背景知識
早期的新加坡人，住在木質的亞答屋裏，大約20-30戶人家組成一個小村落——甘榜（馬來語Kampong的音譯）。在甘榜，村民與大自然和諧相處。深入村莊，就能注意到叽叽喳喳的鳥叫和青蛙的呱呱聲。在一些地方，地面上布滿了修剪整齊的草，讓村莊感覺像一個公園。甘榜的生活，遠離城市的喧囂，爲村民們提供了一定的自由。在這些甘榜裏，沒有像樣的道路，直到1960年代的兩場鋪天蓋地的大火，燒毀了兩萬人的家，卻點燃了政府規劃居住環境的激情。伴隨著新加坡著名的組屋制度，一個個甘榜村落被拆除，一批批村民走進了現代化的房屋。近半個世紀過去了，新加坡所有的甘榜村落都已經拆除重建，只剩本島的甘榜羅弄萬國，以及新加坡離島、烏敏島。
正文閱讀
Scenes from An Almost Vanished Singapore
新加坡幾乎快消失的景象
Wah! six slices of bread for breakfast: Sng Mui Hong was unusually hungry. She knew what that meant. The spirit of her father, dead these past 25 years, was with her, and he was starving. Not that Ms Sng could see her father—she never had been able to see ghosts—but she could sense his presence: a heavy weight on her shoulders or a yawning pit in her stomach, hungry for white bread.
哇！早餐吃六片面包：孫梅紅（Sng Mui Hong）特別餓。她知道這意味著什麽。她的父親已于25年前去世，但他的靈魂卻一直陪伴著她，並且她的父親在挨餓。孫女士並不能看到她的父親——她從來沒有見過鬼，但她能感覺到他的存在：肩膀上沉重的負擔，心窩深處的巨大觸動，對白面包的渴望。
She was grateful he had shown up today. Torrential rain had fallen that morning, the drops hitting the zinc roof of her house like a hail of bullets. The open drains slicing through the village had clogged with twigs and leaves, as usual, and Ms Sng had to clear them. She did not thrill at the prospect. At 69 she was not as strong as she used to be, and her knee was giving her trouble. It was not as if the tenants would complain if she left the drains blocked. But clearing them was just what she did, what she had always done. The bread, and her father, would give her strength.
她很感激他今天能來。那天早上下了一場傾盆大雨，雨點像子彈一樣打在她家的鋅屋頂上。像往常一樣，村裏敞開的排水溝被樹枝和樹葉堵塞，孫女士不得不清理它們。她對這種景象並不感到興奮。69歲的她不像以前那麽強壯了，而且她的膝蓋現在也老是出問題。如果她對被堵塞了的下水道置之不理，房客們似乎也不會抱怨。但清理它們就是她做的，她一直都是這麽做的。面包和她的父親會帶給她力量。
So she limped out into the drizzle. Along with her three siblings, Ms Sng owns Kampong Lorong Buangkok, the last village in mainland Singapore. The kampong, which means “village” in Malay, is in the middle of the city-state, and is about the size of three football pitches. Unlike her siblings, Ms Sng lives there and manages the property and the 25 tenant-households. Her skin is rumpled and weathered.
于是她一瘸一拐地走進毛毛雨中。孫女士和她的三個兄弟姐妹一起擁有著新加坡大陸上的最後一個村莊——甘榜羅弄萬國。甘榜在馬來語中是“村莊”的意思，位于這個城市國家的中部，大約有三個足球場那麽大。與她的兄弟姐妹不同，孫女士住在那裏，管理著這處房産和25戶租戶。她的皮膚皺皺巴巴，飽經風霜。
今日單詞
- scene /siːn/ n.場面；場景；景象；
- vanished /ˈvænɪʃt/ adj.消失了的；
- Singapore /ˈsɪŋəpɔːr/ 新加坡；
- unusually /ʌnˈjuːʒuəli/ adv.異乎尋常地；罕有地；
- starving/ˈstɑːrvɪŋ/ adj.饑餓的；挨餓的；
- sense /sens/ vt.察覺；感覺；
- presence /ˈprezns/ n.存在；出現；
- a yawning pit 巨大的觸動；
- grateful /ˈɡreɪtfl/ adj.感激的；感謝的；
- torrential /təˈrenʃl/ adj.（雨）傾瀉似的；如注的；
- zinc /zɪŋk/ n.鋅；
- a hail of 一陣；
- bullet/ˈbʊlɪt/ n.子彈；
- drain /dreɪn/ n.下水道；排水溝；
- slice /slaɪs/ vi.滑；快速穿過；
- clog /klɑːɡ/ vi.塞滿；
- twig /twɪɡ/ n.小枝；
- as usual 像平常一樣；照例；
- thrill /θrɪl/ vi.興奮；激動；
- prospect /ˈprɑːspekt/ n.前景；景象；
- use to 過去常常；
- It was not as if… 好像不是…；
- tenant /ˈtenənt/ n.租客；房客；
- complain /kəmˈpleɪn/ vi.抱怨；
- leave … done 讓…成爲…；
- block /blɑːk/ vt.阻塞；堵塞；
- limp /lɪmp/ vi.瘸著腳走；跛行；
- drizzle /ˈdrɪzl/ n.毛毛雨；細雨；
- sibling /ˈsɪblɪŋ/ n.兄弟姐妹；
- Kampong Lorong Buangkok 甘榜羅弄萬國；
- city-state/ˈsɪti steɪt/ n.城市國家；城邦；
- football pitch 足球場；
- tenant-household 租戶；
- rumpled /ˈrʌmpld/ adj.皺的；
- weathered /ˈweðərd/ adj.飽經風霜的；
素材來源
文本選自：The Economist（經濟學人）
作者：Hyonhee Shin and Josh Smith
原文發布時間：27 Dec. 2021
每日美句
What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
沒能摧毀你的，必使你強大。