VOA慢速英语2021 加州护士追随母亲脚步抗击新冠

A California nurse helping¹ to fight COVID-19 says she feels a special link to her mother, who helped battle the 1918 flu pandemic.

加州一位协助抗击新冠肺炎的护士表示，她感觉与母亲有了一种特殊的联系，她的母亲曾协助抗击1918年的流感大流行。

Sigrid Stokes is a 76-year-old nurse from Salinas, California. She told The Associated Press she has no plans to immediately retire from her job. She says she is too busy working to save lives during a deadly pandemic, just as her mother did more than a century ago.

西格丽德·斯托克斯是加州萨利纳斯市一位76岁的护士。她对美联社表示，她没有立即退休的计划。她称自己正忙于在一场致命大流行当中挽救生命，就像她母亲一个多世纪前做的那样。

Her mother, Kristine Berg Mueller, helped treat people during the flu pandemic that spread around the world in 1918. Today, Stokes is giving vaccinations² to health care workers battling COVID-19.

她的母亲克里斯汀·伯格·穆勒在1918年席卷全球的流感大流行期间协助照顾人们。如今，斯托克斯正在给抗击新冠肺炎的医护人员接种疫苗。

Mueller was a 14-year-old student in her native Norway when the flu pandemic hit. That pandemic killed an estimated³ 50 million people, including about 675,000 in the United States, records from the Centers For Disease⁴ Control and Prevention show.

当流感大流行袭来时，穆勒只是她家乡挪威一名14岁的学生。美国疾病控制与预防中心的记录显示，这场大流行导致了5千万人丧生，其中美国有大约67.5万人丧生。

Stokes said her mother wanted to do her part to help those suffering during the pandemic. “So she and a friend volunteered at the local hospital to help out in whatever way they could -- which I would imagine would be things like feeding people, bathing people, changing beds, whatever they could do,” she said.

斯托克斯表示，她的母亲希望尽自己一份力量帮助那些在大流行当中遭受痛苦的人们。她说：“因此她和一位朋友自愿在当地一家医院尽其所能地提供帮助，我猜想可能是诸如为人们送餐、洗澡、换床单之类只要她们能做到的事情。”

Many years after the 1918 pandemic, Stokes said her mother told her the experience led her to want to become a nurse. But the family had no money to send Mueller to nursing school.

斯托克斯表示，在1918年大流行的许多年之后，她的母亲告诉她，这场经历使得她想要成为一名护士。但是家里没钱把穆勒送去护理学校读书。

Her mother moved to the United States in 1923. Four years later, she was accepted into an American nursing program.

她的母亲于1923年移居美国。4年之后，她被美国护理计划录取。

Mueller married and settled in Los Angeles, where Stokes’ father ran a bookstore.

穆勒结婚并定居在洛杉矶，斯托克斯的父亲在此经营了一家书店。

One of her mother’s nursing jobs was to work on Hollywood movie sets to make sure child actors stayed safe and healthy. One of the many pictures Stokes has of her mother shows Mueller happily talking to famous child star Shirley Temple.

她母亲的护理工作之一是在好莱坞片场确保儿童演员的健康和安全。斯托克斯保存的众多母亲的照片之一显示，穆勒正高兴地跟童星雪莉·邓波儿对话。

Stokes said she enjoys her work and now takes the responsibility of giving COVID-19 vaccine⁵ shots very seriously. “I give very good shots, I might add, good jabs,” she told the AP.

斯托克斯表示，她享受这份工作，现在也非常认真地承担起接种新冠肺炎疫苗的工作。她对美联社表示：“我打针打得好。”

It wasn’t until Stokes was in her late 20s that she decided⁶ she wanted to follow her mother into nursing. “I was volunteering in the pediatric ward⁷ and so on and I all of a sudden realized, you know, I really like this,” she said.

直到斯托克斯二十多岁时，她才决定追随母亲一起进入护理行业。她说：“当时我在儿科病房当义工，我突然意识到，我非常喜欢这个行业。”

Stokes was working part-time when the coronavirus crisis⁸ hit he country early last year. She says she was too old to safely treat COVID-19 patients, but knew she could help with vaccinations.

当去年年初，新冠病毒危机袭击该国时，斯托克斯在做兼职。她说自己年纪太大了，无法安全地照顾新冠肺炎患者，但是知道她可以帮助接种疫苗。

As she arrives to work each day, she wears a pair of earrings⁹ she made from a Norwegian necklace that her mother wore each day before her death in 1995.

当她每天来上班，她戴着一副耳环，这是用她母亲1995年去世前每天戴着的一条挪威项链做成的。

“I wear them every time I come to work because I feel like it’s a sort of talisman¹⁰ that she’s with me and our family,” Stokes said.

斯托克斯表示：“每次上班时我都会戴着它，因为我觉得它就像是一种护身符，就像她跟我以及家人在一起。”

COVID-19 has killed more than 2.3 million people worldwide, including more than 460,000 in the U.S. Stokes says she will not consider retiring until the virus has been slowed.

新冠肺炎已经导致全球超过2300万人死亡，其中包括美国超过46万人死亡。斯托克斯表示，直到疫情放缓她才会考虑退休。

“We’ve got to get this done,” she said. “We’ve got to get people vaccinated¹¹ so we can get this country moving again.”

她说：“我们必须做到这点。我们必须给人们接种疫苗，这样才能让这个国家再次运转起来。”

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 vaccinations   

n.种痘，接种( vaccination的名词复数 )；牛痘疤

参考例句：

• Vaccinations ensure one against diseases. 接种疫苗可以预防疾病。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I read some publicity about vaccinations while waiting my turn at the doctor's. 在医生那儿候诊时，我读了一些关于接种疫苗的宣传。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 estimated   

adj．根据估计的

参考例句：

• She estimated the breadth of the lake to be 500 metres. 她估计湖面大约有500米宽。
• The man estimated for the repair of the car. 那人估算了修理汽车的费用。

4 disease   

n.疾病，弊端

参考例句：

• The doctors are trying to stamp out the disease.医生正在尽力消灭这种疾病。
• He fought against the disease for a long time.他同疾病做了长时间的斗争。

5 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

6 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。

7 ward   

n.守卫，监护，病房，行政区，由监护人或法院保护的人（尤指儿童）；vt.守护，躲开

参考例句：

• The hospital has a medical ward and a surgical ward.这家医院有内科病房和外科病房。
• During the evening picnic,I'll carry a torch to ward off the bugs.傍晚野餐时，我要点根火把，抵挡蚊虫。

8 crisis   

n.危机，危急关头，决定性时刻，关键阶段

参考例句：

• He had proved that he could be relied on in a crisis.他已表明，在紧要关头他是可以信赖的。
• The topic today centers about the crisis in the Middle East.今天课题的中心是中东危机。

9 earrings   

n.耳环( earring的名词复数 )；耳坠子

参考例句：

• a pair of earrings 一对耳环
• These earrings snap on with special fastener. 这付耳环是用特制的按扣扣上去的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 talisman   

n.避邪物，护身符

参考例句：

• It was like a talisman worn in bosom.它就象佩在胸前的护身符一样。
• Dress was the one unfailling talisman and charm used for keeping all things in their places.冠是当作保持品位和秩序的一种万应灵符。

11 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？