2005年NPR美国国家公共电台八月-Very Short Fiction: 'Bars'

Here is a very small piece of fiction from Ruth Forman. It's titled "Bars on Windows".

The window covered with rusted¹ black iron bars looked like jail, he thought, though he'd never been to jail. He wondered when exactly the bars were added. They didn't match the smooth white of the window and certainly did not fit the way the window opened out onto the world. Every time he unlatched the catch and swung the window out, it's stuck on the bar with a whack⁴. "And why do we stand for this?" He wondered, "Why not move to some place where schools did not have bars on their windows, a place where people kept their doors open and unlocked and ready for company."
"Felt like more than keeping people out, they were locking themselves in", he thought. But what did he know? His name was only Horehan, he was only 16 and still in the tenth grade, and he did not know which teacher wanted him to go to college since no one asked him what he wanted to do for a living. Perhaps they assumed he already knew. He closed the window and latched³ the latch². The bell was about to ring. He snubbed the cigarette on the sill and flicked⁵ it in the can, washed his hands with the nasty powdered soap above the sink—he hated dirty hands—wiped them on his jeans and grabbed his worn copy of Hamlet. He didn't care what they said. Bars on windows, just didn't seem right.

"Bars on Windows", read by the author Ruth Forman.

1 rusted   

v.（使）生锈( rust的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I can't get these screws out; they've rusted in. 我无法取出这些螺丝，它们都锈住了。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• My bike has rusted and needs oil. 我的自行车生锈了，需要上油。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 latch   

n.门闩，窗闩；弹簧锁

参考例句：

• She laid her hand on the latch of the door.她把手放在门闩上。
• The repairman installed an iron latch on the door.修理工在门上安了铁门闩。

3 latched   

v.理解( latch的过去式和过去分词 )；纠缠；用碰锁锁上（门等）；附着（在某物上）

参考例句：

• The government have latched onto environmental issues to win votes. 政府已开始大谈环境问题以争取选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He latched onto us and we couldn't get rid of him. 他缠着我们，甩也甩不掉。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 whack   

v.敲击，重打，瓜分；n.重击，重打，尝试，一份

参考例句：

• After years of dieting,Carol's metabolism was completely out of whack.经过数年的节食，卡罗尔的新陈代谢完全紊乱了。
• He gave me a whack on the back to wake me up.他为把我弄醒，在我背上猛拍一下。

5 flicked   

（尤指用手指或手快速地）轻击( flick的过去式和过去分词 )； （用…）轻挥； （快速地）按开关； 向…笑了一下（或瞥了一眼等）

参考例句：

• She flicked the dust off her collar. 她轻轻弹掉了衣领上的灰尘。
• I idly picked up a magazine and flicked through it. 我漫不经心地拿起一本杂志翻看着。