Part I Words and Expressions

1. Every day, James drove home from the college—where he taught his cowboy class term after term after term, until he could recite the lectures word for word—mulling over the slights of the day: how two little girls, hopscotching on the corner, had seen him brake at the stop sign and thrown pebbles at his car…

mull over: to think about a problem, plan etc for a long time before making a decision

仿句：My boyfriend mulled over my schedule for the graduation trip and decided he would go with me. 

2. She would be poised and confident; she would say, Afternoon, Vivian, and look right at her neighbors with those wide blue eyes.

poised: not moving, but ready to move or do something at any moment

仿句：He has grown into a mature, poised man. The boyish look she remembered for years now is gone. 

3.  He had buoyed her up with how too much love was better than too little.

buoy up: to make someone fell happier or more confident.

仿句：In all of those sleepless nights, his smile is the only thing buoying her up, encouraging her to move on. 

4. All that time, Nath let himself think only: When I get to college— He never completed the sentence, but in his imagined future, he floated away, untethered.

untethered: not tied or limited with or as if with a tether

仿句：With a relieved sigh, he felt free, untethered, as if he could go wherever he wants and do whatever he likes. 

5. Her brother himself stood silent, awed and grateful, 1981 glistening in his eyes like a beautiful far-off star, and something wobbled inside Lydia and tumbled into her chest with a clang. 

wobble: to move unsteadily from side to side, or make something do this. 

仿句：At everyone's surprise, the newly-established buidling wobbled and fell, resulting in a massacre. 

【-umble词语辨析】

看书的过程中出现很多-umble结尾的词，做一个总结顺便记忆。

@crumble: v. 弄碎、粉碎。名词还有面包屑之意。

to break apart into lots of little pieces, or make something do this. 

①The shell snaps between his fingers, like a popcorn hull, and the insect crumbles to sulfur-colored powder.

②As they spoke, he would crumble crackers into a cup of celery soup, or peel waxed paper from a wedge of cheese sandwich, and pause, confused, certain he’d done this before, uncertain whether he was reviewing his studies or the whole schoolday. ”

@mumble: v. 含糊地说。念这个词，想象嘴嘟嘟囔囔说话的样子。

to say something too quietly or not clearly enough, so that other people cannot understand you.

① “Look, Nath,” Jack mumbles. “If Lydia told you that I—”

@rumble: v. 隆隆作响。句①指肚子饿发出的响声。句②指门打开时的声音。

to make a series of long low sounds,especailly a long distance from you.

① Only in the car, when his stomach begins to rumble, does he realize there’d been no lunch at Louisa’s apartment, that he had never actually expected there to be.

② There’s a pause as he slips on his shoes, and a moment later, the garage door rumbles open. 

@stumble: v. 蹒跚、踉跄。句②stumble是指Lydia做题开始磕磕绊绊。

to walk in an unsteady way and often almost fall

① Nath stumbles backward a few steps, glaring at Jack, at his father for interrupting, at the elm tree itself for not being farther away.

② In the meantime she stumbled through the assignments, copying the odd-numbered problems from the answers at the back of the book and fudging the even ones as best she could.

@tumble: v. 摔倒、绊倒、弄乱

to fall down quickly and suddenly, especailly with a rolling movement

① Both of them tumble back into the grass, and at last Hannah lets go. 

② The paper sack tumbled to the ground. 

@jumble: 混杂、使混乱、搞乱

a lot of things mixed together in an untidy way, without any order.

① Equations jumbled and rejumbled, hidden messages jumping out at her. 

@fumble: 摸索

try to hold, move, or find something with your hands in an awkward way.

① Jack fumbled in his hip pocket for his keys. “Are you sure your brother wants you hanging out with a guy like me?

② Louisa moans, arching her back, and James fumbles with the buttons on her blouse, peeling it away and unsnapping her bra and catching her breasts, heavy and round, in his cupped hands.

Part II Thoughts

She grew willowy; Nath grew tall…What about Hannah? …a child fond of nooks and corners, who curled up in closets, behind sofas, under dangling tablecloths, staying out of sight as well as out of mind, to ensure the terrain of the family did not change.

三个孩子的轨迹

He understood everything she did not say, which at its core was: Don’t let go.

Lydia could feel him aching to escape so badly that everything else was falling away.

Lydia和Nath之间存在某种默契，他们相互依靠取暖。这也是长久以来支持Lydia继续下去的支柱。Lydia让母亲开心，让父亲欢喜，努力维持着一个美丽的假象。然而Nath找到了离开的契机，而Lydia只能被困在这里，一个人挣扎。Lydia阻止不了Nath的离开，也阻止不了她内心世界的倾覆。

The smoke burned in her lungs and made her head spin and suddenly she felt sharp and aware. Like cutting your finger, she thought: the pain, and the blood, reminded you that you were alive.

第一次抽烟，反而给她鲜活自由的感觉。Marilyn的期望，Lydia曾对自己的许诺，让她的生活绷得紧紧的，作者也时不时在提醒弦断的那一天。

Lydia was fifteen and a half, and winter break had just begun. In five months she would be dead. 

看到小说第一句“Lydia is dead." 时，还以为这是一部悬疑小说，还在不断猜测凶手。但往下读反而是慢慢被作者笔下Lee一家的生存状态所吸引。Lydia为何而死也渐渐现出眉目。但仍有些问题悬而未决。余下的这些日子又发生了什么？压死Lydia的最后一根稻草是什么？……