2006年NPR美国国家公共电台一月-As an Adult, Woman Still Judged by Teen M

Teenage girls who have babies. First, there are fewer of them than there are used to be. This is especially striking among black teenagers. Their pregnancy¹ rate is down 45% over a decade. Also young girls who have babies are overwhelmingly poor, at least a third of them are the daughters of teenage mothers. And although teenagers who have children are more likely to drop out of school, a black teenage mother is more likely to complete high school than a white one. Now, with all those facts in mind, Commentator² Desiree Cooper would like to tell the story of one woman who had a baby when she was in high school.

By any measure, Nelly Johnson can be proud of her life. She graduated with honors from NYU and at 29 earned her Masters in social work from the University of Michigan. But there is one thing that people insist on making her feel ashamed of - the fact that she had a baby when she was 15. "I ve achieved so much, " said Johnson, "but no matter what I do or how old I am, it seems that people would forever see me as a teen mother. " I wanted to ask Johnson what did she expect? Applause? To foolishly risk her future. Shame on her. On the other hand, how long should we punish teen moms in order to make examples of them? If it's teaching a tough lesson that we want, Johnson like many other teen moms has had some hard knocks. When she got pregnant as a high school freshman³, her family convinced her to keep the baby. But she nearly died in childbirth. Her daughter was 12 days old and still nameless before Johnson was well enough to see her. "She was a jewel", said Johnson, "and so I named her Diamond. " Johnson said she was ostracised by church and family members who behaved as if she were contagious⁴. When she wanted to run for home-coming court in a senior year, the school wouldn't let her because she was a mother of a two-year-old. Although she said teen fathers don't get the same kind of treatment. Johnson's family urged her to leave Diamond behind when she attended NYU. She did so reluctantly, not wanted to slough⁵ off her responsibility on others. A classmate cried when she found out that Johnson had a toddler at home. "She thought I was just like the other students", said Johnson, " she'd only read about people like me. When she volunteered to counsel pregnant girls at a Community Center, she got a similar reaction. She said, " they thought I was lying. People had told them that they could succeed, but they'd never seen anyone do it". Johnson decided⁶ right then to become a social worker to support girls who find themselves pregnant and saddled by stigma⁷. In a junior year, she moved off campus and brought Diamond to New York where the two continued their education together. As she donned to cap and gown to get a Master's Degree in December, the achievement was bittersweet. "Just recently, a co-worker found out I had a teenage daughter and she yelled at me, ' what were you thinking? ", said Johnson, " I was a teenage mom 13 years ago. I'm not one now. When will I be able to stop living beneath such low expectations? " When I listen to Johnson's story, I can't help but think that the problems of teen mothers might also have something to do with our unwillingness⁸ to forget them. We can continue to deride⁹ them for their mistakes, or we can help them overcome the past and show them by example what love is really all about.

NEW WORDS:

childbirth 分娩
ostracize¹⁰ 排斥
contagious 传染性的
slough off 抛弃,丢弃
toddler 初学走路的孩子
saddle n.马鞍 v.承受
stigma 污名
don if you don clothing, you put it on.

1 pregnancy   

n.怀孕，怀孕期

参考例句：

• Early pregnancy is often accompanied by nausea.怀孕早期常有恶心的现象。
• Smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of miscarriage.怀孕期吸烟会增加流产的危险。

2 commentator   

n.注释者，解说者；实况广播评论员

参考例句：

• He is a good commentator because he can get across the game.他能简单地解说这场比赛，是个好的解说者。
• The commentator made a big mistake during the live broadcast.在直播节目中评论员犯了个大错误。

3 freshman   

n.大学一年级学生(可兼指男女)

参考例句：

• Jack decided to live in during his freshman year at college.杰克决定大一时住校。
• He is a freshman in the show business.他在演艺界是一名新手。

4 contagious   

adj.传染性的，有感染力的

参考例句：

• It's a highly contagious infection.这种病极易传染。
• He's got a contagious laugh.他的笑富有感染力。

5 slough   

v.蜕皮，脱落，抛弃

参考例句：

• He was not able to slough off the memories of the past.他无法忘记过去。
• A cicada throws its slough.蝉是要蜕皮的。

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

8 unwillingness   

n. 不愿意，不情愿

参考例句：

• Her unwillingness to answer questions undermined the strength of her position. 她不愿回答问题，这不利于她所处的形势。
• His apparent unwillingness would disappear if we paid him enough. 如果我们付足了钱，他露出的那副不乐意的神情就会消失。

9 deride   

v.嘲弄，愚弄

参考例句：

• Some critics deride the group as self - appointed food police.一些批评人士嘲讽这个组织为“自封的食品警察”。
• They deride his effort as childish.他们嘲笑他的努力，认为太孩子气。

10 ostracize   

v.放逐，排斥

参考例句：

• He was ostracized by his colleagues for refusing to support the strike.他因不支持罢工而受同事排斥。
• She claims she's being ostracized by some members of her local community.她声称受到当地社区一些人的排挤。