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《曾经的生活》是一本广受美国学生欢迎的青少年科幻小说，是美国畅销书作家Susan Beth Pfeffer创作的“最后幸存者系列”（也叫“月球撞击三部曲”）的第一本。这本书讲述了这样一个故事：一颗行星撞击了月球，使月球偏离了轴心，并靠近地球轨道。这个撞击极具毁灭性：人类的一切生产活动被迫停止，粮食和石油短缺，电力中断。女主人公米兰达是居住在宾夕法尼亚州一座小镇上的16岁女孩，她和母亲、哥哥、弟弟一起，想方设法维持生计，相互鼓舞、相互支持，携手共同度过难关。
各种灾难排山倒海而来，人们无法预知下一刻会发生什么，甚至不知道自己和所爱的人明天是否还能存活。在万劫不复的深渊中，人类最缺的不是吃穿之物，而是继续抱有对生命、对未来、对光明的希望。在希望和爱的带领下，人类走出了种种浩劫。
本书以高中生米兰达的日记为叙述载体，文字朴实流畅，没有瑰丽辞藻，没有夸张伪饰，除了行星撞月球这一事件，其他的一切再真实不过了。不像一般的灾难片或末日警示小说把焦点放在描述灾难本身上，小说的焦点放在米兰达一家柴米油盐酱醋中的点点滴滴。这种特殊的叙事角度让我们产生真实感，从而能静心地思考本书所揭露的深刻主题。
Excerpt One: The Moment It Happened
When it got closer to 9:30, things got really quiet. You could sense how we were all craning our necks1, looking toward the sky. Jonny was at the telescope, and he was the first one who shouted that the asteroid was coming. He could see it in the night sky, and then we all could, the biggest shooting star2 you could imagine. It was a lot smaller than the moon, but bigger than anything else I’d ever seen in the sky. It looked like it was blazing and we all cheered when we saw it.
精彩选段一：行星撞月球
接近9点30分的时候，万籁俱静。你可以想象，我们每个人都伸长了脖子，盯着天空。强尼在用望远镜看，他最先喊出那颗行星来啦。他看到它出现在夜空中，然后我们所有人都看到了，这颗流星大得让你难以想象。当然它比月球小很多，但比我在天空中看到的任何其他东西都要大。它貌似在熊熊燃烧着，当看到它时，所有人都欢呼了起来。
For a moment I thought about all the people throughout history who saw Halley’s Comet and didn’t know what it was, just that it was there and frightening and awe-inspiring.3 For the briefest flick of a second, I could have been a 16-year-old in the Middle Ages looking up at the sky, marveling at its mysteries, or an Aztec or an Apache.4 For that tiny instant, I was every 16-year-old in history, not knowing what the skies foretold about my future.
And then it hit. Even though we knew it was going to, we were still shocked when the asteroid actually made contact with the moon. With our moon. At that second, I think we all realized that it was Our Moon and if it was attacked, then we were attacked.
Or maybe nobody thought that. I know most of the people on the road cheered, but then we all stopped cheering and a woman a few houses down screamed and then a man screamed, “Oh my God!” and people were yelling “What? What?” like one of us knew the answer.
I know all those astronomers I’d watched an hour earlier on CNN can explain just what happened and how and why and they’ll be explaining on CNN tonight and tomorrow and I guess until the next big story happens. I know I can’t explain, because I don’t really know what happened and I sure don’t know why.
But the moon wasn’t a half moon anymore. It was tilted and wrong and a three-quarter moon and it got larger, way larger, large like a moon rising on the horizon, only it wasn’t rising. It was smack5 in the middle of the sky, way too big, way too visible. You could see details on the craters even without the binoculars that before I’d seen with Matt’s telescope6.
有那么一瞬间，我想到了历史上所有看到哈雷彗星却不认识它的人，想到哈雷彗星就在那里，那么令人害怕，令人敬畏。在一个十分短暂的瞬间，我自己好像变成了中世纪一个16岁的少年，或是一个阿兹特克人或阿帕契人，仰望着天空，对天空的神秘惊叹不已。在那一瞬间，我就是历史上每一个16岁的少年，不知道星象向我预示着怎样的未来。
然后，它撞上了。虽然我们知道它会撞上，但当这颗行星真正地撞击月球时，我们依然震惊了。是啊，撞上我们的月球了。在那一刻，我想所有人都意识到这是我们的月球，如果月球遭遇了撞击，也相当于我们遭遇了撞击。
又或许，没有人这么想。我知道大街上很多人都在欢呼喝彩，但突然所有人都停止了欢呼，住在我家附近的一个女人尖叫起来，之后传来了一个男人的惊叫：“上帝啊！”所有人都在大喊大叫：“发生什么事了？发生什么事了？”就好像我们有谁知道答案一样。
我知道，一个小时之前我在CNN上看到的那些天文学家能够解释发生了什么、如何以及为何会发生，今晚和明天他们会一直在CNN电台上不停地解释，我想这会持续到下一件大事发生为止。我知道自己解释不了什么，因为我根本就不知道发生了什么，当然也不知道为什么会发生。
但是月亮再也不是之前那个半月了，它倾斜着，看起来就不对劲，只剩下3/4个，并且变得越来越大，越来越大，大得就像从地平线上升起，而实际上它没有从地平线上升起。月亮在天空深处发出噼啪声，它大得惊人，一目了然。甚至不用双筒望远镜，你都可以看到月球表面那些坑坑洼洼的细微之处，我之前曾用马特的双筒望远镜看到过。
It was still our moon and it was still just a big dead rock in the sky, but it wasn’t benign7 anymore. It was terrifying, and you could feel the panic swell all around us. Some people raced to their cars and started speeding away. Others began praying or weeping. One household began singing “The Star Spangled Banner”8.
“I’m going to call Matt,” Mom said, like that was the most natural thing in the world to do.“Come on in, kids. We’ll see what CNN has to say about all this.”
“Mom, is the world coming to an end?” Jonny asked, picking up the plate of cookies and ramming one into his mouth.
“No, it isn’t,” Mom said, folding her lawn chair9 and carrying it to the front of the house. “And yes, you do have to go to school tomorrow.”
We laughed at that. I’d been wondering the same thing. Jonny put the cookies away and I turned the TV back on. Only there was no CNN.
但它依旧是我们的月亮，仍然只是天空中一块大大的没有生命的岩石，但它不再温顺了。它变得令人害怕，你可以感到恐惧在人群之间不断膨胀。一些人奔向他们的汽车，飞驰而去；另一些人开始祈祷或哭泣，有一家人唱起了《星条旗永不落》。
“我去打电话给马特，”妈妈说，就像这是全天底下最自然不过的事情。“孩子们，来吧！我们来看看CNN怎么说。”
“妈妈，世界末日来了吗？”强尼问道，说着抓起饼干盘，塞了一块到嘴里。
“不是，不是这样的，”妈妈说着，收起草坪躺椅，把它拿到屋前。“对，明天你还得上学去。”
我们都笑了起来，我也在想着同样的问题。强尼把饼干收起来，我打开电视，却发现收不到CNN的频道了。
Excerpt Two: A Family Reunion Time
Things seem so much better now that Matt is home. He’s been throwing batting practice to Jonny (I’ve been catching) and that makes Jonny happy. He and Mom went through everything in the house, all the food we bought, and all kinds of stuff Mom’s grandparents had hidden away in the attic and cellar, yarn and a crochet hook(Mom says she hasn’t crocheted in years, but she thinks it’ll all come back to her if she works at it) and mason jars and canning equipment and a manual can opener and an egg beater and the sorts of things kitchens had in the olden days10.
摘录二：一家团聚
马特回家后，一切似乎好了很多。他在和强尼练习抛球（我在一旁看着），这让强尼高兴坏了。他和妈妈仔细检查了屋里的每一件东西，我们买来的所有食品，以及妈妈的（外）祖父母藏在阁楼和地窖里的各种东西，纱线和钩针（妈妈说她很多年没有用钩针编织东西了，但她认为自己只要重新拿起钩针，马上就能重拾回来），玻璃缸、灌装工具、手动开罐器、打蛋器以及旧时候的各种厨房用品。
Matt and I haven’t had a chance for a real talk yet. He doesn’t really know any more than I do about what happened and what’s going to happen, but I still feel like if I hear it from him, I’ll believe it more. School was better by Thursday. A lot more kids showed up (including Sammi) and more of the teachers, too.
Peter showed up this evening, which was a nice surprise, especially for Mom. He brought us a bag of apples that one of his patients had given him. He and Mom couldn’t go out anywhere so the two of them baked an apple crisp for all of us. We had pasta with marinara sauce for like the tenth time this week, so the hot dessert was a treat.11 Matt got Mrs. Nesbitt, so it was really an event, six for dinner, with a main course and a dessert.
Of course by the time we were ready to eat the electricity had gone out again. It was out most of the day, but we’re used to that by now. We had electricity for an hour during school yesterday and it was like none of us knew what to do about it. At home, when the electricity goes on, we rush to the TV and turn it on. We could listen to the radio all the time, but Mom wants us to preserve batteries so we only listen in the morning and in the late evening.
It’s such a weird way to live. I just can’t believe it’s going to stay like this much longer. On the other hand, I’m already starting to forget what normal life felt like, clocks that were on time, and lights that went on with the flick of a switch, and Internet, and streetlights, and supermarkets, and McDonald’s, and...
One thing Matt did say to me was that no matter what the future is, we’re living through a very special time in history. He said that history makes us who we are, but we can make history, also, and that anyone can be a hero, if they just choose to be.
Matt’s always been my hero, and I think it’s a lot harder to be one than he’s saying, but basically I know what he means.
But I still miss ice cream and swimming laps and feeling comfortable looking at the night sky.
我和马特还没有机会好好地谈一谈。关于发生了什么和将会发生什么，其实他知道的并不比我多。但我总感觉如果能从他嘴里听到这些，我会更加地相信。到了星期四，学校的情况有所好转，很多孩子（包括萨米）都来上学了，很多老师也来了。
今晚彼得来家里拜访，这真是一个意外的惊喜，特别是对妈妈来说。他给我们带来了一袋苹果，那是他一个病人送的。他和妈妈不能外出，所以就在家里为我们烤了苹果脆饼。我们用沙司酱拌意大利面，这是我们这一周来第十次做这个菜了，所以热甜点真算是款待了。马特请了内斯比特夫人来，这样我们一共是六个人一起用餐，一个主食加一个甜点，也算是一件大事了。
不出所料，我们正准备开饭时，又停电了。现在每天大部分时间都没有供电，但我们已经习惯了。昨天在学校里，我们有一个小时的供电，最后大家反而好像都不知道该怎么利用这些电了。在家里，如果来电了，我们全都扑向电视机，打开它。我们始终都可以收听到电台，但妈妈让我们要节约电池，所以我们只在早晨和深夜才打开收音机。
这种生活方式真是奇怪极了。我还是不相信这种情况会长时间持续下去。另一方面，我已经开始忘记正常生活是什么样子，准点的时钟、轻轻一摁就能打开的电灯、因特网、街灯、超市、麦当劳等等。
马特对我说的一件事，就是无论未来如何，我们正在经历历史上一个极为特殊的时期。他说历史成就了我们，但我们也能创造历史，任何人都可以成为英雄，只要他愿意。
马特一直以来都是我眼中的英雄，我认为要成为他说的英雄可难多了，但我基本上能够理解他的意思。
但我还是很想念冰淇淋和泳道，还有望着夜空时那种舒服的感觉。
单词卡片
1. crane one’s necks: 伸长脖子（看）。
2. shooting star: 流星，陨星。
3. Halley’s Comet: 哈雷彗星，最近一次出现在1986 年，周期约为76年； awe-inspiring:令人敬畏的，令人肃然起敬的。
4. Aztec: 阿兹特克族，西班牙入侵前之墨西哥中部土著印地安族，于16世纪初灭亡；Apache: 阿帕契族，北美印地安人之一部落，位于美国西南部。
5. smack: 掌掴（声），打巴掌，拍击（声）。
6. crater: 坑（陨石坑、弹坑等），凹binocular：双目望远镜，双筒，双筒镜，双眼单筒镜。
7. benign: 仁慈的，温和的，良性的。
8. “The Star Spangled Banner”: 美国国歌《星条旗永不落》。
9. lawn chair: 〈美 〉草坪躺椅。
10. crochet hook: 钩针；mason jar: 宽口玻璃缸；can opener: 开罐器；egg beater: 打蛋器。
11. pasta: 意大利面制品, 意大利面食；marinara sauce: 沙司酱；treat: 宴请，款待。
各种灾难排山倒海而来，人们无法预知下一刻会发生什么，甚至不知道自己和所爱的人明天是否还能存活。在万劫不复的深渊中，人类最缺的不是吃穿之物，而是继续抱有对生命、对未来、对光明的希望。在希望和爱的带领下，人类走出了种种浩劫。
本书以高中生米兰达的日记为叙述载体，文字朴实流畅，没有瑰丽辞藻，没有夸张伪饰，除了行星撞月球这一事件，其他的一切再真实不过了。不像一般的灾难片或末日警示小说把焦点放在描述灾难本身上，小说的焦点放在米兰达一家柴米油盐酱醋中的点点滴滴。这种特殊的叙事角度让我们产生真实感，从而能静心地思考本书所揭露的深刻主题。
Excerpt One: The Moment It Happened
When it got closer to 9:30, things got really quiet. You could sense how we were all craning our necks1, looking toward the sky. Jonny was at the telescope, and he was the first one who shouted that the asteroid was coming. He could see it in the night sky, and then we all could, the biggest shooting star2 you could imagine. It was a lot smaller than the moon, but bigger than anything else I’d ever seen in the sky. It looked like it was blazing and we all cheered when we saw it.
精彩选段一：行星撞月球
接近9点30分的时候，万籁俱静。你可以想象，我们每个人都伸长了脖子，盯着天空。强尼在用望远镜看，他最先喊出那颗行星来啦。他看到它出现在夜空中，然后我们所有人都看到了，这颗流星大得让你难以想象。当然它比月球小很多，但比我在天空中看到的任何其他东西都要大。它貌似在熊熊燃烧着，当看到它时，所有人都欢呼了起来。
For a moment I thought about all the people throughout history who saw Halley’s Comet and didn’t know what it was, just that it was there and frightening and awe-inspiring.3 For the briefest flick of a second, I could have been a 16-year-old in the Middle Ages looking up at the sky, marveling at its mysteries, or an Aztec or an Apache.4 For that tiny instant, I was every 16-year-old in history, not knowing what the skies foretold about my future.
And then it hit. Even though we knew it was going to, we were still shocked when the asteroid actually made contact with the moon. With our moon. At that second, I think we all realized that it was Our Moon and if it was attacked, then we were attacked.
Or maybe nobody thought that. I know most of the people on the road cheered, but then we all stopped cheering and a woman a few houses down screamed and then a man screamed, “Oh my God!” and people were yelling “What? What?” like one of us knew the answer.
I know all those astronomers I’d watched an hour earlier on CNN can explain just what happened and how and why and they’ll be explaining on CNN tonight and tomorrow and I guess until the next big story happens. I know I can’t explain, because I don’t really know what happened and I sure don’t know why.
But the moon wasn’t a half moon anymore. It was tilted and wrong and a three-quarter moon and it got larger, way larger, large like a moon rising on the horizon, only it wasn’t rising. It was smack5 in the middle of the sky, way too big, way too visible. You could see details on the craters even without the binoculars that before I’d seen with Matt’s telescope6.
有那么一瞬间，我想到了历史上所有看到哈雷彗星却不认识它的人，想到哈雷彗星就在那里，那么令人害怕，令人敬畏。在一个十分短暂的瞬间，我自己好像变成了中世纪一个16岁的少年，或是一个阿兹特克人或阿帕契人，仰望着天空，对天空的神秘惊叹不已。在那一瞬间，我就是历史上每一个16岁的少年，不知道星象向我预示着怎样的未来。
然后，它撞上了。虽然我们知道它会撞上，但当这颗行星真正地撞击月球时，我们依然震惊了。是啊，撞上我们的月球了。在那一刻，我想所有人都意识到这是我们的月球，如果月球遭遇了撞击，也相当于我们遭遇了撞击。
又或许，没有人这么想。我知道大街上很多人都在欢呼喝彩，但突然所有人都停止了欢呼，住在我家附近的一个女人尖叫起来，之后传来了一个男人的惊叫：“上帝啊！”所有人都在大喊大叫：“发生什么事了？发生什么事了？”就好像我们有谁知道答案一样。
我知道，一个小时之前我在CNN上看到的那些天文学家能够解释发生了什么、如何以及为何会发生，今晚和明天他们会一直在CNN电台上不停地解释，我想这会持续到下一件大事发生为止。我知道自己解释不了什么，因为我根本就不知道发生了什么，当然也不知道为什么会发生。
但是月亮再也不是之前那个半月了，它倾斜着，看起来就不对劲，只剩下3/4个，并且变得越来越大，越来越大，大得就像从地平线上升起，而实际上它没有从地平线上升起。月亮在天空深处发出噼啪声，它大得惊人，一目了然。甚至不用双筒望远镜，你都可以看到月球表面那些坑坑洼洼的细微之处，我之前曾用马特的双筒望远镜看到过。
It was still our moon and it was still just a big dead rock in the sky, but it wasn’t benign7 anymore. It was terrifying, and you could feel the panic swell all around us. Some people raced to their cars and started speeding away. Others began praying or weeping. One household began singing “The Star Spangled Banner”8.
“I’m going to call Matt,” Mom said, like that was the most natural thing in the world to do.“Come on in, kids. We’ll see what CNN has to say about all this.”
“Mom, is the world coming to an end?” Jonny asked, picking up the plate of cookies and ramming one into his mouth.
“No, it isn’t,” Mom said, folding her lawn chair9 and carrying it to the front of the house. “And yes, you do have to go to school tomorrow.”
We laughed at that. I’d been wondering the same thing. Jonny put the cookies away and I turned the TV back on. Only there was no CNN.
但它依旧是我们的月亮，仍然只是天空中一块大大的没有生命的岩石，但它不再温顺了。它变得令人害怕，你可以感到恐惧在人群之间不断膨胀。一些人奔向他们的汽车，飞驰而去；另一些人开始祈祷或哭泣，有一家人唱起了《星条旗永不落》。
“我去打电话给马特，”妈妈说，就像这是全天底下最自然不过的事情。“孩子们，来吧！我们来看看CNN怎么说。”
“妈妈，世界末日来了吗？”强尼问道，说着抓起饼干盘，塞了一块到嘴里。
“不是，不是这样的，”妈妈说着，收起草坪躺椅，把它拿到屋前。“对，明天你还得上学去。”
我们都笑了起来，我也在想着同样的问题。强尼把饼干收起来，我打开电视，却发现收不到CNN的频道了。
Excerpt Two: A Family Reunion Time
Things seem so much better now that Matt is home. He’s been throwing batting practice to Jonny (I’ve been catching) and that makes Jonny happy. He and Mom went through everything in the house, all the food we bought, and all kinds of stuff Mom’s grandparents had hidden away in the attic and cellar, yarn and a crochet hook(Mom says she hasn’t crocheted in years, but she thinks it’ll all come back to her if she works at it) and mason jars and canning equipment and a manual can opener and an egg beater and the sorts of things kitchens had in the olden days10.
摘录二：一家团聚
马特回家后，一切似乎好了很多。他在和强尼练习抛球（我在一旁看着），这让强尼高兴坏了。他和妈妈仔细检查了屋里的每一件东西，我们买来的所有食品，以及妈妈的（外）祖父母藏在阁楼和地窖里的各种东西，纱线和钩针（妈妈说她很多年没有用钩针编织东西了，但她认为自己只要重新拿起钩针，马上就能重拾回来），玻璃缸、灌装工具、手动开罐器、打蛋器以及旧时候的各种厨房用品。
Matt and I haven’t had a chance for a real talk yet. He doesn’t really know any more than I do about what happened and what’s going to happen, but I still feel like if I hear it from him, I’ll believe it more. School was better by Thursday. A lot more kids showed up (including Sammi) and more of the teachers, too.
Peter showed up this evening, which was a nice surprise, especially for Mom. He brought us a bag of apples that one of his patients had given him. He and Mom couldn’t go out anywhere so the two of them baked an apple crisp for all of us. We had pasta with marinara sauce for like the tenth time this week, so the hot dessert was a treat.11 Matt got Mrs. Nesbitt, so it was really an event, six for dinner, with a main course and a dessert.
Of course by the time we were ready to eat the electricity had gone out again. It was out most of the day, but we’re used to that by now. We had electricity for an hour during school yesterday and it was like none of us knew what to do about it. At home, when the electricity goes on, we rush to the TV and turn it on. We could listen to the radio all the time, but Mom wants us to preserve batteries so we only listen in the morning and in the late evening.
It’s such a weird way to live. I just can’t believe it’s going to stay like this much longer. On the other hand, I’m already starting to forget what normal life felt like, clocks that were on time, and lights that went on with the flick of a switch, and Internet, and streetlights, and supermarkets, and McDonald’s, and...
One thing Matt did say to me was that no matter what the future is, we’re living through a very special time in history. He said that history makes us who we are, but we can make history, also, and that anyone can be a hero, if they just choose to be.
Matt’s always been my hero, and I think it’s a lot harder to be one than he’s saying, but basically I know what he means.
But I still miss ice cream and swimming laps and feeling comfortable looking at the night sky.
我和马特还没有机会好好地谈一谈。关于发生了什么和将会发生什么，其实他知道的并不比我多。但我总感觉如果能从他嘴里听到这些，我会更加地相信。到了星期四，学校的情况有所好转，很多孩子（包括萨米）都来上学了，很多老师也来了。
今晚彼得来家里拜访，这真是一个意外的惊喜，特别是对妈妈来说。他给我们带来了一袋苹果，那是他一个病人送的。他和妈妈不能外出，所以就在家里为我们烤了苹果脆饼。我们用沙司酱拌意大利面，这是我们这一周来第十次做这个菜了，所以热甜点真算是款待了。马特请了内斯比特夫人来，这样我们一共是六个人一起用餐，一个主食加一个甜点，也算是一件大事了。
不出所料，我们正准备开饭时，又停电了。现在每天大部分时间都没有供电，但我们已经习惯了。昨天在学校里，我们有一个小时的供电，最后大家反而好像都不知道该怎么利用这些电了。在家里，如果来电了，我们全都扑向电视机，打开它。我们始终都可以收听到电台，但妈妈让我们要节约电池，所以我们只在早晨和深夜才打开收音机。
这种生活方式真是奇怪极了。我还是不相信这种情况会长时间持续下去。另一方面，我已经开始忘记正常生活是什么样子，准点的时钟、轻轻一摁就能打开的电灯、因特网、街灯、超市、麦当劳等等。
马特对我说的一件事，就是无论未来如何，我们正在经历历史上一个极为特殊的时期。他说历史成就了我们，但我们也能创造历史，任何人都可以成为英雄，只要他愿意。
马特一直以来都是我眼中的英雄，我认为要成为他说的英雄可难多了，但我基本上能够理解他的意思。
但我还是很想念冰淇淋和泳道，还有望着夜空时那种舒服的感觉。
单词卡片
1. crane one’s necks: 伸长脖子（看）。
2. shooting star: 流星，陨星。
3. Halley’s Comet: 哈雷彗星，最近一次出现在1986 年，周期约为76年； awe-inspiring:令人敬畏的，令人肃然起敬的。
4. Aztec: 阿兹特克族，西班牙入侵前之墨西哥中部土著印地安族，于16世纪初灭亡；Apache: 阿帕契族，北美印地安人之一部落，位于美国西南部。
5. smack: 掌掴（声），打巴掌，拍击（声）。
6. crater: 坑（陨石坑、弹坑等），凹binocular：双目望远镜，双筒，双筒镜，双眼单筒镜。
7. benign: 仁慈的，温和的，良性的。
8. “The Star Spangled Banner”: 美国国歌《星条旗永不落》。
9. lawn chair: 〈美 〉草坪躺椅。
10. crochet hook: 钩针；mason jar: 宽口玻璃缸；can opener: 开罐器；egg beater: 打蛋器。
11. pasta: 意大利面制品, 意大利面食；marinara sauce: 沙司酱；treat: 宴请，款待。