“Senora， un momento por favor？” she turned her head and noticed the small shriveled man， his brown face lined with a map to places only he knew. “Thanks for helping my grandson Julio to read，” the gentleman said in his faltering broken English. She immediately thought of Julio， who once as unreachable as a hardened walnut， slowly cracked opened to reveal the eager child inside. She thought of the inner struggle Julio must have had as he tried to make sense of the foreign letters and the sudden joy when he had unbroken the mysterious code. Was the grandfather the same？ She looked up at this elderly gentleman， probably his grandfather， and quickly recognized the sameness of the two. “Gracias Senora” a weathered hand came out and firmly grasped hers with warmth that radiated from his soul to hers. Just as abruptly he removed his hand and left her. As he walked away she thought of that exotic sun and realized maybe it was closer to her than she thought.

今天周幾，周二還是周三？她一直帶著學(xué)生們進(jìn)行那似乎永無休止的復(fù)習(xí)。這件事我好像昨天剛剛做過啊？還是去年做的？煩死了，怎么都趕到一塊兒了。“史密斯小姐，我去下洗手間可以嗎？”正要邁腿跑出去的喬治，停下來問道。我是第幾次聽到這樣的話了？她想著，隨口答道：“好的。”然后她看著他跑出了教室。

她坐在桌旁，眼睛凝視著學(xué)生，腦子卻不停地在想下班后該做些什么事情。我今晚該去健身房或是該去市場買點吃的東西。她機械地繼續(xù)上她的課，給學(xué)生講字母“a”。“‘a(chǎn)’怎么讀？”“a，a，a……”學(xué)生們異口同聲干巴巴地讀著。時間一分一秒地過去了，似乎在嘲笑她這無聊單調(diào)的一天。

該下課了吧？正想著，教室的電話響了，她嘆口氣，起身，走過學(xué)生的課桌去接電話。話筒那端的聲音似乎傳自百英里之外。哦，我多希望我現(xiàn)在不是在這兒，而身處異國他鄉(xiāng)啊。她的思緒飛到了異國情調(diào)濃郁的墨西哥卡波海灘，去年她在那兒度過了愉快的暑假：慵懶地躺在沙灘上，任由陣陣微風(fēng)輕吻她的肌膚，那種愜意、恬靜的感覺，至今記憶猶新。

“史密斯小姐，你在聽我講話嗎？”秘書有點兒不耐煩地問道。“哦，抱歉。剛才你說什么了？”“麻煩你讓卡拉到我辦公室來一趟。”秘書更加不耐煩地說。“哦，當(dāng)然可以。”說著，她掛斷了電話。她轉(zhuǎn)過身來叫了卡拉的名字。卡拉是這個班上眾多的貧困生之一。她抬起頭，松散的頭發(fā)像堆稻草，滿臉污垢，活像《綠野仙蹤》里的稻草人。“你到辦公室去一趟。”她對慢慢抬起頭的卡拉說道。“為什么讓我去？”卡拉嘀咕道。“讓你去你就去——快去吧！”卡拉出去了，她匆忙地轉(zhuǎn)回身。卡拉可能是去領(lǐng)免費校服的。如果有人打電話來說些好聽的或是對我做的這些討厭的工作表示感謝該多好。她嘆了口氣，走回去，學(xué)生們都耐心地等著她。

這無盡單調(diào)的工作重復(fù)了一下午。最后，解放的鐘聲終于響了。她把學(xué)生帶出教室，就像母雞帶著小雞崽兒回窩似的。她看到學(xué)生的媽媽們都在鐵門外熱切地期待著。當(dāng)她路過走廊時，滿載西班牙音樂氣息的空氣迎面撲來。她欣慰地看著孩子們離開，回到充滿歡聲笑語的家，而自己卻不得不重又回到那無盡的單調(diào)和無聊中。

“夫人，您好，可以打擾您幾分鐘嗎？”她扭過頭，一個窘迫的男子出現(xiàn)在她面前，他那棕色的面龐布滿皺紋。“謝謝您給予我孫子胡里奧的幫助。”他用蹩腳的英語說道。她忽然想起了胡里奧，外表看起來那么不易接近，后來漸漸地敞開了他充滿渴盼的內(nèi)心世界。她想胡里奧一定在暗下決心努力學(xué)好外語，并會為每次進(jìn)步而歡欣鼓舞。這位祖父也和他的孫子一樣嗎？她抬頭看了看這位老人，很快便找到了兩人的共同之處。“謝謝您，夫人！”老人用那只飽經(jīng)滄桑的手，緊緊握住她的手，他的熱情深深地感染了她。很快，他把手又縮了回去，走開了。當(dāng)他漸漸遠(yuǎn)去時，她想到了異國的陽光，而且也意識到了，異國的陽光其實就近在咫尺。

記憶填空

1. Sitting the table she gazed at her students while thinking what she would do after work. Maybe I’ll go to the gym or at the market for something to eat tonight.

2. Picking up the receiver the voice seemed a hundred miles away. Oh， how I I were anywhere here. Her mind wandered to the exotic beach of Cabo， Mexico， where she had her last summer break.

3. She thought of the inner struggle Julio have had as he tried to sense of the foreign letters and the sudden when he had unbroken the mysterious code.

佳句翻譯

1. 時間一分一秒地過去了，似乎在嘲笑她這無聊單調(diào)的一天。

2. 當(dāng)她路過走廊時，滿載西班牙音樂氣息的空氣迎面撲來。

3. 當(dāng)他漸漸遠(yuǎn)去時，她想到了異國的陽光，而且也意識到了，異國的陽光其實就近在咫尺。

短語應(yīng)用

1.“Oh， of course，”she replied as she hung up the phone.

hang up：掛斷電話；擱置，拖延

2. She thought of the inner struggle Julio must have had as he tried to make sense of the foreign letters and the sudden joy when he had unbroken the mysterious code.

make sense of：理解，弄懂