奧巴馬和女兒同讀少年曆險小說
President Barack Obama may be in for a nasty surprise when he reaches the final pages of the best-selling book Life of Pi, which he said on Monday he was reading with his 11-year-old daughter Malia.
Obama called it a "wonderful book" that was enthralling his daughter in an interview.
"There are whole chapters that really have to do with Hinduism, Christianity. There is a lot of philosophical stuff in there, but for some reason she (Malia) is hanging in there," he said.
The prize-winning book by Yann Martel centers on the journey of Pi Patel, who is cast adrift in a lifeboat with a tiger, a hyena, a zebra and an orangutan after a ship carrying him and his family from India to Canada sinks.
There is a battle for survival and eventually it is just Pi and the tiger left in the small boat.
But the fantasy adventure is revealed to possibly have been a fabrication by the narrator in the last pages of the book, with the real story emerging of a horrific tale of cannibalism and murder.
美國總統奧巴馬於本週一稱，目前他正在和他11歲的女兒瑪麗亞讀《少年Pi的奇幻漂流》這本暢銷書，不過他在讀到這本書的最後幾頁時可能會大驚失色。
奧巴馬在一次訪談中說，這本書“很精彩”，讓他的女兒很着迷。
他說：“有時候整個章節都和印度教和基督教有關。書中有很多哲學方面的東西，不過不知爲什麼，瑪麗亞還是堅持讀下去了。”
這一獲獎作品由揚•馬特爾所著，主要講述的是少年派•帕特爾的一次奇幻旅程。派和他的家人乘坐一艘船從印度駛往加拿大，船在海上沉沒後，他被扔進一隻救生船，和一隻老虎、一隻土狼、一隻斑馬和一頭猩猩一起在海上漂流。
故事講的是一場生存的戰鬥，最後只有派和老虎留在了那隻小船上。
但讀到書的最後幾頁，“真相”會大白，這一奇幻歷險的故事可能是敘述者虛構出來的。真實的故事源於一個有關同類相食和殘殺的可怕傳說。
Vocabulary:
enthrall: to hold spellbound; captivate 迷住；吸引住（The magic show enthralled the audience. 魔術表演把觀衆吸引住了。）
hang in there: to persevere despite difficulties; persist 堅持下去（Hang in there, baby. You can pass the university entrance exam! 寶貝，不要泄氣，堅持下去。你一定能通過大學入學考試！）
