2020年经济学人 数学家凯瑟琳·戈布尔·约翰逊(2)

There was no coloured restroom, so she used the white one. A few years back, when the bus taking her to her first teaching job in marion, virginia, had crossed the state line from west virginia, all the blacks had been told to get off and take taxis. She refused until she was asked nicely. But it could be unwise to push a white man too far. Nonetheless, this engineer's calculation was wrong. If she did not ask the question, an aircraft might not fly, or might fly and crash.

那里没有有色人种的厕所，所以凯瑟琳就用白色人种的厕所。几年前，她乘坐公车去弗吉尼亚马里恩参加第一份教学工作。在车从西维吉尼亚越过州界后，所有黑人都被告知下车并乘坐出租车。凯瑟琳拒绝了，直到有人友好地要求她下车。但把白人逼得太紧可能是不明智的。然而，这位工程师的计算是错误的。如果凯瑟琳没有问这个问题，飞机可能不会飞，或者可能会飞然后坠毁。

So, very carefully, she asked it. Was it possible that he could have made a mistake? He did not admit it but, by turning the colour of a cough drop, he ceded¹ the point. She asked more such questions, and they got her noticed. As the weeks passed, the men "forgot" To return her to the pool. Her incessant² "why?" And "how?" Made their work sharper. It also challenged them. Why were their calculations of aerodynamic forces so often out? Because they were maths graduates who had forgotten their geometry, whereas she had not; her high-school brilliance³ at maths had led to special classes on analytic⁴ geometry in which she, at 13, had been the only pupil.

于是，她非常小心地问了这个问题。他可能犯了一个错误吗？他没有承认，但他脸色变了，放弃了观点。凯瑟琳问了更多这样的问题，他们注意到了她。几个星期过去了，男人们“忘记”把她送回计算部门。凯瑟琳不断的“为什么？”和“如何？”使他们的工作更出色。这也对他们提出了挑战。为什么他们对空气动力的计算经常出错？因为他们是数学毕业生，忘记了几何知识，而她没有；高中时，凯瑟琳在数学方面的才华导致了解析几何的特殊课程的产生，13岁的她是唯一的学生。

Why was she not allowed to get her name on a flight-trajectory report when she had done most of the work, filling her data sheets with figures for days? Because women didn't. That was no answer, so she got her name on the report, the first woman to be so credited. Why was she not allowed into the engineers' lectures on orbital mechanics and rocket propulsion? Because "the girls don't go". Why? Did she not read Aviation Week, like them? She soon became the first woman there.

为什么她在已经完成了大部分工作，在数据表上填满了几天的数据后，不被允许在飞行轨迹报告上留下自己的名字？因为女人不可以。这不是答案，所以凯瑟琳的名字出现在报告上，成为第一位被如此信任的女性。为什么不让她参加工程师们关于轨道力学和火箭推进的讲座？因为“女孩子不能去”。为什么？她不像他们那样读《航空周刊》吗？她很快成为那里的第一位女性。

1 ceded   

v.让给，割让，放弃( cede的过去式 )

参考例句：

• Cuba was ceded by Spain to the US in 1898. 古巴在1898年被西班牙割让给美国。
• A third of the territory was ceded to France. 领土的三分之一割让给了法国。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 incessant   

adj.不停的，连续的

参考例句：

• We have had incessant snowfall since yesterday afternoon.从昨天下午开始就持续不断地下雪。
• She is tired of his incessant demands for affection.她厌倦了他对感情的不断索取。

3 brilliance   

n.光辉，辉煌，壮丽，（卓越的）才华，才智

参考例句：

• I was totally amazed by the brilliance of her paintings.她的绘画才能令我惊歎不已。
• The gorgeous costume added to the brilliance of the dance.华丽的服装使舞蹈更加光彩夺目。

4 analytic   

adj.分析的，用分析方法的

参考例句：

• The boy has an analytic mind. 这男孩有分析的头脑。
• Latin is a synthetic language,while English is analytic.拉丁文是一种综合性语言，而英语是一种分析性语言。