1. I believe in the 50-percent
theory.
我信奉对半理论。
2. Half the time things are better than normal; the other half, they’re worse.
3. I believe life is a pendulum swing.
4. It takes time and experience to understand what normal is, and that gives me the perspective to deal with the surprises of the future.
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。
It takes sth to do sth:
it形式主语，to do…真正主语
5. Let’s benchmark the parameters: yes, I
will die.
Benchmark 确定基准
Parameter参数
6. I’ve dealt with the deaths of both parents, a best friend, a beloved boss and cherished pets.
7. Some of these deaths have been violent, before my eyes, or slow and agonizing.
8. Bad stuff, and it belongs at the bottom of the scale.
这些都是糟糕的事情，它们属于最坏的部分。
At the bottom of the
scale在（承受）尺度的最底点，即最不能承受的…
9. Then there are those high
points:
10. romance and marriage to the right person;
坠入爱河缔结良缘；
11. 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.
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。
12. But there is a vast meadow of life in the middle, where the bad
and the good flip-flop acrobatically.
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。
13. This is what convinces me to believe in the 50-percent theory.
这就是让我信服对半理论的原因。
14. One spring I planted corn too early in a bottomland so
flood-prone that neighbors laughed.
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。
15. I felt chagrined at the wasted effort.
我为浪费了精力而感到懊恼。
16. Summer turned brutal---the worst heat wave and drought in my lifetime.
17. The air-conditioned died; the well went dry; the marriage ended; the job lost; the money gone. 空调坏了，井干了，婚姻破裂了，工作丢了，钱也没有。
18. I was living lyrics from a country tune---music I loathed.
19. Only a surging Kansas City Royals team buoyed my spirits.
只有刚出道不久的堪萨斯皇家棒球队能鼓舞我的精神。
20. Looking back on that horrible summer, I soon understood that
all succeeding good things merely offset the
bad.
回首那个糟糕的夏天，我很快就明白了，所有后来出现的好事只不过与坏事相互抵消。
21. Worse than normal wouldn’t last long.
比一般情况糟糕的境遇不会延宕过久；
22. I am owed and savor the halcyon times.
23. The reinvigorate me for the next nasty surprise and offer assurance that can thrive.
它们为我注入活力以应对下一个险情，并确保我可以兴旺发达。
reinvigorate使再振作, 使复兴
24. 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.
对半理论甚至帮助我在堪萨斯皇家棒球队最近的低潮中看到希望-这是一快艰难行进的新手们耕耘的土地，只要播种了，假以时日我们就可以收获十月的金秋。
25. For that on blistering summer, the ground moisture was just
right, planting early allowed pollination before heat withered the
tops, and the lack of rain spared the standing corn from
floods.
那个夏天天气酷热，地而湿度适宜，提早播种就可以在热浪打蔫植尖之前完成授粉，同于干旱更没有爆发洪水，产在田里的玉米得以保存。
26. That winter my crib overflowed with corn---fat, healthy three-to-a-stalk ears filled with kernels from heel to tip---while my neighbors’ fields yielded only brown, empty husks.
因此那个冬天我的粮仓堆满了玉米-丰满，健康，一颗三穗且从头到脚都是饱满的玉米粒的玉米穗-而我的邻居们收获的只是晒黑的空壳。
27. Although plantings past may have fallen below the 50-percent
expectation, and they probably will again in the future, I am still
sustained by the crop that flourishes during the drought.
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