6 Detention

Chapter 6 Detention The McDonald twins didn't know they had been selected to be part of a special program for gifted and talented students. A letter informing their parents of that fact had arrived at their house two months earlier, back in April. But unfortunately, Dr. McDonald assumed the letter was just another school fund-raiser and threw it in the trash without opening the envelope. Now it was June 18, the last day of school, and nobody was paying attention in class. How could you? West Marin Middle School was air- conditioned; but for some mysterious reason, in June, the temperature in half of the classrooms was up over ninety degrees and in the other half you felt as if you were going to school in an

麦克唐纳双胞胎不知道他们被选中参加了一个为天才学生设立的特别项目。 早在两个月前，也就是4月份，一封通知他们父母这件事的信就寄到了他们家。 但不幸的是，麦克唐纳医生认为这封信只是学校的另一个筹款活动，没有打开信封就把它扔进了垃圾桶。 现在是6月18日，学校的最后一天，课堂上没有一个人认真听讲。 你怎么能这样？西马林中学有空调；但由于某种神秘的原因，在六月，一半教室的温度超过了90度，而另一半教室里，你会觉得自己好像穿着一件闷热的衣服去上学

igloo. Early that morning when the teachers arrived at school, one of them found two backpacks labeled MCDONALD leaning against the front door. These were the backpacks that Coke and Pep had abandoned at the top of the cliff the day before. There was no note, no explanation of who had dropped them off. They were returned to the twins during homeroom. "Later," Jimmy Erdman said to Coke in the hallway after sixth period. Jimmy Erdman was not part of the YAG program. He wasn't gifted or talented. Far from it. He was barely passing. Jimmy and Coke didn't have a whole lot in common. Jimmy had no interest in books, learning, science, or anything that involved too much thinking. He had little intellectual curiosity. But the two had known each other since first grade.

圆顶建筑。那天一大早，当老师们到达学校时，其中一位老师发现两个标有麦当劳的背包靠在前门。 这是可口可乐和佩普前一天丢在悬崖顶上的背包。 没有字条，也没有人解释是谁送来的。 他们在上课时还给了双胞胎。 “等会儿，”第六节课后，吉米·厄德曼在走廊里对科克说。 吉米·厄德曼并不是YAG项目的成员。 他没有天赋或才华。 远非如此。他差一点就过去了。 吉米和可口可乐并没有太多共同之处。 吉米对读书、学习、科学或任何需要太多思考的事情都不感兴趣。 他没有什么求知欲。 但他们俩从一年级就认识了。

Most people tend to drift away from their childhood pals as they develop new interests and new friends. But Coke and Jimmy never did. There was a comfort level there. It's easy to trust somebody you've known all your life. "Later," Coke replied, and headed down the hall to the health room. The health teacher, Mrs. Audrey Higgins, had that look on her face. It was the look that said she hated her job, she hated her life, and she hated the kids she had to teach. And they hated her right back. "Today we're going to learn how to brush our

大多数人在发展新的兴趣和新朋友时，往往会与儿时的伙伴渐行渐远。 但是可口可乐和吉米从来没有。 那里有一个舒适的水平。 你很容易相信一个你认识了一辈子的人。 “稍后再说。”可口可乐回答道，然后穿过大厅来到了健康室。 健康课老师奥黛丽·希金斯夫人脸上的表情就是这样。 这表情表明她讨厌自己的工作，讨厌自己的生活，讨厌自己要教的孩子们。 他们也恨她。 “今天我们要学习如何刷牙。

teeth, correctly," Mrs. Higgins informed the class. Coke groaned, and Mrs. Higgins probably heard it. He found it inconceivable that sixth graders had to be taught how to brush their teeth or that precious class time would be wasted on something so commonsensical. He looked around to see if anybody else in the class saw the ridiculousness of it all. They just stared back at him blankly. Zombies. Mrs. Higgins was a tall woman with short hair. She squirted a dollop of hand sanitizer, which she always kept on her desk, and rubbed the stuff into her palms. Then she picked up a toothbrush. "Grasp the handle firmly," Mrs. Higgins told the class, "and always brush up and down. Never side to side." Coke had no real problem with Mrs. Higgins's tooth-brushing technique. But he did have an interest in busting chops, especially when it came to grown-ups.

“牙齿，正确，”希金斯夫人告诉全班。 科克呻吟着，希金斯太太可能听到了。 他觉得不可思议的是，六年级学生必须被教导如何刷牙，否则宝贵的课堂时间就会浪费在如此常识的事情上。 他环顾四周，想看看班上有没有人看出这一切的荒谬。 他们只是茫然地盯着他。 僵尸。希金斯太太是一个留着短发的高个女人。 她喷了一团她一直放在桌子上的洗手液，然后把它揉在手掌上。 然后她拿起一把牙刷。 “牢牢抓住把手，”希金斯太太告诉学生们，“总是上下刷。 永远不要并排。”可口可乐公司对希金斯夫人的刷牙技巧没有什么意见。 但他确实对破坏排骨很感兴趣，尤其是对成年人。

"What's wrong with brushing from side to side, Mrs. Higgins?" he asked politely. Mrs. Higgins stopped for a moment to look at Coke. She was used to kids like him: bored, supersmart know-it-alls who amused themselves by asking dumb questions. "If you brush from side to side," she explained slowly, as if he was developmentally challenged, "your teeth will grow in crooked. That should be self-evident, Mr. McDonald." It also should have been the end of the discussion, but Coke couldn't let it drop. "Why would they grow in crooked?" Coke asked. "If you put an equal amount of pressure on the teeth as you brush to the left and an equal amount of pressure as you brush to the right, the pressure on both sides would be equal; and the teeth would have no reason to grow in anything but straight. Unless, of course, you're claiming that Newton's third law of motion is incorrect. That is, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

“从一边到另一边刷牙有什么不对，希金斯太太？”他礼貌地问道。 希金斯太太停下来看了看可口可乐。 她已经习惯了像他这样的孩子：无聊，超级聪明，无所不知，问愚蠢的问题自娱自乐。 “如果你从一边刷到另一边，”她慢慢地解释说，就好像他发育有问题一样，“你的牙齿会长歪的。 这是不言自明的，麦克唐纳先生。” 这本来也应该是讨论的终点，但可口可乐没有让它停下来。 “为什么它们会长得歪歪扭扭的？”可口可乐问道。 “如果你在向左刷牙和向右刷牙时对牙齿施加等量的压力，那么两边的压力就会相等；这些牙齿除了长得笔直外就没有别的理由了。 当然，除非你声称牛顿第三运动定律是不正确的。 也就是说，对于每一个作用力，都有一个大小相等，方向相反的反作用力。”

A few of the boys in the back snickered. They had no idea what Coke was talking about, but they could tell he was giving Mrs. Higgins a hard time. She looked at Coke wearily. She'd had enough of him and his attention-getting devices. "That's detention for you, McDonald." "What?" Coke shouted. "What did I do? You're gonna give me detention because questioned you about how to brush teeth? Are you kidding me? It's the last day of school! I was just exercising my freedom of speech." "Your freedom of speech ends at my ears," Mrs. Higgins said. "This is child abuse; that's what it is!" She ignored him. The bell rang, and everybody pushed through the front door chanting the chorus of Alice Cooper's "School's Out." Coke trudged to the detention room. It was a depressing, windowless room in the basement of the school. On the whiteboard, somebody had scrawled: PAY ATTENTION AND AVOID DETENTION. Coke was

后面的几个男孩窃笑起来。 他们不知道科克在说什么，但他们能看出他在为难希金斯太太。 她疲惫地看着可乐。 她受够了他和他那些吸引注意力的手段。 “你要留校察看，麦克唐纳。” “什么?”可口可乐喊道。“我做了什么？” 就因为我问你怎么刷牙你就要留堂吗？ 你在开玩笑吗？今天是上学的最后一天！我只是在行使我的言论自由。” “你的言论自由在我耳边结束了，”希金斯夫人说。 “这是虐待儿童；就是这样！”她不理他。 下课铃响了，大家齐声唱着爱丽丝·库珀的《放学了》，推开前门。 可口可乐步履蹒跚地走向拘留所。 那是学校地下室里一间沉闷的、没有窗户的房间。 有人在白板上潦草地写着：注意听讲，避免留校。 可口可乐