中英文本

My daughter is an ambulance-driving paramedic. One city over from mine, that's all, but for us she's a voice on the phone, a face on the screen, until somebody can promise that sharing a kitchen table won't inadvertently set off a new chain of transmission. Our deepest human impulse for the giving and receiving of comfort, especially in crisis -- to move closer, to join hands, to feel the literal nearness of others -- is the one we cannot indulge.
我女儿是开救护车的护理人员。我们相隔一座城市，如此而已，但对我们来说，她变成手机上的一个声音、屏幕上的一张脸，直到有人能保证一起上餐桌不会无意间引发一连串新的病毒传播为止。我们对于给予和获得安慰的深层渴望，特别是面临危机时--靠近彼此、手牵着手、感受彼此确实就在身旁--是此刻我们不能享有的。

I listen every morning for the boys across the street. Their mother is Australian, and the school-gone-online routine starts with driveway cricket, one parent pitching, the other jiggling the baby sister. They shout and whoop, the ball smacks off the cricket bat, and somehow it's like the sound of those Italians singing in unison off their balconies, and the people in great cities opening their windows for evening salutes to frontline workers, and the balloon-covered Happy Birthday Kevin! car that honked and blasted music through my neighborhood this week. Halfway out the sunroof and waving like the star of a parade float, his legs pinioned by adults within, Kevin -- I'm going to go ahead and assume that was Kevin -- had block after block of Oakland residents wishing him a happy birthday and merrily waving back.
每天早上我都仔细聆听对街男孩的声音。他们的妈妈是澳洲人，在学校改成在线课程后，日常活动就从在车道上打板球开始，父母其中一个负责投球，另一个则轻轻摇着小女婴。他们大声喊叫与欢呼、板球啪地撞击板球棒，不知为何这就像是那群意大利人在阳台上齐声歌唱的声音；也像大城市的居民在傍晚打开窗户向前线工作人员致敬；或像那辆挂满气球的“祝凯文生日快乐！”庆生专车，这周经过我家小区时狂按喇叭与大声播放音乐的声音。凯文--我就当他是凯文--的双腿被车子里的大人抓住，从天窗露出半个身体，像是游行花车上的明星挥着手，在经过一个又一个街区时，奥克兰的居民祝他生日快乐，并且也开心地向他挥手。
"Let us not let this virus infect our souls," I heard a local pastor implore his congregation last month. He was getting the hang of preaching by Zoom, the amens floating up the chat window on one side of the screen. A soprano sang a hymn at her living room piano, and it was possible for a while to imagine all this improvisation as terrified humans fumbling for grace and, at odd moments -- driveway cricket, a mask-sewing brigade, a How are you? that means something new -- finding it.
“别让这个病毒感染我们的灵魂。”我上个月听到一位地方牧师向信众做出这番呼吁。他正在学习通过Zoom讲道，一句句阿门从屏幕侧边的聊天窗口中浮出来。一位女高音伴着她家客厅里的钢琴唱赞美诗，而当惶恐的人们摸索着寻找恩典的方式时，可能会有好一段时间都需要想出这些应变做法，并且在出乎意料的时刻--车道上的板球比赛、致力缝口罩的军队、一句被赋予新义的“你好吗？”--找到恩典。

重点讲解

1.set off 引发
The powder immediately ignited and set off a chain reaction of explosions.
炸药立即点燃并引发了连环爆炸反应。

2.join hands 携手
Boys and girls, please join hands and bow your heads.
孩子们，请携起手，低下头来。

3.sing in unison 齐声歌唱
ow let's sing the national anthem in unison with the piano accompaniment.
现在我们在钢琴伴奏下齐唱国歌。