内容简介

《黑暗召唤》讲述了一个名叫史黛西的女孩，在录影带出租店打工时，发现了店里有人偷偷贩卖盗版碟之后，与自己良心做斗争的故事。此次翻译实践的材料，来自于该小说的前四章。第一章，主要介绍了女主人公史黛西的生活背景，同时塑造出了她的人物形象、性格，为后面的故事打下基础。第二章，讲述了一位名叫罗伯特·开普勒的顾客，误将自己刻录的盗版碟归还到了店里，以此引出小说的主要内容。在这章的最后，出现了一个陌生人来店里拿金·凯利的纸板剪画，为下一章埋下伏笔。第三章承接了上文，为了给顾客找金的纸板剪画，小女孩走进了店中神秘的地下室，发现里面有许多盗版碟。此时，老板文斯回来了，小女孩有惊无险地躲过了，没有被发现。但这件事已经引起了史黛西的好奇。第四章的开头，罗伯特回来归还正版的光碟。史黛西在柜台前扫描归还光碟的时候，突然想到同事之前说过罗伯特一年租借的碟片数量惊人，所以忍不住打开了罗伯特的租借记录，却发现他之前所有的租借花费加起来只有34美元。同时，发现了一些不认识的登录名缩写。最后，面对自己困顿的经济状态和良心的谴责，她对盗版碟和租借记录的事选择保持沉默。本章结尾，出现了一位名叫卢克斯的警官，询问了一些盗版碟的事。

INTRODUCTION

I wish I hadn’t taken them for granted, cause who knows if I’ll ever get to sleep in again? Things have changed. I have to get up for work now, and since I walked to work I had to leave way too early. That didn’t mean I get up when I should though. I always leave it as late as possible. So, on the weekend that my life took a serious plunge down the toilet, I woke up at nine after forgetting to set my alarm, leaving me only half an hour to get ready.

Unlike what I was about to go through, this was something I could handle easily. First, I made sure I had the fastest shower possible. That’s difficult. I love long, hot showers, washing my blonde hair slowly and rhythmically, just letting the steam clear my head and the soap wash all over me. It’s probably the most peaceful part of the day. Then, standing at the kitchen counter, I ate my cereal as fast as I could. I rarely eat anything else. That’s probably why I’m as skinny as my dad. Sometimes I have a glass of orange drink (not orange juice, it’s way too expensive), but most of the time I just wolf down the cereal and slurp the milk from the bowl.