Turtle Tom

Turtle Tom. Written by Stephen Cosgrove. Illustrated by Carolyn Laporte.

乌龟汤姆 斯蒂芬·科斯格罗夫 著 卡罗琳·拉波特 绘

I've got the worst name in the world. There is none worse. My name is Tom T. Turtle. Pretty dumb, huh? I don't have a middle name, only the initial. It has something to do with my grandfather and his father's father. And my first name is Tom. Not Thomas. Just Tom. It lends itself to all kinds of things, all of which are pretty mean. People, all kinds of people, call me all sorts of things. I haven't had one teacher who hasn't laughed after calling my name on the first day of school.

我有全世界最糟糕的名字 没有比这更糟的了 我叫汤姆·T·乌龟 是不是超蠢呀？ 我没有中间名，只有首字母T 这事和我爷爷，还有爷爷的爷爷有关 我的名字叫汤姆 不是托马斯 就叫汤姆 这个名字总能引出好多欺负人的难听玩笑 形形色色的人，给我起了各种各样乱七八糟的外号 开学第一天点名，没有一个老师念完我名字不笑的

It usually goes like this. Robert Miller, here. Becky Sue Porter, here. Tom T. Turtle, here. Does the T stand for the, as in Tom the Turtle? He, he, he, grown.

点名通常都是这样的 罗伯特·米勒，到 贝基·苏·波特，到 汤姆·T·乌龟，到 这个T是不是代表“这”呀，就是“汤姆这乌龟”？ 嘿嘿嘿，笑死人了

I've heard that every year, and sometimes twice. That's because my dad has to move around with his job, and one year I went to three different schools. I'm in the fourth grade, and already I've gone to six grade schools. Every time we move, I have to get ready for the stupid names and a fight or two.

这话我每年都能听到，有时候一年还能听两回 因为爸爸工作要到处搬家，有一年我转了三所学校 我现在上四年级，已经换过六所小学了 每次搬家，我都得做好准备应付破外号，还要打上一两架

This time my dad was transferred to Port Aransas, Texas. We had been living in Utah, and at first I thought it would be really cool to live on the ocean. Port Aransas is on Padre Island, which is on the Gulf of Mexico. It wasn't what I expected. Because the water is protected, the waves are pretty small and the water is warm. The land is warmer than the water. And when we first got here, it was hot. I mean really hot.

这次爸爸调去了得克萨斯州的阿兰瑟斯港 我们之前住在犹他州，一开始我还觉得住海边超棒 阿兰瑟斯港在帕德雷岛，挨着墨西哥湾 那里和我预想的完全不一样 因为这片水域有防护，浪很小，水还暖暖的 陆地比海水还要热 我们刚到这儿的时候，天气超级热 我是说，真的真的超级热

If that wasn't bad enough, Texas schools start in the middle of August. So I didn't get much of a vacation. I didn't meet any of the other kids in my class until school had started. By now, it was too late to meet anyone. I would probably get into another fight.

这还不够倒霉，得克萨斯的学校八月中旬就开学 所以我都没好好过假期 直到开学我才见到班上的其他同学 到那时候再交朋友已经太晚了 我说不定又要打一架了