2007年NPR美国国家公共电台五月-Inner Strength from Desperate Times

This is weekend edition from NPR news, I'm Liane Hansen.

I believe in mystery.
I believe in family.
I believe in being who I am.
I believe in the power of failure.
And I believe normal life is extraordinary.
This I Believe.

Today This I Believe, the highly regarded series based on the famed broadcasts by Edward R. Murrow in the 1950s begins its 3rd season. We want to welcome the series to weekend edition where every other week you will hear essays from Americans from all walks of life, some famous, some not, but all with something to say. We also want to encourage you to send in your essays for consideration. The host and curator of the series Jay Allison joins us from member station WCAI in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Welcome to the show Jay.

It's great to be here, Liane.

Really nice to have you. I understand the first essay we are going to hear today is actually from a high school student. Do you get a lot of submissions¹ from school kids?

We do. We've had about 28 thousand submissions in all today from every kind of person, all ages and professions and parts of the world. Of those over 8 thousand of them or about 30% are from kids under 18.

Wow, that's a really high percentage. Did these essays come from all over the country?

They do. Teachers from all 50 states and D. C. and more than 40 countries have downloaded the curriculum² which we have at the website at NPR.org. And the project's been used in classrooms from elementary school all the way to graduate school, we've heard of it being used in English class, psychology³, history, English as the second language, even art and band class. And we are pleased about that, but we feel like we should apologize to the students of the world for the extra work. And in fairness we find their teachers often feel compelled to write essays to, I, I brought a little collage⁴ from a trip we made to Eastern Boston High School last month where a class of 50 kids all wrote essays for the series.

I believe that having responsibility is not a joke.
I believe that being a teen mom is difficult.
I believe that words have power.
I believe that the choices you make now will affect your future.
I believe in living on the edge and taking chances.
I believe that people with mental disabilities are just like everybody else.
I believe mothers deserve the worlds.
And I believe that it's not your age that makes you knowledgeable⁵, it's what you've been through what you learn from it.

Wow. Are there any themes particularly that actually come across regularly in these kids' essays?

Well, fittingly⁶, when we recorded it up in East Boston, a lot of the essays were about mothers, they were in praise of mothers, or about the experience of being a mother or remembering the lessons that their mothers teach.

And we have one of those essays today which is appropriate, because it is Mothers' Day. It tells us a little bit about it.

It's an essay from a student some distance from East Boston. It's from Jake Hovenden. He's a junior at West Valley High School in Fairbanks, Alaska. His English class assigned This I Believe. And he actually turned in his essay late 'coz he was trying to write about a traumatic event in his family, but he couldn't figure out what belief he'd, derived⁷ from it. And then he realized that was right next to him. So, here's Jay Hovenden with his essay for This I Believe.

Only a handful of people know this about me, but five years ago my father died of amyotrophic lateral⁸ sclerosis, or ALS. This is a fatal disease that literally⁹ eats away at a person's muscles until they cannot walk, talk or even breathe. It was a life-changing experience, but I can't really say that I developed any defining¹⁰ beliefs from it. Rather the whole thing just really confused me on what to believe. But this essay is not about my experience of my father's passing. It's about my stepmother.

I believe in inner strength. It was my stepmother, Janey Hovenden, who really had the hardest time when my father was suffering from ALS. For three years she juggled¹¹ work, my dad and me, with virtually no breaks. But she never gave up. Every day, right after she got home from work, she would cook dinner for us. She'd have to feed my father because ALS made it. So, he was incapable¹² of feeding himself. During the nights, my stepmother would stay up with my dad to make sure he wouldn't suffocate¹³ while he slept. She'd stay up and comfort him, even though she had to work early the next morning. Janey even fought past her fear of needles, in order to treat my dad at home because the last thing he wanted was to lie in a hospital bed during his final days.

My dad was a proud man and didn't want people to see him when he was wasting away. But Janey went against his wishes and invited old friends over to say their final goodbyes. Although he didn't want to admit it, my dad cherished¹⁴ every visit. I really hadn't appreciated what my stepmother had done before, but looking back, I realize how much she did for my dad. She kept him alive as long as she could, almost single-handedly.

Today, Janey is doing well and still taking care of me just as well as she took care of me and my dad when he was sick. Before my dad passed on, he told Janey that she would have to be my father figure. And though she isn't my dad, she is the next best thing. She jokes around with me about it. Even though I live mostly with my mom, I still look to see Janey once a week and she has helped me immensely in getting through this. And I think I help her, too. She says I remind her of Dad, and spending time with me, and cooking dinner for me helps her remember.

I believe that inner strength emerges¹⁵ when times are desperate. I believe people sometimes refuse to give up, and they help others no matter the personal cost. My stepmother proved that to me.

That was 17-year-old Jay Hovenden in Fairbanks Alaska. But Liane, we invite all comers to submit essays to the series, and at the website, eh, teachers can find a free curriculum guide. You can get it at NPR.org/thisibelieve, and click on For Educators. And of course, you don't have to be a student, you can just step up and do it voluntarily at the website NPR.org.

And once again, the essays will be heard here every other week. And Jay, I can tell you we're thrilled to have This I Believe as part of weekend edition. Thanks.

Oh, thank you Liane. We're really looking forward to it.

Support for This I Believe comes from prudential retirement¹⁶.

1 submissions   

n.提交( submission的名词复数 )；屈从；归顺；向法官或陪审团提出的意见或论据

参考例句：

• The deadline for submissions to the competition will be Easter 1994. 递交参赛申请的截止时间为1994年的复活节。 来自辞典例句
• Section 556(d) allows the agency to substitute written submissions for oral direct testimony in rulemaking. 第五百五十六条第（四）款准允行政机关在规则制定中用书面提交材料替代口头的直接证言。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法

2 curriculum   

n.课程，（学校等的）全部课程

参考例句：

• Is German on your school's curriculum?你们学校有德语课吗？
• The English curriculum should stress both composition and reading.英语课程对作文和阅读应同样重视。

3 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

4 collage   

n.拼贴画；v.拼贴；把……创作成拼贴画

参考例句：

• A collage of coloured paper covers a table top.一副彩纸拼贴画盖在桌面上。
• He has used a mixture of mosaic,collage and felt-tip pen.他混合使用了马赛克、拼贴画和毡头笔。

5 knowledgeable   

adj.知识渊博的；有见识的

参考例句：

• He's quite knowledgeable about the theatre.他对戏剧很有心得。
• He made some knowledgeable remarks at the meeting.他在会上的发言颇有见地。

6 fittingly   

adv.适当地

参考例句：

• The report is being fittingly delivered on Earth Day. 在地球日提出这一报告再合适不过了。
• She lives, fittingly enough, in a gated French chateau in Beverly Hills. 斯通还在贝佛利山上有一栋豪华的法式城堡。

7 derived   

vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取

参考例句：

• Many English words are derived from Latin and Greek. 英语很多词源出于拉丁文和希腊文。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He derived his enthusiasm for literature from his father. 他对文学的爱好是受他父亲的影响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 lateral   

adj.侧面的，旁边的

参考例句：

• An airfoil that controls lateral motion.能够控制横向飞行的机翼。
• Mr.Dawson walked into the court from a lateral door.道森先生从一个侧面的门走进法庭。

9 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

10 defining   

规定( define的现在分词 )； 使明确； 精确地解释； 画出…的线条

参考例句：

• You can customise the behavior of the Asynchronous Server and hence re-brand it by defining your own command set for invoking services. 通过定义自己调用服务的命令集，您可以定制自定义异步服务器的行为，通过为调用服务定义自己的命令集从而对它重新标记。
• This point can be put another way in defining poverty. 这一点还能从另一方面来加以说明以佐证贫困的涵义。 来自英汉非文学 - 新闻报道

11 juggled   

v.歪曲( juggle的过去式和过去分词 )；耍弄；有效地组织；尽力同时应付（两个或两个以上的重要工作或活动）

参考例句：

• He juggled the company's accounts to show a profit. 为了表明公司赢利，他篡改了公司的账目。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The juggler juggled three bottles. 这个玩杂耍的人可同时抛接3个瓶子。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 incapable   

adj.无能力的，不能做某事的

参考例句：

• He would be incapable of committing such a cruel deed.他不会做出这么残忍的事。
• Computers are incapable of creative thought.计算机不会创造性地思维。

13 suffocate   

vt.使窒息，使缺氧，阻碍；vi.窒息，窒息而亡，阻碍发展

参考例句：

• If you shut all the windows,I will suffocate.如果你把窗户全部关起来，我就会闷死。
• The stale air made us suffocate.浑浊的空气使我们感到窒息。

14 cherished   

v.珍爱( cherish的过去式和过去分词 )；怀有；爱护；抚育

参考例句：

• Children need to be cherished. 儿童需要无微不至的爱护。
• She cherished a deep resentment under the rose towards her employer. 她暗中对她的雇主怀恨在心。 来自《简明英汉词典》

15 emerges   

v.出现( emerge的第三人称单数 )；露头；形成；事实

参考例句：

• Language emerges and develops with the emergence and development of society. 语言是随着社会的产生而产生，随着社会的发展而发展的。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The man emerges from water. 那个人露出水面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

16 retirement   

n.退休，退职

参考例句：

• She wanted to enjoy her retirement without being beset by financial worries.她想享受退休生活而不必为金钱担忧。
• I have to put everything away for my retirement.我必须把一切都积蓄起来以便退休后用。