关于坚持二字，的确是考验人的耐性和毅力的。

但凡有点儿事情就能分心，然后就很难在短时间内收回去。

Not that I could tell a sycamore from a maple （枫树） or a birch（桦树） for that matter, but Juli, of course, knew what kind of tree it was and passed that knowledge along to（pass...along to sb给某人带话） every creature in her wake.

So this tree, this sycamore tree, was up the hill on a vacant（空缺的） lot on Collier Street, and it was massive（大规模的）. Massive and ugly. It was twisted（反常的，变态的） and gnarled（多节的，多瘤的） and bent（弯曲的）,and I kept expecting the thing to blow over in the wind（随风消散）.

One day last year I'd finally had enough of her yakking about that stupied tree. I came right out and told her that it was not a magnificent（高贵的，珍贵的） sycamore, it was, in reality,the ugliest tree known to man. And you know what she said? She said I was visually challenged（视力障碍）. Visually challenged! This from the girl who lives in a house that's the scourge（祸害，灾难） of the neighborhood.They've got bushes（灌木丛） growing over windows, weeds（水草） sticking out（伸出来） all over the place, and a barnyard's（农场院子） worth of animals running wild（荒凉）. I'm talking dogs,cats,chickens,even snakes. I swear to God, her brothers have a boa constrictor in their room. They dragged me in there when I was about ten and made me watch it eat a rat（老鼠）. A live, beady-eyed rat. They held that rodent up by its tail（尾巴） and gulp（吞咽）,the boa swallowed（吞） it whole. That snake gave me nightmares（噩梦） for month.

简意：

不知为何，朱莉特别钟爱那种树。

这种树随处可见，长得弯弯曲曲，多节多瘤的，我真的觉得很难看。

去年的某一天，我实在难以忍受了，就跑去跟她说这并不是什么高贵的树。你猜她怎么回答我的？她说我是视障，我的天，视障。这个让自家院子杂草丛生的小女孩，居然说我是视障。她们家养了狗、猫、鸡，可怕的是，她哥哥居然还养了条大蟒蛇。有一天她带我去看那条蛇吃一只活老鼠，尾巴一缠，一口就吞下去了。这简直太可怕了，那张嘴让我做了很多次噩梦。