【英语语言学习】摔跤冠军

If you've ever marveled to hear about somebody who's life is so full of adversity that you feel yours is easy, listen up. NPR's Julie McCarthy examines the improbable path of an Indian child bride who literally¹ wrestled³ her way into a new life. It is the first report in occasional series on Indians making change, "Against The Odds⁴."

JULIE MCCARTHY, BYLINE⁵: She prefers to be known simply by one name - Neetu. But there is nothing simple about the roll call of duties this two-time child bride has assumed - cook, mother, wife, homemaker and breadwinner. With a seventh-grade education, Neetu's been a beautician, a maid, a shop clerk, a cotton picker and a self-taught tailor.

NEETU: (Through interpreter) I learned to sew just by unstitching old suits and re-stitching them back together. I couldn't afford training. I had no money.

MCCARTHY: But being poor seem to fuel her dreams. Since childhood, she had a knack⁶ for sports. Neetu recalls astonished neighbors seeing her, a young girl, haul home heavy iron canisters of gas for cooking. Watching international games staged in New Delhi several years ago, Neetu was inspired by wrestling, an individual sport. You get lost in a team, she says. In four short years, it's become her passion.

NEETU: (Through interpreter) I love my wrestling. Wrestling is my life. I have to do this for my children.

MCCARTHY: Disadvantaged girls like Neetu increasingly see the sport, with its potential earnings⁷, as a path out of poverty. But few train with Neetu's discipline.

For more than two years, Neetu rose at 3 a.m. for an hour and a half bus ride to, it seems like, boot camp - the Chhotu Ram⁸ Stadium and Wrestling Center in the state of Haryana, known for its wrestling tradition. Early morning light filters into the cavernous gym as Neetu lunges, climbs and contorts her body into impossible stretches. After practice, she'd trek⁹ home to do housework, then journey back in the afternoon for more punishing drills.

MANDEEP SINGH: Defense¹⁰ - ready - stop. (Foreign language spoken).

MCCARTHY: Coach Mandeep Singh puts Neeta through her paces. Don't be passive, he sternly instructs. Her broad shoulders slump¹¹. But Neetu listens to him with a rapt devotion reserved for a priest. Shorn hair, sweat-ringed T-shirt - Neetu looks like a well-built boy. Pinning her practice partner to the mat, she seems to have wrestled the child bride out of herself. Coach Singh says she takes direction like few do.

Do you see something that you don't see in other girls?

SINGH: (Foreign language spoken).

MCCARTHY: "She's different in terms of willpower. And being married with small children from a deprived background, it's an achievement to even be here," he says, adding, "during training, she doesn't take a break for even one minute. She's determined¹²," Singh says, "to become something."

So determined, Neetu now lives in a small room near the gym, sparing herself the long commute¹³. She squats¹⁴ on the concrete floor, fixing an egg and milk, her meager¹⁵ diet. Neetu offers food...

NEETU: (Foreign language spoken).

MCCARTHY: ...And vivid details of her turbulent life - married off at 13 to a man three times her age and who was mentally challenged. When he defecated in the house, she incensed¹⁶ her in-laws by refusing to clean it up. Worse was a father-in-law who acted like a sexual predator¹⁷.

NEETU: (Through interpreter) One day when no one was home, he took me into his bedroom and pulled off my veil and warned me, don't tell anyone.

MCCARTHY: Neetu says if a man does something bad to a girl, it's her fault.

NEETU: (Through interpreter) Parents think they will be dishonored.

MCCARTHY: Neetu alerted her father all the same, and he extracted her from the marriage. But fearing social stigma¹⁸, her parents soon married her off again. Neetu says her second husband, however, has been like a savior.

NEETU: (Through interpreter) He's given me a new life. He pulled me out of hell and brought me to heaven. I'm able to wrestle² because of him. I'm away, and we don't have a usual husband-wife relationship. He's made a huge sacrifice.

MCCARTHY: When she first confided¹⁹ her dream to wrestle, husband Sanjay Kumar called it crazy. Neetu weighed 175 pounds, but she shed 60 pounds and any inhibition about pursuing her God-given talents. Sanjay lent moral support, and when his business selling milk failed, he adjusted to a new role as house-husband

SANJAY KUMAR: (Foreign language spoken).

MCCARTHY: "The hard work is Neetu's. I've just encouraged her. And I'm with her all the way. But Neetu is not the kind of girl to back down," he says.

Still, Sanjay had a caveat²⁰.

KUMAR: (Foreign language spoken).

MCCARTHY: "If you start, you have to succeed," he said, "or we'll get a bad name."

Bad name, disgrace, dishonor - terms used to frustrate²¹ female independents, says Jagmati Sangwan, a former member of the Indian national volleyball team. Sangwan now leads the All-India Democratic Women's Association. Like Neetu, she is from Haryana and calls her home state a, quote, "predominantly feudal²² patriarchal society," especially tough for female athletes.

JAGMATI SANGWAN: The mindset behind this is that if women participate in sports, they will become more and more confident, and they will be losing their control over these women.

MCCARTHY: A child bride no more, Neetu puts her age at 21. A competitor alleged²³ she's older, but her passport says she's 20. Absent official birth records, there's often confusion about how old people are in India. In her second marriage, Neetu gave birth to twin boys at age 14.

Nothing in Neetu's surroundings lends itself to athletic²⁴ glory. The streets of her village are open sewers²⁵; the playing field, a stony²⁶ lot where she wrestles²⁷ with her boys. The hardscrabble reality makes her dream to be a world-class athlete seem implausible. Conservative mores²⁸ make the climb steeper.

NEETU: (Foreign language spoken).

MCCARTHY: There were insinuations - is she really at a gym, asked gossipy neighbors. Then, the young woman who had changed her husband, her in-laws and herself transformed a village.

NEETU: (Through interpreter) Even people who had spoken ill of me - they said, train our daughters to wrestle; make them like you.

MCCARTHY: Neetu had begun winning. Neighbors delighted in the attention she brought to their inconspicuous village, beginning with her first national medal in February of last year. Last summer, she competed in Brazil. Balkesh Ahlawat is a proud 45-year-old villager.

BALKESH AHLAWAT: (Foreign language spoken).

MCCARTHY: "She's changed everything. Everybody believes that a girl can now say, I want to do something," Ahlawat says.

MCCARTHY: After upending stereotypes²⁹ in her own village, Neetu quietly raises awareness³⁰ in others. At a girl's school, she tells her story of striving despite every disadvantage. Neetu tears up sharing painful facts of her life and encourages the girls to dream big dreams. Neetu looks to the future, eyeing Tokyo and the 2020 Olympics.

NEETU: (Through interpreter) I will go there. I'm 21, and four years ago, the silver medalist was 34 and a mother. That gives me confidence. I can do it.

MCCARTHY: Julie McCarthy, NPR News.

 

 

1 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

2 wrestle   

vi.摔跤，角力；搏斗；全力对付

参考例句：

• He taught his little brother how to wrestle.他教他小弟弟如何摔跤。
• We have to wrestle with difficulties.我们必须同困难作斗争。

3 wrestled   

v.（与某人）搏斗( wrestle的过去式和过去分词 )；扭成一团；扭打；（与…）摔跤

参考例句：

• As a boy he had boxed and wrestled. 他小的时候又是打拳又是摔跤。
• Armed guards wrestled with the intruder. 武装警卫和闯入者扭打起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 knack   

n.诀窍，做事情的灵巧的，便利的方法

参考例句：

• He has a knack of teaching arithmetic.他教算术有诀窍。
• Making omelettes isn't difficult,but there's a knack to it.做煎蛋饼并不难，但有窍门。

7 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

8 ram   

(random access memory)随机存取存储器

参考例句：

• 512k RAM is recommended and 640k RAM is preferred.推荐配置为512K内存，640K内存则更佳。

9 trek   

vi.作长途艰辛的旅行；n.长途艰苦的旅行

参考例句：

• We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
• It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。

10 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

11 slump   

n.暴跌，意气消沉，（土地）下沉；vi.猛然掉落，坍塌，大幅度下跌

参考例句：

• She is in a slump in her career.她处在事业的低谷。
• Economists are forecasting a slump.经济学家们预言将发生经济衰退。

12 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

13 commute   

vi.乘车上下班；vt.减(刑)；折合；n.上下班交通

参考例句：

• I spend much less time on my commute to work now.我现在工作的往返时间要节省好多。
• Most office workers commute from the suburbs.很多公司的职员都是从郊外来上班的。

14 squats   

n.蹲坐，蹲姿( squat的名词复数 )；被擅自占用的建筑物v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的第三人称单数 )；非法擅自占用（土地或房屋）；为获得其所有权；而占用某片公共用地。

参考例句：

• The square squats in the centre of the city. 广场位于市中心。 来自互联网
• Various squats, lunges, jumps and sprints are incorporated for the humans. 主人们还要进行下蹲、弓步、跳跃和短跑等各项训练。 来自互联网

15 meager   

adj.缺乏的，不足的，瘦的

参考例句：

• He could not support his family on his meager salary.他靠微薄的工资无法养家。
• The two men and the woman grouped about the fire and began their meager meal.两个男人同一个女人围着火，开始吃起少得可怜的午饭。

16 incensed   

盛怒的

参考例句：

• The decision incensed the workforce. 这个决定激怒了劳工大众。
• They were incensed at the decision. 他们被这个决定激怒了。

17 predator   

n.捕食其它动物的动物；捕食者

参考例句：

• The final part of this chapter was devoted to a brief summary of predator species.本章最后部分简要总结了食肉动物。
• Komodo dragon is the largest living lizard and a fearsome predator.科摩多龙是目前存在的最大蜥蜴，它是一种令人恐惧的捕食性动物。

18 stigma   

n.耻辱，污名；(花的)柱头

参考例句：

• Being an unmarried mother used to carry a social stigma.做未婚母亲在社会上曾是不光彩的事。
• The stigma of losing weighed heavily on the team.失败的耻辱让整个队伍压力沉重。

19 confided   

v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等）

参考例句：

• She confided all her secrets to her best friend. 她向她最要好的朋友倾吐了自己所有的秘密。
• He confided to me that he had spent five years in prison. 他私下向我透露，他蹲过五年监狱。 来自《简明英汉词典》

20 caveat   

n.警告； 防止误解的说明

参考例句：

• I would offer a caveat for those who want to join me in the dual calling.为防止发生误解，我想对那些想要步我后尘的人提出警告。
• As I have written before,that's quite a caveat.正如我以前所写，那确实是个警告。

21 frustrate   

v.使失望；使沮丧；使厌烦

参考例句：

• But this didn't frustrate Einstein.He was content to go as far as he could.但这并没有使爱因斯坦灰心，他对能够更深入地研究而感到满意。
• They made their preparations to frustrate the conspiracy.他们作好准备挫败这个阴谋。

22 feudal   

adj.封建的，封地的，领地的

参考例句：

• Feudal rulers ruled over the country several thousand years.封建统治者统治这个国家几千年。
• The feudal system lasted for two thousand years in China.封建制度在中国延续了两千年之久。

23 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

24 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

25 sewers   

n.阴沟，污水管，下水道( sewer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The sewers discharge out at sea. 下水道的污水排入海里。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Another municipal waste problem is street runoff into storm sewers. 有关都市废水的另外一个问题是进入雨水沟的街道雨水。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法

26 stony   

adj.石头的，多石头的，冷酷的，无情的

参考例句：

• The ground is too dry and stony.这块地太干，而且布满了石头。
• He listened to her story with a stony expression.他带着冷漠的表情听她讲经历。

27 wrestles   

v.（与某人）搏斗( wrestle的第三人称单数 )；扭成一团；扭打；（与…）摔跤

参考例句：

• The book also wrestles with the idea of individualism. 书中也与个人英雄主义的观念进行搏斗。 来自互联网
• He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. 和我们搏斗的人锻炼了我们的勇气，磨练了我们的技能。 来自互联网

28 mores   

n.风俗，习惯，民德，道德观念

参考例句：

• The mores of that village are hard to believe.那村子的习俗让人难以置信。
• We advocate a harmonious society where corruption is swept away,and social mores are cleared.我们提倡弊绝风清，建设一个和谐社会。

29 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

30 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。