The Rubik’s Cube1

Sophie Zhang

∷高琦 注

生活像魔方一样，不能拆解，只能按照时间的规律，慢慢向前滚动；

生活像魔方一样，千变万化，猜不透，理不清；

生活像魔方一样，你以为胜利在望，实际却遥不可及；

生活像魔方一样，拥有无数种可能……

Every great tragedy begins with an everyday object.2. tragedy: 悲剧，惨案；object: 物体，东西。

In the case of a common teen pregnancy, that object could be a straw wrapper from the first date that the girl kept as a souvenir of her affection for that handsome boy who would take advantage and then leave her when she was most in need.3. 在青少年早孕事件中，这个物品可能会是一张吸管包装纸，是他们第一次约会的纪念品，女孩为了纪念自己对那个英俊男生的爱而收藏起来的，但他却占了便宜后在她最需要帮助时弃她而去。pregnancy: 怀孕；wrapper:包装纸；take advantage of: 占便宜，利用。

In the case of a murder, that object could be a book in which that troubled man read and connected with, and ended up being in fluenced for life by.4. connect with: 与……关联，与……共鸣；end up with: 以……结束，以……告终。

In the case of a school shooting, that object could be a stick.The stick that was struck across that poor boy’s back hundreds and hundreds of times, that replayed over and over in his mind as he watched his fellow classmates crumple5. crumple: 跌倒，瘫倒。to the ground.

In my case, it started out with a Rubik’s cube.

It started with a Rubik’s cube, and it ended with a Rubik’s cube. In the middle, the cube was lost for a while, but it always managed to make a few memorable appearances in between.

It’s always easy to look back, isn’t it? Looking back, I realized that I changed so many times, for good and for bad, but the Rubik’s cube always sat stuffed in my backpack,same as always.6. stuff: 把……塞进，把……装进；backpack: 双肩背包。Perhaps it became a little worse for wear over time; the colored square stickers losing their stickiness, the slides becoming a little rusty.7. 也许，随着时间的流逝，它一点点地变得不那么好用——方块上的彩色贴纸失去了黏性，转轴也因生锈而转得有些不顺畅。sticker:（背面有黏胶的）贴纸；slide: 滑面，滑轨；rusty: 生锈的。However, the changes that happened with the cube were all from natural aging and getting older.

When solving it, it twists and it strains your mind, frustrating and puzzling you.8. twist: 扭歪，把……变得不正常；strain: 使精疲力尽，使劳累过度；frustrate: 使灰心，使受挫折。You want to give up, but then you’re a quitter9. quitter: 轻易放弃者，半途而废者。. You’ll have to leave it there, unsolved, forever. It teases and it taunts you until you pick it up and give it another go.10. tease: 取笑，挑逗；taunt: 奚落，嘲弄；give it a go: 尝试，试一试。

Over forty quintillion possibilities are possible with the Rubik’s cube, but only a few select ways in solving it.11. quintillion:（美、法）百万的三次方，（英、德）百万的五次方；select: 精选的，苛择的。I find the cube to be horrendously unforgiving.12. horrendously: 可怕地，骇人听闻地；unforgiving:不原谅人的，不宽容的。You’re almost there, and you can almost feel the excitement of finishing it, and you turn it the wrong way and you can’t go back.You’ve celebrated too soon.

Yes, that simple yet complex cube can be annoying. It sits there in your hands, seemingly cruel to you, seemingly laughing at you, at your stupidity. Is it really? Albert Einstein once said,“God is subtle, not malicious.13. subtle: 难以捉摸的，微妙的；malicious: 恶意的，恶毒的。” Some might argue that he’s wrong. That God’s subtleness is a form of maliciousness, and often it does seem that way.Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but every time you solve that cube, you get better and faster at it until you’ve mastered it.14. be entitled to: 有资格的，有权利的；master: 精通，熟练。From then on, it’s fun and skill and testing yourself and pushing yourself to go even further.

Life treats you the same way. It tests you and it pushes you down so you fall and hurt and bruise15. bruise: 使擦伤，使受伤。and break a few bones, but it always helps you up when you most need it. And eventually, those scabs and bruises will heal and you end up being more careful.16. eventually: 最后，最终；scab: 痂，疤。

Life pushed me down a cliff17. cliff: 悬崖。as hard as it could. It pushed me, and then it stomped on me and tried to grind me up.18. stomp: 重踩，践踏；grind up: 把……磨碎。It ended up hurting me a whole lot and I can say, I’m still hurting and like a viral19. viral: 病菌的，由病菌引起的。disease, it never goes away and will deepen and spread and kill you. The cliché “everything happens for a reason” is often applied to my situation and shrugged at me.20. cliché: 陈词滥调；shrug at: 对……耸肩（表示无知或无所谓等）。I always thought of this as an excuse for the world’s malice21. malice: 恶意，怨恨。towards me. Why was the world being so hostile22. hostile: 敌对的，怀有敌意的。to me? It seemed determined to crush me to a pulp23. crush sb. to a pulp: 把某人打个半死，把某人打得遍体鳞伤。, but not kill me. I felt like dying, but the world wouldn’t let me die. It left me hanging24. hanging: 垂头丧气的。, and let things become worse and worse. During that time, I really wasn’t sure if it was bad karma or just plain fate.25. karma: 因果报应；plain: 单纯的，简单的。

But I always remembered the Rubik’s Cube and the hard-to-solve third layer. Within dif ficulty lies opportunity. The opportunity to find new solutions. New answers. New possibilities. What you have to hold on to is that feeling of success once you finish. That feeling is the only thing that will keep you trying and pushing forward.