2005年NPR美国国家公共电台九月-Cross-Cultural (Mis)Understandings with t

Indian neighbors seemed to her to be a happily married couple until recently.
When I first heard the noise, I almost called 911. It sounded like my downstairs neighbor was bashing his wife against the wall. But I couldn't imagine Gion, a gentle pacifist Sikh, hurting his kind, beautiful wife. Gion, meditated¹ daily, was a pillar in the community, and regularly helped people in need. Whenever I saw him with his wife, Kaleen, they'd be holding hands, a look of serenity² on their faces. So the night of the wall-bashing, I tried to convince myself that maybe they were moving furniture or hanging pictures. Of course that didn't explain they yelling preceding this smashing noise, or Kaleen's cry of pain after it. But it was nearly midnight, and the LAST thing I wanted to do was call 911 over a little redecorating. But when I saw Kaleen outside the next day, I asked pointedly³. "Hey, is everything OK? " She seemed content as always but I knew enough from "Law & Order" reruns that if she suffered from battered⁴ wife syndrome⁵, she probably wouldn't admit to any abuse. I looked at her face for evidence of bruising⁶, but she was wrapped in a scarf and wearing sunglasses. I was instantly suspicious.Then that weekend it happened again. Not the banging, but the screaming. Then, silence. A few minutes later, it started all over. In a weird⁷ way while the scream alarmed me, part of me found it titillating⁸ to hear my Zen-like neighbors going at it like guests on "Jerry Springer. " But then the banging started again, and when I saw Gion in passing, I returned his smile and friendly wave with a dirty look. After another night of banging I called downstairs and expressed my concern. Kaleen answered. "Oh, are the reheasals bothering you? " She asked. Rehearsals⁹? ! Apparently¹⁰ Kaleen had enrolled¹¹ in an acting¹² workshop that I'd been hearing her run through her performance. Or so she said. "wasn't REHEARSALS the oldest excuse in the book? At least in LA? "

Meanwhile, I hadn't been getting along with the boyfriend I was dating at the time, and often we'd argue. The day after a particularly noisy fight, Kaleen saw me outside. And now was her turn to inquire. "Hey, is everything all right? " Embarrased, I lied and said YES. But as I turned to go upstairs, she called after me and met my eyes. "So you are rehearsing too? " She asked. Suddenly I realized how wrong I'd been to suspect my compassionate¹³ neighbors of domestic atrocities¹⁴. It seemed like my natural inclination¹⁵ was to assume the worst about her and Gion, while her impulse was to assume the best about me.
Soon the curtain went down on both of our dramas:her performance ended, my relationship broke up. And from then on, if Kaleen played a particularly anguished¹⁶ character, she called me in advance saying she didn't want to disturb me, but probably also worried that I might dial / 911. I thought about charater a lot since then, because the way we responded to each other's suspicions revealed far more about our real life characters in the dubious¹⁷ noises heard through the walls. Lori Gottlieb in Los Angeles.

1 meditated   

深思，沉思，冥想( meditate的过去式和过去分词 )； 内心策划，考虑

参考例句：

• He meditated for two days before giving his answer. 他在作出答复之前考虑了两天。
• She meditated for 2 days before giving her answer. 她考虑了两天才答复。

2 serenity   

n.宁静，沉着，晴朗

参考例句：

• Her face,though sad,still evoked a feeling of serenity.她的脸色虽然悲伤，但仍使人感觉安详。
• She escaped to the comparative serenity of the kitchen.她逃到相对安静的厨房里。

3 pointedly   

adv.尖地，明显地

参考例句：

• She yawned and looked pointedly at her watch. 她打了个哈欠，又刻意地看了看手表。
• The demand for an apology was pointedly refused. 让对方道歉的要求遭到了断然拒绝。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 battered   

adj.磨损的；v.连续猛击；磨损

参考例句：

• He drove up in a battered old car.他开着一辆又老又破的旧车。
• The world was brutally battered but it survived.这个世界遭受了惨重的创伤,但它还是生存下来了。

5 syndrome   

n.综合病症；并存特性

参考例句：

• The Institute says that an unidentified virus is to blame for the syndrome. 该研究所表示,引起这种综合症的是一种尚未确认的病毒。
• Results indicated that 11 fetuses had Down syndrome. 结果表明有11个胎儿患有唐氏综合征。

6 bruising   

adj.殊死的；十分激烈的v.擦伤(bruise的现在分词形式)

参考例句：

• He suffered cracked ribs and bruising. 他断了肋骨还有挫伤。
• He slipped and fell, badly bruising an elbow. 他滑倒了，一只胳膊肘严重擦伤。 来自辞典例句

7 weird   

adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的

参考例句：

• From his weird behaviour,he seems a bit of an oddity.从他不寻常的行为看来，他好像有点怪。
• His weird clothes really gas me.他的怪衣裳简直笑死人。

8 titillating   

adj.使人痒痒的； 使人激动的，令人兴奋的v.使觉得痒( titillate的现在分词 )；逗引；激发；使高兴

参考例句：

• Titillating the public now could help sales of Peptide 7 latet on. 现在刺激一下公众，对将来缩氨酸7号的销售可能还会有好处呢。 来自辞典例句

9 rehearsals   

n.练习( rehearsal的名词复数 )；排练；复述；重复

参考例句：

• The earlier protests had just been dress rehearsals for full-scale revolution. 早期的抗议仅仅是大革命开始前的预演。
• She worked like a demon all through rehearsals. 她每次排演时始终精力过人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

11 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。

13 compassionate   

adj.有同情心的，表示同情的

参考例句：

• She is a compassionate person.她是一个有同情心的人。
• The compassionate judge gave the young offender a light sentence.慈悲的法官从轻判处了那个年轻罪犯。

14 atrocities   

n.邪恶，暴行( atrocity的名词复数 )；滔天大罪

参考例句：

• They were guilty of the most barbarous and inhuman atrocities. 他们犯有最野蛮、最灭绝人性的残暴罪行。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The enemy's atrocities made one boil with anger. 敌人的暴行令人发指。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

15 inclination   

n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好

参考例句：

• She greeted us with a slight inclination of the head.她微微点头向我们致意。
• I did not feel the slightest inclination to hurry.我没有丝毫着急的意思。

16 anguished   

adj.极其痛苦的v.使极度痛苦(anguish的过去式)

参考例句：

• Desmond eyed her anguished face with sympathy. 看着她痛苦的脸，德斯蒙德觉得理解。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The loss of her husband anguished her deeply. 她丈夫的死亡使她悲痛万分。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

17 dubious   

adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• What he said yesterday was dubious.他昨天说的话很含糊。
• He uses some dubious shifts to get money.他用一些可疑的手段去赚钱。