President Barack Obama answers questions during an interview with Reuters in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, November 9, 2009.(Agencies) |
President Barack Obama may be in for a nasty surprise when he reaches the final pages of the best-selling book Life of Pi, which he said on Monday he was reading with his 11-year-old daughter Malia. Obama called it a "wonderful book" that was enthralling his daughter in an interview. "There are whole chapters that really have to do with Hinduism, Christianity. There is a lot of philosophical stuff in there, but for some reason she (Malia) is hanging in there," he said. The prize-winning book by Yann Martel centers on the journey of Pi Patel, who is cast adrift in a lifeboat with a tiger, a hyena, a zebra and an orangutan after a ship carrying him and his family from India to Canada sinks. There is a battle for survival and eventually it is just Pi and the tiger left in the small boat. But the fantasy adventure is revealed to possibly have been a fabrication by the narrator in the last pages of the book, with the real story emerging of a horrific tale of cannibalism and murder. (Read by Chantal Anderson. Chantal Anderson is a multimedia journalist at the China Daily Web site.)
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美国总统奥巴马于本周一称,目前他正在和他11岁的女儿玛丽亚读《少年Pi的奇幻漂流》这本畅销书,不过他在读到这本书的最后几页时可能会大惊失色。 奥巴马在一次访谈中说,这本书“很精彩”,让他的女儿很着迷。 他说:“有时候整个章节都和印度教和基督教有关。书中有很多哲学方面的东西,不过不知为什么,玛丽亚还是坚持读下去了。” 这一获奖作品由扬•马特尔所著,主要讲述的是少年派•帕特尔的一次奇幻旅程。派和他的家人乘坐一艘船从印度驶往加拿大,船在海上沉没后,他被扔进一只救生船,和一只老虎、一只土狼、一只斑马和一头猩猩一起在海上漂流。 故事讲的是一场生存的战斗,最后只有派和老虎留在了那只小船上。 但读到书的最后几页,“真相”会大白,这一奇幻历险的故事可能是叙述者虚构出来的。真实的故事源于一个有关同类相食和残杀的可怕传说。 相关阅读 (英语点津陈丹妮 姗姗编辑) |
Vocabulary: enthrall: to hold spellbound; captivate 迷住;吸引住(The magic show enthralled the audience. 魔术表演把观众吸引住了。) hang in there: to persevere despite difficulties; persist 坚持下去(Hang in there, baby. You can pass the university entrance exam! 宝贝,不要泄气,坚持下去。你一定能通过大学入学考试!) |