中英文本

When I was in third grade, one of my classmates brought a sheet of racing car stickers to school to show off. The stickers were dazzling. I wanted them so badly that I stayed back during gym class and transferred the sheet out of the classmate's backpack into mine. When the students returned, my heart was racing. Panicking that I would be found out, I thought up a preemptive lie. I told the teacher that two teenagers had shown up on a motorbike, entered the classroom, rifled through backpacks, and left with the stickers. As you might expect, this fib collapsed at the gentlest probing, and I reluctantly returned what I had pilfered.
我三年级时，一个同学带来了一张赛车贴纸到学校里来炫耀。那些贴纸令人炫目，我实在太想要它们以至于趁着体育课留在教室，把贴纸从同学书包中偷出来，藏到了我的包里。当同学们回来时，我的心怦怦乱跳。因为担心我的行为会被揭发出来，我抢在大家发现前想了一个谎言。我告诉老师，两个在摩托车上的少年冲进了教室，洗劫了书包留下了这些贴纸。正如大家所想的，这个小谎言在温和的查探中被戳穿，而我也不情愿地归还了偷的东西。

My naive lying -- I got better, trust me -- was matched by my gullibility in sixth grade, when a friend told me that his family owned a flying capsule that could transport us anywhere in the world. Preparing to travel on this craft, I asked my parents if they could pack me a few meals for the journey. Even when my older brother snickered, I refused to disbelieve my friend's claim, and it was left to my friend's father to finally convince me that I'd been duped.
我天真的谎言符合我六年级时受骗的心态。相信我，我现在变得好多了。一个朋友告诉我说他家有一个飞行舱可以载我们去世界各地。为了准备这次飞船之旅，我问父母是否能为我准备一些食物，甚至当我的哥哥在一旁窃笑时，我还不愿意去怀疑我朋友的话直到朋友的爸爸说服我，我被骗了。
These lies that my friend and I told were nothing out of the ordinary for kids our age. Like learning to walk and talk, lying is something of a developmental milestone. While parents often find their children's lies troubling -- for they signal the beginning of a loss of innocence -- Kang Lee, a psychologist at the University of Toronto, sees the emergence of the behavior in toddlers as a reassuring sign that their cognitive growth is on track.
我和朋友说的这些谎在那个年龄段的孩子身上没什么特别。就像学习说话和走路一样，说谎是一个发展式的里程碑。父母经常为孩子的谎言感到不安，认为谎言是丧失无辜纯真的信号。多伦多大学的心理学家坎·李则认为，幼儿说谎行为的出现是令人放心的迹象，表明他们的认知增长正在进行中。

重点讲解

1.show off 炫耀
All right, there's no need to show off.
好啦，没有必要炫耀了。

2.refuse to do 拒绝做某事；不愿做某事
The Lawyer may refuse to undertake a case which appears to him unsound.
律师可能拒绝承办他认为站不住脚的案件。

3.out of the ordinary 不平常的
And as I said above, recognition is usually for doing something out of the ordinary and beyond your usual job or role.
正如我上述所说的，获得认可是因为你做了一些不平常的事，或是你的服务超出了你的职责范围。

4.a loss of 丧失；损失
Risk can be characterized in terms of a loss of time, quality, money, control, or understanding.
风险能够被表现为时间、质量、金钱、控制或者理解力损失的形式。