Absorbed,Not Transmitting

Sue Wunder

I can think of no more common a sight in a college town than that of students striding through campus or along adjacent neighborhood sidewalks with earbuds in place and eyes glued to a palm-held electronic device.1. stride: 大步走，闊步行走； adjacent:鄰近的，相鄰的；sidewalk: 人行道；earbud: 耳塞；with eyes glued to: 目不轉(zhuǎn)睛地盯著，專注于。They somehow negotiate pedestrians and traffic with aplomb, as if pinging their route with a sonar app.2. negotiate: 順利通過，成功越過；pedestrian: 步行者，行人；aplomb: 沉著，泰然自若；ping: 聲吶的一次脈沖，此處指精確定位的意思；sonar: 聲吶（設(shè)備），船只或潛艇上利用聲波探測水下目標(biāo)位置的儀器。

I gaze in awe. How do they remain upright and unscathed3. unscathed: 未受損傷的。? And how can they bear to relinquish the delights of walking from class to class fully attuned to their actual physical

有網(wǎng)友調(diào)侃道：“世界上最遙遠(yuǎn)的距離，不是生與死，而是我就在你身邊，你卻在玩手機(jī)。”這正是許多人生活的真實(shí)寫照。在大學(xué)校園中也不乏這些“低頭看屏幕”的“低頭族”們。究竟是什么吸引了他們的注意力？他們與一邊走路一邊沉迷于書中的老一輩學(xué)子、與以前邊走邊沉迷于路旁美景的人有什么不同呢？同樣是沉迷，方向卻截然不同。paths4. relinquish: 放棄，出讓（權(quán)力或控制）；attune to: 對(duì)……適應(yīng)，對(duì)……熟悉?！猼o the endless social, architectural, and natural entertainments of an eyes-forward, ears-open journey?

But navigating disengaged is the new reality.Almost all of the Indiana University students I cross paths with on a regular basis have downcast eyes as they glide along, oblivious to the newly opening daffodils, greening trees, Bloomington’s venerable limestone facades, and one another.5. downcast:（眼睛）向下看的，低垂的；glide: 靜悄悄地走，滑行；oblivious: 不注意的，未察覺的；daffodil: 水仙花；Bloomington:（印第安納州）布盧明頓市，印第安納大學(xué)主校區(qū)所在地；venerable:（因年代久遠(yuǎn)或具有重要?dú)v史價(jià)值）令人仰慕的，神圣莊嚴(yán)的；limestone: 石灰石；facade: （建筑物的）正面。Clearly, stuff more compelling to them beckons from those reflective miniscreens.6. compelling: 非常有趣的，很有吸引力的；beckon: （招手）示意，召喚。And who knows? I might have fit right into such a scene had smartphones and the like been around when I was in school. Our cordless connections reached just about as far as our Frisbees7. Frisbee: 飛盤。flew.

The other day, though, one young passerby proved an exception to his peers. The expression on his downturned face was contemplative, his gait deeply familiar and engaging.8. contemplative: 沉思的，出神的；gait: 步態(tài)，步伐。I didn’t actually know him, but I knew—with a glance at his face and posture—what he was doing differently, even before I saw the book in his hand: Not a Kindle, but an actual book held his attention as he ambled9. amble: 緩行，漫步。by me. The book was hardbound, its pages ruffling in the breeze and its two halves bobbling from its spine to his quiet, pedestrian rhythm.10. ruffle: 使……波動(dòng)，起伏；bobble: 上下晃動(dòng)；spine: 書脊。

大學(xué)城中，再也沒有比這更常見的了：學(xué)生們戴著耳塞，眼睛死死盯著掌中的電子設(shè)備，大踏步穿過校園，或沿著附近街區(qū)的人行道快走。不知怎么地，他們竟能自如穿梭在行人和車輛之間，就好像正在用聲吶系統(tǒng)精確定位路徑似的。

我滿心敬畏地觀察著這一切。他們究竟如何保持筆直身姿而又毫發(fā)無損？他們又怎能忍心放棄課間步旅之樂，不去用心熟悉感知這一條條路徑——不瞪大雙眼，豎起耳朵，將這一路無窮無盡的社會(huì)人文、建筑和自然美景盡數(shù)納入心底？

但漠然行進(jìn)是新現(xiàn)實(shí)。我常在路上碰到的印第安納大學(xué)學(xué)生幾乎都這樣：低垂著雙眼，悶不吭聲地走路，完全無視那些剛剛盛開的水仙花發(fā)出新芽的綠樹，布盧明頓市古老莊嚴(yán)的石灰?guī)r外墻，以及身邊經(jīng)過的行人。顯然，那些反光的迷你屏幕里有更吸引人的東西在召喚他們。誰知道呢？要是我還在上學(xué)時(shí)智能手機(jī)等設(shè)備已經(jīng)像現(xiàn)在這么流行了的話，我有可能也成為他們的同道中人?？上?，當(dāng)時(shí)我們的無線連接只有一丈之遠(yuǎn)。

然而，有一天，我看到了一位與眾不同的年輕人。他低垂的臉上，是沉思的表情；他的步伐，是那么熟悉與迷人。其實(shí)我并不認(rèn)識(shí)他，但我知道——僅看了一眼他的臉龐和身姿之后——他與別人不同，甚至在我注意到他手中的書之前，我就知道了：當(dāng)他從我身旁經(jīng)過時(shí)，令他如此全神貫注的不是Kindle電子書，而是一本紙質(zhì)書。這是一本精裝書，書頁在微風(fēng)中沙沙抖動(dòng)，書身隨著他無聲、有節(jié)奏的步伐上下晃動(dòng)著。

It got me to wondering what made him look different from his peers and so familiar to me. He was lost in a world he held in one hand. Certainly there was the element of startled nostalgia—in my college days, we all used to wander about campus with books.11. startled: 受驚的；nostalgia: 懷舊之情；wander: 漫步。These days it is a rare sight indeed. His thumb,forming the top half of a gentle human vise12. vise: 夾鉗，老虎鉗。that secured the slim volume, was at rest—not tapping an icon or texting. He was all about absorbing, not transmitting. Nor was he squinting to decipher words on a tiny, shiny surface.13. squint: 瞇著眼看，斜著眼看；decipher: 辨認(rèn)。His entire body was relaxed into the old multitasking exercise of walking with an open and wonderfully sunlit book.

It’s been years since I’ve done that, missing everything along my path en route to class or dorm. These days, I pay attention to my path simply to ensure that I remain on my feet. But I’m glad someone knows what an absorbing and centering exercise it is to lose oneself in a book, even along a trajectory14. trajectory: 軌跡。to somewhere else.

我不禁開始好奇，想弄明白是什么使他看起來與眾不同，并讓我感到如此熟悉。他沉迷在書的世界里。當(dāng)然，這里面不免帶有些忽然襲來的懷舊之情——還在上大學(xué)時(shí)，我們都曾捧著書在校園里徜徉。如今，這已是罕見之景。他的拇指輕輕夾著薄薄的書脊，像夾鉗的上半部分似的，是靜止不動(dòng)的——而不是在點(diǎn)擊圖標(biāo)或發(fā)短信。他正在吸收，而不是在發(fā)送，也不是在瞇著眼睛試圖辨認(rèn)迷你亮屏上的字詞。他一邊行走，一邊讀著陽光下亮閃閃的書頁，沉浸于這項(xiàng)古老的多重運(yùn)動(dòng)中，整個(gè)人都處在放松狀態(tài)。

我已經(jīng)很多年沒有這么做了，因而錯(cuò)過了去教室或?qū)嬍衣飞系木吧?。如今，我專心致志地走路，僅是為了不要摔倒而已。但看到有人能體會(huì)到在書中（或在去往彼處的路上）迷失自我是一件多么引人入勝、關(guān)注內(nèi)心的事情，我充滿了喜悅之情。