异类之不一样的成功启示录 第186期:玛丽塔与朋友

 　　Here is Marita again, in a passage that is little short of heartbreaking:

　　下面是玛丽塔又一些让人辛酸的描述：

　　When we first started fifth grade, I used to have contact with one of the girls from my old school,

　　五年级时，我和一个过去上同一学校的女孩关系很好。

　　and whenever I left school on Friday, I would go to her house and stay there until my mom would get home from work.

　　每到周五放学，我就会去她家呆到我妈妈下班。

　　So I would be at her house and I'll be doing my homework. She would never have any homework, and she would say, "Oh, my God, you stay there late."

　　因此，我常常在她家做我的功课。但她永远不会有任何功课。她会说：“哦，天哪，你呆得太晚了。”

　　Then she said she wanted to go to KIPP but then she would say that KIPP is too hard and she didn't want to do it.

　　她说她想去KIPP，但随后又说在KIPP学习太痛苦了，她并不想这样做。

　　And I would say, "Everyone says that KIPP is hard, but once you get the hang of it, it's not really that hard."

　　我说，“每个人都认为在KIPP学习很痛苦，但一旦习惯那里的一切，你就不会真的觉得痛苦了。”

　　She told me, "It's because you are smart." And I said, "No, everyone of us is smart."

　　她回答说：“这是因为你聪明。”我说：“不，我们每个人都是聪明的。”

　　And she was so discouraged¹ because we stayed until five and we had a lot of homework and I told her that us having a lot of homework helps us do better in class.

　　她很失望，因为我一直到五点都在做那些功课。我告诉她，有大量的功课可以帮助我们做得更好。

　　And she told me she didn't want to hear the whole speech. All my friends are now from KIPP.

　　但她对我说，她不喜欢听到这些。所以现在，我所有朋友都是从KIPP毕业的。

　　But think of things from Marita's perspective², she has made a bargain with her school. She will get up at 5:45 in the morning, go in on a Saturday, and do homework until 11 at night.

　　其实，从玛丽塔的角度来看，她与学校其实是在条件互换。她每天5：45起床，而且周六也上课，做功课直到晚上11点。

　　In return, KIPP promises it will take kids like her who were stuck in poverty³ and give them a chance to get out. It will get 84 percent of them up to or above their grade level in mathematics⁴.

　　而作为回报，KIPP为像她这样贫穷的孩子提供一个学习的机会，这个机会会帮他们摆脱困境。这些学生当中84%的人会达到或超过同级别学生的数学能力。

　　On the strength of that performance, 90 percent of KIPP students get scholarships⁵ to private or parochial high schools instead of having to attend their own desultory⁶ high schools in the Bronx.

　　而且90%的KIPP学生能够获得私立或教区高中的奖学金，这样他们就不用到布朗克斯那些死气沉沉的学校上学。

　　And on the strength of that high school experience, more than 80 percent of KIPP graduates are now going on to college, in many cases being the first in their family to do so.

　　从该校高中学生的成绩来看，80%以上的毕业生都会升入大学，而且他们还都是学生所在家庭中最先上大学的那个人。

1 discouraged   

a.泄气的，沮丧的

参考例句：

• She tactfully discouraged their uninvited guests from staying longer. 她巧妙地使这些不请自到的客人知趣儿，没有再呆下去。
• Husbands are discouraged from voting as proxy for their wives. 不主张丈夫代妻子投票。

2 perspective   

n.视角，观点，想法

参考例句：

• You can get a perspective of the whole city from here.从这里你可以看到城市的全景。
• We may get a clear perspective of the people's happy lives.我们知道人民对幸福生活的展望。

3 poverty   

n.贫穷， 贫困， 贫乏， 缺少

参考例句：

• We must continue to war against poverty and disease.我们一定要继续同贫穷和疾病作斗争。
• He showed his poverty in his knowledge of agriculture.他表现出缺乏对农业知识的了解。

4 mathematics   

n.（用作单）数学；（用作单或复）计算(能力）

参考例句：

• He has come out in front in the study of mathematics.他在数学方面已名列前茅。
• She is working at a difficult problem in mathematics.她在做一道数学难题。

5 scholarships   

学问，学识( scholarship的名词复数 )； 奖学金

参考例句：

• They awarded scholarships to needy students. 他们给贫苦学生颁发奖学金。
• The best students are awarded special scholarships. 最好的学生将授予特殊奖学金。

6 desultory   

adj.散漫的，无方法的

参考例句：

• Do not let the discussion fragment into a desultory conversation with no clear direction.不要让讨论变得支离破碎，成为没有明确方向的漫谈。
• The constables made a desultory attempt to keep them away from the barn.警察漫不经心地拦着不让他们靠近谷仓。