2007年NPR美国国家公共电台一月-Just Like Pastrami

Welcome to This I Believe, an NPR series presenting the personal philosophies of remarkable¹ men and women from all walks of life.

I believe in figuring out of my own way to do things.
I believe in the power of numbers.
I believe in Barbecue.
Well, I believe in friendliness².
I believe in mankind.
This I Believe.

On Mondays we bring you our series This I Believe. For New Year’s Day, we turn to Lee Shulman. He is president of the Carnegie Foundation for the advancement³ of teaching in Palo Alto, California. Lee Shulman works to improve teaching at all levels from grade school to medical school. Here’s our series curator independent producer Jay Allison.

On a day when many people are making resolutions, Lee Shulman, educator and son of a delicatessen owner proclaims a belief that some may have just chosen to swear off. He says one particular high cholesterol⁴ item on the never-again list just needs to be more broadly understood and appreciated. Here’s Lee Shulman with his essay for This I Believe.

I believe in pastrami, well marbled pastrami, hot, thinly sliced, piled on fresh rye bread with dark mustard and crisp dill pickle⁵. I believe the pastrami is a metaphor⁶ for a well-lived life, for a well-designed institution, and even for healthy relationships. Pastrami is marbled rather than layered. Its parts, the lean and the fat are mixed together rather than neatly⁷ separated. Too much of life is lived by adding layers that don’t really connect with one another.

When I was about 12, my parents bought a small Jewish delicatessen on the northwest side of Chicago. And that's where I learnt about pastrami. I worked at the counter and I learnt the differences between well-marbled and merely layered meats. My Dad would explain to me that some customers wanted him to slice away all of the fat on a brisket. And then they’d come back the next day to complain that the meat wasn’t juicy. He’d sigh and explain that without marbling they’d never get what they wanted. I’ve seen the wisdom of my Dad’s inside over time.

When I started teaching college my mentors⁹ warned me against having any interest in my students’ lives outside the classroom. In my first month on the job I taught a 500-student class. One day a young woman came to my office to tell me she wouldn’t be able to complete all the course requirements. It turned out her husband had been killed in a car accident the month before. She was a 19-year-old widow. I then began to wonder about the other 499 students. Their stories may not have been as extreme but I would have been a fool to think that their lives wouldn’t have an impact on the classroom. Learning and living were marbled in my students’ lives, not layered.

To teach, advise, and mentor⁸ them, I needed to be sensitive and aware of their tragedies and celebrations, their ambitions and their anxieties. Separate layers are much easier to trim from the brisket. Separate layers are much easier to build, to schedule, and to design. But I believe that marbling demands that we work with the messy world, people, relationships and obligations in their full rich complexity¹⁰. The diet mavens inform us that marbling can be dangerous for our health. But as an educator I’m willing, even obligated to take that risk. I want to marble habits of mind, habits of practice, and habits of the heart with my students, just like pastrami.

Lee Shulman with his essay for This I Believe. Metaphors¹¹ aside, Shulman says about actual pastrami that he still goes to considerable length to get the good stuff.

We invite everyone to take part in our series to find out more and see what thousands of others have written. Visit our website NPR.org. For This I Believe, I’m Jay Allison.

Next Monday on All Things Considered, an essay from Memphis listener Melinda Shelf on the belief that gets her through the holidays.

Support for This I Believe comes from Capella University.

This I Believe is produced for NPR by This I Believe Incorporated and Atlantic Public Media. For more essays in the series, please visit NPR.org/thisibelieve.

Support for NPR podcasts comes from Acura featuring the completely redesigned 3000 horsepower MDX. More information is available at Acura.com.
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delicatessen
熟食店
swear off
发誓戒除
pastrami
smoked beef that contains a lot of spices
marble
To mottle and streak¹² (paper, for example) with colors and veins¹³ in imitation of marble.
使…具有大理石花纹：用类似于大理石的颜色和条纹（如在纸上）弄上斑纹和条纹
rye
裸麦, 黑麦, 绅士, 吉普赛绅士
dill
莳萝：产于欧亚的一种芳香型草本植物（莳萝） ，长有纤细分裂的叶子和成伞形花序的小黄花簇
brisket
The ribs¹⁴ and meat taken from the chest of an animal.
动物胸部的肋骨和肉
maven
<美口>专家,内行
podcast
A podcast is a media file that is distributed by subscription (paid or unpaid) over the Internet using syndication
MDX
The MDX is the first crossover SUV to have third-row seating

1 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

2 friendliness   

n.友谊，亲切，亲密

参考例句：

• Behind the mask of friendliness,I know he really dislikes me.在友善的面具后面，我知道他其实并不喜欢我。
• His manner was a blend of friendliness and respect.他的态度友善且毕恭毕敬。

3 advancement   

n.前进，促进，提升

参考例句：

• His new contribution to the advancement of physiology was well appreciated.他对生理学发展的新贡献获得高度赞赏。
• The aim of a university should be the advancement of learning.大学的目标应是促进学术。

4 cholesterol   

n.（U）胆固醇

参考例句：

• There is cholesterol in the cell of body.人体细胞里有胆固醇。
• They are determining the serum-protein and cholesterol levels.他们正在测定血清蛋白和胆固醇的浓度。

5 pickle   

n.腌汁，泡菜；v.腌，泡

参考例句：

• Mother used to pickle onions.妈妈过去常腌制洋葱。
• Meat can be preserved in pickle.肉可以保存在卤水里。

6 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。

7 neatly   

adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地

参考例句：

• Sailors know how to wind up a long rope neatly.水手们知道怎样把一条大绳利落地缠好。
• The child's dress is neatly gathered at the neck.那孩子的衣服在领口处打着整齐的皱褶。

8 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

9 mentors   

n.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的名词复数 )v.（无经验之人的）有经验可信赖的顾问( mentor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Beacham and McNamara, my two mentors, had both warned me. 我的两位忠实朋友，比彻姆和麦克纳马拉都曾经警告过我。 来自辞典例句
• These are the kinds of contacts that could evolve into mentors. 这些人是可能会成为你导师。 来自互联网

10 complexity   

n.复杂(性)，复杂的事物

参考例句：

• Only now did he understand the full complexity of the problem.直到现在他才明白这一问题的全部复杂性。
• The complexity of the road map puzzled me.错综复杂的公路图把我搞糊涂了。

11 metaphors   

隐喻( metaphor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• I can only represent it to you by metaphors. 我只能用隐喻来向你描述它。
• Thus, She's an angel and He's a lion in battle are metaphors. 因此她是天使，他是雄狮都是比喻说法。

12 streak   

n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动

参考例句：

• The Indians used to streak their faces with paint.印第安人过去常用颜料在脸上涂条纹。
• Why did you streak the tree?你为什么在树上刻条纹？

13 veins   

n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理

参考例句：

• The blood flows from the capillaries back into the veins. 血从毛细血管流回静脉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I felt a pleasant glow in all my veins from the wine. 喝过酒后我浑身的血都热烘烘的，感到很舒服。 来自《简明英汉词典》

14 ribs   

n.肋骨( rib的名词复数 )；（船或屋顶等的）肋拱；肋骨状的东西；（织物的）凸条花纹

参考例句：

• He suffered cracked ribs and bruising. 他断了肋骨还有挫伤。
• Make a small incision below the ribs. 在肋骨下方切开一个小口。