精彩对白

Mrs. Crowley: I'm not gonna say it again. It is bedtime now.

Megan: It's for him.

Dr. Stonehill: Me?

Megan: For good luck. For bass¹ fishing.

Dr. Stonehill: Thank you.

Megan: You like it?

Dr. Stonehill: Well, sure. A happy-go-lucky little fellow, lots of personality?

Megan: He's a plastic toy.

Dr. Stonehill: I know.

John Crowley: Here's the father-daughter dance. You haven't lived until you've seen Megan do the Wheelchair Watusi.

Mrs. Crowley: Here you go. Go ahead and eat the cobbler while it's hot.

John Crowley: Smells great, honey. This was hilarious². Bob, we went to this dude ranch³. All right if I call you Bob?

Dr. Stonehill: You got a check for a half-million dollars, hell, you can call me Peggy Sue.

John Crowley: I'll just...Well, Bob. This is the first installment⁴ against the promised half a million.

Dr. Stonehill: Tell you the truth, that's more than I expected.

John Crowley: Dr. Stonehill, we promise that...Yeah, I know. If... In enough time, then...

Dr. Stonehill: I know. I know. You can learn a lot about a person on the Internet these days. Learn about a working-class kid from New Jersey⁵, worked his way through Harvard Business School, clawing his way up the ladder at Bristol-Myers. But what Google can't tell you is that this scared, desperate, bullshitting son of a bitch...

Mrs. Crowley: Wait just a minute...

Dr. Stonehill: Don't interrupt. Will do and say whatever it takes to get results. Which is why you and me are going into business together, Jersey.

John Crowley: Excuse me?

Dr. Stonehill: I'm tired of begging breadcrumbs from the university and giving them the patents to my ideas. They don't value my work. You do, which is why I'm setting up my own shop. Figure any dude in a business suit can help me raise venture capital and run the company, but who's gonna be half as motivated as a dad who's trying to save his own kids?

John Crowley: So, this is...

Dr. Stonehill: So this is the shittiest offer you're ever gonna get. I can promise you less money, longer hours, lousy working conditions, plus, if we raise the money, you're gonna have to relocate to Nebraska. And with the right business plan, I can also promise you a working enzyme⁶ for Pompe disease. I can't cure your kids, you know that. They're always gonna be in wheelchairs, but I think I can save their lives. Outstanding cobbler.

Mrs. Crowley: Okay, okay. So, we agree we can't uproot⁷ the kids.

John Crowley: What if Stonehill fails? Or what if he succeeds too late to help Megs and Patrick? Then what?

Mrs. Crowley: I know. If we're gonna lose them young, you want to spend every minute you can with them. John, that day that you flew to Nebraska, when you suddenly just ditched work and...My God, I thought you'd lost it. You scared me. But once we rolled our sleeves up, and we started fundraising and meeting other Pompe families, it made me feel like...I mean, do we just accept our fate and do what we're told by all the well-meaning doctors and wait for the worst to happen, or do we fight it?

妙语佳句 活学活用

1. bass: 这里指巴斯鱼，肉食性鱼种，多以吃小鱼为生。

一般我们常用bass来表示音乐的低音部、男低音歌手、或者低音电吉他。

例如：He has formed a new band with his brother on bass.（他组织了一个新乐队，由他弟弟弹低音吉他。）

2. happy-go-lucky: 逍遥的，随遇而安的。这里斯通希尔博士的意思是“这是个乐天的小东西，很有个性，是不?”

3. cobbler: 酥皮水果馅饼，也可以表示“修鞋匠”，或者“胡说，废话”。

例如：The cobbler should stick to his last. [谚]补鞋匠应守本行。

4. dude ranch: （美国的）度假牧场，度假农场。

5. first installment: 分期付款的首期，第一部分。

6. breadcrumb: 面包屑。这里的begging breadcrumbs from the university指的是“向大学乞讨”。

7. venture capital: 风险资本。创建企业时为购买建筑物、设备等借贷的资金。

8. ditch: 抛弃，丢弃，也可以指飞机在海上紧急降落。

last-ditch：作最后努力（或尝试）的；孤注一掷的

9. roll our sleeves up: 捋起袖子；准备动手；摩拳擦掌。