英语美文背诵 酿酒也疯狂(上)

The Brewer¹'s Son

酿酒也疯狂

When I was a teenager, my dad did everything he could to dissuade² me from becoming a brewer. He'd spent his life brewing³ beer for local breweries⁴, barely making a living, as had his father and grandfather before him. He didn't want me anywhere near a vat⁵ of beer.

在青少年时期，父亲就极力告诫我，将来不要做一个酿酒人。因为，他一辈子就像他父亲及祖父一样，仅仅是为了谋生，专为当地的啤酒厂酿造啤酒。他甚至不许我靠近啤酒桶半步。

So I did as he asked. I got good grades, went to Harvard and in 1971 was accepted into a graduate program there that allowed me to study law and business simultaneously⁶.

因此我也就按他的意愿做了。我以优异的成绩考取了哈佛大学，并于1971年获得了继续在那里攻读研究生课程的机会，得以同时学习法律和商业专业。

In my second year of grad school, I had something of an epiphany I've never done anything but go to school. I thought, and I'm getting pressured to make a career choice for the rest of my life. That's stupid. The future was closing in on me a lot earlier than I wanted.

在读研究生二年级时，我似乎有一种顿悟的感觉，我想除了上学以外，我什么也没有做过。我感到有一种压力迫使我为今后的人生道路作出事业的选择。我真傻。未来早已向我逼近，比我预期的要早得多。

So, at 24, I decided⁷ to drop out. Obviously, my parents didn't think this was a great idea. But I felt strongly that you can't wait till you're 65 to do what you want in life. You have to go for it.

所以在24岁时，我决定退学。显然，父母并不认为这是什么好主意。但我强烈地意识到，人不能等到65岁才去做想要做的事。你得自己去寻找。

I packed my stuff into a U-Haul and headed to Colorado to become an instructor⁸ at Outward Bound, the wilderness-education program. The job was a good fit for me. Heavily into mountaineering and rock climbing, I lived and climbed everywhere, from crags outside Seattle to volcanoes in Mexico.

我打点起行囊，把它们装进一辆小面包车内，便上路向科罗拉多进发，去作一名野外训练项目教练。这工作的确很适合我。大量地登山、攀岩，从西雅图周围的峭壁到墨西哥的火山，到处都留下了我生活和登攀的身影。

I never regretted taking time to "find myself". I think we'd all be a lot better off if we could take off five years in our 20s to decide what we want to do for the rest of our lives.

我从未因花费时间去“寻找自我”而后悔。我觉得如果人们能在20岁左右的时候，拿出五年时间去决定自己今后想要做什么，那可能会更快乐一些。

1 brewer   

n. 啤酒制造者

参考例句：

• Brewer is a very interesting man. 布鲁尔是一个很有趣的人。
• I decided to quit my job to become a brewer. 我决定辞职，做一名酿酒人。

2 dissuade   

v.劝阻，阻止

参考例句：

• You'd better dissuade him from doing that.你最好劝阻他别那样干。
• I tried to dissuade her from investing her money in stocks and shares.我曾设法劝她不要投资于股票交易。

3 brewing   

n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• It was obvious that a big storm was brewing up. 很显然，一场暴风雨正在酝酿中。
• She set about brewing some herb tea. 她动手泡一些药茶。

4 breweries   

酿造厂，啤酒厂( brewery的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• In some cases, this is desirable, but most breweries prefer lighter-type beers. 在一些情况下，这是很理想的，但是大多数啤酒厂更倾向于生产酒度较低的啤酒。
• Currently, there are 58 breweries producing Snow Beeracross the country. 目前，全国共有58个雪花啤酒厂。

5 vat   

n.(=value added tax)增值税，大桶

参考例句：

• The office is asking for the vat papers.办事处要有关增值税的文件。
• His father emptied sacks of stale rye bread into the vat.他父亲把一袋袋发霉的黑面包倒进大桶里。

6 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

7 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。

8 instructor   

n.指导者，教员，教练

参考例句：

• The college jumped him from instructor to full professor.大学突然把他从讲师提升为正教授。
• The skiing instructor was a tall,sunburnt man.滑雪教练是一个高高个子晒得黑黑的男子。