向前一步:第46期 往桌前坐(14)

 　　"I learned something today," she said. “我今天学到了一些东西。”她说。

　　"What?" I asked, feeling good, as I figured she was about to tell me how my words had touched her. 我感觉良好地问她学到了什么，以为她会称赞我的讲话有多么打动她，

　　Instead, she said, "I learned to keep my hand up." 恰恰相反，她说：“我学会了让手一直举着。”

　　She explained that toward the end of my talk, I had said that I would take only two more questions. 她解释道，我在演讲接近尾声时说过只回答两个问题。

　　I did so, and then she put her hand down, along with all of the other women. 等我回答完，她才将手放下，其他女员工也放下了手。

　　But several men kept their hands up. 但有不少男员工还举着手，

　　And since hands were still waving in the air, I took more questions—only from the men. 由于还有人举着手，我就又回答了几个问题。

　　Instead of my words touching¹ her, her words hit me like a ton of bricks. 我的话并没打动她，她的话倒像砖头一样砸中了我。

　　Even though I was giving a speech on gender² issues, I had been blind to one myself. 即使我做的演讲是关于性别问题的，但我自己就忽略了这位女性。

　　If we want a world with greater equality, we need to acknowledge that women are less likely to keep their hands up. 如果我们想要一个更平等的世界，我们就必须让领导者知道，女性不太可能一直举着手。

　　We need institutions and individuals to notice and correct for this behavior by encouraging, promoting, and championing more women. 我们需要所有机构和个人都关注并通过鼓励、促进和支持更多的女性来改进这种行为。

　　And women have to learn to keep their hands up, because when they lower them, even managers with the best intentions might not notice. 女性必须学会让手一直举着，因为当她们放下手时，即使是最细心的经理可能也不会注意到。

　　When I first started working for Larry Summers, then chief economist³ at the World Bank, he was married to a tax attorney, Vicki. 当我刚开始为拉里·萨默斯工作时，他是世界银行的首席经济学家。他刚刚和做税务律师的维姬女士结婚。

1 touching   

adj.动人的，使人感伤的

参考例句：

• It was a touching sight.这是一幅动人的景象。
• His letter was touching.他的信很感人。

2 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

3 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。