中英對照讀新聞》Ohio man’s Halloween display becomes source of joy to cancer patient 俄亥俄州男子的萬聖節裝飾 成為癌症患者的歡樂源泉

◎張沛元

Make no bones about it, Bill Pyles’ front yard in Oxford, Ohio, has bones all about it.

就直說了，比爾‧派爾斯在（美國）俄亥俄州牛津的（自家）前院，全是死人骨頭。

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But to Pyles and his family, the scariest thing isn’t their elaborate Halloween display —it’s their mailbox, which every year curses him with hate mail.

但對派爾斯及其家人來說，最可怕的不是他們費盡心思的萬聖節裝飾，而是他們的信箱，每年都有詛咒他的仇恨郵件。

Which is why Pyles was thinking about scaling back the display when a note arrived earlier this month.

這就是為何當派爾斯本月稍早收到1封信時，考慮縮小該裝飾的規模。

"I stopped dead in my tracks in the driveway looking at that letter," Pyles told CBS News.

「我在車道上看信簡直驚呆了，」派爾斯告訴哥倫比亞廣播公司新聞網。

The note was written by Tammy Weihe, who has breast cancer. To receive her daily radiation treatments, Weihe has to travel a country road in Oxford that takes her right past Pyles’ house.

該信來自乳癌患者譚美‧懷西，她每天做放射線治療時，都得在牛津行經1條正好經過派爾斯家門前的鄉間小路。

"The bone family and what they are up to...(is) a highlight of my journey," Weihe wrote.

「骷髏家族及其要做的事…是我（去做化療的）旅程中的精采亮點，」懷西寫道。

新聞辭典

make no bones about something：慣用語，對…直言不諱。

scale back/down something：片語，縮小規模。例句：The company has decided to drastically scale back its business in China.（該公司已決定大幅縮減在中國的業務。）

stop dead in one’s tracks：片語，原地不動；使停止動作；突然不動；in one’s tracks：就地，當場。例句：She stopped in her tracks and stared at him in amazement.（她停下腳步，驚訝地看著他。）