讀李家同學英文4：竊聽者(附2CD)

幾乎全部的衛星都被竊聽，而且天線都朝向太空。
……

　　外星人說他們是宇宙生物研究員，他說他對竊聽感到很抱歉，他只想收集資料而已，絕無任何惡意。他說他是宇宙生物研究院動物研究所的研究員，專長是動物的社會行為。
……

　　為何對人類的社會行為有如此大的興趣？外星人說人類雖然是動物中的一種，可是人類有一個特點，那就是人類會大規模自相殘殺。他說，以獅子和老虎為例，獅子和老虎都會殺害別的動物，可是絕不殺同類，你從來沒有看過獅子吃獅子，換句話說，獅子和老虎會認出自己的同類來，而盡量避免殺自己的同類。

外星人還說……

　　Someone had bugged all our satellites, and the antennas of the bugging devices were pointing toward outer space!
…

　　The alien said that he and his colleagues were universal biology researchers. He apologized for eavesdropping on us, but said they were only gathering information—they meant no harm. The alien said he was a researcher from the zoology department of the Universal Academy of Biology specializing in the social behavior of animals.
…

　　Why was he so interested in human social behavior? The alien replied that despite being a type of animal, humans have a very unique characteristic: they kill each other on a large scale. He pointed out how lions and tigers, for example, will kill other animals but never their own kind. No one has ever seen a lion eating a lion—in other words, lions and tigers recognize their own kind.

He also said that …

　　李家同：我在此給讀者一個建議：你不妨先看看中文文章，先不看英文的翻譯，然後試著將中文翻成英文，我相信你一定會覺得中翻英好困難。翻完以後，再去看英文翻譯，相信可以學到不少，也可以寫出越來越像外國人的句子。-- 李家同

　　透過李家同簡潔而寓意深遠的文章，領略用英文表達中文故事的妙趣

〈鑰匙Keys〉
我擁有這麼多足以讓我炫耀自己社會地位的鑰匙，可就缺了最重要的一把。
I had all these keys to show off my social status, but that one—the most important key of all—was conspicuously missing.

〈屋頂A Roof Over My Head〉
我這一輩子，只有一個願望，走進一間有屋頂的房間，睡在一張有床單的床上。
For my whole life, I’ve had only one wish: to be able to go inside a house with a roof and sleep on a bed with sheets.

〈對數字正確的認識A Proper Grasp of Numbers〉
老王說我和他有一個共同的特徵，那就是我們對數字非常敏感。我常看到一些人雇用了一批所謂的財務專家使用了大批電腦程式，我和老王就憑著我們的經驗和直覺，輕而易舉地打敗了這些號稱專家所用的電腦。
Old Wang once observed that he and I shared a common characteristic: we were both very sensitive to numbers. I’ve often seen people hire teams of so-called financial experts to design lots of fancy computer models, but they were never a match for me and Old Wang--by simply relying on our instincts and experience, we never had any trouble besting them.

〈我的家My Home〉
我快結婚了，最近我看到很多有錢孩子所擁有的昂貴玩具，不覺有點擔心。以我的收入，我未來的孩子是不會有這些玩意兒的。
I’d soon be getting married. Lately I’d seen a lot of expensive toys that rich children had, and I couldn’t help feeling a little worried—with my income, I wouldn’t be able to give my children those things.

〈紐特，你為什麼殺了我？Newt, Why Did You Kill Me?〉
過去我總以為戰爭最大的恐怖是戰爭中這麼多無辜的人被殺，今天我才知道戰爭最大的恐怖，是將善良的人變成了劊子手。
I used to think that the most horrible thing about war was how it takes the lives of so many innocent people. Only today did I realize that actually, the most horrible thing about war is how it turns good people into murderers.