英文長(zhǎng)篇文章帶翻譯
英文長(zhǎng)篇文章帶翻譯
閱讀在學(xué)習(xí)者的二語(yǔ)學(xué)習(xí)中占有著非常重要的地位，它是學(xué)習(xí)者獲得信息的主要渠道，也是幫助學(xué)習(xí)者提高其他語(yǔ)言技能的基礎(chǔ)。下面是學(xué)習(xí)啦小編帶來(lái)的英文長(zhǎng)篇文章帶翻譯，歡迎閱讀!
英文長(zhǎng)篇文章帶翻譯1
古代生態(tài)系統(tǒng)中的線索
Science and Technology Palaeontology Remember the tooth
科技 古生物學(xué) 牙齒的痕跡
A link is made in an ancient ecosystem
古代生態(tài)系統(tǒng)中的線索
WHO ate whom in the food chains of the past is rarely clear.
在古代誰(shuí)以吃誰(shuí)為生是不清楚的。
Though it is obvious which species were predators and which prey, the subtle specialisations of feeding habit that allow many types of carnivore to co-exist are rarely preserved in the fossil record.
盡管誰(shuí)是捕食者和誰(shuí)是獵物是很明顯的,但是專門的微妙的捕食習(xí)慣,能讓多種食肉動(dòng)物能夠共存的資料很少有保存完好的化石記錄。
Rarely, but not never.
很少有記錄不表示沒(méi)有。
That is why the recent discovery of a Jurassic ammonite with a shark's tooth embedded in its shell has excited palaeontologists.
這就是為什么最近發(fā)現(xiàn)侏羅紀(jì)菊石，連同殼上面的鯊魚牙齒讓古生物學(xué)家非常興奮。
The ammonite in question, Orthaspidoceras, a species that thrived 155m years ago, was part of the collection of an amateur who did not realise the significance of what he had found.
發(fā)現(xiàn)的鸚鵡螺是,一種叫Orthaspidoceras的生活在一億五千五百萬(wàn)年前的生物，化石是由業(yè)余愛(ài)好者收藏的，他沒(méi)有意識(shí)到他發(fā)現(xiàn)的化石的意義。
Romain Vullo of the University of Rennes, however, did-and he has brought the discovery to the attention of the scientific world in the pages of Naturwissenschaften.
法國(guó)雷恩大學(xué)的Romain Vullo卻明白，而他在《自然科學(xué)》雜志上的幾頁(yè)論文吸引了科學(xué)界的注意。
Ammonites were both predators and prey.
鸚鵡螺既是捕食者也是獵物。
They occupied a position in the Mesozoic oceans similar to that of modern squid.
他們生活在中生代的海洋中，跟現(xiàn)代烏賊相似。
Like squid, they were swimming tentacled molluscs-a group called the cephalopods.
跟烏賊一樣，鸚鵡螺是游動(dòng)的有觸須的軟體動(dòng)物，屬于頭足綱動(dòng)物。
Unlike squid, though, they had protective shells.
不像烏賊,鸚鵡螺有保護(hù)殼。
These shells were divided internally into gas-filled chambers.
這些保護(hù)殼的里面有充滿氣體的分隔小室。
The result had neutral buoyancy, allowing the animal to move (like squid) by jet propulsion.
結(jié)果就是鸚鵡螺有浮力,讓其像噴氣發(fā)動(dòng)機(jī)推進(jìn)一樣的運(yùn)動(dòng)，這點(diǎn)跟烏賊一樣。
Modern pearly nautiluses, whose relationship to ammonites is much debated, have a similar arrangement.
現(xiàn)代珍珠一樣的鸚鵡螺跟遠(yuǎn)古鸚鵡螺的親緣關(guān)系盡管還有待驗(yàn)證，但是現(xiàn)代鸚鵡螺也有類似的充氣推進(jìn)機(jī)制。
What ammonites-or, at least, some of them-ate became clear earlier this year when an X-ray showed a small crustacean in the jaws of a species called Baculites.
鸚鵡螺吃什么的問(wèn)題今年有了答案，x光顯示桿鸚鵡螺的咽喉中有小甲殼類動(dòng)物的痕跡。
But what ate ammonites has never been shown in such an unambiguous manner.
但是什么吃鸚鵡螺從來(lái)沒(méi)有像現(xiàn)在一樣模棱兩可。
Some ammonite fossils have tooth marks that look as though they were made by huge reptilian predators called mosasaurs.
一些鸚鵡螺化石上有牙印，看上去仿佛是巨大爬蟲類捕食者比如滄龍留下的。
Some appear to have been attacked by the beaks of other cephalopods.
有些牙印似乎是被其他頭足綱攻擊的痕跡。
And some seem to have been bitten by sharks.
有些牙印似乎是鯊魚留下的。
On top of that, coprolites, as palaeontologists politely describe fossil faeces, have turned up with ammonite shells in them.
最重要的是,對(duì)古生物學(xué)家禮貌地描述中的糞化石的研究表明，有些糞便中有鸚鵡螺的殼。
Based on comparisons with modern evacua, these are probably from sharks.
隨著現(xiàn)代技術(shù)的發(fā)展，研究表明這些糞便來(lái)自于鯊魚。
But which sharks? Dr Vullo's ammonite nails one culprit.
但是哪種鯊魚吃鸚鵡螺呢?Vullo博士的化石標(biāo)本確定了其中的一個(gè)罪魁禍?zhǔn)住?/p>
The tooth belongs to a species called Planohybodus.
化石中鸚鵡螺外殼上的牙齒屬于一種叫做平弓鯊的物種。
And that is a surprise.
這是一個(gè)驚喜的發(fā)現(xiàn)。
Those modern sharks that eat shelled animals have robust teeth for crunching through hard exteriors.
覓食有殼動(dòng)物的現(xiàn)代鯊魚通常長(zhǎng)著強(qiáng)壯的牙齒，可以咬穿堅(jiān)硬的外殼。
The teeth of Planohybodus, in contrast, were slender and pointed-the sort usually associated with grasping and tearing at flesh.
相反，平弓鯊的牙齒,是那種纖細(xì)而突出的，一般讓人聯(lián)想到抓住和撕裂肉。
In a modern predator, that would indicate the habit of eating fish.
在現(xiàn)代掠食者中,擁有這種牙齒意味著習(xí)慣吃魚。
That a shark with teeth like this would try to make a meal of an ammonite is, at first sight, odd.
長(zhǎng)著這樣牙齒的鯊魚,會(huì)試圖吃掉鸚鵡螺，美餐一頓的理論,乍一看有點(diǎn)古怪。
But second thoughts provide a possible explanation.
但想一想就有了合理的解釋。
Ammonites' manoeuvrability would have depended crucially on their buoyancy control.
鸚鵡螺的靈活性主要建立在浮力控制上面的。
Even a small puncture to the shell, which a pointed tooth would be well able to deliver, would let the water in and cause that control to vanish.
即使是殼上的一個(gè)小洞,可能就是這樣尖牙造成的,就會(huì)讓水進(jìn)入殼內(nèi),鸚鵡螺從而無(wú)法控制浮力。
Since ammonites could not withdraw entirely into their shells for self-defence, it would then just be a question of dragging the creature out of its chamber in order to eat it.
鸚鵡螺不能完全縮回外殼內(nèi)自衛(wèi),于是就很可能就會(huì)被從外殼中拽出，成了其他生物的美食。
And for that, sharp, pointed teeth are ideal.
這樣說(shuō)來(lái)，鋒利的尖牙是完美的武器。
英文長(zhǎng)篇文章帶翻譯2
進(jìn)化并不總是意味著改變
A new fossil shows that evolution does not always mean change
一個(gè)新的化石表明：進(jìn)化并不總是意味著改變
WHEN a coelacanth, a type of lobe-finned fish once considered the missing link between fish and amphibians, was found off the coast of South Africa in 1938, it came as a shock to palaeontologists. Until then, the most recent traces of such a creature had been in rocks dating from the last days of the dinosaurs, 65m years ago. It was, in its way, as surprising as if a live Tyrannosaurus had been found hiding in an obscure part of Montana. Now the same experience is hitting palaeontologists again—but this time in reverse. Instead of finding a "living fossil" identical to an ancient beast, they have found a real fossil identical to a modern one.
以前人們一度認(rèn)為一種叫做腔棘魚的鰭魚是魚類和兩棲類之間缺少的環(huán)節(jié)，1938年當(dāng)腔棘魚在南非海岸沿海被發(fā)現(xiàn)時(shí)，古生物學(xué)家對(duì)它的出現(xiàn)大感震驚。在此之前，這種動(dòng)物最近的遺跡出現(xiàn)在6500萬(wàn)年前恐龍時(shí)代后期的巖層中。而它這次的出現(xiàn)方式，就好像一個(gè)活生生的霸王龍屬被發(fā)現(xiàn)藏身在蒙大拿州的模糊地帶一樣令人驚訝?，F(xiàn)在，同樣的經(jīng)歷再次讓古生物學(xué)家碰上了，不過(guò)這次相反。他們不是找到了一個(gè)與古獸相同的"活化石"，而是找到了一個(gè)跟現(xiàn)代獸類相同的真正化石。
The fossil in question, a 100m-year-old specimen from north-east Brazil, belongs to the genus Schizodactylus. These are large, carnivorous, cricket-like insects whose feet splay out wildly in different directions. Modern Schizodactylus use their feet like snowshoes, to help them remain stable as they travel over sandy terrain in search of prey.
所討論的的化石采自巴西東北部，是一億年前的標(biāo)本，屬于節(jié)肢動(dòng)物類。這類節(jié)肢動(dòng)物是大型類似板球的食肉昆蟲，其足向不同方向伸展開(kāi)來(lái)?，F(xiàn)代節(jié)肢動(dòng)物在沙地爬行尋找獵物時(shí)用它們雪鞋般的腳來(lái)幫助身體保持穩(wěn)定。
If the new fossil—whose discovery has just been published in ZooKeys by Sam Heads of the Illinois Natural History Survey and Léa Leuzinger of the University of Fribourg, in Switzerland—were merely similar to modern splay-footed insects, the find would not be particularly surprising: it simply demonstrates a phenomenon called evolutionary stasis, in which a specific type of body form hangs around for a long time. What is surprising is just how static Schizodactylus has been.
如果新化石(其發(fā)現(xiàn)剛由伊利諾斯州自然史調(diào)查的負(fù)責(zé)人山姆和瑞士弗里堡大學(xué)的李?勞伊辛格發(fā)表在《動(dòng)物圖譜》上)僅是類似現(xiàn)代的八字足昆蟲，那么這個(gè)發(fā)現(xiàn)不會(huì)特別令人驚訝：它只是證明了一種被稱為進(jìn)化停滯的現(xiàn)象，在這種現(xiàn)象中特定類型的體型存留很長(zhǎng)一段時(shí)間了。令人驚訝的是節(jié)肢動(dòng)物停止進(jìn)化竟有這么久了。
Evolutionary stasis is fairly common at the higher levels of the Linnaean system of biological classification (class, order and family). Natural selection hits on a good design. That design is then adopted in slightly different forms by species after species. The shelled bodies of turtles, for example, evolved between 250m and 200m years ago, while the body plans of scorpions have been around for more than 400m years. That does not mean, however, that a zoologist would mistake a 200m-year-old turtle or a 400m-year-old scorpion for any species now alive.
在林耐生物分類(類，屬和門)系統(tǒng)的高等類別中進(jìn)化停滯現(xiàn)象是相當(dāng)普遍的。自然選擇的圖案都是最好的。然后，這種圖案就被一個(gè)接一個(gè)的物種以略有不同的形式所采納。例如，海龜?shù)臍んw是在2.5～2.0億年前進(jìn)化的，而蝎子的體型方案已超過(guò)4億年的歷史。然而這并不意味著一個(gè)動(dòng)物學(xué)家會(huì)弄錯(cuò)2億歲的海龜或是4億歲的蝎子屬于現(xiàn)在存活的何種物種。
What is remarkable about the new find is that it is so similar to modern animals that it can be assigned to an existing genus—the lowest level of Linnaean classification above a species—rather than just to some higher taxonomic group. That is rare indeed. Even the modern coelacanth, on closer examination, had to be put in a different genus from any known fossil.
新發(fā)現(xiàn)引人注目的是它與現(xiàn)代動(dòng)物如此相似，以致它可以被列入現(xiàn)有生物分類種類(林奈物種以上分類的最低等)，而不是只被列入某一更高等的分類組。這的確罕見(jiàn)。經(jīng)過(guò)仔細(xì)觀察，甚至就連現(xiàn)代腔棘魚都必須得歸類于不同于任何已知化石的種類。
Clearly the body plan of Schizodactylus is not merely good, but optimal, at least for the environment the animal lives in. Alas for Schizodactylus, the sandy deserts it prefers have retreated from north-eastern Brazil and its optimality there has vanished. But its discovery shows better what this part of the world was like 100m years ago—and also illustrates an important point about evolution that is often forgotten in biologists' understandable focus on the development of novelty. The first rule of natural selection is: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
顯然，節(jié)肢動(dòng)物的體型方案不僅是最好的，也是最佳的，至少對(duì)這種動(dòng)物生活的環(huán)境而言是如此。唉，對(duì)節(jié)肢動(dòng)物來(lái)說(shuō)，它所喜愛(ài)的沙質(zhì)沙漠已經(jīng)從巴西東北部退卻，它在那里的最佳體態(tài)已經(jīng)消失。但它的發(fā)現(xiàn)恰好說(shuō)明這部分的大千世界跟1億年前的樣子很象，也說(shuō)明了進(jìn)化論的一個(gè)重點(diǎn)，而這點(diǎn)在生物學(xué)家關(guān)注理解新穎性的發(fā)展時(shí)往往被遺忘了。自然選擇的第一條規(guī)則是："如果沒(méi)壞，就不要修理它。"
英文長(zhǎng)篇文章帶翻譯3
愛(ài)的代價(jià) The price of love
The junta's policy of eliminating its enemies still fascinates Argentina's novelists;
軍政府清除異己的政策至今仍吸引著阿根廷小說(shuō)家;
Purgatory. By Tomás Eloy Martínez. Translated by Frank Wynne.
《煉獄》，Tomás Eloy Martínez著，F(xiàn)rank Wynne譯。
An Open Secret. By Carlos Gamerro. Translated by Ian Barnett.
《公開(kāi)的秘密》，Carlos Gamerro著，Ian Barnett譯。
Open Door. By Iosi Havilio. Translated by Beth Fowler.
《敞開(kāi)的門》，Iosi Havilio著，Beth Fowler譯。
7 Ways to Kill a Cat. By Matías Néspolo. Translated by Frank Wynne.
《殺死一只貓的7種方式》，Matías Néspolo著，F(xiàn)rank Wynne譯。
It seems appropriate now that Argentina's investigation into the fate of its desaparecidos—the 8,960 people officially known to have “disappeared” under the military dictatorship of 1976-83—was headed by a writer. Ernesto Sábato, who died in April at the age of 99, described his task as a “slow descent into hell”. Ever since “Never Again”, his 1984 report on the “dirty war”, generations of Argentine novelists have followed Sábato into the inferno.
1976-83年，在這段軍事獨(dú)裁時(shí)期阿根廷有8960人被官方確認(rèn)為 “失蹤”，對(duì)這些失蹤者命運(yùn)的調(diào)查，可以說(shuō)走在最前沿的是一位作家。Ernesto Sábato，今年4月逝世，終年99歲，他將這項(xiàng)工作描述為“緩緩沉入地獄”。自從他對(duì)這場(chǎng)“骯臟戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)”的報(bào)道《再也不會(huì)》(Never Again)于1984年發(fā)表后，一代代阿根廷小說(shuō)家跟隨Sábato走入這段地獄般的歷史。
For Argentine society, the chapter never closes. Continuing revelations about hundreds of adopted children who were abducted with their parents, or born in custody, have resulted in DNA tests and legal challenges by a campaigning group, “Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo”. Two of these fine recent novels revisit events during the junta. The others—both exceptional debuts—focus on a disturbing present, yet are haunted by unexplained disappearances.
對(duì)于阿根廷社會(huì)來(lái)說(shuō)，這一篇章永不會(huì)結(jié)束。當(dāng)年數(shù)百兒童隨父母一同遭到綁架，有的或出生在拘留所中，這些兒童隨后被他人收養(yǎng)。隨著他們身世不斷被揭開(kāi)，一個(gè)名為“五月廣場(chǎng)祖母協(xié)會(huì)”的人權(quán)組織呼吁進(jìn)行DNA鑒定，并質(zhì)疑法律的公正性。最近一批優(yōu)秀小說(shuō)中有兩部回顧了軍政府時(shí)期的事件。其余幾部均是杰出的處女作小說(shuō)，故事圍繞現(xiàn)代生活展開(kāi)，但人們同樣被不明原因的失蹤事件困擾，終日惶惶不安。
Tomás Eloy Martínez (pictured above), a prominent journalist, novelist and academic who spent years in exile and died in 2010, is known for his explorations of the psychology of Peronism, among them “Santa Evita” (1995). In “Purgatory” (2008), his last novel, an Argentine cartographer in suburban New Jersey senses that her husband has returned to her, no older than when he disappeared 30 years earlier. After years of searching, she remains impervious to evidence of his death as it would confirm that her father, a cheerleading propagandist for the junta, connived in his killing. The novel alludes to the mixture of hypocrisy and collusion that characterised that period, and the banal sentimentality of its distractions—flying saucers, soap operas, fatherland and fútbol (the infamous 1978 World Cup hosted and won by Argentina). The heroine's state of denial and her ghostly and erotic delusions mirror a country still struggling with reality.
托馬斯·埃洛伊·馬丁內(nèi)斯(Tomás Eloy Martínez)(見(jiàn)上圖)是一位杰出的新聞工作者、小說(shuō)家和學(xué)者，曾度過(guò)數(shù)年流亡生活，在2010年去世。他以庇隆主義心理學(xué)研究著稱，代表作《圣埃維塔》(Santa Evita)(1995)?！稛挭z》(Purgatory)(2008)是馬丁內(nèi)斯的最后一部小說(shuō)。家住新澤西郊區(qū)的阿根廷制圖師終于與丈夫重聚，但她發(fā)覺(jué)丈夫和30年前失蹤時(shí)一樣年輕。這些年她不停尋找，雖有證據(jù)證明丈夫的死亡，但她始終不為所動(dòng)，因?yàn)檫@也可能證實(shí)她的父親，一名軍政府高級(jí)參謀，參與了這起謀殺。小說(shuō)影射了當(dāng)時(shí)社會(huì)的偽善，人與人相互勾結(jié)，精神生活和日常消遣平庸乏味——飛碟、肥皂劇、談?wù)搰?guó)事和足球(由阿根廷舉辦并奪冠的不甚光彩的1978年世界杯)。小說(shuō)中的女主角拒絕接受現(xiàn)實(shí)，終日魂勞夢(mèng)斷，反應(yīng)出一個(gè)國(guó)家仍在與現(xiàn)實(shí)抗?fàn)幍纳鐣?huì)現(xiàn)狀。
Craven complicity is at the heart of Carlos Gamerro's “An Open Secret”, a literary thriller first published in 2002 that has the makings of a classic. The perfect crime is “one committed in the sight of everyone—because then there are no witnesses, only accomplices.” A veteran of the war in the Falklands (or Malvinas as they are known in Argentina) returns in the 1990s to his hometown in the pampas to probe the disappearance in custody of a troublesome young journalist during the weekend of Diego Maradona's football debut 20 years earlier. He finds a “conspiracy of chattiness” rather than of silence, over a murder the whole town was in on.
懦弱的同謀是Carlos Gamerro小說(shuō)《公開(kāi)的秘密》(An Open Secret)的中心內(nèi)容，該書最早出版于2002年，是一部有實(shí)力成為經(jīng)典作品的驚悚小說(shuō)。完美的犯罪是“眾目睽睽之下的犯罪——因?yàn)檫@樣沒(méi)有目擊者，只有同謀。”一位參加過(guò)?？颂m群島(阿根廷稱之為馬爾維納斯群島)戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)的老兵上世紀(jì)90年代回到他在潘帕斯草原的家，對(duì)一起事件進(jìn)行調(diào)查：20年前迭戈·馬拉多納首次登場(chǎng)比賽，就在那個(gè)周末，一個(gè)被拘留的麻煩纏身的年輕記者莫名失蹤。他發(fā)現(xiàn)這并不是一場(chǎng)沉默的陰謀，而是“人人都在談?wù)摰年幹\”，這起謀殺在全城人盡皆知。
Mr Gamerro, who was born in 1962, departs from a previous generation's reverence for eyewitness testimony and memorialising the dead. The tone is hard-boiled, its cynicism alleviated by rare lyrical flights, and the desaparecido emerges as a spoilt mama's boy and unsavoury womaniser. The “involuntary martyr” is no hero. The perspective is that of a generation seeking the unadulterated truth about their parents and grandparents during the “dirty war”—and hence their own identity. Amid the torrential self- justification of the townsfolk, from barbers to bankers, the subject becomes language itself, which is used to excuse and obfuscate. The stark epigraph is from William Burroughs: “To speak is to lie/To live is to collaborate.”
Gamerro出生于1962年，對(duì)于歷史見(jiàn)證者的證言和對(duì)死者的紀(jì)念方式，他沒(méi)有像上一代人那樣完全表現(xiàn)出敬畏。小說(shuō)語(yǔ)調(diào)冰冷，偶有的情感抒發(fā)使文章少了些憤世嫉俗之感。失蹤者被塑造成受媽媽寵愛(ài)的男孩的形象，喜歡拈花惹草，令人反感。“非自愿的犧牲者”絕非英雄。作者將視角投向一代人追尋真相，探查“骯臟戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)”期間父輩和祖父輩最真實(shí)的經(jīng)歷——同時(shí)這也是對(duì)自己身份的探尋。從理發(fā)師到銀行家，市民們自我辯護(hù)的話語(yǔ)鋪天蓋地而來(lái)，人人自顧開(kāi)脫，令真相撲朔迷離，而這部分語(yǔ)言也構(gòu)成了小說(shuō)的主體。書中令人警醒的題詞源自威廉·柏洛茲(William Burroughs)的語(yǔ)句：“語(yǔ)言即謊言/生存即勾結(jié)。”
The bereaved mother in “An Open Secret” appears mad, though the madness is all around her. In “Open Door” by Iosi Havilio, who was born only in 1974, Argentina resembles an asylum. A young veterinary assistant relates how her female lover went missing. She fears that she may have seen her commit suicide off a bridge in Buenos Aires's old port. Between trips to the morgue to identify corpses, she visits a pampas village named Open Door, after the psychiatric hospital that was founded there in 1898 as an “agricultural work colony”. In the countryside she moves between two partners: an ageing gaucho—whose name is the same as his ailing horse, Jaime—and an amoral, druggie country girl with plaits.
《公開(kāi)的秘密》中失去兒子的母親顯得有些精神失常，事實(shí)上這種荒誕不經(jīng)充斥于她周邊?！冻ㄩ_(kāi)的門》(Open Door)作者Iosi Havilio，是一位出生于1974年的年青作家。在阿根廷，open door被視為精神病院。故事中一個(gè)年輕的獸醫(yī)助理在敘述她的女朋友失蹤的情形。她似乎看到她從布宜諾斯艾利斯舊港口的一座橋上跳了下去，她很擔(dān)心。在幾次前往太平間辨認(rèn)遺體的過(guò)程中，女主角拜訪了一個(gè)潘帕斯小鎮(zhèn)。小鎮(zhèn)名叫敞開(kāi)的門，是以1898年在此建成的精神病院得名，這里一直是“農(nóng)業(yè)耕種殖民地”。在鄉(xiāng)下她往返于兩個(gè)情人之間：一個(gè)是老成的高楚牧人——名字和他的病馬一樣，Jaime;另一個(gè)是梳著辮子，不明事理、吸毒成癮的鄉(xiāng)下女孩。
As sexual encounters unfold in the woman's alienated voice, the characters merge with the village “loonies”. Events, like interchangeable lovers, have equal weight, from a stable fire to the brewing of maté tea, in an ambiguous tale that verges on dark comedy. A suspected UFO turns out to be the spotlit film set for a commercial. In an asylum without walls, there is “nothing to limit the illusion of absolute liberty”; ultimate control is when people no longer feel they are being coerced. With skill and subtlety, the novel hints that a whole society might labour under an illusion of liberty, manipulated by forces outside the frame.
故事在女主角迷茫的聲音中繼續(xù)上演，浪漫情事隨之展開(kāi)，書中人物逐漸加入到小鎮(zhèn)“瘋子”的行列。對(duì)于女主角和各位情人之間發(fā)生的各種故事，作者給予了同等的筆墨，從描寫馬廄的熱火到?jīng)_泡馬黛茶的情節(jié)，整個(gè)故事寓意隱晦，充滿黑色喜劇味道。一個(gè)疑似UFO的物體原來(lái)是為商業(yè)廣告設(shè)置的聚光燈。在沒(méi)有圍墻的精神病院，“可以無(wú)限幻想絕對(duì)自由”;當(dāng)人民不再感到壓迫，即是統(tǒng)治的最高境界。小說(shuō)巧妙地暗示了整個(gè)社會(huì)都在一種自由的假象下勞作，而操縱這一切的是外圍的勢(shì)力。
What those malign forces might be is more explicit in “7 Ways to Kill a Cat” by Matías Néspolo, another debut novelist of Mr Havilio's generation. His shantytown tale from southern Buenos Aires, which recalls the “City of God” slum in the Rio favelas, is set during Argentina's 2001 financial crash, with protesters defying tear gas, from teachers to lorry drivers. It opens in a barrio at the “wolf's mouth”, where the asphalt and streetlights give out, with two peso-less youths butchering a cat for meat. As they become embroiled in a lethal turf war between drug lords, the narrator, Gringo, probes the mystery of his mother's disappearance, and that of his cousin—a reformed gangster turned pavement hawker.
這些邪惡勢(shì)力究竟是什么，《殺死一只貓的7種方式》(7 Ways to Kill a Cat)對(duì)此進(jìn)行了詳盡的記述。作者M(jìn)atías Néspolo，與Havilio是同時(shí)代人，也是一位初次亮相的作家。小說(shuō)以2001年阿根廷經(jīng)濟(jì)危機(jī)為時(shí)代背景，當(dāng)時(shí)從教師到卡車司機(jī)，都參與到抗議者隊(duì)伍中，公然反抗警察鎮(zhèn)壓。這部窩棚區(qū)故事取材于布宜諾斯艾利斯南部，讓人想到位于里約貧民窟的“上帝之城”貧民區(qū)。故事在有著“狼口”之稱的地區(qū)展開(kāi)，這是柏油路和路燈的盡頭，兩個(gè)身無(wú)分文的青年為了填飽肚子正在宰殺一只貓。之后他們卷入與毒梟爭(zhēng)奪地盤的致命斗爭(zhēng)，故事的敘述者Gringo對(duì)兩起神秘失蹤事件展開(kāi)調(diào)查，一位是他的母親，另一位是他的表兄——曾是一個(gè)惡棍，改過(guò)自新后成了街邊小販。
Gringo, torn between moral scruples and the need to “look after number one”, learns that there are only two ways to kill a cat: civilised or savage. A police crackdown on the marchers prompts him to retaliate in what he sees as a “seriously civilised fashion”. One of the characters in “An Open Secret” claims bitterly that in Argentina, “the winners make history and the losers write it.” To judge from these novels that scour the past and mourn the future, it seems nobody won.
Gringo在道德和“一己私欲”之間倍受折磨，他意識(shí)到殺死一只貓只有兩種方式：文明的方式或野蠻的方式。警察對(duì)游行者的鎮(zhèn)壓迫使他以一種自認(rèn)為“極度文明的方式”展開(kāi)報(bào)復(fù)?！豆_(kāi)的秘密》中有人曾悲憤地說(shuō)，在阿根廷“勝利者創(chuàng)造歷史，失敗者記錄歷史。”縱觀這些追尋過(guò)去、憂心未來(lái)的小說(shuō)，這里似乎并沒(méi)有贏家。