在我还是一个孩子的时候，我的夏天总是在德州爷爷奶奶的农场中度过。我帮忙修理风车，为牛接种疫苗，也做其它家务。每天下午，我们都会看肥皂剧，尤其是《我们的岁月》。我的爷爷奶奶参加了一个房车俱乐部，那是一群驾驶气流拖挂型房车的人们，他们结伴遍游美国和加拿大。每隔几个夏天，我也会加入他们。我们把房车挂在爷爷的小汽车后面，然后加入300余名气流房车探险者们组成的浩荡队伍。
I loved and worshipped my grandparents and I really looked forward to these trips. On oneparticular trip, I was about 10 years old. I was rolling around in the big bench seat in the backof the car. My grandfather was driving. And my grandmother had the passenger seat. Shesmoked throughout these trips, and I hated the smell.
我爱我的爷爷奶奶，我崇敬他们，也真心期盼这些旅程。那是一次我大概十岁时的旅行，我照例坐在后座的长椅上，爷爷开着车，奶奶坐在他旁边，吸着烟。我讨厌烟味。
At that age, I'd take any excuse to make estimates and do minor arithmetic. I'd calculate ourgas mileage -- figure out useless statistics on things like grocery spending. I'd been hearing anad campaign about smoking. I can't remember the details, but basically the ad said, every puffof a cigarette takes some number of minutes off of your life: I think it might have been twominutes per puff. At any rate, I decided to do the math for my grandmother. I estimated thenumber of cigarettes per days, estimated the number of puffs per cigarette and so on. When Iwas satisfied that I'd come up with a reasonable number, I poked my head into the front ofthe car, tapped my grandmother on the shoulder, and proudly proclaimed, "At two minutesper puff, you've taken nine years off your life!"
在那样的年纪，我会找任何借口做些估测或者小算术。我会计算油耗还有杂货花销等鸡毛蒜皮的小事。我听过一个有关吸烟的广告。我记不得细节了，但是广告大意是说，每吸一口香烟会减少几分钟的寿命，大概是两分钟。无论如何，我决定为奶奶做个算术。我估测了奶奶每天要吸几支香烟，每支香烟要吸几口等等，然后心满意足地得出了一个合理的数字。接着，我把头探到车前排，拍了拍奶奶的肩膀，然后骄傲地宣称，“每天吸两分钟的烟，你已经少了九年活头了!”
