奥巴马和女儿同读少年历险小说

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.

美国总统奥巴马于本周一称，目前他正在和他11岁的女儿玛丽亚读《少年Pi的奇幻漂流》这本畅销书，不过他在读到这本书的最后几页时可能会大惊失色。

奥巴马在一次访谈中说，这本书“很精彩”，让他的女儿很着迷。

他说：“有时候整个章节都和印度教和基督教有关。书中有很多哲学方面的东西，不过不知为什么，玛丽亚还是坚持读下去了。”

这一获奖作品由扬．马特尔所著，主要讲述的是少年派．帕特尔的一次奇幻旅程。派和他的家人乘坐一艘船从印度驶往加拿大，船在海上沉没后，他被扔进一只救生船，和一只老虎、一只土狼、一只斑马和一头猩猩一起在海上漂流。

故事讲的是一场生存的战斗，最后只有派和老虎留在了那只小船上。

但读到书的最后几页，“真相”会大白，这一奇幻历险的故事可能是叙述者虚构出来的。真实的故事源于一个有关同类相食和残杀的可怕传说。

Vocabulary:

enthrall: to hold spellbound; captivate 迷住；吸引住（The magic show enthralled the audience. 魔术表演把观众吸引住了。）

hang in there: to persevere despite difficulties; persist 坚持下去（Hang in there, baby. You can pass the university entrance exam! 宝贝，不要泄气，坚持下去。你一定能通过大学入学考试！）