(单词翻译:单击)
美文欣赏
【Transcript】
I believe that a little outrage can take you a long way.
I remember the exact moment when I discovered outrage as a kind of fuel. It was about 1980. I was 17, the daughter of Bolivian immigrants growing up in suburban Detroit. After a dinner table conversation with my family about the wars going on in Central America and the involvement of the United States (my country by birth and my parents’ country by choice), a good friend said the thing that set me off. He told me that he thought the U.S. might someday go to war somewhere in Latin America. He looked me in the eye and told me that if it happens, he believes my parents belong in an internment camp just like the Japanese-Americans during World War II.
Now this was someone who knew us, who had sat at our table and knew how American we are. We are a little exotic maybe, but it never occurred to me that we were anything but an American family. For my friend, as for many others, there will always be doubt as to whether we really belong in this country, which is our home, enough doubt to justify taking away our freedom. My outrage that day became the propellant of my life, driving me straight to the civil rights movement, where I’ve worked ever since.
I guess outrage got me pretty far. I found jobs in the immigrant rights movement. I moved to Washington to work as an advocate. I found plenty more to be angry about along the way and built something of a reputation for being strident. Someone once sent my mom an article about my work. She was proud and everything but wanted to know why her baby was described as “ferocious.”
Anger has a way, though, of hollowing out your insides. In my first job, if we helped 50 immigrant families in a day, the faces of the five who didn’t qualify haunted my dreams at night. When I helped pass a bill in Congress to help Americans reunite with their immigrant families, I could only think of my cousin who didn’t qualify and who had to wait another decade to get her immigration papers.
It’s like that every day. You have victories but your defeats outnumber them by far, and you remember the names and faces of those who lost. I still have the article about the farm worker who took his life after we lost a political fight. I have not forgotten his name — and not just because his last name was the same as mine. His story reminds me of why I do this work and how little I can really do.
I am deeply familiar with that hollow place that outrage carves in your soul. I’ve fed off of it to sustain my work for many years. But it hasn’t eaten me away completely, maybe because the hollow place gets filled with other, more powerful things like compassion, faith, family, music, the goodness of people around me. These things fill me up and temper my outrage with a deep sense of gratitude that I have the privilege of doing my small part to make things better.
参考译文
【Translation】
我相信愤怒一点,可以让你走的更远。
我清晰地记得自己是如何感受到愤怒是一种不可或缺的能量的。大约在1980年,那时,我刚好17岁,生活在底特律郊区的玻利维亚移民的女儿。那天的晚餐上,家人讨论了正在中美爆发的战争和美国的战争情况(我出生的国家,我父母选择的城市),一个好朋友说了一句让我印象深刻的话,他说美国总有一天会掀起拉丁美洲的战争,他盯着我,并对我说,如果真是那样,他确信我的父母会像二战当中的日籍美国人那样作为战俘被抓起来。
这个和我们说这句话的人,是一个正坐在我家饭桌边的人,一个知道我们是移民的人。或许我们有一点异族的血统,但是我从来没有想过我们并不是一个真正地道的美国家庭。但是,对我的这个朋友,还有其他的朋友而言,他们心里总是疑问,对我们是否可以真正融入这个所谓的家庭,我们的自由会不会这个家剥走。那天的愤怒是我整个人生的推动力,直接将我推向了公民权利运动。
我想,愤怒让我走了很远。我参加了移民权利运动,我搬到了华盛顿,拥护这个运动。我找到了更多让自己愤怒的理由,我也因为自己的刺耳的声音树立了自己的声誉。有人一度写信给我的母亲,告诉她我的工作,她很骄傲,但是不清楚为何我会被称之为“残忍的人”。
愤怒是一种掏空你所有心思的力量。我才参加工作的时候,如果我们每天帮助50户移民家庭,5个没有资格的家庭就会像噩梦一样缠绕着我。当我成功推出一向议案,移民者可以和美国本地人成为一家人的时候,我想到的只是我那个没有资格的表妹,她需要再等上10年。
每一天都是这样。你会有所收获,但是你的失败更多,而你记住的往往是那些让你失望的。我曾经写过一篇文章,是关于一个农民的,在我们一次议案失败之后,他结束了自己的生命。我没有忘记他的名字——不仅仅是因为他和我姓一样,而是他的故事每时每刻都在提醒我,我为什么要这样做,我能做的事情又是多么的少。
我很清楚愤怒能够在人的心灵中燃烧出多大的漏洞,我的工作已经做了很多年了,我已经有些厌倦了,但是我没有彻底地放弃,或许我的心灵正被一些其他的,更有力量的,像激情,信仰,家庭,音乐和人们的善意填充着。所以这些都在帮助我,将我的愤怒转化成五金的感激,让我深深地知道自己所做的这些是多么的微小。
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听力破解
【Listening】
1.I found plenty more to be angry about along the way and built something of a reputation for being strident.
我找到了更多让自己愤怒的理由,我也因为自己的刺耳的声音树立了自己的声誉。
strident意思是“adj. 刺耳的,吱吱尖叫的,尖锐的”,例如:
A loud, strident noise.
大而刺耳的声音
这句话当中有很多动词,包括found,be angry about,built。动词多,句子就会复杂,所以要分析句子结构,找出谓语,即found与built,整体结构就是我发现……并建立……。
2.Now this was someone who knew us, who had sat at our table and knew how American we are.
这个和我们说这句话的人,是一个正坐在我家饭桌边的人,一个知道我们是移民的人。
英语里,习惯将修饰补充的部分放在后面,首先给我的信息是“一个人”,然后告诉我们的是“一个熟知我们的人”,接着是“和我们一起吃饭,知道我们是移民身份的人”。听的时候,主要按顺序将信息印证在脑子里,就可以清晰地记住重要的信息了,如果汉语表达时,再调整为汉语顺序。
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【Oral English】
1.a good friend said the thing that set me off
一个好朋友说了一句让我印象深刻的话
set off连在一起的时候,有“ to begin a journey 出发;动身;启程”的意思,
例如:What time are you planning to set off tomorrow?
你打算明天几点钟启程?
set somebody off (doing something) :意思是“使某人笑(或哭、说等)起来”
如:Her imitations always set me off (laughing).
她模仿别人的动作,每次都把我逗得哈哈大笑。
set something ↔off 1. 使(炸弹等)爆炸 2. 使(警报)响起;拉响(警报) 3. 引发;激起
如:Do be careful with those fireworks; the slightest spark could set them off.
这些烟火要格外小心,稍有火星就能引起爆炸。
2.Anger has a way, though, of hollowing out your insides.
愤怒有一种掏空你所有心思的力量。
hollow out:If you hollow something out, you remove the inside part of it.
1. 挖空(某物);挖出(孔、洞) 2. 挖洞(成某物)
如: "hollow out a tree trunk" 挖空一个树干
3.You have victories but your defeats outnumber them by far, and you remember the names and faces of those who lost.
你会有所收获,但是你的失败更多,而你记住的往往是那些让你失望的。
outnumber:to be greater in number than somebody/something (在数量上)压倒,比…多
如:Men outnumber women here in the ratio of three to one.
此地男子数量以三比一超过女子。
by far……的多
如:It is quicker by far to go by train.
乘火车要快得多。
outnumber…by far 多的多
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背景介绍
【Background】
美国各界期盼的移民改革法案,今年已确定启动无望。据相关人士透露,鉴于目前的经济状况和明年的国会中期选举情况,推动全面移民改革法案的最佳时机将会是明年的1月中旬。时至年底,明年的移民改革到底会怎么改,大家都在翘首以盼,不过,从今年实施的各项移民政策中,移民公司可以猜到,酝酿中的全面移民改革将为美国重新打开大门,用正确的态度欢迎美国移民,增加美国的国际竞争力。
猜想一:职业移民排期有望加快
由于美国经济危机导致大量的雇员失业,新的《雇佣美国工人法》在奥巴马2月17日签署美国复苏与再投资法案时,同时成为法律。该法案限制了接收政府援助的金融机构雇佣H-1B外籍员工。此外,在今年4月1日,H-1B开始接受申请,截至9月25日,只有4.67万人申请,6.5万的配额仍有许多空余。而往年,H-1B在开始申请的一两个月内就会满额。保守派人士或许能够以今年的H-1B申请情况作为证据,证明不需要增加H-1B名额。因此尽管美国企业界仍然需要大批外籍高科技人才,但从目前的情况看,单独增加职业移民名额的法案在国会可能会遇到不小的阻力。
不过,专家指出,H-1B签证剩余,主要在于经济不景气,失业率高,从而限制了高科技行业的发展,而这些行业往往是H-1B签证的申请大户。加上审核程序的严格——按照政府新规定,那些接受联邦救市款的公司,必须在证明自己努力尝试以普遍薪资招聘美国雇员未果,以及外国雇员没有挤掉本国人的工作之后,才能招聘外籍专才。如此复杂的程序,导致美国银行等许多金融公司收回已经发给外籍人士的录用通知。这一新规定使得微软等高科技公司感到不满,他们不断向国会游说,希望增加配额。
有专家表示,今年的职业移民改革很可能搭上整体移民改革的顺风车,职业移民的排期有望加快。
猜想二:1200万非法移民有望合法化
非法移民近年成为美国最棘手的难题。据有关部门估算,在美国3亿人口中,约有1200万非法移民。在许多白人选民中,一直存有被抢走工作和增加税收的忧虑。如何对待这些非法移民,如何应对未来的劳工短缺,成为移民改革辩论的两大焦点。
早在4月份,奥巴马就曾明确表示欲借移民合法化推动美国经济,这为非法移民带来些许曙光。而美国移民政策中心4月13日发布的一份报告,也用详细数据说明非法移民合法化对经济有利无害。报告称,让非法移民走出阴影、合法工作和报税会为美国经济注入新的活力;因为一旦移民身份合法化,收入和消费都将提高,对刺激经济非常有效。反之,如果要将所有非法移民遣返,在未来五年里将耗费2060亿美元,平均每年412亿美元,相当于国土安全部全年经费的8倍。
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