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Caught Between Two Worlds: Sabine Kuegler’s Dilemma 原始与摩登的莎宾娜

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课文讲解

繁體中文譯本

Sometimes living in the big city can seem akin to living in the jungle – but Sabine Kuegler knows better, for she’s lived in both. At the tender age of five, Sabine’s family left their native Germany and relocated to the remote jungles of West Papua, Indonesia.

有时，住在大都市就像住在丛林里—而这种感觉莎宾娜‧库格勒更清楚，因为她两种地方都住过。在她年仅五岁时，莎宾娜全家离开了祖国德国，移居到印度尼西亚西巴布亚岛上的偏僻丛林。

Sabine’s parents, both linguists, went there to study an indigenous tribe known as the Fayu. Life proved to be challenging for the adults, but for the Kuegler children it was a long adventure – once they’d managed to make friends, that is. The Fayu children taught Sabine and her siblings to speak the local language, to recognize edible plants and animals, and to use a bow and arrow. In returned, the Kuegler kids taught their new friends common games such as soccer and hide-and-seek.

莎宾娜的父母都是语言学家，他们前往印度尼西亚研究一个名为「法虞」的原住民部落格。对大人们来说，生活成了一种挑战；而对库格勒家的孩子们而言，一旦他们开始想交朋友，生活便是一段长期探险。法虞小孩子们教莎宾娜和她的兄弟姊妹说当地的语言、辨别可食用的植物及使用弓箭。而库格勒小孩们则教他们的新朋友像是足球和捉迷藏这些常见的游戏作为回报。

Sabine couldn’t have been happier with her life as a jungle child. Hunting and fishing and camping gave her self-confidence; friendships and exotic pets provided steady and affectionate companionship. But when Sabine was 17, her best friend, a boy named Ohri, died of tuberculosis. Though Sabine was no stranger to hardship, she was devastated by the loss of this soul-brother. When an uncle offered to pay for her return to Europe to complete her education, she accepted. She had to leave the jungle! Only later, however, would Sabine realize that this was the biggest mistake of her life.

没有什么比当个丛林小孩更能使莎宾娜开心了。打猎、钓鱼和露营给了她自信；友谊和奇特的宠物则给了她稳定且挚深的陪伴。但就在莎宾娜十七岁时，她最好的朋友，一名叫做欧西的男孩，死于肺结核。虽然早已习惯了艰苦，莎宾娜却因为失去这位灵魂伴侣而身心交瘁。当有位叔叔提议资助她回到欧洲完成教育时，莎宾娜就接受了。她「必须」离开丛林!然而，用不了多久，莎宾娜就会发现这是她生命中最大的错误。

Vocabulary

单词发音

relocate [riˋloket] v. 移迁; 搬迁

indigenous [ɪnˋdɪdʒɪnəs] adj. 土著的；本地的

edible [ˋɛdəb!] adj. 可食的，食用的

self-confidence [͵sɛlfˋkɑnfədəns] n. 自信

exotic [ɛgˋzɑtɪk] adj. 异国情调的；奇特的

affectionate [əˋfɛkʃənɪt] adj. 亲切的﹐有感情的

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单词发音

dilemma [dəˋlɛmə] n. 困境，进退两难

akin [əˋkɪn] adj. 与…相似的﹐类似的

tender [ˋtɛndɚ] adj. 幼弱的，未成熟的

linguist [ˋlɪŋgwɪst] n. 语言学家

sibling [ˋsɪblɪŋ] n. 兄弟姊妹

bow [bo] n. 弓

hide-and-seek [ˋhaɪdnsik] n. 捉迷藏

companionship [kəmˋpænjən͵ʃɪp] n. 友谊；交往；伴侣关系

tuberculosis [tju͵bɝkjəˋlosɪs] n. 结核病

no stranger to 不陌生; 对....习以为常  familiar with something or with some place

课文讲解

Imagine getting culture shock upon returning to your home country. But that’s just what 17-year-old Sabine Kuegler experienced when she settled in Europe after spending most of her life in a remote jungle village. Though Sabine was unfazed by hunting poisonous snakes and living with rats, she was terrified of fast-moving traffic, and her feet just could not get used to wearing confining shoes. Worst of all, her ignorance of popular culture made her feel alienated from peers.

想象一下「回到自己国家」却受到文化冲击。而这正是十七岁的莎宾娜‧库格勒在偏远的丛林村落生活了大半时间后回到欧洲定居所经历的。尽管莎宾娜对于猎杀毒蛇、与鼠类同住无所畏惧，她却被熙攘的交通吓坏了，而且她的脚就是无法习惯穿上拘束的鞋子。最糟糕的是，她对流行文化的一无所知让她觉得与同侪疏离。

Sabine is now 32, and the difficulties she had adjusting to European life are no longer as evident. She dressed like a contemporary German woman and moves at ease in her modern gadget-filled apartment. However, scratch the surface and you’ll unearth a woman who is seriously displaced, as her two failed marriages attest. Sabine readily admits that the profound culture shock she experienced returning to Germany (not to mention the fact that she learned about relationships and gender roles from a jungle tribe) weighed heavily in her breakups.

莎宾娜现在三十二岁了，她之前为了适应欧洲生活所遇到的困难已不再那么明显。她打扮得很像当代的德国女性，自在的住在她那四处是电器装置的现在公寓里。然而，揭开表面，你将会发现一个被严重错置的女性—正如她两次失败的婚姻所证实的。莎宾娜承认，她回到德国后所经历巨大的文化冲击(更别提她学到的是丛林部落式的人际关系和性别角色)对她两次感情失败有很大的影响。

For some time now, Sabine has felt rootless. “As I get older,” she says, “I feel it’s getting worse.” Ironically, the problem is that “life in the jungle is more challenging physically but psychologically much easier,” while “life in the Western world is physically easier but much more complicated for the soul.” Which challenge she prefers, and which comforts she needs, Sabine cannot quite decide.

现在，莎宾娜有时会觉得无依无靠。她说：「随着年纪渐长，我觉得情况越来越糟。」讽刺的是，问题在于「丛林生活在体能上较具挑战性，但在心理层面却简单许多」，然而，「生活在西方世界是体能上轻松许多，心灵面却复杂多了」。她偏好哪一种挑战?需要哪一种安适?莎宾娜还不能确切地决定。

−by Amy Lovestrand & Robert Kelly

Vocabulary

单词发音

confine [kənˋfaɪn] v. 限制；使局限

alienate [ˋeljən͵et] v. 使疏远；离间

displace [dɪsˋples] v.（从原来的地方）移开；迫使（人）离开

profound [prəˋfaʊnd] adj. 深深的；深刻的

ironically [aɪˋrɑnɪklɪ] adv. 讽刺地

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单词发音

unfazed [ʌnˈfeɪzd] adj. 处变不惊的; 不担忧的，不苦恼的

adjust [əˋdʒʌst] v. 调节；改变……以适应

at ease 安心, 自在 relaxed and comfortable

gadget [ˋgædʒɪt] n. 小机件；（小巧的）器具

scratch the surface 只作肤浅的探讨  to just begin to find out about something; to examine only the superficial aspects of something.

unearth [ʌnˋɝθ] v. 发现；揭露

attest [əˋtɛst] v. 证实

readily [ˋrɛdɪlɪ] adv. 乐意地，欣然; 很快地，立即

rootless [ˋrutlɪs] adj. 无归属的

Reading Questions

1.  Why did Sabine suddenly want to go back to Germany?

A.  She felt that she’d become too old to live in the jungle.

B.  She had to escape from the heartache that her best friend’s death had brought.

C.  She did not like what she had learned in the jungle and wanted to complete her education.

D.  She was not provided with affection and felt isolated from the native people.

2.  Based on the text, which definition better describes “to scratch the surface”?

A.  Moving something to get to the bottom of it.

B.  Damaging something completely.

C.  Unearthing the difficulties people have with modern life.

D.  Looking beyond the first impression to get at the truth.

3.  What does Sabine believe may partly explain why her two marital relationships were unsuccessful?

A.  Her husbands couldn’t get beyond the fact that she’d been raised in the jungle.

B.  Her husbands feared she would one day want to return to the jungle.

C.  Her understanding of the roles of men and women differed from that of her husbands’.

D.  Her terrible cultural shock just couldn’t make her marriage last long enough.

4.  Which of the following best describes how Sabine feels at the end of the article?

A.  She is happily integrated into the fast-paced world of contemporary Germany.

B.  She is eager to return to the jungle and reclaim her former way of life.

C.  She is uncertain about her future and remains undecided as to what to do.

D.  She has come to accept the irony of her situation but will definitely not return to the jungle.

Featurette Sabine Kuegler D (2011)

Answer