一起讨论各种有意义的事情——随着孩子们进入青春期,体内荷尔蒙飙升,他们开始对父母有逆反心理,而我早已对解读咕哝声驾轻就熟。可是,我突然意识到,这些孩子已经将我拉到他们那套用高科技来做事的方法里了。现在我都是通过留言板、电话和电脑跟他们沟通——就像他们的那些朋友一样。过去那些在厨房里互相嘻笑抬杠,或者在沙发上互相依偎着看全家欢电影的日子已经一去不复返了。我该感谢幸运之星让我的孩子在廉价手提电脑及手机向小学生普及的年代之前降生于世,不然的话,我们连当年那些美好的日子都不曾拥有。
Fast forward to 2010 and, with four computers in the house, it’s usual to find all five Hathers in five separate rooms, clicking or 13)bashing away on the 14)PlayStation. And when you’re chatting by email to friends in New Zealand, it seems reasonable to 15)slip in a message to your child, sitting in front of his own computer a few yards away on the other side of the bedroom wall.
快速步入2010年,我们家有了四台电脑,如果看见哈特尔家的五个成员分别呆在五间房里,各自点击着鼠标或者敲打着游戏机,那是很常见的。当你用邮件在跟新西兰的朋友聊天时,插写一条信息发给与自己一墙之隔,在几码外同样坐在电脑前的孩子,这似乎也挺合情合理的。
While we’re at it, why not use unlimited texts 16)courtesy of our phone contracts as a kind of house 17)intercom system? No more 18)bellowing up the stairs—our boys leap on any incoming message with an urgency last seen when they were in short trousers. 19)Crushing disappointment only hits when they realize the message is from Mum or Dad. I’ve even been known to send them a printed message in the television room, where we keep the wireless printer. As I work in my own office, I can still20)nag them in red 78-point Ariel Black 21)upper-case letters: “TURN OFF THE PS3 AND GO AND DO YOUR HOMEWORK!!!!!”
当我们在电脑跟前这么做时,为什么不利用我们手机套餐中无限量的短信作为屋里的一种内部通话系统呢?这样就不用爬上楼去大吼大叫了——我们家几个儿子但凡收到短信总会迫不及待地查看,那股劲头你只会在以前他们还穿着小短裤的时候才会看到。只有当他们看到短信是妈妈或者爸爸发来的时候才会显得很失望。我甚至还试过把短信发到电视房——在那里我们有无线打印机——然后自动打印出来给他们。我在自己的办公室里工作时,我还可以用字号为78,字体为Ariel Black的红色大写字母写的信息去唠叨他们:“关掉游戏机,去做功课!!!!!”
But with laptops before breakfast, mobiles left switched on by bedsides and iPods stuck in ears as they fall asleep, I do worry my sons will soon lose the power of speech entirely. When I was a kid, I would spend hours gossiping with my mates, hanging out down the shops discussing clothes, boys and other urgent matters. My children are often happy to stay in their rooms and converse by keyboard. “Switch off the computer and get to bed,” I yell, as I get ready to turn off my own bedroom light. “22)Yep, I’m just saying goodnight to my mates,” they tell me.
但是,看着他们还没吃早餐就忙着开手提电脑,去睡了手机还要开着放床边,睡着了耳朵里还塞着iPod耳塞,我确实担心我的儿子们不久就会完全丧失讲话的能力。当我还是小孩时,我会花上数小时与伙伴们闲聊,一边到处晃悠商店,一边谈论衣服、男生以及其他要事。而今天我的小孩却往往乐于呆在房间里,用键盘聊天。“关掉电脑,上床睡觉,”我边准备关掉卧室的灯边喊道。“好,我正在跟我的伙伴们说晚安呢,”他们告诉我。
Should I resist the inevitable march of progress? Is it enough to use proper grammar and spell out text words in their entirety—much to my children’s amusement—or should I be communicating only when I can 23)see the whites of their eyes? After all, I know I’m a 24)hypocrite when it comes to the lure of the laptop... I used to start every day gazing at my children; these days I open my Mac before I open their doors.
我该不该与这必然的进程相抗衡?写信息时用正确的语法、拼出完整的单词(老是被我的孩子们取笑)是否就足够了,还是说,只有在近距离面对面时才跟他们沟通?毕竟,说到手提电脑的诱惑,我知道我自己是个“伪君子”……过去每天早上我都会看看我的孩子再开始一天的生活;但是这些天来,在打开他们的房门之前我会先打开我的苹果笔记本电脑。
Lisa Warner is a parenting expert whose website Fink (Family Interaction Nurtures Kids) produces conversation 25)prompt 26)cards for teenagers. “The way we communicate is changing and your family can’t live in a bubble and ignore technology,” she says, “But kids learn how to communicate from their parents and we lose all sorts of things—crucial body language for example—by not talking face to face. By all means make use of the new methods of communicating but make sure you take time to talk about things other than the daily routine.”
丽莎·华纳是一个育儿专家,她的网站Fink(“家庭互动呵护孩子成长”的缩写简称)提供了与青少年沟通方面的提示方法。“我们沟通的方式在不断变化,你的家庭不可能脱离现实生活在泡影里,不可能对科技视若无睹,”她说,“但是,孩子是从父母那里学会怎样跟人沟通的,而因为缺乏面对面的交流,我们失去了各种各样的东西,例如,重要的肢体语言。沟通的新方法是应该尽情充分利用的,但是必须确保你肯花时间去聊日常琐事以外的东西。
It’s 27)falling on deaf ears in our house. The more gadgets that appear, the less we have to do with one another. The way they plan their social life has changed, too. Everything is left to the last minute because everyone can be reached immediately, no matter where they are. Hours of no visible or audible signs of communication with their friends are suddenly followed by a slammed front door as they react to an urgent message or email. “What time are you coming back????” I text after them as they disappear up the road. I leave my phone next to my pillow as I try to sleep—comforted only by a 28)bleep-bleep of a response and an eventual key in the door.
但是,对我们一家而言,上述建议只是耳边风。越多数码小玩意出现,我们相互间打交道的时间就越少。他们安排社交生活的方式也改变了。所有的东西都留到最后一分钟,因为不管在哪里,所有人都能够立即联系得上。本来好几个小时也没有看见或听见他们跟朋友有什么交流,突然间他们会因收到一条紧急短信或者一封邮件,然后就甩门而去。“你什么时候回来?”当他们消失在路上时,我发短信问道。想睡了还不忘把手机放在枕头边——听到哔哔声的回复,以及最后钥匙在门里的转动声时才感到安心。
Last month, I asked my eldest son to email me his latest piece of English private study. It was a beautifully crafted piece of work based on 29)Sebastian Faulks’s Birdsong, in which my boy used words and phrases I could only dream coming from his mouth. It was thoughtful, moving and nothing like the usual 30)clipped language I get in his texts and emails. You see, it’s all there—it’s just lost inside the computer. With keyboards or phone 31)pads prompting most communication within the Hather house, it’s easy to forget we are still32)chatterboxes at heart. So I didn’t hold back when I told my son what I thought of his essay: “It’s really lovely,” I texted.
上个月,我叫我的大儿子将他英语课上最近的一篇自学研究论文电邮给我。那是根据塞巴斯蒂 安·福克斯的《鸟鸣》而精心写就的一篇文章。里面用到的那些辞藻是我只能在梦中才有可能听到从他嘴中说出来的。文章用词深刻而感人,完全不像我平常在他的短信和电邮里所看到的那些缺头少尾的词语。你瞧,一切都还在——只是都“丢失”在电脑里了。海特尔家里的沟通大部分已是通过电脑键盘或者手机按键驱动,随之我们很容易会忘记自己内心深处其实仍然是喋喋不休的。于是,我将自己对儿子论文的看法毫无保留地告诉了他。“文章真的很不错,”我在短信中写道。
