英語四級必讀美文4：何時老爸手機成了兒童玩具了

When the Kids' Favorite Toy Is Daddy's iPhone

何時老爸手機成了兒童玩具了

Yesterday, my toddler broke another toy. But this wasn't an inexpensive, plastic doo-dad. It was my husband's iPhone.

昨天，我家寶寶又弄壞了一個玩具。但這可不是便宜的塑料小玩意兒。那是我丈夫的iPhone手機。

Like many parents these days, my husband and I sometimes band over our smartphones to our son to soothe him or keep him entertained. It's partly laziness on our party---no other toy, it seems, can captivate him like the iPhone or BlackBerry. He's fascinated by the buttons and touchscreen, the sounds and lights. He hold it up to his ear and pretends he's making an important business call (or arranging a playdate with his best friend.) He somehow even managed to reprogram my BlackBerry to autotype in the Catalan language.

跟當前的許多父母一樣，我們兩口子有時會把自己的智能手機給兒子玩，以此來哄他或者逗他。在我們來說這樣做一部分是因為懶——似乎沒有別的玩具能像 iPhone或黑莓一樣讓他著迷。他被手機上的按鍵、觸摸屏和聲光深深吸引。他將手機舉在耳邊，假裝在打一個重要的商業(yè)電話(或是跟好朋友約好一起去玩)。他甚至還不知怎么將我的黑莓手機調成了加泰羅尼亞語的輸入模式。

(1) When we take away the BlackBerry or iPhone he wails; no other plaything even a pretty realistic toy cellphone satisfies him as much. (The marketing copy for the toy phone says "This authentic looking play phone will surely distract your child from getting a hold of your cell phone!" Ha! I wish.)

(1)要是我們拿走黑莓或者iPhone，他就會大哭;別的任何玩具都沒法像手機一樣滿足他，即便是相當逼真的玩具手機也不例外。(這個玩具手機的宣傳頁上寫著“這部看上去跟真的一模一樣的玩具手機肯定能轉移孩子的注意力，讓他們不再染指你的手機!”哈!但愿如此。)

We often hide our phones-we don't want him to ruin them or grow too dependent on them but be almost always tracks them down once he hears the ring or the buzz of an incoming message. (Hiding a phone is tough, however, for those parents who need to have phones handy in case they're on call or the office beckons.) (2) And when we pick up the phone or check messages, that only makes our son want the phone more, since he always wants whatever is in our hands.

我們常常將于機藏起來，不想讓他給弄壞了或是對手機太過依賴，但只要他聽到鈴聲或信息提示音，他總能找到。(但有些父母需要將手機放在手邊以備隨時待命或公司有事，在這樣的情況下很難藏起手機。)(2)而當我們接電話或是查看信息時，小家伙只會更想拿到手機，因為我們手里不管拿著什么他都想要。

Invariably, my son sticks the phone in his mouth and it ends up slobbery and pocked with bitemarks. Or when be eventually tires of the phone, he'll toss it aside, which is how my husband's iPhone met its recent doom.

我兒子無可避免地會將手機放進嘴里，最后手機上就會沾滿了口水，還滿是牙印?；蛘叩人K于玩膩了，他就會將手機亂扔，我丈夫的iPhone不久前就是這樣慘遭不幸的。

We're not alone in using our cellphones as high-tech rattles. (3) The AP recently ran a story on how more parents are downloading kid-friendly apps, such as white noise and rattle sounds and easy video games, to their cellphones. And according to a recent NPR report, one parent to encourage his 11-month-old baby to crawl, waves his Blackberry so the baby will crawl toward the gadget.

拿手機當高科技玩具的并不是只有我們兩個。(3)美聯(lián)社(AP)不久前的一篇報道稱，越來越多的父母往手機里下載適合孩子的應用程序，比如白噪音和鈴鼓的聲音，還有簡單的視頻游戲。美國國家公共電臺(NPR)最近的一則報道說，一位父親為了鼓勵11個月大的孩子爬，就揮動他的黑莓手機，這樣孩子就會朝手機那邊爬去。

Readers, do you ever resort to handing over your smartphones to your kids? Any horror stories? Any good kid-friendly apps to recommend?

讀者們，你們有沒有拿手機當玩具哄過孩子?有沒有什么慘痛的故事?有什么適合孩子的應用程序可以推薦嗎?

四級句型講解

1. We often hide our phones-we don't want him to ruin them or grow too dependent on them but he almost always tracks them down once he hears the ring or the buzz of an incoming message.

本句是一個復合句，主句是由 but引導的并列的句子。破折號后面 we don't...on them是對we often hide our phones的目的的補充說明。其中 or引導兩個并列的動詞短語。once引導時間狀語從句，其中or連接兩個并列的名詞短語。

語法重點：并列結構，時間狀語從句

2. And when we pick up the phone or check messages, that only makes our son want the phone more, since he always wants whatever is in our hands.

本句是一個復合句，主句是 that only makes our son want the phone more. when引導時間狀語從句，since引導原因狀語從句，其中whatever引導的名詞性從句作want的賓語。

語法重點：時間狀語從句，原因狀語從句，名詞性從句

3. The AP recently ran a story on how more parents are downloading kid-friendly apps, such as white noise and rattle sounds and easy video games, to their cellphones.

本句是一個復合句，其中how引導的名詞性從句作on的賓語。such as表示舉例。

語法重點：名詞性從句