Ben James is a survivor of the streets. Overcoming insurmountable odds, he became a surgeon and now performs surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital on a routine basis. Growing up, he was susceptible to the crime, drug use, and violence of his neighborhood in downtown Baltimore. He surmounted many obstacles, surpassing even his own notions of where he would end up. In an area where survival was no guarantee, how did he survive?
詹姆斯是大街上的一個幸存者??朔穗y以逾越的重重困難之后,他成為一名外科醫(yī)生,現在每天在約翰斯·霍普金斯醫(yī)院做例行的外科手術。在成長過程中他深受巴爾的摩市中心居住區(qū)犯罪、吸毒和暴力的影響。他克服了許多障礙,甚至超越了對自己一生的歸宿的考慮。在一個生存無法得到保障的地區(qū),他是怎么生存下來的呢?
"Sure," he surmises, “there was a lot of violence around me when I was young. But there was also a surplus of love that no one could suppress. Discipline wasn't only supplementary to how my family raised me, it was primary. They encouraged responsibility. Through hard work I could surge ahead of the competition, while I was surging ahead, my survivability was always in question. Racism challenged me. I would go to a restaurant and be presented with a surcharge no whites had to pay."
“當然,”他心想,“我小時候,周圍有很多暴力。但是也有更多的愛,這是沒有人可以阻止的。紀律不僅是對家庭教育的補充,也是根本的。愛和紀律激發(fā)了責任。通過勤奮努力,我能夠在競爭中遙遙領先。我在遙遙領先的過程中,生存的可能性總是成問題。我受到種族主義的挑戰(zhàn)。我去餐館,總會碰到白人不必支付的附加費用。”
It was as an undergraduate that he faced his supreme test. Though he had been a surpassingly inquisitive student in high school, his love of knowledge had experienced no supplementation. In college, the supremacy of his classmate' high school educations was apparent. he felt overwhelmed. How was he supposed to succeed when things were unequal to begin with? "I kept working under the supposition that if I failed out of college, it was death or jail for me. Supposedly, there were counselors at the college to help me, but I never knew where they were."
是在做本科生的時候,他面對了最大的考驗。盡管他在上高中時是個非常好奇愛問的學生,但他對知識的熱愛并未得到加強。在大學,同學們在高中時代所受教育的優(yōu)勢顯而易見。他感到不知所措。當起點不平等的時候,怎么能指望他成功呢?“我不斷地努力,假想如果我被淘汰,我就得去死或者坐牢。大概大學里有輔導員可以幫我,但我不知道他們在哪兒。”
A survey was recently taken in Ben's old neighborhood, and 90% of the respondents think of him as a hero.
最近在本以前的居住區(qū)進行了一項調查,90%的調查對象認為他是個英雄。
n. 例行公事,常規(guī),無聊
adj. 常規(guī)的,
n. 保證,保證書,擔保,擔保人,抵押品
vt
adj. 好奇的,好追根究底的,求知欲強的
supreme[sju:'pri:m]adj. 最高的,至上的,極度的
primary['praim?ri]adj. 主要的,初期的,根本的,初等教育的
surgeon['s?:d??n]n. 外科醫(yī)生
violence['vai?l?ns]n. 暴力,猛烈,強暴,暴行
survive[s?'vaiv]vt. 比 ... 活得長,幸免于難,艱難度過
competition[k?mpi'ti??n]
n. 比賽,競爭,競賽
surgery['s?:d??ri]n. 外科,外科手術,診所