parakeet n. [鳥]長(zhǎng)尾小鸚鵡
Lovebirds. That’s what all our friends called us when we first married. I guess Don and I deserved it. Money was tight because we were both full-time students, working to pay our way through school. Sometimes we‘d have to save up days just for an ice cream cone. Still, our tiny, drab apartment seemed like paradise. Love does that, you know. Anyway, the more we heard the term“l(fā)ovebirds, ”the more we thought about birds. And one day we started saving up for a couple of lovebirds of our own：the feathery kind. We knew we couldn’t afford to buy both birds and a nice cage, so in his spare moments, Don made the cage himself. We set our cage in front of a shaded window. Then we waited until the crumpled envelope marked“l(fā)ovebirds”was full of bills and spare change. At last the day came when we were able to walk down to our local pet store to“adopt ”some additions to our little family.
我們剛結(jié)婚時(shí)朋友們把我們叫做“恩愛(ài)鳥”, 我想我和唐不愧于這個(gè)名字。由于我們倆都是全日制學(xué)生, 靠打工掙學(xué)費(fèi), 所以手頭總是很緊。有時(shí)我們?yōu)榱速I個(gè)冰淇淋蛋卷就要攢好幾天的錢。即使如此, 我們那個(gè)狹小、簡(jiǎn)陋的寓所卻像天堂一般, 你要知道, 這是因?yàn)橛辛藧?ài)。 不管怎么說(shuō), 我們?cè)绞锹?tīng)“恩愛(ài)鳥”這個(gè)詞, 就越是琢磨小鳥。我們開始攢錢給自己買一對(duì)情侶鸚鵡, 羽毛輕軟的那種。唐利用業(yè)余時(shí)間自己做了個(gè)鳥籠, 因?yàn)槲覀冎牢覀儧](méi)錢既買鸚鵡又買個(gè)像樣的鳥籠。 我們把鳥籠放在一個(gè)有陰涼的窗下, 然后等待著有一天那個(gè)皺巴巴的、上面寫著“情侶鸚鵡”的信封里面裝滿了紙幣和多余的硬幣。到當(dāng)?shù)氐膶櫸锏隇槲覀兊男〖摇邦I(lǐng)養(yǎng)”新成員的這一天終于到來(lái)了。