全新版大學(xué)英語(yǔ)2第六單元

1、全新版大學(xué)英語(yǔ)2第六單元A Woman Can Learn Anything a Man Can男人會(huì)的，女人也能學(xué)會(huì)When I was a kid, everything in my bedroom was pink. I have two sisters and we had a complete miniature kitchen, a herd of My Little Ponies and severa l Barbie and Ken dolls. We didn t have any toy trucks, G. I. Joesor basketballs. We did ha

2、ve a Wi ffle- ball set, but you would have been har d- pressed to find it in our playroom. Tom boys we weren t.當(dāng)我還是個(gè)小孩時(shí)，我臥室里的所有東西都是粉紅色的。我有兩個(gè)姐姐，我們有一個(gè)一應(yīng)俱全的微型 廚房、一群小矮種馬和一些芭比娃娃、肯娃娃。我們 沒(méi)有玩具卡車、玩具大兵、籃球。我們確實(shí)有一套空 心棒球，但是很難在我們的游戲室中找到。畢竟我們 不是假小子。So some peoplemay find it ironicthat Igrew up tobe a mechanical en

3、gineer. In fact,I am the only femaleengineer at my company. Inorder to getlso had to workwith a team of students as part of anationalcompetitiontomy college degree, I had to take a lot of math and science classes.convert a gas-guzzling SUVintohybridelectricvehicletothatthatfixgotwherecars.A s inalll

4、earnedproudtohowsaymy classes, includingmultivariablecalculus anddifferentialequations. I vealways beenprettgoodat math and design, but Ididnme.wasexpected to go to college,but nunderstand where that could takeoneever told me T d make a good engineersomeday.因而一些人或許會(huì)對(duì)我成長(zhǎng)為一個(gè)機(jī)械工程師而 倍感驚訝。事實(shí)上，我是我們公司唯一的一名

5、女工程 師。為了獲得我的大學(xué)文憑，我不得不上許多數(shù)學(xué)和 自然科學(xué)課程。我也不得不和一小組學(xué)生合作去參加 個(gè)全國(guó)競(jìng)賽一一將一輛耗油特多的運(yùn)動(dòng)型多用途汽 車改裝為一輛混合電動(dòng)汽車一一正是這樣我學(xué)會(huì)了修 車。我很驕傲我門門功課都是 A,包括多元微積分和 微分方程。我的數(shù)學(xué)和設(shè)計(jì)一向很好，雖然我不明白 這會(huì)給我?guī)?lái)什么結(jié)果。家里人期盼我去上大學(xué)，但 沒(méi)有人告訴過(guò)我我將來(lái)會(huì)成為一名優(yōu)秀的工程師。When I was in high school, I didn t know the first thing about engineeringI couldn t have distinguished a

6、trans mission from an alternator.The carI droveneeded some work but Iwas afraid to take it to the mechanic. Because honestly,the mechanic could have shownme an electric can opener and said, “This ispartof your car and it s broken 一pay me to fix it, “ and I wouldn t have known any better.在我還在上高中時(shí)，我對(duì)工

7、程一竅不通。我根本 分辨不出哪一個(gè)是變速器，哪一個(gè)是交流發(fā)電機(jī)。我 開(kāi)的車壞了需要修理，但我害怕讓機(jī)修工給我修一下。因?yàn)檎f(shuō)實(shí)話，機(jī)修工可能會(huì)給我看一個(gè)電動(dòng)開(kāi)罐 器,然后對(duì)我說(shuō)：“這是你車上的零部件，壞了一一 給我錢，我替你修,我不會(huì)清楚這是否是個(gè)敲 詐。At the end of my junior year of high school, I heard about a summer program designed to interest girls in engineeringThe six-week program was free, and students were givenco

8、llegecreditand a dorm roomat the University ofMaryland. I appliedto the program, not because I wanted tobe an engineer,but becauseI was craving independence and wantedto get outof my parents house for six weeks.我在高中第三年末的時(shí)候，聽(tīng)說(shuō)了一個(gè)暑期班，專門致力于提升女孩對(duì)工程的興趣。課程長(zhǎng)達(dá)六周， 完全免費(fèi)，并且參加的學(xué)生還能獲得大學(xué)學(xué)分以及住 在馬蘭里大學(xué)的學(xué)生宿舍里。我報(bào)了那個(gè)暑期

9、班，并 不是因?yàn)槲蚁氤蔀橐幻こ處?，而是由于我渴望?dú) 立，希望能夠搬離父母的房子自己生活六周。I was accepted tothe program and Iearned six engineeringcredits. The next year I entered theuniversity as anengineeringmajor. Five years laterI had a degree and threedecent job offers.我被那個(gè)暑期班接受了并且獲得了 6個(gè)工程學(xué) 分。第二年我進(jìn)入馬蘭里大學(xué)學(xué)習(xí)，主修工程學(xué)。五 年后我獲得了學(xué)位并且得到了 3個(gè)像樣的工作機(jī)

10、會(huì)。Ican t help shudderingwhen I hear about studies that show that women ar e at a disadvantage when itcomes to math.They imply that I am somehow abnormal. I m not, but I do know that if I hadn t stumbled into that summer prog ram, I wouldn t be an engineer.每當(dāng)聽(tīng)到研究表明女人在學(xué)數(shù)學(xué)方面處于劣勢(shì)時(shí) 我總是情不自禁地戰(zhàn)栗。這暗示我有點(diǎn)不正常。我

11、并 非不正常，但我確實(shí)知道如果不是因?yàn)橐粋€(gè)偶然的機(jī) 遇參加了那個(gè)暑期班，我絕不會(huì)成為一名工程師。When I was growing up I was told, as many students are, to do what I am best at. But I didn t know what thatwas. Most people think that when you are good at something, it comes easilyto you.But thisis what I discovered:justbecause a subject is difficul

12、ttolearn,it does notmean you are notgood at it. You just have to grityour teeth and work harder to get good at it. Once you do, there s a strong chance you will enjo y it more than anything else.和許多學(xué)生一樣，在我成長(zhǎng)過(guò)程中，別人告訴我 將來(lái)去從事自己擅長(zhǎng)的事。但我并不清楚我自己最擅 長(zhǎng)什么。大多數(shù)人會(huì)認(rèn)為你某樣?xùn)|西學(xué)得很好時(shí)，這 種東西對(duì)你而言就很簡(jiǎn)單。但是我發(fā)現(xiàn)：僅僅因?yàn)橐?門學(xué)科很難學(xué)，這并不意

13、味著你在這方面不強(qiáng)。你只 是需要咬緊牙關(guān)，更加努力地去學(xué)好它。一旦你這樣 做了，就很有可能你會(huì)享受這門學(xué)科給你帶來(lái)的其他 任何東西都無(wú)法比擬的無(wú)限樂(lè)趣。In eighth grade I took algebra. On one test I got only 36 percent of the answers correct. I failed the next one , too. I started to think, Maybe I m just no good at this. I was lucky enou gh to have a teacher who didn t take

14、 my bad grades as a judgment of my abil ities, but simply as an indication thatI should study more. He pulled me asi de and told me he knew I could do bet ter. He let me the tests, and I pulledmy grade up to an A.八年級(jí)我學(xué)代數(shù)時(shí)，一次考試我只有36%勺答案正確。接下來(lái)的一次考試我又不及格。我開(kāi)始質(zhì)疑自 己，或許我真的不擅長(zhǎng)代數(shù)。值得慶幸的是，我的老 師并沒(méi)有用我糟糕的分?jǐn)?shù)來(lái)評(píng)判我的能

15、力，而是將它 作為我應(yīng)該多多強(qiáng)化的信號(hào)。他把我叫到一旁，告訴 我他知道我能做的更好。他讓我重考，結(jié)果我將成績(jī) 提升到了 AI studied a lot in college, too.I had moments of panic while sitting un derneath the buzzing fluorescent lights i n the engineering library on Saturday af ternoons, when I worried that the estrog en in my body was preventing me from u nder

16、standing thermodynamics. But the guysinmy classeshadtowork just as hard,and I knewthatIcouldn taffordto loseconfidenceinmyself.I didn t want tochoose between my femininity and a goo d career.SoI remindedmyself thatthose studies,the onesthatsaythatmathcomes morenaturallytomen,are basedon a faulty pre

17、mise:that you can judge a person s abilities separatefrom the cultural cues that she has received since she was an infant. No man is an island. No woman is, either.在大學(xué)里我同樣學(xué)了很多東西。星期六下午坐在 工程圖書(shū)館吱吱作響的熒光燈下學(xué)習(xí)時(shí)，我也有過(guò)恐 懼的時(shí)候，擔(dān)心我體內(nèi)的雌激素會(huì)阻礙我理解熱力 學(xué)。但是我班上的男同學(xué)們也同樣在刻苦學(xué)習(xí)，我知 道我不能夠?qū)ψ约簡(jiǎn)适判?。我不想在我女性氣質(zhì)和擁有一份好工作兩者之中只取其一。因此我提

18、醒自己 那些研究，那些說(shuō)數(shù)學(xué)對(duì)男性來(lái)說(shuō)更自然的研究是建 立在一個(gè)有缺陷的前提之上的：那就是認(rèn)為你可以完 全不考慮一個(gè)人從她還是嬰兒時(shí)就受到的文化熏陶來(lái) 判斷她的能力。男人不是孤島，女人也不是。Why are we so quick to limit ourselves?Im not denying that most little girl s love dolls and most little boys love videogames, and itmay be true thatsome people favorside of theirbrain,and others the left

19、. But how relevant is that to me, or to anyone, as an in dividual? Instead of translating our diff erences into hard and fast conclusions a bout the human brain, why can t we foc us instead on how incredibly flexible weare? Instead of using what we know as a reason why women can t learn physic s, maybe we should consider t