2016-03-10

【Aiden in English】

        I remember the sixth-grade science fair. I also remember how my last-minute research project was so special. It was an extremely “neat” on the poster and everyone saw all the “hard-work” I put into it. Well, I guess the judges also saw the “hard-work” I put into my project for the 59^th Annual Montgomery County Science Research Competition or MCSRC today.

        So, this Science Fair actually means something other than a letter on a piece of paper. In fact, the one thing they don’t have is a letter on a piece of paper. No one judges people that way anymore. But, please, there are plenty of other ways to judge a person.

        Well, my science topic was “What Factors Affected Opinions and Perceptions the Most”, and to save time, I’m not going to spend half of this page and a minute of your life explaining what I did; that was what the science fair was for. I’m also not going to want anyone to judge me about my project; again, that was what the science fair was for. I am going to say that within a category, first and second place are moving on to the Delaware Valley Scientific Competition. My project fitted within the “Behavior” category.

        The fair took place at Ursinus College, a private university west to Philadelphia. We used the indoor track and field area in its gym, and tables were lined up in long rows. Everything looked amazing until you saw the details. You shouldn’t paint wood so it looks like metal, because it just simply doesn’t look like metal.

        Ever have those moments when the judges are looking at the project next to yours and you’re freaking out. Yeah. And it gets tortured when the judges suddenly decide to take a bathroom break before it is your turn. Ouch! When they finally reached me, half of my mind melted in nervous energy while the other half was flash-frozen due to a tension cord snapping. But in the end, as I always do, I survived, although truthfully, it wasn’t great. It becomes worse when the two winners of our category were all within two seats of my project.

        One of the winners was about imagination. So basically, ten drawings of … random stuff were shown to people in different age groups, and they named as many objects as they could see. I’m not going to mention the results in case I spoil anything, but just saying … you could do the science project too. The other had something to do with mixing tastes together. No offense, but I do not want to be a test subject.

        Well, I failed.

        On the bright side, however, I now know that next year, I can’t throw my project together and hope for a good result. It really stinks. But as always, it’s the experience that matters.

【紅霞譯文】

        初中一年級科學展覽會令我難忘，記得去年直到最後時刻我才突擊完成看似了不起的研究課題，壁報被整理得“井然有序”，大家誰都明白我為鼓搗科學而花費了不少“心血”。在今天舉行的第五十九屆賓州蒙哥馬利郡科學研究競賽上，我覺得評委同樣清楚本人為之所付出的“努力”。

        科學展覽原本不該堆砌文字，事實上，它最忌諱的事情就是拼湊東西，沒人說這麼做不行，但毋庸置疑，評判一個人的研究質量可以從其它方方面面入手。

        閒話休提書歸正傳，本人帶來的科學課題為“最能影響人們觀點意見的幾個因素”，在此我不願浪費紙張乃至占用讀者寶貴時間重述上面所涉及的內容，也不想聽任何人評頭論足，所有相關事宜均由科學展覽會負責裁奪。這裡順便提示一下，按照課題歸類的小組分別選出前兩名晉級參加特拉華流域科學競賽，而我的研究課題屬於“行為”科學範疇。

        科學展覽會場設在費城西部私立大學──烏爾薩努斯學院，我們在其體育館田徑場上支起排排桌子，且不夸展品質量如何，放眼望去，會場陣勢相當可觀。“秦王掃六合，虎視何雄哉”，檢驗我們的時刻到了。

        以前曾有過幾次經歷，眼見評委走上前來觀看你身旁的壁報，你常常緊張得要死。沒錯，更令人抓狂的莫過於，輪到該審視你壁報那一瞬間，評委突然決定要去解手，天喲！等他們好不容易出現在面前，我的腦袋瓜一半因為神經蹦過了頭而變得麻木不仁，另一半則被突如其來的刺激嚇得驚慌失措。好在我一如既往堅持挺到最後，不過說句心裡話，自我感覺不是太妙，尤其當同一小組出線的兩位距離我僅有一臂之遙。

        其中一位獲勝者談及有關想象力的問題，他基本上採用十個圖畫……來隨機代表不同年齡段的人群，每個年齡段的人群都要盡其所能說出各自所觀察到的東西，我不必道破結果，避免夾雜個人感情色彩，由此說來……你也能從事科學研究。另一位獲勝者暢敘混合味覺，對之我絲毫沒有反對意見，但敢肯定自己不會充當測試對象。

        對，我落選了。

        但站在積極向上的角度，現在我意識到明年再也不會把希望寄托在胡亂拼湊的題材之上，這麼做純屬自欺欺人。算了，還是常言說得好，重在參與。