2007年VOA标准英语-Kabul Beauty School Book – How Close to Reality

By George Dwyer
Washington
11 June 2007
 

A new book set in Afghanistan and based on a true story is selling so well in the United States that Hollywood now wants bring it to the big screen. But as VOA's George Dwyer reports, some of the participants in the story are now claiming many of the book's assertions are inaccurate¹ or incomplete.

Kabul beauty school

''Kabul Beauty School: An American Woman Goes Behind the Veil" is the story of an American woman, Deborah Rodriquez, who traveled to Afghanistan in 2003 to help establish a training academy for beauticians.

Rodriquez appeared in the 2004 film "The Beauty Academy of Kabul" directed by documentary artist Liz Mermin.

"I thought she was going to get us all killed,” says Mermin. “She's there, she's big, she's loud, she's cracking jokes that are in some questionable² taste, when you're surrounded by all these men, and yet, watching her negotiate Kabul was kind of fascinating."

But others involved with the project say Rodriguez's role is overstated in the film, and that her book claims far too much credit as well.

Sheila McGurk is a salon³ owner in Alexandria, Virginia. She was an instructor⁴ for the first class at the Kabul school. "I was brought in to evaluate the students and prepare them for graduation," says McGurk.

After that first class of 20 women graduated, McGurk and others involved returned to the U.S. to raise funds for a planned expansion.

"So after the film came out we had just returned and we were really antsy [eager] to get back. We returned, leaving Debby Rodriguez in Kabul to ‘look after the store’ so to speak," adds McGurk.

But McGurk claims Rodriguez allowed the original school to shut down and then started a salon of her own. It is a claim Rodriguez disputes, although she declined to comment for this report.

VOA-TV recently visited Rodriguez's salon in Kabul and spoke⁵ to some of the women who work there. Controversy⁶ aside, there's little doubt they still think about the American women who came to help them.

For her part, Sheila McGurk says she just wants to keep attention focused on the graduates of the Kabul Beauty School.

"I want people to remember those women, and how courageous⁷ they were," says McGurk. "There is not a day that goes by that I do not think of those women – not a day. And I want them to know that we did not desert them, and that we are still thinking about them."

1 inaccurate   

adj.错误的，不正确的，不准确的

参考例句：

• The book is both inaccurate and exaggerated.这本书不但不准确，而且夸大其词。
• She never knows the right time because her watch is inaccurate.她从来不知道准确的时间因为她的表不准。

2 questionable   

adj.可疑的，有问题的

参考例句：

• There are still a few questionable points in the case.这个案件还有几个疑点。
• Your argument is based on a set of questionable assumptions.你的论证建立在一套有问题的假设上。

3 salon   

n.[法]沙龙；客厅；营业性的高级服务室

参考例句：

• Do you go to the hairdresser or beauty salon more than twice a week?你每周去美容院或美容沙龙多过两次吗？
• You can hear a lot of dirt at a salon.你在沙龙上会听到很多流言蜚语。

4 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。

5 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

6 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

7 courageous   

adj.勇敢的，有胆量的

参考例句：

• We all honour courageous people.我们都尊重勇敢的人。
• He was roused to action by courageous words.豪言壮语促使他奋起行动。