耳聋女孩儿萨姆认识了玩儿音乐的男孩儿吉姆。萨姆听不到声音，而吉姆却非常热爱音乐，生活在如此不同的两个世界的俩人却彼此相爱了。可是，面对现实中的种种困难，萨姆和吉姆能克服困难，勇敢地追求自己的幸福吗？他们的爱能经得住考验吗？命运会安排她和他走到一起吗？还是让他俩永远只是一个向左走一个向右走？
“剑桥双语分级阅读-小说馆”系列图书适合小学高年级到大学低年级英语学习者阅读使用，其中“第2级”8册，适合初二至初三英语学习的学生，本级别核心词汇量为800词，适合初二、初三学生及相当水平的读者阅读。本册图书为第2级8册之一。本系统图书包括如下特点： 原创英文小说，未经改编，原汁原味。 当代小说题材，学习当代实用英语，了解欧美风土人情。 英语语言教育专家 + 小说作家合力创作，兼具文学欣赏与英语学习的双重作用。 读本 + 录音，阅读与听力双重学习与欣赏。 小说题材丰富，侦探、情感、历险、惊悚、悬疑、科幻、
Margaret Johnson，英语语言教育专家、作家、艺术家、教师。东英吉利大学创意写作硕士，擅长写作戏剧、影视剧本和儿童小说，语言以幽默风趣著称。在“剑桥双语分级阅读?小说馆”系列中，她创作了《蓬发奇缘》《真爱无界》等读本。
缪晓艳，上海位育中学英语高级教师，中国教育学会会员。曾多次在全国、上海市教学竞赛中获奖，并获青年岗位能手等荣誉称号。她在高中英语教学上积极探索教育教学规律，充分展现“实、活、美”的教学风格，取得了突出成绩。
People in the story故事中的人物
Places in the story故事中的地点
Before reading读前思考
Chapter 1 A hand on a guitar吉他上的小手
Chapter 2 Shopping购物
Chapter 3 My best friend我最好的朋友
Chapter 4 The party聚会
Chapter 5 Snow fun雪中之乐
Chapter 6 Spring cleaning春季大扫除
Chapter 7 A new boyfriend新交的男朋友
Chapter 8 The girl in the red dress穿红裙的女孩子
Chapter 9 Pizza and talking比萨饼和谈话
Chapter 10 Jim’s band吉姆的乐队
Chapter 11 Happy ever after从此幸福地在一起
After reading读后活动
People in the story故事中的人物
Places in the story故事中的地点
Before reading读前思考
Chapter 1 A hand on a guitar吉他上的小手
Chapter 2 Shopping购物
Chapter 3 My best friend我最好的朋友
Chapter 4 The party聚会
Chapter 5 Snow fun雪中之乐
Chapter 6 Spring cleaning春季大扫除
Chapter 7 A new boyfriend新交的男朋友
Chapter 8 The girl in the red dress穿红裙的女孩子
Chapter 9 Pizza and talking比萨饼和谈话
Chapter 10 Jim’s band吉姆的乐队
Chapter 11 Happy ever after从此幸福地在一起
After reading读后活动
Learning guide学习指导
Translation参考译文
Chapter 1 A hand on a guitar
Before I was born, my mum played music with four friends. There’s a photograph of them in our living room. Evie, Grace, Angela, Kate and my mum. They were the Sweet Pepper Band, and they played South American music. Mum played guitar.
Mum had long dark hair. In the photograph she’s wearing a big hat, a red shirt and yellow trousers. She looks South American, but she’s not, she’s English. She’s smiling in the photograph. She looks beautiful.
She’s beautiful now too. But these days her hair is short and the dark brown colour comes from a bottle. Mum doesn’t play her guitar very often any more. It sits in the corner of the living room waiting for Evie, Grace, Angela or Kate to visit.
When I was a little girl, I liked to put my small hand on the front of Mum’s guitar while she played it. My hand moved a little because of the music. Mum said that was called vibration. She was happy that I could feel the vibration of her music when I put my hand on her guitar. And she wasn’t angry when one day I had blue paint on my hand and I put it on the guitar.
Mum liked me to feel the vibration of her music, you see. That’s because I can’t hear her music. My ears don’t work. I’m deaf. I was born like that. Sometimes I think that’s why Mum doesn’t play music very often, because she knows I can’t hear it. And now that I’m eighteen years old, my hands are too big to put them on the front of the guitar.
I don’t know if Mum was sad to have a deaf baby. She tells me I was beautiful when I was born. I had lots of blonde hair and blue eyes that went brown like hers after a few months. But I don’t think Mum’s sad because she smiles all the time.
Mum smiles more than anyone I know. She’s always happy, that’s one of the things everyone loves about her. The children at Busy Kids Day Nursery, where we both work, all love Mum. Busy Kids is Mum’s business. She started it five years ago.
Mum’s really good with children. I remember when I was quite young – five or six years old – I was sad about something. I don’t remember what I was sad about, but I do remember what Mum said. We sat in a chair together with her face close to mine and she put her arms around me. We stayed like that for a while, and then she sat back so she could talk to me. Mum and I use our hands and fingers to talk to each other. It’s called signing.
Anyway, Mum said that we can choose how to be in life – happy or sad. She said, ‘Life’s short, so choose to be happy.’ I try never to forget those words.
I try to be like my mum because I think she’s a wonderful person. I don’t know much about my father because he left after I was born. All I know is that he played music too, and that he’s French. He lives in Paris now.
Mum and my father met when he was working in Norwich for a year. They fell in love and soon got married. Dad moved into the house where Mum and I live now. Norwich is a beautiful place, but it isn’t as big and exciting as Paris. I think my father got bored. Or perhaps he was sad when I was born deaf. Because that’s when he went away to live with his family in Paris. He never came back.
Some of my friends don’t talk to their parents very much. My friend Suzanne sometimes tells her mother she’s with me when she’s really with her boyfriend. She does this because her mum worries about her all the time. She worries about where she is and who she’s with. But Mum and I are very close, and I couldn’t tell her something that wasn’t true. Anyway, she doesn’t worry the way Suzanne’s mum does, so I usually tell her everything.
But I didn’t tell her when I fell in love for the first time.
I don’t know why. Perhaps it was because it felt so strange; because I felt so strange. It was almost like being on a boat on an angry sea. Sometimes I was afraid of how I felt.
And there was another problem. I didn’t know the name of the man I was in love with.
第1章 吉他上的小手
我出生之前，妈妈和四个朋友一起玩音乐。我家的客厅里有一张她们的合影：埃维、格雷斯、安吉拉、凯特和我妈妈。她们组成了甜椒乐队，演奏南美风格的音乐。我妈妈弹吉他。
妈妈那时留着黑色长发。照片上的她头戴一顶大帽子，身穿红衬衫和黄裤子。她看上去像南美人，但她不是，她是英国人。照片中的她微笑着，看上去非常漂亮。
她现在也很漂亮。只是现在她留着短发，而且头发上的深棕色是染上去的。妈妈不再经常弹吉他了。那把吉他被搁在客厅的角落里，只有等埃维、格雷斯、安吉拉或凯特来访时才会被重新弹起。
当我还是个小女孩时，我喜欢在妈妈弹吉他的时候把小手放在吉他的面板上。我的手会因为音乐而轻轻颤动。妈妈说那叫振动。她很高兴我把手放在她的吉他上时能感受到音乐的振动，甚至有一天我把沾着蓝色颜料的手放在她的吉他上她都没有生气。
瞧，妈妈喜欢我去感受她的音乐的振动，那是因为我听不到她弹奏的音乐。我的耳朵听不见。我是失聪的。我生下来就这样。有时候我觉得妈妈就是因为这个而不经常弹奏音乐了，因为她知道我听不见。现在我已经十八岁了，手太大了，没法再放在吉他的面板上了。
我不清楚妈妈是否会因为生了个失聪宝宝而难过。她告诉我，我出生时可漂亮了，有一头浓密的金发和一双蓝眼睛，这双蓝眼睛几个月后变成了棕色，和她的一样。我觉得妈妈并不难过，因为她总是在笑。
妈妈比我认识的任何人笑得都多。她总是很快乐，那也是大家都喜欢她的原因之一。我们俩都在“忙孩子托儿所”工作，那里的孩子都喜欢妈妈。“忙孩子”是妈妈的企业，是她五年前开办的。
妈妈真的很会跟孩子相处。我记得我很小的时候——五六岁大——因为什么事情很伤心。我不记得是为了什么而难过，但我的确记得妈妈所说的话。我们脸贴着脸坐在一把椅子上，她用胳膊搂着我。我们就那样静静地待了一会儿，然后她又坐回去以便能和我说话。我和妈妈用手和手指交流，也就是用手语。
总之，妈妈说我们可以选择如何生活——快乐或者伤心。她说：“生命短暂，所以要选择快快乐乐地过。”我尽量永远都记得这些话。
我努力像妈妈一样，因为我认为她是个很棒的人。关于爸爸我知道得不多，因为我出生后他就离开了。我只知道他也是玩音乐的，是法国人，现在住在巴黎。
妈妈遇到爸爸时，他要在诺里奇工作一年。他们坠入爱河，很快结了婚。婚后爸爸搬进了现在我和妈妈住的家里。诺里奇是个美丽的地方，但不像巴黎那样是个繁华的大都市。我想爸爸是厌倦了这里的生活，也可能是因为我天生耳聋他很难过，因为他就是那时候离开我们回了巴黎和他的家人一起生活的。他再没回来过。
我的一些朋友不怎么和他们的父母交流。我的朋友苏珊娜有时候告诉她妈妈她和我在一起，而实际上是和男朋友在一起。她这么做是因为她妈妈总是为她担心，担心她在哪里，担心她和谁在一起。但是我妈妈和我很亲密，我没法对她撒谎。不管怎样，她不像苏珊娜的妈妈那样整天担心，所以我通常什么事都会告诉她。
但是生平第一次，我没有告诉她我恋爱了。
我不知道是为什么，也许是因为这感觉很奇怪，也许是因为我4感觉很奇怪。那感觉几乎就像是上了一艘漂在波涛汹涌的大海上的小船。有时我害怕自己的这种感觉。
而且还有个问题。我并不知道我爱上的那个人的名字。
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