表达
Whenever I got into trouble with the nuns at Maryvale they’d rap me on the knuckles with the edge of a metal ruler.
rap sb over the knuckles严厉批评，厉声指责，愤怒谴责（某人）
•He was rapped over the knuckles by the management.他受到了管理层的严厉批评。
a rap on/over the knuckles严厉的批评；厉声的指责；愤怒的谴责
rap 说唱乐；敲击（声）；指控，判刑；看法，反响。
敲击；突然厉声说；（尤指正式地）批评，指责，苛责
•She rapped(on) the table to get everyone's attention.她敲了敲桌子，让大家注意。
•The colonel rapped(out) an order to his men.上校厉声对他的士兵下命令。
I collected them from pawnshops and garage sales: flick knives, butterfly knives, the Rambo knife, the Crocodile Dundee knife.
都是可折叠的刀。。。
弹簧刀flick knives (Britain)
A switchblade折叠刀 (also known as an automatic knife, pushbutton knife, ejector knife, switch, Sprenger,Springer, flick knife, or flick blade)
butterfly knives蝴蝶刀=Balisong、fan knife
They were completely dumbfounded.
dumbfounded so surprised that you do not know what to do or say
表惊讶的词
--下面有些词slack-jawed，open-mouthed，dumbstruck等等按字面意思理解还是很形象的。
surprised ，shocked，amazed，，astonished，astounded，thunderstruck，staggered，
at a loss for words，speechless。lost for words 惊讶到说不出话
startled，stunned，flabbergasted，off-guardsurprised by something unexpected
sickenedshocked and feeling rather ill because of something unpleasant
stupefied，nonplussedso surprised and confused that you do not know what to do or say
dumbstruckso surprised or so full of admiration that you cannot speak
open-mouthedwith your mouth wide open in surprise slack-jawedinformal very surprised
gobsmacked British informal poleaxed informal
there were raised eyebrows used for saying that people are shocked or surprised by something
shaken/shocked/thrilled/to the core very surprised, upset, or excited by something
someone’s jaw dropped used for saying that someone was very surprised or shocked
off balance surprised, upset, or confused by something
Somebody sent it to jinx one of the teams.
jinx厄运；不祥的人（或物）
e.g He was beginning to think he was a jinx. 他开始认为自己是个倒霉蛋。
(Synonyms)curse， hoodoo， Indian sign， spell
God is love and the Bible is truth—everything else was up for debate.
up for 1. informal : wanting to have or do (something)
例句 I'm up for some Chinese food.
We're going out dancing tonight. Are you up for it? [=are you interested in joining us?]
老友记第九季-Who's up for puppets? - Me! I'm up for puppets!谁想要看布偶秀呢？ -我！我要看布偶秀！
2. used to say that someone or something is or will be involved in a particular process and especially one that leads to a decision这本书的was up for debate的up for就是取这个意思
His proposal is up for consideration. [=is being considered]
He'll be up for parole in two more years.
— used to say that something is available to be bought
Our house is up for sale. [=our house is being sold]
items that are up for auction
3. appearing in a court of law because of being accused of (a crime)
He was up for armed robbery
想法
If you think too much about the ass-kicking your mom gave you, or the ass-kicking that life gave you, you’ll stop pushing the boundaries and breaking the rules. It’s better to take it, spend some time crying, then wake up the next day and move on. You’ll have a few bruises and they’ll remind you of what happened and that’s okay. But after a while the bruises fade, and they fade for a reason—because now it’s time to get up to some shit again.
感觉好像他对什么都有种特别的好奇心和探索欲，所以他喜欢找loopholes，钻牛角尖，喜欢打破既有规则，这是现在很多孩子所缺乏的。当然也免不了挨打和惩罚，还好他继承了他妈妈的优点。能够忘记生活中的伤痛，move on，并且这阻止不了他勇于去尝试新的东西。
真心佩服他们的这个优点，我有时就太敏感，沉浸在创伤中要好一段时间才能恢复过来。不过真正走出来，真的会发现自己更强大了，不怕更大的类似的困难了。感觉他和他妈妈都是活在当下的人，是平和的。他们可能也会有各种情绪反应，也会忧愁恐惧伤心。不过他们最大的优势，是能够随着心念之流领略风景，随遇而安，不会执著于一时一地，追逐刹那的忧惧而不可自拔，最终迷失于无尽的困苦。
summary
When Trevor was young, he was so high-energy that his mother had to take him to the park so she could run him to death to burn off the energy. At that time, he was also too smart to be tricked, so his mother changed tactics. Their life turned into a courtroom drama with two lawyers constantly debating over loopholes and technicalities. His mother also took him to see psychologists. As a result, every psychologists came to the conclusion that he was either going to make an excellent criminal or be very good at catching criminals, because he could always find loopholes in the law. Whenever Trevor thought a rule wasn’t logical, he just could not help 'exploiting loopholes', which resulted in many problems. For major infractions, his mother went with the ass-whooping.
When he was 7 years old, his mother got a new boyfriend, Abel. The worst thing of all, he burned down Abel's house by accident. They were completely dumbfounded, so there was no punishment for him that day. Plus they had insurance, so that was the end of it. But Abel and his mom got into a huge fight. Abel had to live with them from then on.
Fortunately, he inherited another trait from his mother: her ability to forget the pain in life. He never let the memory of something painful prevent him from trying something new.
