Brian

       IT’S RAINING.

Like the day Anna was born—New Year’s Eve, and way too warm for that time of year. What should havebeen snow become a torrential downpour. Ski slopes had to close for Christmas, because all their runs gotwashed out. Driving to the hospital, with Sara in labor¹ beside me, I could barely² see through the windshield.

There were no stars that night, what with all the rain clouds. And maybe because of that, when Anna arrived Isaid to Sara, “Let’s name her Andromeda. Anna, for short.”

“Andromeda?” she said. “Like the sci-fi book?”

“Like the princess,” I corrected. I caught her eye over the tiny horizon of our daughter’s head. “In the sky,” Iexplained, “she’s between her mother and her father.”

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 barely   

adv.仅仅，几乎没有，几乎不

参考例句：

• The male bird is barely distinguishable from the female.雄鸟和雌鸟几乎无法辨别。
• He took barely enough money to keep the children in bread.他赚很少的钱仅够孩子们勉强糊口。