5 Exaggeration

Chapter 5 Exaggeration exaggeration (n) a technique in which a magician makes a showy, flashy gesture (also called a flourish) in order to misdirect the audience so they won't notice what the magician is really doing "So what do you guys do for fun around here?" asked Mr. Treski, clapping his hands and rubbing them together as if he were getting ready to cook up a really great meal. "Lots of stuff!" said Jessie. "I'm going to my room," said Evan, heading for the stairs. "What do you mean? I just got here. And now that Mom's gone..." He raised and lowered his eyebrows several times as if he were planning to do something Mom would not approve of. Something

夸张(n)一种技巧，魔术师做出一种炫目的、华丽的手势（也叫夸张），以误导观众，使他们不会注意到魔术师真正在做什么。“那么，你们在这里玩什么呢？”特雷斯基问道，一边拍着手，一边搓着手，好像他正在准备做一顿真正的大餐。 “很多东西！”杰西说。 “我要回我的房间了。”埃文说着朝楼梯走去。 “你是什么意思？”我刚到这儿。 现在妈妈走了……” 他的眉毛上下起伏了好几次，好像他打算做妈妈不会同意的事情。 某物

fun. Something exciting. Jessie felt her stomach flip then flop. "What? Now that Mom's gone... you can leave?" asked Evan. "Man, Evan," said their dad, shaking his head and smiling. "Give it a rest, would'ya?" "I'm going to my room," Evan said again, and this time their dad didn't try to stop him. "What's he so mad about?" muttered Mr. Treski as he walked across the kitchen and retrieved his backpack. "Is he mad?" asked Jessie. "Yeah, I would say so." "But he didn't yell," said Jessie matter-of-factly. "No..." "And he didn't call names or say he was mad." "That's true, but..." "And his face was like this," said Jessie, making her face go completely blank, as if it were sand on a calm beach and a gentle wave had just smoothed it flat.

乐趣。令人兴奋的东西。杰西感到她的胃在翻腾，然后扑通一声。 “什么?现在妈妈走了…… 你可以走了吗？”埃文问。 “伙计，埃文，”他们的爸爸说，摇着头，微笑着。 “别闹了，行吗？”“我要回我的房间去。”埃文又说了一遍，这次他们的爸爸没有阻止他。 “他在生什么气？”特雷斯基一边穿过厨房拿起背包，一边喃喃自语。 “他疯了吗？”杰西问。 “是的，我想这么说。”“但他没有大喊大叫，”杰西实事求是地说。 “不……”“他没有骂人，也没有说自己疯了。” “这倒是真的，但是……”“他的脸是这样的，”杰西说，让她的脸完全失去了表情，仿佛这是平静的海滩上的沙子，一股温柔的海浪刚刚把它抹平。

"Yeah, but Jessie, he was mad. Couldn't you tell?" Her father looked at her long and hard. Jessie started to get that feeling of wanting to go up to her bedroom, close the door, and read Charlotte's Web. Her dad pulled his phone from the side pocket of his backpack. "That's a nice phone," said Jessie. It had a big color touchscreen, big enough that you could watch movies on it. Jessie's mom's phone didn't even have a screen. It was the kind that came free when you signed up for cell service, and it was at least five years old. "Yeah," said her dad absently as his thumb flew over the screen, pushing buttons and looking at the text and images that flashed by. "I couldn't live without my phone." "That isn't actually true," said Jessie. "That's hyperbole. We learned that word during our poetry unit with Mrs. Overton. Hyperbole is an extremely exaggerated statement that isn't true. So it's kind of

“是的，但是杰西，他疯了。 你看不出来吗？”她父亲久久地盯着她。 杰西开始有一种想上楼到卧室去，关上门，读夏洛的网的感觉。 她爸爸从背包侧边的口袋里掏出手机。 “这是一个不错的电话，”杰西说。 它有一个很大的彩色触摸屏，大到你可以在上面看电影。 杰西妈妈的手机连屏幕都没有。 这是你注册手机服务就可以免费获得的那种，而且它至少有五年的历史了。 “是啊，”她爸爸心不在焉地说，他的拇指在屏幕上滑动，按下按钮，看一闪而过的文字和图像。 “没有手机我活不下去。” “这不是真的，”杰西说。 “这是夸张。我们是在奥弗顿夫人的诗歌课上学到这个词的。 Hyperbole是一种非常夸张的说法，但不是真的。 所以这有点

like a lie, except that Mrs. Overton says it doesn't count as a lie, because it's a figure of speech. Which doesn't make sense to me. If it's not true, then it's not true. Like what you just said." Jessie didn't like exaggeration. She liked facts to be facts. "Mmm, yeah," said her dad, never taking his eyes off the screen. "I get your point... but.. just give me a second, okay? I've got to check the feeds." "What are the feeds?" asked Jessie, perking up. This sounded like reporter talk. "I'm hooked up to... well, they're like... they tell me what's going on in the world before anyone else knows about it." "What's going on in the world?" asked Jessie. "A lot. Every minute of every day. And I'm responsible for some of it." "I thought you said you were between assignments." "Yeah, well, a reporter is never really between assignments." "But that means you lied—"

像个谎言，只不过奥弗顿夫人说这不算谎言，因为这是一种修辞手法。 这对我来说没有意义。 如果不是真的，那就不是真的。 就像你刚才说的。”杰西不喜欢夸张。 她喜欢事实就是事实。 “嗯，是的，”她爸爸说，眼睛一直盯着屏幕。 “我明白你的意思……但. . 给我点时间，好吗？ 我得看看视频。” “什么是饲料？”杰西问，振作起来。 这听起来像是记者的谈话。 “我迷上了……嗯，他们就像…… 他们在别人知道之前就告诉我世界上发生了什么。” “世界上发生了什么事？”杰西问。 “很多。每一天的每一分钟。 我对此负有部分责任。” “我记得你说过你在任务间隙。” “是啊，好吧，记者从来没有真正的任务间隔。” “那就是说你撒谎了——”

Jessie's dad held up a hand to silence her as he stared intently at the screen. Then he pushed one last button on his phone, and it made a chirping sound as he slid it into his back pocket. "But nothing's going on this second. At least nothing much. So what should we do?" He had a big smile on his face. "I want to show you my room!" shouted Jessie. They went upstairs, and Jessie showed her dad everything. The newest additions to her collection of trolls, all her homework and test papers for the whole school year, the books she currently had checked out from the library, and all the drawings and posters she'd made to decorate her room. Then she showed him all four editions of The 4-O Forum, which was the classroom newspaper that Jessie wrote and edited. He looked at each paper, but he didn't read any of the articles. So Jessie read the front-page story for each paper out loud to him so he wouldn't miss any of the good stuff. "And I have eighty-one dollars and forty-three cents saved up," said Jessie proudly, folding up the

杰西的爸爸目不转睛地盯着屏幕，举起一只手让她安静下来。 然后，他按下了手机上的最后一个按钮，当他把手机塞进后口袋时，手机发出了一声唧唧的声音。 “但此刻什么也没有发生。 至少没什么。那我们该怎么办呢？”他脸上挂着灿烂的笑容。 “我想带你看看我的房间！”杰西喊道。 他们上楼了，杰西把所有的东西都给她爸爸看了。 她收藏的最新的巨魔，她整个学年的所有作业和试卷，她最近从图书馆借走的书，以及她为装饰房间而画的所有图画和海报。 然后她给他看了四版的《4- 0论坛》，那是杰西编写和编辑的课堂报纸。 他看了每一份报纸，但没有读任何一篇文章。 所以杰西大声给他读每一份报纸的头版故事，这样他就不会错过任何好的东西。 “我存了81美元43美分，”杰西自豪地说，一边把那张

newspaper. She thought of taking out her lockbox and showing him her savings, just so he would know she was really telling the truth, but then she remembered her rule about never showing her money to anyone. "Good for you!" he said. "You're like your mom, saving money. Not like me!" He leaned back on her bed, casually resting against the headboard. Jessie's dad liked to lean on things. In fact, when Jessie's mom first met her dad, he was leaning against a cherry-red sports car. Not that the car was his, but he sure looked good leaning against it, her mom always said, laughing when she told the story. "Can you please take your shoes off the bed?" she asked loudly, pointing at her father's feet, which were on top of her comforter and dangerously close to her stuffed animals. Her dad swung his feet so that they hung over the edge of the bed. "Seriously, Jessie. That's a lot of dough for a nine-year-old." "I'll be ten in four months."

报纸。她想拿出她的锁箱，让他看看她的存款，这样他就会知道她说的是实话，但她想起了她的规定，永远不要把钱给任何人看。 “干得好！”他说。“你就像你妈妈一样，在存钱。 不像我！”他向后靠在她的床上，随意地靠在床头板上。 杰西的爸爸喜欢靠在东西上。 事实上，当杰西的妈妈第一次见到她爸爸时，他正靠在一辆樱桃红色的跑车上。 倒不是说那辆车是他的，但他靠在车上的样子确实不错，她妈妈讲起这个故事时总是笑着说。 “你能把你的鞋从床上拿下来吗？”她指着父亲的脚大声问道。父亲的脚放在她的被子上，离她的毛绒玩具很近，很危险。 她爸爸摆动着双脚，让它们悬在床沿上。 “说真的,杰西。这对一个九岁的孩子来说是一大笔钱。” “再过四个月我就十岁了。”