乔布斯传 第13期:上学(1)

 　　School

　　学校
　　Even before Jobs started elementary school, his mother had taught him how to read.
　　在乔布斯上小学之前，母亲就已经教他阅读了。
　　This, however, led to some problems once he got to school.
　　但这反而造成了一些麻烦。
　　“I was kind of bored for the first few years, so I occupied myself by getting into trouble.”
　　“在学校的最初几年我觉得很无聊，所以我就不断惹麻烦。”
　　It also soon became clear that Jobs, by both nature and nurture 1, was not disposed to accept authority.
　　很快大家就发现，不论是从天性还是他接受的教育上，乔布斯都不是一个愿意接受权威的孩子。
　　“I encountered authority of a different kind than I had ever encountered before, and I did not like it. And they really almost got me.
　　“我遭遇的是自己从未遇到过的另一种形式的权威，而且我不喜欢它。他们几乎都要制服我了。
　　They came close to really beating any curiosity out of me.”
　　差一点儿他们就把我身上所有的好奇心都赶走了。”
　　His school, Monta Loma Elementary, was a series of low-slung 1950s buildings four blocks from his house.
　　他就读的学校，蒙塔·洛马小学，在他家四条街之外，是由一群20世纪50年代的低矮建筑组成的。
　　He countered his boredom 2 by playing pranks 3.
　　他靠玩恶作剧来打发自己的无聊。
　　“I had a good friend named Rick Ferrentino, and we’d get into all sorts of trouble,” he recalled.
　　“我有个叫里克·费伦蒂诺（Rick Ferrentino)的好朋友，我们会惹上各种各样的麻烦，”他回忆说，
　　“Like we made little posters announcing ‘Bring Your Pet to School Day.’ It was crazy, with dogs chasing cats all over, and the teachers were beside themselves.”
　　“比如我们会制作小海报，上面写着‘带宠物上学日’。那太疯狂了，到处都能看到狗撵猫。老师们都气疯了。”
　　Another time they convinced some kids to tell them the combination numbers for their bike locks.
　　还有一次，他们设法让别的孩子说出了自己自行车锁的密码。
　　“Then we went outside and switched all of the locks, and nobody could get their bikes. It took them until late that night to straighten things out.”
　　“然后我们跑出去把所有的锁都调换了位置，没人能骑走自己的车。他们直到那天晚上才解决了问题。”
　　When he was in third grade, the pranks became a bit more dangerous.
　　到他三年级的时候， 恶作剧开始有了一点儿危险的成分。
　　“One time we set off an explosive under the chair of our teacher, Mrs. Thurman. We gave her a nervous twitch 4.”
　　“有一次，我们在老师瑟曼夫人（Mrs. Thurman)的椅子下面点燃了炸药。她吓得都抽搐了。”
　　Not surprisingly, he was sent home two or three times before he finished third grade.
　　不出意料，乔布斯在读完三年级之前被送回家两三次。
　　By then, however, his father had begun to treat him as special, and in his calm but firm manner he made it clear that he expected the school to do the same.
　　不过父亲当时已经把他当做特殊的孩子来对待了，他以平静但有力的态度向学校阐明，他希望学校也能这么对待自己的孩子。
　　“Look, it’s not his fault,” Paul Jobs told the teachers, his son recalled. “If you can’t keep him interested, it’s your fault.”
　　“听着，这不是他的错，”乔布斯回忆当时父亲是这么对老师说的，“如果你提不起他的兴趣，那是你的错。”
　　His parents never punished him for his transgressions 5 at school.
　　乔布斯的记忆中，父母从来没有因为他在学校犯错而惩罚过他。
　　“My father’s father was an alcoholic 6 and whipped him with a belt, but I’m not sure if I ever got spanked 7.”
　　“我父亲的父亲是个酒鬼，还会用皮带抽他，但是我连一巴掌都没有挨过。”
　　Both of his parents, he added, “knew the school was at fault for trying to make me memorize stupid stuff rather than stimulating 8 me.”
　　他又补充说，他的父母“都知道责任在学校，学校没有激发我学习的兴趣，而是让我去背一些没用的东西”。
　　He was already starting to show the admixture of sensitivity and insensitivity, bristliness and detachment, that would mark him for the rest of his life.
　　他开始展现出性格中的多面性，敏感又偶尔迟钝，易怒而又超然，这也是他以后生活中的状态。
　　When it came time for him to go into fourth grade, the school decided 9 it was best to put Jobs and Ferrentino into separate classes.
　　等到他即将进入四年级的时候，校方认为最好将乔布斯和费伦蒂诺放到不同的班级里。
　　The teacher for the advanced class was a spunky woman named Imogene Hill, known as “Teddy,” and she became, Jobs said, “one of the saints of my life.”
　　教高级课程的是一名干劲十足的女教师伊莫金·希尔（ImogeneHill),人称“泰迪”，用乔布斯的话说，她成为了“我生命中的圣人之一”。
　　After watching him for a couple of weeks, she figured that the best way to handle him was to bribe 10 him.
　　在观察了乔布斯几个星期后，她意识到对付他最好的方法就是收买他。
　　“After school one day, she gave me this workbook with math problems in it, and she said, ‘I want you to take it home and do this.’
　　“有一天放学后，她给了我一本练习簿，上面都是数学题，她说要我带回家把题目解出来。
　　And I thought, ‘Are you nuts?’ And then she pulled out one of these giant lollipops 11 that seemed as big as the world.
　　我心想：你是不是疯了？这时她拿出一只超大的棒棒糖，在我看来地球也不过这么大吧。
　　And she said, ‘When you’re done with it, if you get it mostly right, I will give you this and five dollars.’ And I handed it back within two days.”
　　她说，你把题目做完之后，如果大多数都做对了，我就 把这个 给你，再送你5美元。我用了不到两天就做完交给她了。”
　　After a few months, he no longer required the bribes 12.
　　几个月之后，他不想再要奖励了。
　　“I just wanted to learn and to please her.”
　　“我只想学习和让她髙兴。”