1、Unit 6 Woman, Half the SkyCarolyn Turk works in a profession that has traditionally been a career for men. Here she talksabout how she came to do so and how her success just goes to show that a woman can learnanything a man can.卡洛琳特克從事的職業傳統上一直是男人們的天下。在本文，她談到自己是如何干上這 一行的，并通過她的成功表明男人們能學會的事女人們也能做到。Text

2、 AA Woman Can Learn Anything a Man CanCarolyn Turk男人學得會的，女人也學得會卡羅琳特克1When I was a kid, everything in my bedroom was pink. I have two sisters and we had acomplete miniature kitchen, a herd of My Little Ponies and several Barbie and Ken dolls. We didnthave any toy trucks, G . I. Joes or basketballs. W

3、e did have a Wiffle-ball set, but you would havebeen hard-pressed to find it in our playroom. Tomboys we werent.我小的時候臥室里的每樣東西都是粉紅色的。 我有兩個姐妹，我們有一個一應俱全 的微型廚房，一群各種顏色的小馬駒，還有好幾個芭比和凱恩玩具娃娃。我們沒有玩具 卡車，沒有玩具大兵，也沒有籃球。我們確實有一套空心棒球，但是很難再我們的游戲 室找到，畢竟我們不是假小子。2So some people may find it ironic that I grew up to be a

4、mechanical engineer. In fact, I am theonly female engineer at my company. In order to get my college degree, I had to take a lot of mathand science classes. I also had to work with a team of students as part of a national competition toconvert a gas-guzzling SUV into a hybrid electric vehicle - that

5、s where I learned how to fix cars.Im proud to say that I got As in all my classes, including multivariable calculus and differentialequations. Ive always been pretty good at math and design, but I didnt understand where thatcould take me. I was expected to go to college, but no one ever told me Id m

6、ake a good engineersomeday.正因為如此，有些人對我長大后成了一名機械工程師也許感到出乎意外。事實上，我是我公司里唯一的一個女工程師。為了取得大學文憑， 我要上許多數學和自然科學方 面的課程。我還得和幾個學生一起工作，作為參與一次全國性競賽的一部分，把一輛耗 費汽油特多的運動型多用途汽車改裝成混合型電動車就是這樣我學會了修汽車。 我 可以自豪的說，我門門功課都是A，包括多變量微積分和微分方程。我的數學和設計總 是相當好，但是我不知道這些會給我帶來什么樣的結果。家里要我上大學，但是沒人告 訴我有一天會成為一名優秀的工程師。3When I was in high schoo

7、l, I didnt know the first thing about engineering. I couldnt havedistinguished a transmission from an alternator. The car I drove needed some work but I wasafraid to take it to the mechanic. Because honestly, the mechanic could have shown me an electriccan opener and said, This is part of your car a

8、nd its broken - pay me to fix it, and I wouldnt haveknown any better.我上高中時對工程一無所知。 我那時不能辨別變速器和交流發電機。我開的車需要 修理，但是我不敢把車開到修理工那里，因為說實話，如果修理工給我看一把電動開罐 器并對我說：“這是你的汽車部件，壞了你付錢我給你修，”我也不會知道他在敲詐。4 At theend of my junior year of high school, I heard about a summer program designed to interest girls inengineerin

9、g. The six-week program was free, and students were given college credit and a dormroom at the University of Maryland. I applied to the program, not because I wanted to be anengineer, but because I was craving independence and wanted to get out of my parents house forsix weeks.我在高中第三年末的時候， 聽說有一個暑期班，

10、 專門培養女孩對工程的興趣。 課程 六周，不用繳費。 學生還可以獲得大學學分， 還可以享受馬里蘭大學學生宿舍一個房間。 我申請參加這個暑期班，這倒不是因為我想當工程師，而是因為我渴望獨立，想離開父 母的房子自己單獨過上六周。5I was accepted to the program and I earned six engineering credits. The next year I enteredthe university as an engineering major. Five years later I had a degree and three decent job off

11、ers.我被這個暑期班錄取了， 得到了六個工程學分。 第二年我上了這個大學， 主修工程。五年后我獲得了學位，還有三個像樣的就業機會。6I cant help shuddering when I hear about studies that show that women are at adisadvantage when it comes to math. They imply that I am somehow abnormal. Im not, but I doknow that if I hadnt stumbled into that summer program, I wouldn

12、t be an engineer.聽到有研究表明女性學數學處于劣勢， 我不禁不寒而栗。 他們的言下之意是我有點 反常。我一點也不反常，但是我知道，要不是我偶然闖進了那個暑期班，我是成不了工 程師的。7When I was growing up I was told, as many students are, to do what I am best at. But I didntknow what that was. Most people think that when you are good at something, it comes easily toyou. But this i

13、s what I discovered: just because a subject is difficult to learn, it does not mean youare not good at it. You just have to grit your teeth and work harder to get good at it. Once you do,theres a strong chance you will enjoy it more than anything else.像許多學生一樣，我成長過程中，就有人告訴我要做自己最擅長的事。但是我不知 道自己最擅長的是什么。

14、許多人認為，如果你擅長某件事，那你就能輕而易舉的把它學 好。但是我的發現是：某一門課程難學，并不意味著你不擅長它。你得咬緊牙加倍努力 干，才能學好它。一旦你學好了，你就可能喜歡上它，從中得到無與倫比的樂趣。8 In eighth grade I tookalgebra. On one test I got only 36 percent of the answers correct. I failed the next one, too. Istarted to think, maybe Im just no good at this. I was lucky enough to have a

15、 teacher who didnttake my bad grades as a judgment of my abilities, but simply as an indication that I should studymore. He pulled me aside and told me he knew I could do better. He let me retake the tests, and Ipulled my grade up to an A.八年級時我修代數， 有一次考試我只答對了百分之三十六的題目。 接下去一次考試 我又不及格。于是我想，也許我確實不擅長代數。

16、值得慶幸的是我有一位老師，他沒有 根據我的低分來衡量我的能力， 而認為低分只表示我應該下更大的功夫。他把我叫到一 旁，告訴我他知道我能學得更好。他讓我重考，這次我把成績提高到A。9I studied a lot in college, too. I had moments of panic while sitting underneath the buzzingfluorescent lights in the engineering library on Saturday afternoons, when I worried that theestrogen in my body was p

17、reventing me from understanding thermodynamics. But the guys in myclasses had to work just as hard, and I knew that I couldnt afford to lose confidence in myself. Ididnt want to choose between my femininity and a good career. So I reminded myself that thosestudies, the ones that say that math comes

18、more naturally to men, are based on a faulty premise:that you can judge a persons abilities separate from the cultural cues that she has received sinceshe was an infant. No man is an island. No woman is, either.我在大學也很努力。星期六下午坐在工程圖書館吱吱作響的熒光燈下學習時，我也 有過恐懼的時候， 擔心我體內的雌激素妨礙我理解熱動力學。但是我班上的男生也同樣 要下功夫， 我知道我不能

19、對自己喪失信心。我不想在女生的嬌柔和一個好職業中間兩者 只取其一。因此我提醒自己， 宣稱男性天生更能學好數學的研究是基于一個錯誤的前提， 那就是認為人們可以脫離一個人從孩提時代就受到社會的文化熏陶而徑直判斷她的能 力。男人不是孤島，女人也不是。10Why are we so quick to limit ourselves? Im not denying that most little girls love dolls andmost little boys love videogames, and it may be true that some people favor the righ

20、t side of theirbrain, and others the left. But how relevant is that to me, or to anyone, as an individual? Instead oftranslating our differences into hard and fast conclusions about the human brain, why cant wefocus instead on how incredibly flexible we are? Instead of using what we know as a reason whywomen cant learn physics, may