Sophie Zhang

∷高琦 注

生活像魔方一樣，不能拆解，只能按照時(shí)間的規(guī)律，慢慢向前滾動(dòng)；

生活像魔方一樣，千變?nèi)f化，猜不透，理不清；

生活像魔方一樣，你以為勝利在望，實(shí)際卻遙不可及；

生活像魔方一樣，擁有無(wú)數(shù)種可能……

Every great tragedy begins with an everyday object.2. tragedy: 悲劇，慘案；object: 物體，東西。

In the case of a common teen pregnancy, that object could be a straw wrapper from the first date that the girl kept as a souvenir of her affection for that handsome boy who would take advantage and then leave her when she was most in need.3. 在青少年早孕事件中，這個(gè)物品可能會(huì)是一張吸管包裝紙，是他們第一次約會(huì)的紀(jì)念品，女孩為了紀(jì)念自己對(duì)那個(gè)英俊男生的愛(ài)而收藏起來(lái)的，但他卻占了便宜后在她最需要幫助時(shí)棄她而去。pregnancy: 懷孕；wrapper:包裝紙；take advantage of: 占便宜，利用。

In the case of a murder, that object could be a book in which that troubled man read and connected with, and ended up being in fluenced for life by.4. connect with: 與……關(guān)聯(lián)，與……共鳴；end up with: 以……結(jié)束，以……告終。

In the case of a school shooting, that object could be a stick.The stick that was struck across that poor boy’s back hundreds and hundreds of times, that replayed over and over in his mind as he watched his fellow classmates crumple5. crumple: 跌倒，癱倒。to the ground.

In my case, it started out with a Rubik’s cube.

It started with a Rubik’s cube, and it ended with a Rubik’s cube. In the middle, the cube was lost for a while, but it always managed to make a few memorable appearances in between.

It’s always easy to look back, isn’t it? Looking back, I realized that I changed so many times, for good and for bad, but the Rubik’s cube always sat stuffed in my backpack,same as always.6. stuff: 把……塞進(jìn)，把……裝進(jìn)；backpack: 雙肩背包。Perhaps it became a little worse for wear over time; the colored square stickers losing their stickiness, the slides becoming a little rusty.7. 也許，隨著時(shí)間的流逝，它一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)地變得不那么好用——方塊上的彩色貼紙失去了黏性，轉(zhuǎn)軸也因生銹而轉(zhuǎn)得有些不順暢。sticker:（背面有黏膠的）貼紙；slide: 滑面，滑軌；rusty: 生銹的。However, the changes that happened with the cube were all from natural aging and getting older.

When solving it, it twists and it strains your mind, frustrating and puzzling you.8. twist: 扭歪，把……變得不正常；strain: 使精疲力盡，使勞累過(guò)度；frustrate: 使灰心，使受挫折。You want to give up, but then you’re a quitter9. quitter: 輕易放棄者，半途而廢者。. You’ll have to leave it there, unsolved, forever. It teases and it taunts you until you pick it up and give it another go.10. tease: 取笑，挑逗；taunt: 奚落，嘲弄；give it a go: 嘗試，試一試。

Over forty quintillion possibilities are possible with the Rubik’s cube, but only a few select ways in solving it.11. quintillion:（美、法）百萬(wàn)的三次方，（英、德）百萬(wàn)的五次方；select: 精選的，苛擇的。I find the cube to be horrendously unforgiving.12. horrendously: 可怕地，駭人聽(tīng)聞地；unforgiving:不原諒人的，不寬容的。You’re almost there, and you can almost feel the excitement of finishing it, and you turn it the wrong way and you can’t go back.You’ve celebrated too soon.

Yes, that simple yet complex cube can be annoying. It sits there in your hands, seemingly cruel to you, seemingly laughing at you, at your stupidity. Is it really? Albert Einstein once said,“God is subtle, not malicious.13. subtle: 難以捉摸的，微妙的；malicious: 惡意的，惡毒的?！?Some might argue that he’s wrong. That God’s subtleness is a form of maliciousness, and often it does seem that way.Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but every time you solve that cube, you get better and faster at it until you’ve mastered it.14. be entitled to: 有資格的，有權(quán)利的；master: 精通，熟練。From then on, it’s fun and skill and testing yourself and pushing yourself to go even further.

Life treats you the same way. It tests you and it pushes you down so you fall and hurt and bruise15. bruise: 使擦傷，使受傷。and break a few bones, but it always helps you up when you most need it. And eventually, those scabs and bruises will heal and you end up being more careful.16. eventually: 最后，最終；scab: 痂，疤。

Life pushed me down a cliff17. cliff: 懸崖。as hard as it could. It pushed me, and then it stomped on me and tried to grind me up.18. stomp: 重踩，踐踏；grind up: 把……磨碎。It ended up hurting me a whole lot and I can say, I’m still hurting and like a viral19. viral: 病菌的，由病菌引起的。disease, it never goes away and will deepen and spread and kill you. The cliché “everything happens for a reason” is often applied to my situation and shrugged at me.20. cliché: 陳詞濫調(diào)；shrug at: 對(duì)……聳肩（表示無(wú)知或無(wú)所謂等）。I always thought of this as an excuse for the world’s malice21. malice: 惡意，怨恨。towards me. Why was the world being so hostile22. hostile: 敵對(duì)的，懷有敵意的。to me? It seemed determined to crush me to a pulp23. crush sb. to a pulp: 把某人打個(gè)半死，把某人打得遍體鱗傷。, but not kill me. I felt like dying, but the world wouldn’t let me die. It left me hanging24. hanging: 垂頭喪氣的。, and let things become worse and worse. During that time, I really wasn’t sure if it was bad karma or just plain fate.25. karma: 因果報(bào)應(yīng)；plain: 單純的，簡(jiǎn)單的。

But I always remembered the Rubik’s Cube and the hard-to-solve third layer. Within dif ficulty lies opportunity. The opportunity to find new solutions. New answers. New possibilities. What you have to hold on to is that feeling of success once you finish. That feeling is the only thing that will keep you trying and pushing forward.