二十一世纪大学英语读写教程学习笔记（原文）——7 - I Became Her Target（我成了她的靶子）

Unit 7 - I Became Her Target（我成了她的靶子）

I Became Her Target

Roger Wilkins

My favorite teacher's name was "Dead-Eye" Bean. Her real name was Dorothy. She taught American history to eighth graders in a junior high school in Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was the fall of 1944, Franklin D. Roosevelt was president; American troops were battling their way across France; I was a 12-year-old black newcomer in a school that was otherwise all white. When we moved in, the problem for our new neighbors was that their neighborhood had previously been all-white and they were ignorant about black people. The prevailing wisdom in the neighborhood was that we were spoiling it and that we ought to go back where we belonged. There was a lot of angry talk among the adults, but nothing much came of it.

But some of the kids were quite nasty during those first few weeks. They threw stones at me, chased me home when I was on foot and spat on my bike seat when I was in class. For a time, I was a pretty lonely, friendless and sometimes frightened kid.

I now know that Dorothy Bean understood most of that and deplored it. So things began to change when I walked into her classroom. She was a pleasant-looking single woman, who looked old and wrinkled to me at the time, but who was probably about 40.

Whereas my other teachers approached the problem of easing in their new black pupil by ignoring him for the first few weeks, Miss Bean went right at me. On the morning after having read our first assignment, she asked me the first question. I later came to know that in Grand Rapids, she was viewed as a very liberal person who believed, among other things, that Negroes were equal.

I gulped and answered her question and the follow-up. They weren't brilliant answers, but they did establish the fact that I could speak English. Later in the hour, when one of my classmates had bungled an answer, Miss Bean came back to me with a question that required me to clean up the girl's mess and established me as a smart person.

Thus, the teacher began to give me human dimensions, though not perfect ones for an eighth grader. It was somewhat better to be, on one's early days, a teacher's pet than merely a dark presence in the back of the room.

A few days later, Miss Bean became the first teacher ever to require me to think. She asked my opinion about something Jefferson had done. In those days, all my opinions were derivative. I was for Roosevelt because my parents were and I was for the Yankees because my older buddy from Harlem was a Yankee fan. Besides, we didn't have opinions about historical figures like Jefferson. Like our high school building, he just was.

After I had stared at her for a few seconds, she said: "Well, should he have bought Louisiana or not?"

"I guess so," I replied tentatively.

"Why?" she shot back.

Why! What kind of question was that? But I ventured an answer. Day after day, she kept doing that to me, and my answers became stronger and more confident. She was the first teacher to give me the sense that thinking was part of education and that I could form opinions that had some value.

Her final service to me came on a day when my mind was wandering and I was idly digging my pencil into the writing surface on the arm of my chair. Miss Bean impulsively threw a hunk of gum eraser at me. By amazing chance, it hit my hand and sent the pencil flying. She gasped, and I crept hurriedly after my pencil as the class roared.

That was the ice breaker. Afterward, kids came up to me to laugh about "Old Dead-Eye Bean." The incident became a legend, and I, a part of that story, became a person to talk to.

So that's how I became just another kid in school and Dorothy Bean became "Old Dead-Eye."

New Words

dead-eye

a. 神射手的

grader

n. （美）（中小学的）…年级学生

ignorant

a. (of, about) knowing little or nothing 无知的

wisdom

n. 1. an idea or opinion 看法，意见

2. 智慧

spoil

vt. 1. cause to become of no use or value; ruin 损坏；糟蹋

2. give a child whatever it wants, or let them do what it wants, with the result that it behaves badly 庞坏，溺爱

nasty

a. unkind and unpleasant towards other people 凶恶的

chase

vt. follow rapidly in order to catch 追赶，追逐

deplore

vt. 哀叹，对…深感遗憾

whereas

conj.although; while 虽然；而

view

vt. consider; regard; think about 看待；考虑

liberal

a. willing to respect the ideas and feelings of others 开明的

gulp

vi. 喘不过气，哽住

follow-up

n. 紧接着的问题；后续事物

bungle

vt. do sth. badly 把…搞糟

mess

n. a state of disorder or confusion 凌乱，一团糟

dimension

n. characteristic; quality 特点，特性

pet

n. 1. (often derog.) a person treated with special favour, esp. in a way that seems unfair to others 得宠的人，宠儿

2. an animal kept by a person in the home as a companion 爱畜，宠物

merely

ad. only and nothing else 仅仅，只不过

presence

n. the fact or state of being present 存在；出席；到场

derivative

a. derived from sth. else; not original 被引申出的；派生的；缺乏独创性的；第二手的

buddy

n. a friend 好朋友，伙伴

tentatively

ad. hesitantly 犹豫地，迟疑不决地

venture

vt. take the risk of saying (sth. that may be opposed or considered foolish) 大胆说，不揣冒昧说出

confident

a. feeling or showing trust in oneself or one's ability 自信的；有信心的

impulsively

ad. 一时冲动地

hunk

n. a large piece of sth. that is cut from a whole（一）大片，（一）厚块

gum

n. 橡胶，口香糖

eraser

n. 橡皮；黑板擦

gum eraser

橡皮

gasp

vi. catch the breath suddenly, esp. because of surprise, shock, etc. 急促地吸气，倒抽一口气

creep(crept)

vi. move slowly and quietly with the body close to the ground 爬行，匍匐潜行

roar

vi. laugh long and loudly; laugh in a noisy way 大笑，狂笑

ice breaker

n. 破冰船；打破僵局的东西，使气氛开始活跃的言行

afterward(s)

ad. later; after that 后来；以后

legend

n. 传奇故事；传说

Phrases and Expressions

battle one's way

一路奋战

move in

begin to live in a new place 迁入，搬进

come of

result from 产生；是…的结果

ease in

（小心翼翼地）使逐步适应

go at

rush at 向…冲来

among other things

除了别的以外；其中

clean up

make clean or tidy 把…打扫干净；清理

day after day

continuously 日复一日地

by chance

by accident, accidentally 偶然，碰巧

Proper Names

Roger Wilkins

罗杰·威尔金斯（人名）

Dorothy Bean

多萝西·毕恩（人名）

Grand Rapids

大瀑布城（美国密执安州西南部城市）

密执安州（美国州名）

Jefferson

杰斐逊（1743 - 1826，美国第三任总统 [1801 - 1809]，《独立宣言》主要起草人）

Roosevelt， Franklin D.

富兰克林·D·罗斯福（1882 - 1945，美国第三十二任总统 [1933 - 1945]）

Yankees, the

（纽约）扬基队（美国职业棒球队）

Harlem

哈莱姆（美国纽约市的一个黑人居住区）

Louisiana

路易斯安那州（美国州名）

参考资料：

21世纪大学英语读写教程第一册 Unit07_大学教材听力 - 可可英语

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