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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Youngest Gymnast on US Olympic Team Prepares for London
Kyla Ross does not live the life of an average American teenager. She spends 30 to 35 hours a week training at Gym-Max Academy1 of Gymnastics, just south of Los Angeles. She goes to school only part-time.
"Of course, it's always hard to fit in homework, especially this year," said kyla Ross. "I had to cut back on a lot of school. It sort of feels unreal. I mean, I've been working for the Olympics all my life, and it's something that I've been training for, so to be able to say that is such a dream come true."
Kyla says that although many world class gymnasts would continue their studies through online classes, she has remained in school so she can graduate in four years. Her father, Jason Ross, says it has not been easy.
"You have to be a very disciplined person from practice to going straight to do your homework," he said. "You might want to rest or hang out with your friends, and people are going out. But you have to stay home and finish your homework or get rest because you have a competition. So [it] definitely2 takes a lot of discipline."
It also takes discipline of a different kind to handle the pressure of competing at the Olympics, says Kyla Ross's coach, Jenny Liang.
"I feel her biggest challenge at the Olympic Games is her own mind," said Jenny Liang. "Her mind has to be even stronger. She has to think, 'I've practiced this 1,000 times. It's just changing the venue3.' If you think too much, you cannot do anything."
Liang and her husband, Howie Liang, have coached Kyla for the past seven years. They met in China as gymnasts for the Chinese National Team and moved to the United States, where they opened the Gym-Max Academy of Gymnastics. The Liangs say that being a coaching team works4 well in training athletes.
"Between the two of us - look at him, he's very gentleman-like, he's like a grandfather," she said.
"That's how you coordinate," said Howie Liang. "The Chinese say, 'You have to have two sides.' She is sometimes stricter, then I'm nicer."
"They don't really yell5 at me too much, so that's something that I'm lucky about."
Kyla Ross is the youngest member of the U.S. women's gymnastics team.
"I enjoy sort of being the youngest and having older girls to look up to have advice for [me]," she said.
Kyla was born in Hawaii, where her parents enrolled6 her in a gymnastics class when she was three years old to burn off some of her energy. Jason Ross says he never expected his daughter to go to the Olympics.
"You just recollect7 all the times you dropped her off [at] practices, [the] struggles she's had, also the time she's invested8 into [gymnastics], and the gratifying feeling that she achieved her goal and really put a lot of work into it, and it's actually happening [she is going to compete in the Olympics]," he said.
Again, Kyla Ross:
"From this experience, it's definitely been a really long journey and as my dad tells me, 'You always have to enjoy the moment.' So I definitely want to have fun when I go to London and enjoy being with the team competing, and hopefully representing Team USA as well as we can," she said.
Kyla Ross will be training with her four teammates in Texas before flying to London for the Olympics.
1 academy | |
n.(高等)专科院校;学术社团,协会,研究院 | |
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2 definitely | |
adv.一定地,肯定地;明确地,确切地 | |
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3 venue | |
n.犯罪地点,审判地,管辖地,发生地点,集合地点 | |
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4 works | |
n.作品,著作;工厂,活动部件,机件 | |
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5 yell | |
vi./n.号叫,叫喊 | |
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6 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 | |
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7 recollect | |
v.回忆,想起,记起,忆起,记得 | |
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8 invested | |
v.投资,花费( invest的过去式和过去分词 );授予;(把资金)投入;投入(时间、精力等) | |
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