仅凭一纸文书，17岁女生被哈佛耶鲁全录取（附作文原文）_公共英语阅读理解

仅凭一纸文书，17岁女生被哈佛耶鲁全录取（附作文原文）

在我们家，“cast”（抛掷）和“cash”（兑现、现金）没有分别，这就是为什么在离开教堂时，人们常常取笑我“cashing out demons”（兑现恶魔，本应为丢弃恶魔）。我没有意识到两个英语单词之间的差异，直到老师纠正了我的hammock、ladle、和siphon的发音。同学们笑我，因为我将accept（接受）读成except（除外），将success读成sussess。尽管我已参加了创意写作，但常常词不达意。

Suddenly, understanding flower is flour wasn’t enough. I rejected the English that had never seemed broken before, a language that had raised me and taught me everything I knew. Everybody else’s parents spoke with accents smarting of Ph.D.s and university teaching positions. So why couldn’t mine?

突然之间，我开始明白，如果只是知道花朵和面粉的发音相同是不够的。我开始逐渐摆脱了那些伴随着我长大的、曾经自以为还不错的英语，既然其他人的父母，都能说一口流利的英语，为什么我的父母不能呢？

My mother spread her sunbaked hands and said, “This is where I came from,” spinning a tale with the English she had taught herself.

我的母亲摊开她那双晒黑的手说：“我就是从这儿来的”，她用自己以前学过的英语讲了一个故事。

When my mother moved from her village to a town in Malaysia, she had to learn a brand new language in middle school: English. In a time when humiliation was encouraged, my mother was defenseless against the cruel words spewing from the teacher, who criticized her paper in front of the class. When she began to cry, the class president stood up and said, “That’s enough.”