e.g. The pendulum of the clock in my room is a bear. 我房间的钟摆是小熊形状的。
parameter n. 参数
e.g. It is the parameter of distribution. 这就是分布参数。
chagrined adj. 懊恼的，苦恼的
e.g. I was most chagrined when I heard that he had got the job instead of me. 当我听说是他而不是我得到了那份工作时懊恼极了。
reinvigorate v. 使再振作；给…以新的活力
e.g. All this fresh air reinvigorated me. 清新的空气使我再次精神焕发。
【正文学习】
I believe in the 50-percent theory. Half the time things are better than normal; the other half, they are worse. I believe life is a pendulum swing. It takes time and experience to understand what normal is, and that gives me the perspective to deal with the surprises of the future.
我信奉对半理论。生活时而无比顺畅，时而倒霉透顶。我觉得生活就像来回摆的钟摆。读懂生活的常态需要时间和阅历，而读懂它也练就了我面对未来的生活态度。
Let's benchmark the parameters: yes, I will die. I've dealt with the deaths of both parents, a best friend, a beloved boss and cherished pets. Some of these deaths have been violent, before my eyes, or slow and agonizing. Bad stuff, and it belongs at the bottom of the scale. 让我们确定一下好坏的标准：是的，我注定会死去。我已经经历了双亲，一位好友，一位敬爱的老板和心爱宠物的死亡。有些突如其来，近在眼前，有些却缓慢痛苦。这些都是糟糕的事情，它们属于最坏的部分。
Then there are those high points: romance and marriage to the right person; having a child and doing those Dad things like coaching my son's baseball team, paddling around the creek in the boat while he's swimming with the dogs, discovering his compassion so deep it manifests even in his kindness to snails, his imagination so vivid he builds a spaceship from a scattered pile of Legos. 生活中也不乏高潮：坠入爱河缔结良缘；身为人父养育幼子，诸如训练指导儿子的棒球队，当他和狗在小河中嬉戏时摇桨划船，感受他如此强烈的同情心，即使对蜗牛也善待有加；发现他如此丰富的想象力，即使用零散的乐高玩具积木也能堆出太空飞船。
But there is a vast meadow of life in the middle, where the bad and the good flip-flop acrobatically. This is what convinces me to believe in the 50-percent theory. 但在生活最好与最坏部分之间有一片巨大的中间地带，其间各种好事坏事像耍杂技一样上下翻滚，轮番出现。这就是让我信服对半理论的原因。
One spring I planted corn too early in a bottomland so flood-prone that neighbors laughed. I felt chagrined at the wasted effort. Summer turned brutal -- the worst heat wave and drought in my lifetime. The air-conditioned died; the well went dry; the marriage ended; the job lost; the money gone. I was living lyrics from a country tune -- music I loathed. Only a surging Kansas City Royals team buoyed my spirits. 有一年春天，我在一块洼地上过早地种上了玉米。那块地极易遭到水淹，所以邻居们都嘲笑我。我为浪费了精力而感到懊恼。没想到夏天更为残酷——我经历了最糟糕的热浪和干旱。空调坏了，井干了，婚姻破裂了，工作丢了，钱也没有。我正经历着某首乡村歌曲中描绘的情节，我讨厌这种音乐，只有刚出道不久的堪萨斯皇家棒球队能鼓舞我的精神。
Looking back on that horrible summer, I soon understood that all succeeding good things merely offset the bad. Worse than normal wouldn't last long. I am owed and savor the halcyon times. They reinvigorate me for the next nasty surprise and offer assurance that canthrive. The 50-percent theory even helps me see hope beyond my Royals' recent slump, a field of struggling rookies sown so that some year soon we can reap an October harvest.
【词汇学习】
