全新版大学英语2第六单元

1、全新版大学英语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 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.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 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

5、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 个全国竞赛一一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一一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 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.在我还在上高中时，我对工

7、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，坏了一一 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 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时候，听说了一个暑期班，专门致力于提升女孩对工程的兴趣。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

9、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 tothe program and Iearned six engineeringcredits. The next year I entered theuniversity as anengineeringmajor. Five years laterI had a degree and threedecent job offers.我被那个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

10、会。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

11、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 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

13、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 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.八年级我学代数时，一次考试我只有36%勺答案正确。接下来的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

15、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 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

18、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 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