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1、全新大学英语2 第六单元A Woman Can Learn Anything a Man Can 男人会的，女人也能学会 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 several Barbie and Ken dolls. We didnt have any toy trucks, G. I. Joes or basketballs. We did h
2、ave a Wiffle-ball set, but you would have been hard-pressed to find it in our playroom. Tomboys we werent. 当我还是个小孩时，我卧室里的所有东西都是粉红色的。我有两个姐姐，我们有一个一应俱全的微型厨房、一群小矮种马和一些芭比娃娃、肯娃娃。我们没有玩具卡车、玩具大兵、篮球。我们确实有一套空心棒球，但是很难在我们的游戏室中找到。毕竟我们不是假小子。 So some people may find it ironic that I grew up to be a mechanical engin
3、eer. In fact, I am the only female engineer at my company. In order to get my college degree, I had to take a lot of math and science classes. I also had to work with a team of students as part of a national competition to convert a gas-guzzling SUV into a hybrid electric vehicle thats where I learn
4、ed how to fix cars. Im proud to say that I got As in all my classes, including multivariable calculus and differential equations. Ive always been pretty good at math and design, but I didnt understand where that could take me. I was expected to go to college, but no one ever told me Id make a good e
5、ngineer someday. 因而一些人或许会对我成长为一个机械工程师而倍感惊讶。事实上，我是我们公司唯一的一名女工程师。为了获得我的大学文凭，我不得不上许多数学和自然科学课程。我也不得不和一小组学生合作去参加一个全国竞赛将一辆耗油特多的运动型多用途汽车改装为一辆混合电动汽车正是这样我学会了修车。我很骄傲我门门功课都是A，包括多元微积分和微分方程。我的数学和设计一向很好，虽然我不明白这会给我带来什么结果。家里人期盼我去上大学，但没有人告诉过我我将来会成为一名优秀的工程师。 When I was in high school, I didnt know the first thing abo
6、ut engineering. I couldnt have distinguished a transmission from an alternator. The car I drove needed some work but I was afraid to take it to the mechanic. Because honestly, the mechanic could have shown me an electric can opener and said, “This is part of your car and its broken pay me to fix it,
7、” and I wouldnt have known any better. 在我还在上高中时，我对工程一窍不通。我根本分辨不出哪一个是变速器，哪一个是交流发电机。我开的车坏了需要修理，但我害怕让机修工给我修一下。因为说实话，机修工可能会给我看一个电动开罐器，然后对我说：“这是你车上的零部件，坏了给我钱，我替你修,我不会清楚这是否是个敲诈。 At the end of my junior year of high school, I heard about a summer program designed to interest girls in engineering. The six-w
8、eek program was free, and students were given college credit and a dorm room at the University of Maryland. I applied to the program, not because I wanted to be an engineer, but because I was craving independence and wanted to get out of my parents house for six weeks. 我在高中第三年末的时候，听说了一个暑期班，专门致力于提升女孩
9、对工程的兴趣。课程长达六周，完全免费，并且参加的学生还能获得大学学分以及住在马兰里大学的学生宿舍里。我报了那个暑期班，并不是因为我想成为一名工程师，而是由于我渴望独立，希望能够搬离父母的房子自己生活六周。 I was accepted to the program and I earned six engineering credits. The next year I entered the university as an engineering major. Five years later I had a degree and three decent job offers. 我被那个
10、暑期班接受了并且获得了6个工程学分。第二年我进入马兰里大学学习，主修工程学。五年后我获得了学位并且得到了3个像样的工作机会。 I cant help shuddering when I hear about studies that show that women are at a disadvantage when it comes to math. They imply that I am somehow abnormal. Im not, but I do know that if I hadnt stumbled into that summer program, I wouldnt
11、be an engineer. 每当听到研究表明女人在学数学方面处于劣势时我总是情不自禁地战栗。这暗示我有点不正常。我并非不正常，但我确实知道如果不是因为一个偶然的机遇参加了那个暑期班，我绝不会成为一名工程师。 When I was growing up I was told, as many students are, to do what I am best at. But I didnt know what that was. Most people think that when you are good at something, it comes easily to you. Bu
12、t this is what I discovered: just because a subject is difficult to learn, it does not mean you are not good at it. You just have to grit your teeth and work harder to get good at it. Once you do, theres a strong chance you will enjoy it more than anything else. 和许多学生一样，在我成长过程中，别人告诉我将来去从事自己擅长的事。但我并不
13、清楚我自己最擅长什么。大多数人会认为你某样东西学得很好时，这种东西对你而言就很简单。但是我发现：仅仅因为一门学科很难学，这并不意味着你在这方面不强。你只是需要咬紧牙关，更加努力地去学好它。一旦你这样做了，就很有可能你会享受这门学科给你带来的其他任何东西都无法比拟的无限乐趣。 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 Im just no good at
14、 this. I was lucky enough to have a teacher who didnt take my bad grades as a judgment of my abilities, but simply as an indication that I should study more. He pulled me aside and told me he knew I could do better. He let me the tests, and I pulled my grade up to an A. 八年级我学代数时，一次考试我只有36%的答案正确。接下来的
15、一次考试我又不及格。我开始质疑自己，或许我真的不擅长代数。值得庆幸的是，我的老师并没有用我糟糕的分数来评判我的能力，而是将它作为我应该多多强化的信号。他把我叫到一旁，告诉我他知道我能做的更好。他让我重考，结果我将成绩提升到了A。 I studied a lot in college, too. I had moments of panic while sitting underneath the buzzing fluorescent lights in the engineering library on Saturday afternoons, when I worried that th
16、e estrogen in my body was preventing me from understanding thermodynamics. But the guys in my classes had to work just as hard, and I knew that I couldnt afford to lose confidence in myself. I didnt want to choose between my femininity and a good career. So I reminded myself that those studies, the
17、ones that say that math comes more naturally to men, are based on a faulty premise: that you can judge a persons abilities separate from the cultural cues that she has received since she was an infant. No man is an island. No woman is, either. 在大学里我同样学了很多东西。星期六下午坐在工程图书馆吱吱作响的荧光灯下学习时，我也有过恐惧的时候，担心我体内的雌
18、激素会阻碍我理解热力学。但是我班上的男同学们也同样在刻苦学习，我知道我不能够对自己丧失信心。我不想在我女性气质和拥有一份好工作两者之中只取其一。因此我提醒自己那些研究，那些说数学对男性来说更自然的研究是建立在一个有缺陷的前提之上的：那就是认为你可以完全不考虑一个人从她还是婴儿时就受到的文化熏陶来判断她的能力。男人不是孤岛，女人也不是。 Why are we so quick to limit ourselves? Im not denying that most little girls love dolls and most little boys love videogames, and
19、it may be true that some people favor side of their brain, and others the left. But how relevant is that to me, or to anyone, as an individual? Instead of translating our differences into hard and fast conclusions about the human brain, why cant we focus instead on how incredibly flexible we are? In
20、stead of using what we know as a reason why women cant learn physics, maybe we should consider the possibility that our brains are more powerful than we imagine. 为什么我们这么快就限制了我们自己呢？我不否认大多数小女孩喜欢娃娃而大多数小男孩爱玩电子游戏。或许真的一些人偏爱用右半脑，另一些人偏爱用左半脑。但这于我，或任何一个个人来说又有多大关联呢？为什么将男人和女人的不同归结为不容改变的结论，说成是与大脑有关，而不能看到我们难以置信的灵
21、活性呢？或许我们应该认为我们的大脑比我们所想象的要更为强大，而不是凭我们仅有的知识去为女人不能学物理提供一个理由。 Heres a secret: math and science dont come easily to most people. No one was ever born knowing calculus. A woman can learn anything a man can, but first she needs to know that she can do it, and that takes a leap of faith. It also helps to have selective hearing. 秘密在于：对大多数人来说，数学和科学学习并不比其他人来得更容易些。没有人生来就懂微积分。男人能学会的，女人也能学会。但首先女人需要明白她能做到，而那需要足够大的勇气和自信。这也会有助于我们学会有选择地采纳别人的见解
