A: Some toys were cool, some were badly conceived and some were toxic.
B: Toxic? What do you mean?
A: I had a collection of cartoon figurines. They were part of a promotion from a gas station. It turns out there was lead in the paint used on them. They had to be withdrawn. Lead paint is toxic.
Photo: Pixabay 照片：Pixabay
B: I remember those. They later reintroduced them with non-toxic paint, didn’t they? And the ones with the safe paint had a little blue spot on the base of the foot to distinguish them from the poisonous ones.
A: That’s right. So I built up a second collection. I came home from school one day to find my younger brother had used them to enact a battle scene, and had stained them with red paint to represent blood. That was another set ruined.
B: Well, your brother was using his imagination. I thought you just said that was a good thing.
A: 有些玩具很酷，有些設計得不好，也有些有毒。
B: 有毒？這是什麼意思？
A: 我收集了一些小的卡通人物模型，這是一家加油站的促銷活動送的。結果後來發現這些模型用的塗料含有鉛，他們只好把這些模型召回。含有鉛的油漆是有毒的。
B: 我記得這件事。後來他們又開始送使用無鉛塗料的玩具，對吧？這些使用安全塗料的玩具底座就有一個藍色的點，用來跟那些有毒的玩具做區別。
A: 沒錯。所以我就收集了第二套。有一天我放學回家，發現我弟用這些模型來扮演戰爭的場面，在上面灑了紅色油漆來代表血。所以我第二套收集也毀了。
B: 嗯，你弟弟是在運用他的想像力啊。你剛剛不是說運用想像力是件好事嗎？
（Paul Cooper, Taipei Times／台北時報林俐凱譯）
English 英文:
Chinese 中文:
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