18

Monday I figured the only chance I had of changing my situation was to do my best on that standardized test and hope everyone else did THEIR part. So this weekend, I hit the books. The problem is, it's not easy catching up on a whole year of school. And I didn't even know where to start. I tried to give myself little breaks every now and then to keep myself motivated. But I guess I got a little carried away, because I ended up spending more time reading romance novels than school textbooks.

周一我想，改变现状唯一的机会就是尽全力考好这场标准化测试，再指望其他人也好好发挥 所以这个周末我埋头啃起了书本 可问题是，补上一整年落下的功课实在不容易 我连从哪儿开始都不知道 我时不时给自己放小假，好一直保持学习动力 不过我好像玩过火了，最后我看言情小说的时间比看课本的时间还多

I realized my strategy wasn't working, so I decided to try a totally different approach. I figured if I surrounded myself with my textbooks, I might be able to just absorb all the information into my brain somehow. But I don't think it really worked, because when I woke up this morning I didn't feel any smarter. On top of that, the ink they use to print those textbooks with must be really cheap, because I ended up with the periodic table of elements stuck to my cheek.

我发现我的复习方法没用，于是决定换个全新的思路 我想如果我一直待在课本堆里，说不定就能不知不觉把知识都吸进脑子里 可我觉得这招根本没用，因为今早醒来我一点都没觉得自己变聪明 而且课本用的油墨肯定特别劣质，最后我的脸颊上都粘上了元素周期表的印子

You can tell a lot of kids are really nervous about the test tomorrow, because they're doing all sorts of crazy things for good luck. Some people have been bringing horseshoes and other good luck charms to school. And Ricky Fisher's been selling trinkets he swears will get your math score up by twenty points. Some kids think that it's good luck if you only step on the red tiles on the school floors, but others say the red ones are BAD luck. And that's creating a dangerous situation in the hallways. SMACK

你能看出来好多孩子都特别担心明天的考试，为了求好运做了各种稀奇古怪的事 有些人带了马蹄铁还有别的幸运符来学校 里基·费舍尔还一直在卖小饰品，发誓说这能让你的数学成绩涨二十分 有些孩子觉得只踩学校地板的红地砖会带来好运，其他人却说红地砖会带来厄运 这都把走廊变成危险地带了 砰！

I feel especially bad for this kid everyone calls Lucky. The way I heard it, he almost got struck by lightning playing golf with his dad, which is how he got his nickname. Everybody's saying if you rub Lucky's head, his luck will rub off on YOU. So everyone's been trying to get a piece of him. Now Lucky's got a bald spot, and I'm hoping for his sake it's not permanent.

我特别心疼那个大家都叫“幸运”的男孩 我听说是这样，他跟爸爸打高尔夫的时候差点被闪电劈中，就得了这个外号 所有人都说摸一摸幸运的头，他的好运就会转到你身上 所以大家都想来蹭他的头 现在幸运头上都摸出一块秃斑了，我真希望这不是永久性的

Some people are so desperate to do well on this test that they've even turned to the statue of Larry Mack. They've been leaving candles and making offerings to his shoes in hopes that somehow it'll help. But the school said it was a fire hazard, so today they cleared the stuff out. FWOOSH. All I can say is that if we're counting on Larry Mack's feet to save us tomorrow, we could be in even more trouble than I thought.

有些孩子太想考好这场试了，居然都去求拉里·麦克的雕像了 他们摆上蜡烛，还给雕像的鞋子上供，就盼着这能帮上忙 但学校说这有火灾隐患，所以今天把这些东西都清走了 呼—— 我只能说，如果我们明天要靠拉里·麦克的脚救场，那情况可比我想的还要糟糕

Tuesday Today was the day of the big standardized test, which was scheduled to start at 8:30 and be over at noon. And even though I did my best to prepare for it, I was still nervous because I've never been a great test-taker. The problem is that I get distracted really easily. So if someone in the room is humming or chewing gum, it totally breaks my concentration. And since half the kids in my grade didn't even care how they did on this thing, there were way more distractions today than usual.

周二 今天就是这场大考的日子了，考试安排八点半开始，中午结束 虽然我已经尽全力备考了，我还是很紧张，因为我从来都不擅长考试 问题就是我特别容易分心 要是教室里有人哼歌或者嚼口香糖，我的注意力就全被打断了 而且我们年级一半的孩子根本不在乎成绩，所以今天的干扰比平时多得多