Chapter 34

Father said, "We'll sail like Columbus!""He was hoping to find India," I pointed¹ out sullenly².
We sold the zoo, lock, stock and barrel. To a new country,a new life. Besides assuring our collection of a happy future,the transaction would pay for our immigration and leave uswith a good sum to make a fresh start in Canada (thoughnow, when I think of it, the sum is laughable – how blindedwe are by money). We could have sold our animals to zoos inIndia, but American zoos were willing to pay higher prices.
CITES, the Convention on International Trade in EndangeredSpecies, had just come into effect, and the window on thetrading of captured wild animals had slammed shut. The futureof zoos would now lie with other zoos. The Pondicherry Zooclosed shop at just the right time. There was a scramble³ tobuy our animals. The final buyers were a number of zoos,mainly the Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago and the soon-to-openMinnesota Zoo, but odd animals were going to Los Angeles,Louisville, Oklahoma City and Cincinnati.
And two animals were being shipped to the Canada Zoo.
That's how Ravi and I felt. We did not want to go. We didnot want to live in a country of gale-force winds andminus-two-hundred-degree winters. Canada was not on thecricket map. Departure was made easier – as far as getting usused to the idea – by the time it took for all the pre-departurepreparations. It took well over a year. I don't mean for us. Imean for the animals. Considering that animals dispense⁴ withclothes, footwear, linen⁵, furniture, kitchenware, toiletries; thatnationality means nothing to them; that they care not a jot⁶ forpassports, money, employment prospects⁷, schools, cost ofhousing, healthcare facilities – considering, in short, theirlightness of being, it's amazing how hard it is to move them.
Moving a zoo is like moving a city.
The paperwork was colossal⁸. Litres of water used up in thewetting of stamps. Dear Mr. So-and-so written hundreds oftimes. Offers made. Sighs heard. Doubts expressed. Hagglinggone through. Decisions sent higher up for approval. Pricesagreed upon. Deals clinched⁹. Dotted lines signed. Congratulationsgiven. Certificates of origin sought. Certificates of health sought.
Export permits sought. Import permits sought. Quarantineregulations clarified. Transportation organized. A fortune spenton telephone calls. It's a joke in the zoo business, a wearyjoke, that the paperwork involved in trading a shrew weighsmore than an elephant, that the paperwork involved in tradingan elephant weighs more than a whale., and that you mustnever try to trade a whale, never. There seemed to be a singlefile of nit-picking bureaucrats¹⁰ from Pondicherry to Minneapolisvia Delhi and Washington, each with his form, his problem, hishesitation. Shipping¹¹ the animals to the moon couldn't possiblyhave been more complicated. Father pulled nearly every hair offhis head and came close to giving up on a number ofoccasions.
There were surprises. Most of our birds and reptiles¹², andour lemurs, rhinos¹³, orang-utans, mandrills, lion-tailed macaques,giraffes, anteaters, tigers, leopards¹⁴, cheetahs¹⁵, hyenas¹⁶, zebras,Himalayan and sloth¹⁷ bears, Indian elephants and Nilgiri tahrs,among others, were in demand, but others, Elfie for example,were met with silence. "A cataract¹⁸ operation!" Father shouted,waving the letter. "They'll take her if we do a cataractoperation on her right eye. On a hippopotamus¹⁹! What next?
Nose jobs on the rhinos?" Some of our other animals wereconsidered "too common", the lions and baboons²⁰, for example.
Father judiciously²¹ traded these for an extra orang-utan fromthe Mysore Zoo and a chimpanzee from the Manila Zoo. (Asfor Elfie, she lived out the rest of her days at the TrivandrumZoo.) One zoo asked for "an authentic²² Brahmin cow" for theirchildren's zoo. Father walked out into the urban jungle ofPondicherry and bought a cow with dark wet eyes, a nice fathump and horns so straight and at such right angles to itshead that it looked as if it had licked an electrical outlet²³. Fatherhad its horns painted bright orange and little plastic bells fittedto the tips, for added authenticity²⁴.
A deputation of three Americans came. I was very curious. Ihad never seen real live Americans. They were pink, fat,friendly, very competent and sweated profusely²⁵. They examinedour animals. They put most of them to sleep and then appliedstethoscopes to hearts, examined urine and feces as ifhoroscopes, drew blood in syringes and analyzed²⁶ it, fondledhumps and bumps, tapped teeth, blinded eyes with flashlights,pinched skins, stroked and pulled hairs. Poor animals. Theymust have thought they were being drafted into the U.S. Army.
We got big smiles from the Americans and bone-crushinghandshakes.
The result was that the animals, like us, got their workingpapers. They were future Yankees, and we, future Canucks.

1 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

2 sullenly   

不高兴地，绷着脸，忧郁地

参考例句：

• 'so what?" Tom said sullenly. “那又怎么样呢？”汤姆绷着脸说。
• Emptiness after the paper, I sIt'sullenly in front of the stove. 报看完，想不出能找点什么事做，只好一人坐在火炉旁生气。

3 scramble   

v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料

参考例句：

• He broke his leg in his scramble down the wall.他爬墙摔断了腿。
• It was a long scramble to the top of the hill.到山顶须要爬登一段长路。

4 dispense   

vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施

参考例句：

• Let us dispense the food.咱们来分发这食物。
• The charity has been given a large sum of money to dispense as it sees fit.这个慈善机构获得一大笔钱，可自行适当分配。

5 linen   

n.亚麻布，亚麻线，亚麻制品；adj.亚麻布制的，亚麻的

参考例句：

• The worker is starching the linen.这名工人正在给亚麻布上浆。
• Fine linen and cotton fabrics were known as well as wool.精细的亚麻织品和棉织品像羊毛一样闻名遐迩。

6 jot   

n.少量；vi.草草记下；vt.匆匆写下

参考例句：

• I'll jot down their address before I forget it.我得赶快把他们的地址写下来，免得忘了。
• There is not a jot of evidence to say it does them any good.没有丝毫的证据显示这对他们有任何好处。

7 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

8 colossal   

adj.异常的，庞大的

参考例句：

• There has been a colossal waste of public money.一直存在巨大的公款浪费。
• Some of the tall buildings in that city are colossal.那座城市里的一些高层建筑很庞大。

9 clinched   

v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的过去式和过去分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议）

参考例句：

• The two businessmen clinched the deal quickly. 两位生意人很快达成了协议。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Evidently this information clinched the matter. 显然，这一消息使问题得以最终解决。 来自辞典例句

10 bureaucrats   

n.官僚( bureaucrat的名词复数 )；官僚主义；官僚主义者；官僚语言

参考例句：

• That is the fate of the bureaucrats, not the inspiration of statesmen. 那是官僚主义者的命运，而不是政治家的灵感。 来自辞典例句
• Big business and dozens of anonymous bureaucrats have as much power as Japan's top elected leaders. 大企业和许多不知名的官僚同日本选举出来的最高层领导者们的权力一样大。 来自辞典例句

11 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

12 reptiles   

n.爬行动物，爬虫( reptile的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Snakes and crocodiles are both reptiles. 蛇和鳄鱼都是爬行动物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Birds, reptiles and insects come from eggs. 鸟类、爬虫及昆虫是卵生的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

13 rhinos   

n.犀牛（rhino的复数形式）

参考例句：

• There are many reports of people taming and even training Indian rhinos. 有许多关于人们驯养甚至训练印度犀牛的记载。 来自辞典例句
• The rhinos had fed during the night in the rice fields of these villagers. 犀牛夜里在这些村民的庄稼地里也已吃饱了。 来自辞典例句

14 leopards   

n.豹( leopard的名词复数 )；本性难移

参考例句：

• Lions, tigers and leopards are all cats. 狮、虎和豹都是猫科动物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• For example, airlines never ship leopards and canaries on the same flight. 例如，飞机上从来不会同时运送豹和金丝雀。 来自英语晨读30分（初三）

15 cheetahs   

n.（奔跑极快的）非洲猎豹( cheetah的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Unlike lions or cheetahs, leopards are secretive, solitary cats. 花豹不像狮子或印度豹，是属于较神秘而隐居的大猫。 来自互联网
• Among this lot are cheetahs, lions, leopards, rhinoceroses, spotted hyenas and elephants. 印度豹、狮子、花豹、犀牛、斑点土狼、大象等，都是此地的居民。 来自互联网

16 hyenas   

n.鬣狗( hyena的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• These animals were the prey of hyenas. 这些动物是鬣狗的猎物。 来自辞典例句
• We detest with horror the duplicity and villainy of the murderous hyenas of Bukharinite wreckers. 我们非常憎恨布哈林那帮两面三刀、杀人破坏，干尽坏事的豺狼。 来自辞典例句

17 sloth   

n.[动]树懒；懒惰，懒散

参考例句：

• Absence of competition makes for sloth.没有竞争会导致懒惰。
• The sloth spends most of its time hanging upside down from the branches.大部分时间里树懒都是倒挂在树枝上。

18 cataract   

n.大瀑布，奔流，洪水，白内障

参考例句：

• He is an elderly gentleman who had had a cataract operation.他是一位曾经动过白内障手术的老人。
• The way is blocked by the tall cataract.高悬的大瀑布挡住了去路。

19 hippopotamus   

n.河马

参考例句：

• The children enjoyed watching the hippopotamus wallowing in the mud.孩子们真喜观看河马在泥中打滚。
• A hippopotamus surfs the waves off the coast of Gabon.一头河马在加蓬的海岸附近冲浪。

20 baboons   

n.狒狒( baboon的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Baboons could break branches and leaders. 狒狒会折断侧枝和顶梢。 来自辞典例句
• And as nonprimates, they provoke fewer ethical and safety-related concerns than chimps or baboons. 而且作为非灵长类，就不会产生像用黑猩猩或狒狒那样的伦理和安全方面的顾虑。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 医学的第四次革命

21 judiciously   

adv.明断地，明智而审慎地

参考例句：

• Let's use these intelligence tests judiciously. 让我们好好利用这些智力测试题吧。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His ideas were quaint and fantastic. She brought him judiciously to earth. 他的看法荒廖古怪，她颇有见识地劝他面对现实。 来自辞典例句

22 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

23 outlet   

n.出口/路；销路；批发商店；通风口；发泄

参考例句：

• The outlet of a water pipe was blocked.水管的出水口堵住了。
• Running is a good outlet for his energy.跑步是他发泄过剩精力的好方法。

24 authenticity   

n.真实性

参考例句：

• There has been some debate over the authenticity of his will. 对于他的遗嘱的真实性一直有争论。
• The museum is seeking an expert opinion on the authenticity of the painting. 博物馆在请专家鉴定那幅画的真伪。

25 profusely   

ad.abundantly

参考例句：

• We were sweating profusely from the exertion of moving the furniture. 我们搬动家具大费气力，累得大汗淋漓。
• He had been working hard and was perspiring profusely. 他一直在努力干活，身上大汗淋漓的。

26 analyzed   

v.分析( analyze的过去式和过去分词 )；分解；解释；对…进行心理分析

参考例句：

• The doctors analyzed the blood sample for anemia. 医生们分析了贫血的血样。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The young man did not analyze the process of his captivation and enrapturement, for love to him was a mystery and could not be analyzed. 这年轻人没有分析自己蛊惑著迷的过程，因为对他来说，爱是个不可分析的迷。 来自《简明英汉词典》