VOA标准英语2010年-Former Basketball Star Inspires Inner

Former sports star Brian Taylor has taken a message of hard work that he learned on the basketball court to the inner city classroom.  In this week's installment¹ of Making a Difference we introduce you to Taylor, who was a top basketball player at Princeton University, and he later played professionally.  He is now an administrator² with a group of rigorous schools for minority students in Los Angeles.

Brian Taylor tells his students that athletics³ and study are two sides of the same coin.  He says he learned playing basketball at Princeton University that both take hard work and perseverance⁴.

Taylor was Ivy⁵ League Rookie of the Year in 1971 and Rookie of the Year for the American Basketball Association two years later.  He helped lead the ABA's New York Nets to two league championships, and later played for the San Diego Clippers and the Kansas City Kings, and the Denver Nuggets of the National Basketball Association.

After 10 years in professional sports, he returned to Princeton to finish his degree, a move, he says, that later influenced a career decision.

"I said, 'What can I do to really distinguish myself and something that my family would respect me for?'  And then I said, 'It's a no brainer.  I have to get involved in education,'" he explained.

 

Taylor worked in Los Angeles as an administrator and basketball coach at an exclusive private school.  But he thought he could make a difference in the inner city, where he says minority students often drop out and waste their talent.

The graduation rate for schools in many big American cities, including Los Angeles, is less than 50 percent.  When Taylor's colleague Michael Piscal founded the Inner City Education Foundation, or ICEF in 1994, Taylor joined him.  He says students value sports, so he has taken their focus on winning and applied⁶ it to academics.  Today, ICEF runs View Park Prep and 14 other rigorous college preparatory schools.

Students work as hard in class as they do on the basketball court, and Taylor says they are succeeding.

View Park Prep test scores are among the highest in the state for African American students.  And Taylor says students are finishing school and graduating. "We're very proud that of our first three graduating classes, 100 percent of our kids have not only graduated from View Park Prep, but also have enrolled⁷ in top colleges and universities in the United States," he said.

View Park student Sidney Labat says she likes science as well as sports. "I want to go to college and play basketball," she says,"I want to be a doctor."

Her friend, Danielle Pruitt, wants to combine sports with veterinary medicine. "Hopefully, I can play basketball and be a vet⁸ at the same time because I love animals," she said.

Taylor says sports and study together build character.  He is involved in a program for coaches who teach adolescent boys to respect young women.  The program is called Coaching Boys into Men.  Taylor says it is another example of how sports can be used to teach bigger lessons.  And he says his schools adhere to high standards for personal conduct.

Taylor says he wants to see this part of inner city Los Angeles harness unused talent and build a core of trained professional workers.

"And hopefully, I'll be able to come back when I'm old and on my cane⁹ to see all of the professional people - the doctors, the lawyers, the principals, the teachers.  And that, I think, is where my legacy¹⁰ will lie," he said.
 

1 installment   

n.(instalment)分期付款；(连载的)一期

参考例句：

• I shall soon pay the last installment of my debt.不久我将偿付我的最后一期债款。
• He likes to buy things on the installment plan.他喜欢用分期付款法购买货物。

2 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

3 athletics   

n.运动，体育，田径运动

参考例句：

• When I was at school I was always hopeless at athletics.我上学的时候体育十分糟糕。
• Our team tied with theirs in athletics.在田径比赛中，我们队与他们队旗鼓相当。

4 perseverance   

n.坚持不懈，不屈不挠

参考例句：

• It may take some perseverance to find the right people.要找到合适的人也许需要有点锲而不舍的精神。
• Perseverance leads to success.有恒心就能胜利。

5 ivy   

n.常青藤，常春藤

参考例句：

• Her wedding bouquet consisted of roses and ivy.她的婚礼花篮包括玫瑰和长春藤。
• The wall is covered all over with ivy.墙上爬满了常春藤。

6 applied   

adj.应用的；v.应用，适用

参考例句：

• She plans to take a course in applied linguistics.她打算学习应用语言学课程。
• This cream is best applied to the face at night.这种乳霜最好晚上擦脸用。

7 enrolled   

adj.入学登记了的v.[亦作enrol]( enroll的过去式和过去分词 )；登记，招收，使入伍（或入会、入学等），参加，成为成员；记入名册；卷起，包起

参考例句：

• They have been studying hard from the moment they enrolled. 从入学时起，他们就一直努力学习。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He enrolled with an employment agency for a teaching position. 他在职业介绍所登了记以谋求一个教师的职位。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 vet   

n.兽医，退役军人；vt.检查

参考例句：

• I took my dog to the vet.我把狗带到兽医诊所看病。
• Someone should vet this report before it goes out.这篇报道发表之前应该有人对它进行详查。

9 cane   

n.手杖，细长的茎，藤条；v.以杖击，以藤编制的

参考例句：

• This sugar cane is quite a sweet and juicy.这甘蔗既甜又多汁。
• English schoolmasters used to cane the boys as a punishment.英国小学老师过去常用教鞭打男学生作为惩罚。

10 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。