◎管淑平
It had cluttered up Jack Harris’s dining table for almost eight years.
它已經散佈傑克．哈里斯的餐桌將近8年了。
Nevertheless, the 86-year-old was determined to finish his five-foot long, 5,000-piece jigsaw, which shows the 19th century oil painting The Return Of The Prodigal Son, by James Tissot.
不過，這名86歲老翁決心要完成他5英尺長、內容是提梭 「浪子回頭」畫的5000片拼圖。
His daughter-in-law Eve Harris gave him the jigsaw as a Christmas present in 2002. She said： "We got him this one as a bit of a joke really, because he always boasted he could get them done so quickly, he’s a bit of a whiz with them."
他的媳婦伊芙．哈里斯2002年送 他這幅拼圖當耶誕禮物。她說：「我們給他這個其實是有點開玩笑，因為他老是吹噓他能多快拼完，有點他是拼圖高手的意思。」
Mr Harris had hoped to finish it in the next spring, but seven years later he was still struggling to finish it.
哈里斯先生原本希望在次年春天拼完，但7年之後他還在努力要 拼完它。
When he thought the painstaking process was complete, only to find a tiny hole in the middle - the final piece was missing. His family feared one of their two dogs may have swallowed it.
當他以為這個艱 辛過程要完成了，才發現拼圖中間有個洞─最後一片拼圖不見了。他家人擔心可能是家中的兩隻狗狗的其中一隻把它吞了。
The puzzle is no longer made but the manufacturer agreed to find the original design and make the one missing piece after reading about Mr. Harris’s plight in the newspapers.
這幅拼圖已經停產，但製造商在報上看到哈里斯先生的困境後，同意找出原始設計圖，製造 那片失蹤的拼圖。
Mr Harris said："I was delighted to be able to finish the puzzle at last after all. It was such a disappointment that there was one piece missing."
哈里斯先生說，「我很高興最後終於能夠完成這幅拼圖。原本少了一塊是如此令人失望。」
新聞辭典：
clutter up：動詞，凌亂地填滿某一空間。例句：The clothes cluttered up her room.（她的房間雜亂地堆滿了衣服。）
a whiz with（at）：名詞（非正式用語），擅長某項技巧、能力。例句：She is a whiz with numbers.（她對數字很擅長。）
plight： 名詞，可憐、悲慘、困難的處境。例句：I was in a miserable plight after losing all my money in the casino.（我在賭場輸掉我所有的錢後，身陷很慘的處境。）
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