最近,美女学霸谷爱凌可以说是火遍全网,高考几乎满分的她还兼任了花样滑雪世界赛金牌得主。并且她还是一名模特,爸爸是美国人,妈妈是北京人,颜值非常高,简直可以说是人生赢家。近日,开言英语也就谷爱凌专门做了一期专栏,帮助大家在学习地道英语的过程中,了解一下这位优秀的小姐姐。
01. Skiing Sensation
被誉为 Snow princess(冰雪公主)的谷爱凌,刚负伤出战世锦赛,负冕双冠王,即将
Compete for China for the Winter Olympics
代表中国参加冬奥会
She's a freestyle skier.
她是一个花样滑雪选手
Freestyle skiing is usually favored by younger skiers, and is performed in the half-pipe or terrain park.
花样滑雪通常受年轻的滑雪者欢迎,在U型池和地形公园里进行
half-pipe
U型池(半管式滑道)
媒体用skiing sensation(滑雪新星)来形容她:
sensation [senˈseɪʃn] 感官;刺激,
new sensation 冉冉升起的新星,
New sensation用以表达富有活力的新秀们给这个行业带来令人耳目一新的感觉。
除了是滑雪界的young, talented sensation 谷爱凌还非常美。Adam感叹到,她的美貌就是
the icing on the cake 锦上添花
02. Eileen's mindset
谷爱凌的思想也体现了中西合璧的文化交融。她在采访中还引用成语来讲滑雪对于自己的意义:
“一叶障目,不见泰山,roughly translated is that have greater perspective of things that are greater than myself. It was about inspiring younger girls who maybe didn't what the sport is, they didn't know what extreme sports in general work.”
“一叶障目,不见泰山,粗略翻译过来就是,要用更大的视角来看待超越自己的伟大事物。我做的事是,鼓舞激励更年轻的女孩们,即使她们原本不知道花样滑雪是什么,不知道极限运动是怎样进行的。”
“I always approach contests with the intention to win, but never the expectation,”
“我每次都带着胜利的欲望参加比赛,但从不拿胜利当作必然。”
Adam讲到,这里她用到intention(意图)而不是expection(期望),表达了自己的胜负欲,但保持清醒,认为赢得比赛并不是理所应当的:
She is not taking that for granted
Jenny和Adam都认为这种心态非常难得,从一个rookie(新手菜鸟)到年少成名,能够不像其他人一样,不妄自尊大,是最令人敬佩的地方。
03. Eileen's backgroun
Mom just loved skiing, so enrolled her in ski school: Yan, as Eileen puts it, “accidentally created a pro skier.”
妈妈非常喜欢滑雪,所以给她报名了滑雪学校。按谷爱凌的说法:“意外培养了一个专业滑雪者。”
Once she got into modeling, Gu says, she realized it is "actually really similar to skiing." "It’s creative and expressive and unique, and being different is a good thing," she said. "I absolutely love it."
当她涉足模特行业时,谷爱凌说,她发现“这其实和滑雪十分相像,非常有创造性,表达力,非常独特。我觉得特立独行是件好事,我非常喜欢。”
“My whole life is a bunch of things you wouldn’t expect to go together,” said Gu, who also plays classical piano, is an endurance runner and played basketball growing up. “That enriches my life all the more, and the contrast is what makes it fun.”
“我的生活充满了看起来毫不相干的东西,”谷爱凌说,她还弹古典钢琴,是长跑者,从小打篮球。“
逆天的是,谷爱凌还拥有
near perfect SAT score
近乎完美的SAT成绩(SAT:美国大学入学考试,谷爱凌在满分1600的考试中拿到1580,被斯坦福大学录取)
讲到平衡学业和运动事业的秘诀,她说:
“I do it full-heartedly and whole-heartedly.”
我做这件事时全心全意。
Adam提示,whole-heartedly其实并不是一个正确的表达方式,但是...年轻人嘛!
我们能从谷爱凌身上看到很重的文化交融痕迹:既有美式的阳光自信,又有中式的谦虚审慎。那么混血儿,用英语怎么说呢?
mixed race kids/mixed kids
mixed-blood (不太好的称呼)
温哥华就有很多白人与亚裔的混血儿:
Caucasian [kɔːˈkeɪʒn] 白种人,高加索人
Asian [ˈeɪʃn] 亚裔
cross cultural marriage/relationship
跨文化/族裔的婚姻/恋爱
注意,这里是cultural而不是culture!跨文化婚姻也不可以用mixed marriage了,因为mixed marriage一般是离婚再重组的家庭,也可以说:
blended family
总之,谷爱凌作为小小的文化交流大使,可以说是人生赢家了,希望她在2022年的北京冬奥会取得佳绩,我们都会为她加油:
We’re all cheering/rooting for her!
看完了小姐姐的事迹,你是不是也会感叹于她的人生?在感叹之余也不用过多的悲伤,只要不停下学习的脚步,终有一日我们也会成为像她一样优秀的人!