向前一步:第13期 职业女性的内在障碍(2)

 　　When she left her job to marry my grandfather, family legend has it that David's had to hire four people to replace her. 她干得相当不错，当她辞掉工作与我的外祖父结婚时，那家店的老板不得不雇用4个人来顶她的缺。

　　Years later, when my grandfather's paint business was struggling, 若干年后，当外祖父为他的涂料生意苦苦挣扎时，

　　she jumped in and took some of the hard steps he was reluctant to take, helping¹ to save the family from financial ruin. 外祖母挺身而出，将整个家庭从经济窘困中挽救出来。

　　She displayed her business acumen² again in her forties.  在她40多岁时，她又一次展现了自己的商业头脑。

　　After being diagnosed with breast cancer, she beat it  当时她被被诊断出患有乳腺癌，然而她最终战胜了癌症，

　　and then dedicated³ herself to raising money for the clinic that treated her by selling knockoff watches out of the trunk of her car. 之后一直致力于为她治疗的那家诊所筹款。外祖母还开创了一项副业，就是拉着一后备箱的山寨手表四处贩卖，

　　Girlie ended up with a profit margin⁴ that Apple would envy. 当时她赚的钱多到即便是苹果公司也会眼红。

　　I have never met anyone with more energy and determination than my grandmother. 我从未遇到过比我外祖母更有精力和毅力的人。

　　When Warren Buffett talks about competing against only half of the population, 当巴菲特谈到他只是在和全世界一半的男人竞争时，

　　I think about her and wonder how different her life might have been if she had been born half a century later. 我想到了外祖母，如果她出生在半个世纪以后的今天，将会拥有怎样不同的人生呢？

　　When my grandmother had children of her own—my mother and her two brothers—she emphasized education for all of them. 当我的外祖母有了自己的孩子，也就是我的母亲和我的两个舅舅后，她非常重视他们的教育。

　　My mother attended the University of Pennsylvania, where classes were coed. 我的母亲后来考入了宾夕法尼亚大学，当时这所学校是男女同校的。

　　When she graduated in 1965 with a degree in French literature, 1965年，母亲获得了法国文学学士学位，

　　she surveyed a workforce⁵ that she believed consisted of two career options for women: teaching or nursing. She chose teaching. 她调查了两种适合女性的职业——教师和护士，最后选择做一名教师。

　　She began a Ph.D. program, got married, and then dropped out when she became pregnant with me.  之后，母亲又开始攻读法国文学的博士学位，但因为怀上了我中途退了学。

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 acumen   

n.敏锐，聪明

参考例句：

• She has considerable business acumen.她的经营能力绝非一般。
• His business acumen has made his very successful.他的商业头脑使他很成功。

3 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

4 margin   

n.页边空白；差额；余地，余裕；边，边缘

参考例句：

• We allowed a margin of 20 minutes in catching the train.我们有20分钟的余地赶火车。
• The village is situated at the margin of a forest.村子位于森林的边缘。

5 workforce   

n.劳动大军，劳动力

参考例句：

• A large part of the workforce is employed in agriculture.劳动人口中一大部分受雇于农业。
• A quarter of the local workforce is unemployed.本地劳动力中有四分之一失业。