To Leon Werth?

I ask the indulgence of the children who may read this book for dedicating it to a grown-up.? I have a serious reason: he is the best friend I have in the world. I have?another reason: this grown-up understands everything,?even books about children. I have a third reason: he lives in France where he is hungry and cold. He needs cheering up. If all these reasons are not enough, I will dedicate the book to the child from whom this grown-up grew. All grown-ups were once children-- although few of them remember it.?And so I correct my dedication:?

To Leon Werth
when he was a little boy

?

word link

indulgence

-ence ?

reference, preference, consequence, silence, patience

-ance

performance, acquaintance, elegance, forbearance (忍耐，克制，寬容)

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[ Chapter 1 ]

　　　　 - we are introduced to the narrator, a pilot, and his ideas about grown-ups

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Once when I was six years old I saw a magnificent picture in a book, called True Stories from Nature, about the primeval (原始的) forest. It was a picture of a boa constrictor in the act of swallowing an animal. Here is a copy of the drawing.

In the book it said: "Boa constrictors swallow their prey whole, without chewing it. After that they are not able to move, and they sleep through the six months that they need for digestion."

I pondered deeply, then, over the adventures of the jungle. And after some work with a colored pencil I succeeded in making my first drawing. My Drawing Number One. It looked like this:

?

I showed my masterpiece to the grown-ups, and asked them whether the drawing frightened them.

But they answered: "Frighten? Why should any one be frightened by a hat?"

My drawing was not a picture of a hat. It was a picture of a boa constrictor 蟒蛇digesting an elephant. But since the grown-ups were not able to understand it, I made another drawing: I drew the inside of the boa constrictor, so that the grown-ups could see it clearly. They always need to have things explained.?My Drawing Number Two looked like this:

?

The grown-ups' response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings of boa constrictors, whether from the inside or the outside, and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic and grammar.?That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter. I had been disheartened by the failure of my Drawing Number One and my Drawing Number Two. Grown-ups never understand anything by themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining?things to them.

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讀到這里，我想到兩個單詞，一個是 perspective, 我們看問題的視角不同，常常不用我們的想象力，因而看到的是事物的表面。兒童尚未失去想象力，他們在看到物體的時候，會想一下，或者猜一下物體里面是什么樣子。如果不知道，他們也會問大人。而成年人，不會琢磨這些事，因為日程滿滿的都是要做的事，很少有這樣閑暇時間。

這里advise這個單詞用的好。大人自然而然地讓孩子學點有用的，比如多了解地理、歷史、幾何和語法。大人往往忘記了，這些知識就是我們的先輩在生活中不斷提問，不斷思考，不斷探索才總結(jié)出來的。如果孩子一味接受，不自覺探索，我們的后代豈不是會覺得我們沒有創(chuàng)造出新的知識呢？ 當繪畫成為一個孩子的職業(yè)的時候，其實就應該讓他從小寫寫畫畫，而不是報個興趣班這么簡單粗暴地替孩子做決定。

最后一句中，作者表示“大家不懂，孩子需要一遍一遍地解釋，很辛苦，也讓他郁悶”。其實，生活中，我們往往還以為大人有真知灼見，小孩見得少，很少耐心地聽孩子解釋。

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So then I chose another profession, and learned to pilot airplanes. I have flown a little over all parts of the world; and it is true that geography has been very useful to me. At a glance I can distinguish China from Arizona. If one gets lost in the night, such knowledge is valuable.

In the course of this life I have had a great many encounters with a great many people who have been concerned with matters of consequence. I have lived a great deal among grown-ups. I have seen them intimately, close at hand. And that hasn't much improved my opinion of them.

Whenever I met one of them who?seemed to me at all clear-sighted, I tried the experiment of showing him my Drawing Number One, which I have always kept. I would try to find out, so, if this was a person of true understanding. But, whoever it was, he, or she, would always say:

"That is a hat.

Then I would never talk to that person about boa constrictors, or primeval forests, or stars. I would bring myself down to his level. I would talk to him about bridge, and golf, and politics, and neckties. And the grown-up would be greatly pleased to have met such a sensible man.

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當作者談到bring myself down to his level, 顯然是down的用詞非常觸目驚心。什么時候孩子們認識到宏大主題和人們可以關(guān)注的話題有用，想當sensible的人，做明智的事的時候，其實也就脫離了生活。

高大上的話題，有用的話題，其實都是成人生活中，關(guān)注到橋梁、高爾夫、政治和領(lǐng)帶，也并不是不可能關(guān)注陽光、沙灘和森林。

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