第十二篇

　　WORDS

　　petty a.1.小的，瑣碎的，不重要的 2.氣量小的，心胸狹窄的

　　pharmacy n.1.藥房，藥店 2.藥劑學，配藥

　　physiological a.生理的，生理學的

　　picket n.1.(罷工時的)糾察隊，糾察隊員 2.警戒隊，警戒哨 vt.1.在……設置糾察線 2.派……擔任糾察，布置(警衛)警戒 vi.擔任糾察(或警戒哨)

　　picturesque a.1.美麗如畫的 2.(語言)生動的，繪聲繪色的

　　pier n.(伸入水域的)碼頭，突堤

　　piety n.虔誠，虔敬

　　pilgrim n.1.朝圣者 2.(在國外的)旅行者，漫游者

　　pineapple n.鳳梨，菠蘿

　　pinpoint vt.1.準確描述，確定，確認 2.精確地確定……的位置 n.針尖，尖端 a.十分精確的

　　pirate n.1.非法盜印(或復制)者，侵犯版權者 2.海盜 vt.1.以海盜的方式搶劫，搶掠 2.盜用，非法盜印(或復制)

　　pistol n.手槍

　　piston n.活塞

　　pitfall n.1.隱患，易犯的錯誤 2.陷阱，圈套

　　pizza n.意大利餡餅，比薩餅

　　plague n.1.瘟疫，鼠疫 2.災難，禍患 vt.使痛苦(或難受)，給……造成困難(或麻煩)

　　plank n.1.厚木板(條) 2.政綱條目，政策要點

　　plaster n.1.灰漿，灰泥 2.石膏 3.橡皮膏，膏藥 vt.1.在……上抹灰泥，厚厚地涂抹 2.粘貼于，張貼于，貼滿

　　plateau n.1.高原 2.(上升后的)穩定時期(或狀態)

　　plausible a.似有道理的，似乎正確的，貌似可信的

　　plea n.1.懇求，請求 2.抗辯，答辯，辯護 3.借口，托辭

　　False Piety

　　It was another day on the picket line. Today we were in front of a pharmacy that supposedly sold drugs tested on animals to increase people's physiological tolerance for pain. Well that was plausible, but no one ever heard our pleas, they just went from one petty picket line to another unable to pinpoint an overall theme to our actions. I was at a plateau on the whole picket line thing when we met a man who said that we could have a greater impact by pirating ships, using pistols, and doing something more drastic. This would get more attention as well as our faces plastered all over the TV screen and newspapers. We decided to give it a try. He never mentioned any pitfalls.

　　Our first and only action was on a picturesque pier in Southern California. After eating our fill of pizza and pineapples we headed to the fishing boat that we were sure caught fish and also killed dolphins in the process. Our plan was to wreck the pistons of the boat engine and then make the captain symbolically walk the plank. But we were pilgrims in this new country of activism and the police fell upon us like the plague before we had done any damage at all.

　　It also turned out that the man who told us to do this was an undercover policeman. All of his false piety was simply a trap to get us to do something crazy so that he could arrest us. And we had fallen for it all.

　　假裝虔誠

　　糾察線進入了新的一天。今天我們是在一家藥店前面，據說這家藥店買的藥在動物身上做過實驗，是用來增強人們忍受疼痛的生理能力的。這聽起來似乎有些道理，但沒有人聽我們請求，他們只是從一條小的糾察線走到另外一條小的糾察線，不能對我們行動的主題作出準確判斷。在整個糾察線里面，我處于一種穩定狀態，這時我們碰到了一個人，他說通過以海盜方式搶劫船只、使用手槍、做一些更加極端的事情我們就可以有更大的影響，這樣會吸引更多的人注意，還會使我們的面部出現在電視屏幕上和報紙上。我們決定嘗試一下。他只字未提容易犯的錯誤。

　　我們的首次同時也是唯一的一次行動是在南加利弗尼亞一個風景如畫的碼頭。吃飽比薩餅和菠蘿之后，我們向一條漁船走去，我們相信它能抓到魚并且還能在捕魚的過程中殺死海豚。我們的計劃是破壞船上發動機的活塞，然后讓船長象征性地在原木板上行走。但是在這個新的激進主義國家我們是朝圣者，我們還沒來得及搞任何破壞活動，警察就像瘟疫一樣對我們進行了襲擊。

　　原來那個要我們做這種事的人是個警察密探。他裝得那么虔誠完全是個圈套，他讓我們做一些瘋狂的事，這樣就可以把我們抓起來。我們還真上了他的當。