國慶長假，創造家庭的一份美好回憶

國慶長假來臨，我們討論最多的當然是回家和旅行。無論是回老家和家人團聚，還是舉家出去旅行，儘管過程不免勞苦艱辛，然而，我們卻樂在其中，享受著與家人團聚的溫暖，更為將來留下了一份美好的回憶。

下面這篇文章便講述了舉家旅行的意義：對每個人來說，家是記憶最柔軟的部分，就讓我們利用這難得的假期，與家人一起創造一份珍貴的記憶吧！

As a student of human nature, I often wonder why anyone goes on family holidays. I pondered the matter again recently when we took the kids to southern Italy. Naturally, it rained almost solidly every day. There were moments familiar to any parent, like thedeflating1)sound of an exhausted child waking up at 6:20 am; the attempt to explain Pompeii to a three-year-old; or the evening we walked forever to the restaurant we』d read about, ordered food, and then watched the children fall asleep at table before the meal arrived. Yet by the timeeasyJet2)landed us home, I think I』d figured out why people take family holidays—and, by extension, why they have families.

1. deflate [di??fle?t] vt. 使泄氣，挫……的銳氣

2. easyJet：英國易捷航空，歐洲第二大廉價航空公司，總部位於英國倫敦盧頓機場。

我是個喜歡探究人性的人，常常想不通人們為什麼會舉家出遊度假。最近，就在我們帶孩子們去義大利南部度假之際，我又仔細想了這個問題。不用說，度假那幾天幾乎天天陰雨連綿。我們要面對任何父母都熟悉不過的那些場景：累壞了的孩子在早晨6點20分醒來，吵吵鬧鬧，讓人泄氣；試圖跟一個三歲的小朋友解釋什麼是龐貝古城；晚上不辭辛苦地一路走到我們慕名前往的餐廳，點上菜，然後看著孩子們在飯菜上來之前酣然睡去。然而，當我們乘坐易捷航空的航班打道回府時，我想我總算想明白了人們為什麼會帶孩子出遊度假，甚至明白了為什麼人們會要孩子。

The 「challenges」 of family holidays are well-known. It』s hard enough getting on with your spouse and kids at home, let alone whencooped up3)with them for days. Susan M. Shaw, expert on leisure at the University of Waterloo in Canada, thinks the term 「family leisure」 is problematic. 「Research suggests that such activities do not alwayslive up to4)the leisure ideal,」 she writes, darkly.Brian Viner5)in his Cream Teas, Traffic Jams and Sunburn: The Great British Holiday describes one seaside holiday when he shared a bedroom with his parents, it rained all week, he cut off clumps of his hair from boredom, his mother smacked him and then, as a finale, they heard on the car radio on the drive home thatRobert Kennedy6)had been shot dead.

3. coop up：(在狹小的地方)把(某人)拘禁起來，把……關入籠中

4. live up to：做到，符合

5. Brian Viner：布里安·瓦伊納(1961~)，英國記者、作家

6. Robert Kennedy：羅伯特·肯尼迪(1925~1968)，第35任美國總統約翰·肯尼迪的弟弟，在約翰·肯尼迪總統任期內擔任美國司法部長，在和平解決古巴導彈危機和促進民權方面發揮了極大的作用，1968年遭遇暗殺而死。

舉家出遊度假之「難」誰都知道。在家裡跟自己的配偶以及孩子們相處已經不容易，更別說要數日和他們「關」在一個陌生的地方了。加拿大滑鐵盧大學研究休閑問題的專家蘇珊?M?肖認為，「家庭休閑」這種說法本身就存在問題。她悲觀地寫道：「研究顯示，這類活動並不總能達到理想的休閑效果。」在《奶油茶點、交通堵塞和陽光灼傷：偉大的英國假期》一書中，作者布里安?瓦伊納描述了自己的一次海灘度假經歷：他與父母同住一個房間，雨連綿不斷地下了整整一周，他無聊得剪自己的頭髮玩，被媽媽揍了一頓。度假的尾聲是他們在開車回家途中聽到廣播里說羅伯特?肯尼迪遇刺身亡了。

Family holidays probably don』t add much to the sum of human happiness. However, as an economist friend of mine likes to argue, people don』t have children for happiness. It』s a cliché of happiness research that parents are less happy than childless people. Rather, says my friend, having children is best understood as a biological urge. You have them not for the present but for the future, toperpetuate7)your genes when you are gone. And likewise, you go on family holidays not for the present but for the future.

7. perpetuate [p?(r)?pet?ue?t] vt. 使繼續，延長

帶孩子出遊度假可能並不會增加人們的幸福感。然而，正如我的一位經濟學家朋友喜歡說的，人們要孩子也不是為了快樂幸福。關於幸福的研究中就有一個老生常談，說有孩子的人不如沒孩子的人幸福。而我的那位朋友倒是認為，最好把要孩子這種行為理解為一種生物本能。人們要孩子，不是為了現在，而是為了將來，是為了在自己的生命結束後，讓自己的基因延續下去。同樣，帶孩子出遊度假也不是顧及現在，而是著眼將來。

Families try to live up to the ideal of family life while struggling with an often disappointing reality. The aim, much of the time, is to stock up good memories: to leave all family members with snapshots of happiness that they canlook back on8)after the family ceases to exist. When the kids leave home, the family effectively dissolves, even in cases where the parents are still alive and together. That means parents have only just over a decade to create happy memories: from the time the kids are about five, and have any memories at all, until they are in their late teens and heading for the exit. Family holidays are the parents』 best shot at creating those memories.

8. look back on：回顧，回憶

許多家庭都努力向理想的家庭生活靠攏，但卻掙扎於總是不盡如人意的現實。很多時候，我們度假的目的是為了留下美好的回憶：為家庭的每個成員在照片上定格出快樂的瞬間，等到大家各奔東西後，還有這些瞬間可供追憶。一旦孩子們離開家，家庭實際上就解體了，即便父母都還在世，也還生活在一起。這就意味著父母只有十來年的時間來創造快樂的回憶：從孩子們五歲左右會記事起，到他們十八九歲準備離家時止。舉家出遊度假是父母創造快樂回憶的最好方法。

Much of what we remember of our families comes from holidays. On holiday, the family exists more clearly than at any other time: all together for once, without work, school or friends. Because holidays distil9) the essence of family, they would be unbearable if they lasted more than a week or two. Indeed, less can still be fatal, as witness the number of Britons who check into mental hospitals after Christmas.

9. distil [d??st?l] vt. 從……中提取精華

我們對家庭的許多回憶都來自度假的經歷。在度假的時候，我們比任何時候都更清晰地感受到家庭的存在：總算有這麼一次全家人能聚在一起，不用工作，不用上學，沒有社交活動。假期讓家庭的本質得以體現，因此，要是度假的時間超過了一兩周，大家都會受不了。事實上，就算是假期少於一兩周，也可能要人命——你看看每年聖誕節後有多少英國人去看精神科醫生就知道了。

On holiday, youimbibe10)your family. The exotic setting imprints itself on the child』s mind. All those holiday photographs reinforce the effect. In fact, the photos themselves are perhaps the main aim of the holiday: that』s where the memories get laid down, and thenrubbed in11)over the decades.Louis Begley12)recently recalled his prewar childhood in theNew York Review of Books13). 「At the core of14)my first memories of Poland,」 he wrote, 「is a summer in the remote countryside where my grandparents had a small property.」 And he proceeded to describe that Polish summer, in 1938 when he was four,in minute detail15). Above the article is a photo of the child Begleybeaming16)into the lens at an outdoor meal table, with behind him the adults over whom the catastrophe was about to unfold.

10. imbibe [?m?ba?b] vt. 感受，接受

11. rub in：強調，不斷提及

12. Louis Begley：路易斯·貝格利(1933~)，美國小說家，著有半自傳性質的小說《戰時謊言》(Wartime Lies)。

13. New York Review of Books：《紐約書評》，美國著名書評雜誌，美國知識界的必讀之物

14. at the core of：最重要或最基本的部分

15. in minute detail：詳盡無遺

16. beam [bi?m] vi. 笑容滿面

在假期里，你感受著家庭的氛圍。具有異域風情的環境在孩子腦中留下了印記。度假時拍的照片又加強了這種效果。事實上，那些照片本身可能就是度假的主要目的：照片將記憶定格，在此後幾十年里，這些記憶會被反覆提及。路易斯?貝格利最近在《紐約書評》回憶起二戰前他的童年生活。他在文中寫道：「在我對波蘭最早的記憶中，印象最深刻的是我在一個偏遠鄉下度假的那個夏天，祖父母在那個鄉下有一處小小的房產。」接下來，他不厭其詳地描述了在波蘭的那個夏天的情景，當時是1938年，他四歲。在這篇文章的上方，有一張貝格利小時候的照片，他在一張戶外餐桌旁，對著鏡頭甜甜地微笑，身後站著一幫大人。不久之後，一場劫難即將降臨在那些大人們身上。

That holiday wasBegley』s Madeleine17). A few decades from now, perhaps the main thing anyone will remember about me is my son』s memory of my pushing him on the swings during a long-lost holiday in Sorrento. That』s what you』re doing it for: not for the children』s happiness in Sorrento this week, but for their memories. Your children』s memories give meaning to the otherwise day-to-day of your own life. If nobody remembered us, a philosopher friend once explained to me, much of the point would be gone.

17. Madeleine：瑪德琳蛋糕，法國著名甜點。此處指法國作家馬塞爾·普魯斯特(Marcel Proust, 1871~1922)因瑪德琳蛋糕所喚起的味覺印象回憶起往事，寫下了長篇巨著《追憶似水年華》 (Remembrance of Things Past)。

就像馬塞爾?普魯斯特因瑪德琳蛋糕勾起的回憶而寫出《追憶似水年華》一樣，那個假日勾起了貝格利的舊日記憶。數年後，人們對我的主要記憶可能來自我兒子的回憶，回憶起很久以前，在索倫托度假時，我曾推著他盪鞦韆。這就是我帶全家去索倫托的意義：不是為了讓孩子們在索倫托度過快樂的一周，而是為了留給他們一份記憶。孩子們的記憶讓我們原本日復一日的平淡生活有了意義。一位哲學家朋友曾對我說，如果沒有人記得起我們，人生就沒有多大意義了。

A family holiday is for memories. Once you』ve grasped that, it』s just a matter of enduring it. I vividly remember, about 30 years ago, returning from an Italian vacation to our handsome brick house with the fir tree in front. As we opened the front gate, my mother said, 「That』s the best part of a holiday: coming home.」 At the time I didn』t know what she meant.

舉家出遊度假是為了日後多些回憶。明白了這個道理，度假不過就是個忍耐的問題。有些情景到現在都讓我覺得歷歷在目，大約30年前，我們一家人從義大利度假回到家裡。我們家的房子是幢漂亮的紅磚房子，門前還種著冷杉樹。打開家門的時候，媽媽說：「這就是度假最美妙的部分——回家。」那個時候，我還沒能領會她的意思。

本文選自《新東方英語》，可上噹噹、亞馬遜、京東、天貓等網站購買《新東方英語》雜誌喲。

喜歡這篇文章嗎？立刻分享出去讓更多人知道吧！

本站內容充實豐富，博大精深，小編精選每日熱門資訊，隨時更新，點擊「搶先收到最新資訊」瀏覽吧！

請您繼續閱讀更多來自 新東方英語 的精彩文章: