Jonas moved his hands together, clapping, but it was an automatic, meaningless gesture that he wasn't even aware of. His mind had shut out all of the earlier emotions: the anticipation5, excitement, pride, and even the happy kinship with his friends. Now he felt only humiliation6 and terror.
The Chief Elder waited until the uneasy applause subsided7. Then she spoke8 again.
"I know," she said in her vibrant9, gracious voice, "that you are all concerned. That you feel I have made a mistake."
She smiled. The community, relieved from its discomfort10 very slightly by her benign11 statement, seemed to breathe more easily. It was very silent.
Jonas looked up.
"I have caused you anxiety," she said. "I apologize to my community." Her voice flowed over the assembled crowd.
"We accept your apology," they all uttered together.
"Jonas," she said, looking down at him, "I apologize to you in particular. I caused you anguish12."
"I accept your apology," Jonas replied shakily.
"Please come to the stage now."
Earlier that day, dressing13 in his own dwelling14, he had practiced the kind of jaunty15, self-assured walk that he hoped he could make to the stage when his turn came. All of that was forgotten now. He simply willed himself to stand, to move his feet that felt weighted and clumsy, to go forward, up the steps and across the platform until he stood at her side.
Reassuringly16 she placed her arm across his tense shoulders.
"Jonas has not been assigned," she informed the crowd, and his heart sank.
Then she went on. "Jonas has been selected."
He blinked. What did that mean? He felt a collective, questioning stir from the audience. They, too, were puzzled.
In a firm, commanding voice she announced, "Jonas has been selected to be our next Receiver of Memory."
Then he heard the gasp17 — the sudden intake18 of breath, drawn19 sharply in astonishment20, by each of the seated citizens. He saw their faces; the eyes widened in awe21.
And still he did not understand.
"Such a selection is very, very rare," the Chief Elder told the audience. "Our community has only one Receiver. It is he who trains his successor.
"We have had our current Receiver for a very long time," she went on. Jonas followed her eyes and saw that she was looking at one of the Elders. The Committee of Elders was sitting together in a group; and the Chief Elder's eyes were now on one who sat in the midst but seemed oddly separate from them. It was a man Jonas had never noticed before, a bearded man with pale eyes. He was watching Jonas intently.
"We failed in our last selection," the Chief Elder said solemnly. "It was ten years ago, when Jonas was just a toddler. I will not dwell on the experience because it causes us all terrible discomfort."
Jonas didn't know what she was referring to, but he could sense the discomfort of the audience. They shifted uneasily in their seats.
"We have not been hasty this time," she continued. "We could not afford another failure."
"Sometimes," she went on, speaking now in a lighter22 tone, relaxing the tension in the Auditorium23, "we are not entirely24 certain about the Assignments, even after the most painstaking25 observations. Sometimes we worry that the one assigned might not develop, through training, every attribute necessary. Elevens are still children, after all. What we observe as playfulness and patience — the requirements to become Nurturer26 — could, with maturity27, be revealed as simply foolishness and indolence. So we continue to observe during training, and to modify behavior when necessary.
"But the Receiver-in-training cannot be observed, cannot be modified. That is stated quite clearly in the rules. He is to be alone, apart, while he is prepared by the current Receiver for the job which is the most honored in our community."
Alone? Apart? Jonas listened with increasing unease.
"Therefore the selection must be sound. It must be a unanimous choice of the Committee. They can have no doubts, however fleeting28. If, during the process, an Elder reports a dream of uncertainty29, that dream has the power to set a candidate aside instantly.
"Jonas was identified as a possible Receiver many years ago. We have observed him meticulously30. There were no dreams of uncertainty.
"He has shown all of the qualities that a Receiver must have."
With her hand still firmly on his shoulder, the Chief Elder listed the qualities.
"Intelligence," she said. "We are all aware that Jonas has been a top student throughout his school days.
"Integrity," she said next. "Jonas has, like all of us, committed minor31 transgressions32." She smiled at him. "We expect that. We hoped, also, that he would present himself promptly33 for chastisement34, and he has always done so.
"Courage," she went on. "Only one of us here today has ever undergone the rigorous training required of a Receiver. He, of course, is the most important member of the Committee: the current Receiver. It was he who reminded us, again and again, of the courage required.
"Jonas," she said, turning to him, but speaking in a voice that the entire community could hear, "the training required of you involves pain. Physical pain."
He felt fear flutter within him.
"You have never experienced that. Yes, you have scraped your knees in falls from your bicycle. Yes, you crushed your finger in a door last year."
Jonas nodded, agreeing, as he recalled the incident, and its accompanying misery35.
"But you will be faced, now," she explained gently, "with pain of a magnitude that none of us here can comprehend because it is beyond our experience. The Receiver himself was not able to describe it, only to remind us that you would be faced with it, that you would need immense courage. We cannot prepare you for that.
"But we feel certain that you are brave," she said to him.
He did not feel brave at all. Not now.
"The fourth essential attribute," the Chief Elder said, "is wisdom. Jonas has not yet acquired that. The acquisition of wisdom will come through his training.
"We are convinced that Jonas has the ability to acquire wisdom. That is what we looked for.
"Finally, The Receiver must have one more quality, and it is one which I can only name, but not describe. I do not understand it. You members of the community will not understand it, either. Perhaps Jonas will, because the current Receiver has told us that Jonas already has this quality. He calls it the Capacity to See Beyond."
The Chief Elder looked at Jonas with a question in her eyes. The audience watched him, too. They were silent.
For a moment he froze, consumed with despair. He didn't have it, the whatever-she-had-said. He didn't know what it was. Now was the moment when he would have to confess, to say, "No, I don't. I can't," and throw himself on their mercy, ask their forgiveness, to explain that he had been wrongly chosen, that he was not the right one at all.
But when he looked out across the crowd, the sea of faces, the thing happened again. The thing that had happened with the apple.
They changed.
He blinked, and it was gone. His shoulders straightened slightly. Briefly36 he felt a tiny sliver37 of sureness for the first time.
She was still watching him. They all were.
"I think it's true," he told the Chief Elder and the community. "I don't understand it yet. I don't know what it is. But sometimes I see something. And maybe it's beyond."
She took her arm from his shoulders.
"Jonas," she said, speaking not to him alone but to the entire community of which he was a part, "you will be trained to be our next Receiver of Memory. We thank you for your childhood."
Then she turned and left the stage, left him there alone, standing38 and facing the crowd, which began spontaneously the collective murmur4 of his name.
"Jonas." It was a whisper at first: hushed, barely audible. "Jonas. Jonas."
Then louder, faster. "JONAS. JONAS. JONAS."
With the chant, Jonas knew, the community was accepting him and his new role, giving him life, the way they had given it to the new child Caleb. His heart swelled39 with gratitude40 and pride.
But at the same time he was filled with fear. He did not know what his selection meant. He did not know what he was to become.
Or what would become of him.
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收听单词发音
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1
piecemeal
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| adj.零碎的；n.片，块；adv.逐渐地；v.弄成碎块 | |
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2
crescendo
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| n.(音乐)渐强，高潮 | |
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3
murmurs
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| n.低沉、连续而不清的声音( murmur的名词复数 )；低语声；怨言；嘀咕 | |
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4
murmur
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| n.低语，低声的怨言；v.低语，低声而言 | |
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5
anticipation
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| n.预期，预料，期望 | |
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humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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7
subsided
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| v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上 | |
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8
spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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9
vibrant
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| adj.震颤的，响亮的，充满活力的，精力充沛的，(色彩)鲜明的 | |
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10
discomfort
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| n.不舒服，不安，难过，困难，不方便 | |
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11
benign
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| adj.善良的，慈祥的；良性的，无危险的 | |
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12
anguish
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| n.(尤指心灵上的)极度痛苦，烦恼 | |
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13
dressing
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| n.(食物)调料；包扎伤口的用品，敷料 | |
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14
dwelling
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| n.住宅，住所，寓所 | |
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15
jaunty
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| adj．愉快的，满足的；adv.心满意足地，洋洋得意地；n.心满意足；洋洋得意 | |
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16
reassuringly
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| ad.安心，可靠 | |
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17
gasp
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| n.喘息，气喘；v.喘息；气吁吁他说 | |
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18
intake
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| n.吸入，纳入；进气口，入口 | |
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19
drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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20
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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21
awe
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| n.敬畏，惊惧；vt.使敬畏，使惊惧 | |
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22
lighter
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| n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级 | |
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23
auditorium
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| n.观众席，听众席；会堂，礼堂 | |
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24
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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25
painstaking
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| adj.苦干的；艰苦的，费力的，刻苦的 | |
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26
nurturer
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| 养育者，营养物 | |
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27
maturity
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| n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期 | |
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28
fleeting
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| adj.短暂的，飞逝的 | |
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29
uncertainty
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| n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物 | |
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30
meticulously
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| adv.过细地，异常细致地；无微不至；精心 | |
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31
minor
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| adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修 | |
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32
transgressions
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| n.违反，违法，罪过( transgression的名词复数 ) | |
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33
promptly
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| adv.及时地，敏捷地 | |
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34
chastisement
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| n.惩罚 | |
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35
misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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36
briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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37
sliver
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| n.裂片，细片，梳毛；v.纵切，切成长片，剖开 | |
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38
standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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39
swelled
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| 增强( swell的过去式和过去分词 )； 肿胀； （使）凸出； 充满（激情） | |
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40
gratitude
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| adj.感激，感谢 | |
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