向前一步:第173期 全能女人是个神话(6)

 I was pretty sure I knew what they were. 我很肯定是虱子。

I was the only person bringing young children on this corporate¹ plane — and now my daughter most likely had lice! 这架商务机里就我带着小孩子，而现在我女儿身上有虱子。

I spent the rest of the flight in a complete panic, 接下来这一路伴随我陷入了无尽的恐慌。

trying to keep her isolated², her voice down, and her hands out of her hair, while I furiously scanned the web for pictures of lice. 我想方设法把她和别人隔离开，让她小声说话，不让她抓头，同时上网疯狂搜索治疗虱子的方法。

When we landed, everyone piled into rental³ cars to caravan⁴ to the conference hotel, but I told them to go ahead without me; I just needed to "pick something up." 飞机着陆以后，每个人都坐上了出租车陆续去往开会的酒店。我让他们先走，因为我需要“拿点东西”。

I dashed to the nearest pharmacy⁵, where they confirmed my diagnosis⁶. 我冲到最近的药店，医师证实了我的判断。

Fortunately, we had avoided direct contact with anyone else on the plane, so there was no way for the lice to have spread, 幸运的是，在飞机上我成功地避免了任何人和我女儿有直接接触，所以虱子没有扩散，

which saved me from the fatal embarrassment⁷ of having to tell the group to check their own heads. 我也就不用尴尬地请其他人察看自己头上有没有虱子。

We grabbed the shampoo that I needed to treat her and, as it turned out, her brother — and spent the night in a marathon hair-washing session. 我抓起有治疗效果的洗发水，一晚上都在房间里给女儿和她哥哥洗头。

I missed the opening night dinner, and when asked why, I said my kids were tired. Frankly⁸, I was too. 当晚，我没去参加会议的开场晚宴，有人问起时，我回答说孩子们太累了。说实话，我也很累。

And even though I managed to escape the lice, I could not stop scratching my head for several days. 而且，就算我想尽办法避免被传染上虱子，我也还是挠了几天的头。

It is impossible to control all the variables when it comes to parenting. 当你做父母时，真的没办法控制住所有的变量。

For women who have achieved previous success by planning ahead and pushing themselves hard, this chaos⁹ can be difficult to accept. 那些善于提前规划、努力进取获得成功的女性，她们在成为母亲后通常很难接受生活突如其来的混乱。

 

1 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。

2 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

3 rental   

n.租赁，出租，出租业

参考例句：

• The yearly rental of her house is 2400 yuan.她这房子年租金是2400元。
• We can organise car rental from Chicago O'Hare Airport.我们可以安排提供从芝加哥奥黑尔机场出发的租车服务。

4 caravan   

n.大蓬车；活动房屋

参考例句：

• The community adviser gave us a caravan to live in.社区顾问给了我们一间活动住房栖身。
• Geoff connected the caravan to the car.杰弗把旅行用的住屋拖车挂在汽车上。

5 pharmacy   

n.药房，药剂学，制药业，配药业，一批备用药品

参考例句：

• She works at the pharmacy.她在药房工作。
• Modern pharmacy has solved the problem of sleeplessness.现代制药学已经解决了失眠问题。

6 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

7 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。

8 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

9 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。