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24 The Assignment
任務
His eyes blazed with excitement.
他的雙眼興奮地閃耀著。
“I've got an important assignment for you,” he said, as he glanced back down at a newspaper.
“我有個重大任務讓你干。”他說道，一面低頭瞟了眼報紙。
“The leaders of our nation have just signed a bilateral travel treaty with the isolated country of Bandu on the African continent, and I want you to go down there right away to do research for a biography.”
“我國領導人剛剛同非洲到過班杜簽署了一項雙邊旅游條約，我要你立刻去班杜，給一本傳記做研究。”
The research my boss wanted was for a biography about Bob Boon.
老板制定的研究對象是關于鮑勃布恩的傳記。
Boon was a brilliant biologist who was somewhat bigoted when it came to discussing politics or religion.
布恩是一名出色的生物學家，但談起政治和宗教，他卻有些頑固不化。
He was known for making blasphemous statements.
他以放些褻瀆神靈的狂詞著稱。
He spent most of his adult years studying animals in the country of Bandu.
他壯年時大多時候都在班杜研究動物。
He was one of the first scientists to successfully track the migratory patterns of the bison.
他是最早追蹤野牛遷徙習性的科學家之一，
Boon was also a strong advocate for maintaining biological diversity.
還是維持生物多樣性的堅決擁護者。
My boss pays me quite well to do his bidding.
老板命令的任務酬金豐厚。
He owns a billion-dollar publishing company, and when he sets his mind on doing a story, he doesn't care about the bill.
老板擁有一家資產10億的出版社，而且當他決意要搞到一個故事時，毫不在乎賬單上的開資多寡。
So here I am in Bandu, surrounded by bizarre animals and bitter food.
于是我來到班杜，置身于奇珍異獸和苦澀的食物的包圍中。
Frankly, I'd rather eat bland food.
說實話，我寧可吃淡而無味的食物。
It's freezing here at night and my blanket doesn't keeping me warm.
這里晚上冷得要死。我的毯子一點也不暖和。
During the day, it is as hot as a blast furnace.
白天，這里又熱得像鼓風爐。
Last week, the blazing sun caused a fire that blazed out of control for several days.
上周，熾熱的太陽導致了一場大火，火苗失控的燒了好幾天。
I hate these assignments to remote areas.
我討厭去偏遠地帶執行任務，
But I always end up accepting the job.
但到頭來我還是會接下這些任務。
It's not as though I was blackmailed into coming here.
我好像并不是被訛詐而來這里的，
I have no one to blame but myself.
要怪只能怪我自己。
I just hope that my next assignment doesn't require that I blast off to the moon!
我只希望我的下一個任務不會要我飛上月球！
