Dead-Eye Bean-神投手
Dead-Eye Bean
In 1944 we had a new student named Roger -- the first black student in our school, and everyone was unfriendly to him. The other kids weren't bad children; they were just copying their parents. But when you are twelve years old, you're just starting to have your own opinions about things. I knew this could be a very important moment in their education. So I wanted to do something to change their opinions.
I decided I had to try to make Roger into someone special.Not like a teacher's pet -- I wanted the other children to start seeing him as a human being, not just a dark shape in the back room. So I went after him with questions in every class. He was a bright little boy, and it was easy enough to make him appear smart. I was pretty pleased because I could see Roger becoming more confident and other kids stopped being so nasty to him.
But you know what really changed everything? One day I could see Roger's mind was wandering, and without thinking I threw an eraser in his direction. I only meant to get his attention, but the eraser hit his hand and sent his pencil flying.The whole class roared! And afterwards, of course, all the kids went up to Roger to laugh with him about it. That's how he became someone special, and other kids began to talk to him and make friends with him. And that's how I became "Dead-Eye Bean."
[點評]
這是一篇故事式記敘文。標題中的bean在美國口語中，作為動詞，意思是“用……擊中人的頭部”，dead-eye意為“絕對準確的”，因此Dead-Eye
Bean可理解為“神投手"(bean在此轉化為名詞)。Dead-Eye Bean在此文中是雙關語：第一，它指的是老師用橡皮擦擊中羅傑手中的鉛筆一事；第二，老師實現了自己要改變孩子們對羅傑的看法及態度的目標。文章構思非常巧妙。作者行告訴我們他的意圖和打算，而令她也沒想到的是：由於一件偶然的事情，她的願望得以實現。
[參考譯文]
神投手
1940年，我們接收了一名新同學，名叫羅傑。他是學校的第一位黑人學生，大家都對他很不友好。其他孩子也不足壞孩子，他們只是在學父母的樣子。但是，一個人在12歲時，正是開始對事情有自己的看法的時候。我知道這在他們的受教育過程中是很重要的一個時刻。所以，我想做點什麼來改變一下他們的看法。
我決定我得先儘量把羅傑弄成一個特別的人。不是象老師所寵愛的那種——我是想讓其他孩子開始把他當作一個人看，而不只是教室後面的一個黑影子。因此，每節課上我都問他問題。他是一個聰明的小男孩，很容易讓他表現得很棒。我很高興，因為我看得出羅傑越來越有信心，而其他孩子也不再對他使壞。
但是你知道是什麼真正改變了這一切的嗎?有一天，看見羅傑心不在焉，我不加思索就把一塊橡皮擦朝他扔過去。我只是想提醒他注意，但是橡皮擦擊中了他的手，把他手中的鉛筆打得飛轉起來。全班人都沸騰了!後來，當然是全班孩子們都圍過去和羅傑一起笑這事。這就是他是如何成為特殊的人，孩子們是如何開始和他說話，同他交朋友的。這也是我怎么會成為“神投手”的。
Dead-Eye Bean-神投手