Words:

1. She squinted, trying to distinguish white from off-white.

squint: to look at something with your eyes partly closed in order to see better

Anna squinted in the sudden bright sunlight.

My sentence:

My mom always ask me not to squint. That may make my small eyes smaller.

2. A sudden vision of her and Pam, whizzing around the roller rink, giddy and giggling, flashed through her mind.

whizz (BrE) = whiz (AmE): to move very quickly, often making a sound like something rushing through the air

An ambulance whizzed past.

My sentence:

An arrow whizzed past the edge of his ear.

roller rink = rink: an enclosure for roller skating

giddy: causing dizziness

3. Someone had etched a dime-sized FUCK YOU into the surface with a pushpin.

etch: to cut lines on a metal plate, piece of glass, stone etc to form a picture or words.

etch on?

a gravestone with three names etched on it.

The Chinese character, meaning "blessings" was etched on the jade that his grandparents gave him in the last birthday.

4. He wagged his fork at ?her, with the air of a wise man delivering an aphorism.

wag: ?to move your finger or head from side to side, especially to show disapproval.

'Your naughty girl!' Mom said, wagging her finger at me.

My sentence:

You must change your habit that you wag to say an aphorism. You don't mean to offend others but your action does.

aphorism = saying : a short phrase that contains a wise idea.

Expressions:

1. Hannah had planted herself under the end table in the foyer.

2. She'd flipped through some of the color plates and slammed the book and squirmed in her seat, as if she could not shake off the feeling like a dog shook rain off its fur.?

plate: （書中的整頁(yè)）彩色插圖

3. Nath flashed Lydia a tentative smile

4. James could not miss the edge of her voice, but he brushed it aside.

5. He was apologizing for giving her the silent treatment, for shutting the door in her face when all she wanted was not to be alone.

Summary:

Marilyn's life from 1966 to 1976:

Marilyn attended the Christmas party in 1966 and knew the opportunity to work for Tom Lawson. But she didn't do it considering James's suggestion. Marilyn's mother died of stroke in 1966, the spring. When Marilyn got home and found her mother leave nothing in the world but the cookbook. She didn't want to keep house for her family like her mother. She was thinking of change. Back at home in the morning, she cried for Nath's experience and drove to the local hospital. When she looked at Doctor Wholff, she made a decision to finish her physics with her mom's fortune. During the nine weeks, she studied hard to keep up with other students. But she also missed her family so much that she called them sometimes in the early morning to hear their voices. Nine weeks later, she found herself pregnant ?and became sad about her dream. When she heard that Lydia threw away the cookbook, she thought her daughter as excellent as her and planed to exercise Lydia to be a doctor in the future.

James's efforts to train Nath and Lydia:

When Marilyn was away from home for her mother's funeral, James took Nath to the local pool and taught him how to swim. He hoped his son would become familiar with those kids in the pool and asked him to have a game with them regardless of Nath's refusal. Nath was tricked by other children. It reminded James' unpleasant experience when he was teased then. James was disappointed in Nath. While Marilyn disappeared, James locked himself in his office and his study and cared little about Lydia and Nath. James even shouted at Nath when Nath told him the astronauts and space.?

James thought Lydia would be the one circled by many American children like her mother. So he quizzed Lydia's friendship every night and even drove Lydia and friends out. He would walk gently in the room to hear Lydia's talk to her friends.

Nath, Lydia, Hannah lived differently in ten years.

Nath was much disappointed and sad when his father smocked him, his mother left him firstly and then ignored him later. But he found the miracle of space and wished he would one day fly to the space to get rid of those sorrow. Faced with the unfair treatment from his parents, he pushed Lydia into the lake but Lydia can't swim. But he also understood that Lydia's death would not make his parents love him and he loved his sister also. Nath accompanied ?Lydia in the cafeteria, the bus and home. At the same time, he studied space earnestly and got the admission from Harvard. Since then, he lost his patience to make response to Lydia's sad emotion.?

Lydia made a promise that she were willing to do whatever her mother asked as long as her mother came home. She has kept her words since her mother did come home. She was five years old at that time. But she asked her mother to teach mathematics, skeletons, chemistry. Instead of playing with other kids, she came home directly after school to see her mother. She called her classmates to make her father happy about her friendship, but she can say nothing but boring subjects. She was not interested on physics and did worse and worse in exams. She was taught by Marilyn three days in Christmas break. She received Nath's letter from Harvard but tore it into pieces. She was afraid that Nath would leave her alone. She got in touch with Jack because she thought Nath disliked Jack.

Hannah was an unexpected child and was ignored by her parents and brother and sister. She seemed to know her existence. She was quiet since she was born. She almost never cried when she was a baby. She hided herself in the shadow of the corner and lived in the deserted attic. She was shooed away by her Mom, Dad, Nath and Lydia. She was afraid to touch them, to talk to them. She lived like a shadow and was forgot by everyone.

所思所想

第四章到第七章，講述了Lee一家經(jīng)歷的第一個(gè)變故，Marilyn的出走。因?yàn)閶寢尩碾x開，Lydia做出了對(duì)媽媽唯命是從的決定，Nath找到了對(duì)宇航的熱愛(ài)，Marilyn和James相互間的愛(ài)，在日漸消磨。Lydia承受著自己不能承受的，Nath是她唯一能夠喘氣的地方，但是Nath已經(jīng)迫不及待地要離開，以往的安慰變成了緊閉的房門。圣誕節(jié)，她再次收到了父母對(duì)他滿懷期待的禮物，醫(yī)學(xué)和朋友。都是她做不到的。面對(duì)Nath的鏡頭，她連扯動(dòng)嘴角的假笑都不能做出。是為了讓Nath生氣而接近Jack，還是因?yàn)镴ack的自由而一步步靠近？在家中，Lydia連呼吸都是緊張的，她在Jack處得到了什么“領(lǐng)悟”？距離她的離世，只有三個(gè)月了。

看著看著，我在想，他們都是在拼命地抓住一個(gè)東西，認(rèn)可。Marilyn被母親和男性主導(dǎo)社會(huì)的認(rèn)可，James被主流社會(huì)白人的認(rèn)可，Lydia和Nath被爸爸媽媽的認(rèn)可（Lydia努力學(xué)習(xí)醫(yī)學(xué)和交朋友，Nath申請(qǐng)哈佛大學(xué)），Hannah一次一次在角落里在內(nèi)心里對(duì)哥哥姐姐的支持，一次一次小心翼翼地靠近。用力過(guò)度而不用心，他們以外在形式的“成功”掩飾著內(nèi)在的空無(wú)。一切都在Lydia的去世之后，破碎了。

這周剛好看到一部電影《革命之路》，是小李子和凱特的第二次合作。看的時(shí)候就想到正在看的《無(wú)聲告白》。一見(jiàn)鐘情，因孩子而結(jié)婚，關(guān)于理想的追求和放棄。April和Marilyn的不同選擇，卻是兩個(gè)悲劇。

學(xué)習(xí)：

看了這本書十天，收獲的不僅僅是這個(gè)故事和英語(yǔ)，更多的是群里每一位讀者分享的筆記和交流的思想。將一個(gè)故事從十幾個(gè)角度理解，是大學(xué)閱讀課上的事；精心編輯和整理所看的所學(xué)的，是一學(xué)期一次的展示。而這里，每天都在做這件事。看到更好的，虛心學(xué)習(xí)，每天進(jìn)步。而只有自己每天輸入和輸出，才知道其中的收獲。參加了幾期，之前的旁觀學(xué)習(xí)和現(xiàn)在的對(duì)比學(xué)習(xí)，最大的差距是自己對(duì)時(shí)間的掌控。今天早上九點(diǎn)的火車，為了寫好這篇文章，我從上車開始到現(xiàn)在，（12:36）一直在寫著。而我的周邊是《奇葩說(shuō)》、某部抗戰(zhàn)劇以及音樂(lè)的混雜聲。以往，我覺(jué)得外出坐車就浪費(fèi)了一天時(shí)間，現(xiàn)在是只要不是工作和必要的交際，其他的時(shí)間都是我自己的，我讀書和寫筆記是讓我喜歡的事情，就這么做就好了。寫得啰嗦和長(zhǎng)了，正在精進(jìn)中。