2006年NPR美国国家公共电台一月-Snow and the Passage of Time

Commentator¹ David Greenberger believes that the winter season can provide insight into the aging of humans.

Any snowfall which brings traffic to a standstill and closes schools takes me back to one particular storm in my youth on the shores of Lake Area. On that day, schools and stores were closed because of the weather. What resonates for me is a six-block walk I took with my father from our house to the post office. He bought me stamps for my recently started stamp collection. I already had a wild assortment² of cancelled stamps from around the world. He brought me brand-new stamps. I can retrace³ the route in my mind, walking on snow-covered sidewalks and streets. It was unusual to be going for a walk with my father on a weekday and so close to home. In the following years, I never talked about that walk with him, I never even thought about it until it appeared to me about a decade ago. A winter memory now returned to the forefront. The elderly are said to be in the winter of their lives, and winter is synonymous with the end of life. That does not make the winter the Grim Reaper⁴, rather, it is a time of reflection in those for whom childhood is long gone. My father died in the summer of 1997. For me, his final months resembled the patterns of settling in for winter, a turning inward and slowing down. In the end, his breath grew more and more shallow until there was just the quiet. There are emotional powers that accompany the season, a blanket of white ties the landscape into a continuous and undulating hall. The curve of hillsides in the foundations of houses all are connected. The season keeps us indoors. Our thoughts and feelings turn inward.

I'm visiting Southern California as I write this, a place where winter expresses itself as rain. It would be easy to live in a climate where there are no freezing temperatures and snow, but I would still define the shape of the year by winter as I knew it from my childhood.

David Greenberger lives in Greenwich, New York.

1 commentator   

n.注释者，解说者；实况广播评论员

参考例句：

• He is a good commentator because he can get across the game.他能简单地解说这场比赛，是个好的解说者。
• The commentator made a big mistake during the live broadcast.在直播节目中评论员犯了个大错误。

2 assortment   

n.分类，各色俱备之物，聚集

参考例句：

• This shop has a good assortment of goods to choose from.该店各色货物俱全，任君选择。
• She was wearing an odd assortment of clothes.她穿着奇装异服。

3 retrace   

v.折回；追溯，探源

参考例句：

• He retraced his steps to the spot where he'd left the case.他折回到他丢下箱子的地方。
• You must retrace your steps.你必须折回原来走过的路。

4 reaper   

n.收割者，收割机

参考例句：

• The painting is organized about a young reaper enjoying his noonday rest.这幅画的画面设计成一个年轻的割禾人在午间休息。
• A rabbit got caught in the blades of the reaper.一只兔子被卷到收割机的刀刃中去了。