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最好的运动

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什么是最好的运动?答案人人不一。其实,即使一项活动都算不上是运动,只要能参与其中,乐在其中,就可以担得上“最好”之称。如果能将这份快乐与他人分享,那便更加其乐无穷,不是吗?

When Ms. Brady asked her fifth-grade students to call out their favorite sport, most of them said baseball, football, or basketball. Marcel chose hockey, while Ben and Nancy settled on soccer. Abbie, who was a bit of an odd duck1), picked pro wrestling. But it was Dean's response that made every head in the class turn in his direction.

"Could you repeat that, please?" Ms. Brady asked.

"Arrowhead2) hunting," Dean said again.

The teacher smiled. "I'm not sure that's a sport, Dean. A sport is an activity in which you compete against another person or team, matching your skills with a goal in mind. Does that sound like arrowhead hunting?"

"Yep!" Dean said. "When I'm hunting arrowheads, I'm sometimes competing against another person, but I'm always competing against Mother Nature. It takes great skill to locate an artifact that might only be partly exposed after being buried for hundreds of years. And my goal is to find the nicest and oldest arrowheads I can."

"Sounds like a sport to me," Abbie agreed.

"How can you tell how old the arrowheads are?" Marcel asked.

"I have books to help me identify them," Dean explained. "I've found some that are about 8000 years old!"

Eyebrows raised all around the room.

"Whether arrowhead hunting is a sport or a hobby," Ms. Brady said, "it certainly seems to have interested you all. Can I see hands for those who'd like to take a field trip3) to look for arrowheads?"

Twenty-four hands shot into the air. Abbie put up both her arms.

"Very good," Ms. Brady said. "Do you know the proper name for your 'sport', Dean?"

"Archaeology," he replied.

"Correct." She walked to the board at the front of the classroom. "You can actually spell the word two different ways: archaeology or archeology." She wrote out both. "But 'a' or no 'a', it means the study of ancient humans. I'll contact a farmer friend of mine to see if we can pay his field a visit to look for arrowheads."

Cheers filled the room.

That next Friday, a school bus carried the class into the countryside an hour's drive from the school. Ms. Brady's friend had given permission for the students to use his farm as their archaeological dig site. Three days of rain had washed the freshly tilled4) earth, which meant that the arrowheads would be free of soil and easier to find.

As they traveled, Dean explained that nearly all arrowheads are made of flint5). He described how to spot them shining in the mud and even passed around a box of his own arrowheads so they could see what they were looking for.

All morning long, the kids walked up and down the field. But Dean didn't join his friends in the hunt. Instead, he stood at the edge of the dig site, a book in his hands, helping his classmates identify their finds.

"Is this anything?" Abbie asked, holding out her hand.

Dean took a close look. "That's a leave-erite."

"What's that mean?"

"It means 'leave'er right' where you found it. It's just a rock."

"Oh," Abbie said, grinning.

They weren't all "leave-erites", though. By the time Ms. Brady served lunch, both Ben and Nancy had found arrowheads about 1000 years old! And Marcel had found a scraper6), a blade-like stone tool.

While they ate their boxed meals, Dean told how the farmer's field was only a few miles from a large flint deposit7). Ancient tribes, he said, had traveled long distances to dig the flint from the ground. Even the tribes that were unfriendly to one another had worked the area in peace because they all needed the flint for their arrowheads so they could hunt animals for food.

As the afternoon passed, Ms. Brady discovered the base of a large arrowhead made from an orange, clear piece of flint. She said she planned to hang it as a suncatcher in her classroom window.

By the time they left for school, each kid had his or her pockets full of flint chips8). When the bus pulled up9) to the school, all the students roared their approval to Dean. There was even some applause and a few cries of "Speech! Speech!"

Dean was too embarrassed to speak, so Ms. Brady stood. "I'm not sure if we've decided if arrowhead hunting is a sport or not," she said, "but I think we can all agree that it was a lot of fun. And we can also all agree to thank Dean for his patience and skill. He's the best sport10) of all!"

布雷迪女士让自己五年级的学生大声说出他们最喜欢的运动,大多数同学的回答都是棒球、橄榄球或者篮球。马塞尔选择了曲棍球,本和南希则选了足球。有点特立独行的阿比挑了职业摔跤。但只有迪安的回答让班上所有人都扭头看向他。

“可以请你再重复一遍吗?”布雷迪女士问。

“寻找箭镞。”迪安又说了一遍。

布雷迪女士笑了笑。“迪安,我不确定寻找箭镞是否算一种运动。运动是指你与另一个人或一支队伍展开竞赛,并运用技巧实现心中的目标的一种活动。寻找箭镞是这样的吗?”

“是的!”迪安说,“寻找箭镞时,虽然我有时候是在跟另一个人竞赛,但一直以来我都是在跟大自然竞赛。一件石器被埋藏了数百年之后,可能只有一部分暴露在外,想要找到它需要高超的技巧。而且我的目标是要尽我所能找到那些保存最完好、最古老的箭镞。”

“这样听起来,我倒觉得寻找箭镞就是一种运动。”阿比表示赞同。

“那你怎么看出那些箭镞有多少年的历史呢?”马塞尔问道。

“我有一些书可以帮助我进行辨别,”迪安解释说,“我已经找到了一些大约有八千年历史的箭镞!”

教室里的所有人都很惊讶。

“不管寻找箭镞是一种运动还是一种个人爱好,”布雷迪女士说,“它看起来确实已经引起了你们所有人的兴趣。想参加寻找箭镞的野外实地考察的同学可以举起手来让我看一下吗?”

24只手都唰地一下高高举起。阿比还把双臂都举了起来。

“很好,”布雷迪女士说,“迪安,你知道你这项‘运动’的专业叫法吗?”

“考古。”他回答说。

“正确。”布雷迪女士走向教室前面的黑板。“这个单词其实有两种拼法:archaeology或archeology。”她把这两种拼法都写了出来。“不过,不管有‘a’还是没有‘a’,它指的都是研究古人类的学科。我会联系我的一位农场主朋友,看看我们是否可以去他家的田地里寻找箭镞。”

欢呼声充斥了整个教室。

接下来的那个周五,一辆校车把全班同学送到了距学校一个小时车程的乡下。布雷迪女士的朋友已经允许同学们把他家农场当做考古挖掘现场。雨连下了三天,将刚刚耕过的土壤洗刷了一番,这也就意味着箭镞上面不会沾土,比较容易找到。

同学们在田间走动的时候,迪安讲解说,差不多所有的箭镞都是用燧石制成的。他讲述了如何才能在泥土中辨认出闪闪发亮的箭镞,甚至还把自己的一盒箭镞给同学们传着看了看,让他们知道自己要寻找什么样的东西。

整个上午,孩子们都在田间走来走去。但迪安并没有跟朋友们一起寻找箭镞,而是拿着一本书站在挖掘现场的边上,帮助同学们辨别他们找到的东西。

“这是不是什么好东西?”阿比伸出一只手,问道。

迪安仔细地看了一下,说:“那是一个‘放回原处’。”

“什么意思啊?”

“意思是你在哪儿找到的,就把它‘放回原处’吧。那只是一块岩石。”

“哦。”阿比咧着嘴笑着说。

不过,同学们找到的东西并不全是“放回原处”。布雷迪女士给他们送来午餐时,本和南希俩人都找到了大约有一千年历史的箭镞!马塞尔还找到一个刮具,那是形似刀片的一种石器。

在他们吃盒饭时,迪安告诉大家,这位农场主的田地距一处大型燧石矿床很近,只有几英里的距离。他说,古代各部落曾走很远的路去那里挖掘地下的燧石,甚至那些互不友好的部落也会在那里和平开采,因为他们都需要用燧石制作的箭镞来捕食动物。

下午渐渐过去了,布雷迪女士发现了一个地方,那里埋藏着一支由一块无杂质的橙色燧石制成的大箭镞。她说她打算把这支箭镞当成一个反光饰品挂在教室的窗户上。

到返校时,每个孩子的口袋里都装满了燧石碎片。校车在学校停下后,所有同学都大声喊出了他们对迪安的赞许,甚至还响起了一些掌声,有几个同学还大声喊着“讲几句!讲几句!”

迪安难为情地都说不出话来,布雷迪女士便站了起来。“对于寻找箭镞是否是一种运动这个问题,我不确定我们是否已经做出了判断,”她说,“不过我认为我们大家都同意寻找箭镞是一件很有趣的事情。而且,我们也都一致认为,我们要感谢迪安的耐心指导和专业技术。他是我们当中最乐于助人的人!”

1. odd duck: 指性格独特、行为怪僻的人

2. arrowhead [??r??hed] n. 箭头,箭镞。在本文中指古代人用的箭头状的石器,多由燧石制成。

3. field trip: (学生的)校外考察旅行

4. till [t?l] vt. 耕,犁

5. flint [fl?nt] n. 燧石,火石

6. scraper [?skre?p?(r)] n. 刮具

7. deposit [d??p?z?t] n. 【矿】矿床

8. chip [t??p] n. (木、石等上削、凿、碰或剥落下的)屑片,碎片

9. pull up: (车等)开到某处停下

10. sport [sp??t] n. 乐于助人的伙伴。由于本文最开头是要选出the best sport (最好的运动),因此Ms. Brady最后巧妙地使用the best sport (最乐于助人的人)来夸赞Dean。