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.

【红霞译文】

        初中一年级科学展览会令我难忘，记得去年直到最后时刻我才突击完成看似了不起的研究课题，壁报被整理得“井然有序”，大家谁都明白我为鼓捣科学而花费了不少“心血”。在今天举行的第五十九届宾州蒙哥马利郡科学研究竞赛上，我觉得评委同样清楚本人为之所付出的“努力”。

        科学展览原本不该堆砌文字，事实上，它最忌讳的事情就是拼凑东西，没人说这么做不行，但毋庸置疑，评判一个人的研究质量可以从其它方方面面入手。

        闲话休提书归正传，本人带来的科学课题为“最能影响人们观点意见的几个因素”，在此我不愿浪费纸张乃至占用读者宝贵时间重述上面所涉及的内容，也不想听任何人评头论足，所有相关事宜均由科学展览会负责裁夺。这里顺便提示一下，按照课题归类的小组分别选出前两名晋级参加特拉华流域科学竞赛，而我的研究课题属于“行为”科学范畴。

        科学展览会场设在费城西部私立大学──乌尔萨努斯学院，我们在其体育馆田径场上支起排排桌子，且不夸展品质量如何，放眼望去，会场阵势相当可观。“秦王扫六合，虎视何雄哉”，检验我们的时刻到了。

        以前曾有过几次经历，眼见评委走上前来观看你身旁的壁报，你常常紧张得要死。没错，更令人抓狂的莫过于，轮到该审视你壁报那一瞬间，评委突然决定要去解手，天哟！等他们好不容易出现在面前，我的脑袋瓜一半因为神经蹦过了头而变得麻木不仁，另一半则被突如其来的刺激吓得惊慌失措。好在我一如既往坚持挺到最后，不过说句心里话，自我感觉不是太妙，尤其当同一小组出线的两位距离我仅有一臂之遥。

        其中一位获胜者谈及有关想象力的问题，他基本上采用十个图画……来随机代表不同年龄段的人群，每个年龄段的人群都要尽其所能说出各自所观察到的东西，我不必道破结果，避免夹杂个人感情色彩，由此说来……你也能从事科学研究。另一位获胜者畅叙混合味觉，对之我丝毫没有反对意见，但敢肯定自己不会充当测试对象。

        对，我落选了。

        但站在积极向上的角度，现在我意识到明年再也不会把希望寄托在胡乱拼凑的题材之上，这么做纯属自欺欺人。算了，还是常言说得好，重在参与。