2006年NPR美国国家公共电台一月-My Father Worked the Mines

Marcos Mcpeek Villatoro: My father worked in the coal mines of Kentucky. It was his last job before he retired¹. After a life moving from one mechanic's shop job to another, this was a real job, said the friend who offered it to him. Sure, it was risky², but you couldn't beat the paycheck, $17,000 a year. Our family had never heard of such money. My parents had plans for it. They wanted their son to get a good education, maybe even go to college. That took money, so Dad went to the mines and I went to private school.

Marcos Mcpeek Villatoro: In the summer break, I would go home to Turkey Creek³, Kentucky, where the mountains were so steep and close together, you'd swear the sun never peeked⁴ into the valley until noon. 'You think this is cramped,' he said. 'You should see the shaft⁵.' I never did, but I did see my dad. I watched how, though he bathed everyday, parts of his body were always stained black, his fingers, for instance. The coal dust hung in his prints and fingernails. Even as a teenager, I recognized in Kentucky mining towns then what I would later see in poor countries throughout Central and South America—illiteracy, shack⁶ houses, rickets⁷. Even with all those great mining jobs, poverty dwelt deep. They couldn't let me go down into the mine, but I could hang out at the opening. I watched Dad go down that shaft and cried, for he had told me stories of the three men he had seen killed in accidents. One of them, a boy, 4 years older than me. And now Dad was going down there. I wanted to yell out, 'Forget this. Let's go home, back to Tennessee. I can go to the local school. Let's just get out of here.' But he didn't. He stayed even after I graduated from high school.

Marcos Mcpeek Villatoro: Dad was able to do what so many struggling working-class fathers want to do--get his kid out, out of Dad's life. 'Don't crawl into the shaft bucket, son. Sit behind a desk.' And now I do, but at my desk today, I sit thinking about those miners who died in West Virginia and the awful dull grief that their families must feel. I feel, again, that guilty ambivalence⁸ toward these mines that enrich lives and also take them. At my desk, I read a book and turn its pages. I notice that none of my fingers are stained black.

Note------------
illiteracy:someone who is illiterate, who has not learned to read or write; 文盲

1 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

2 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

3 creek   

n.小溪，小河，小湾

参考例句：

• He sprang through the creek.他跳过小河。
• People sunbathe in the nude on the rocks above the creek.人们在露出小溪的岩石上裸体晒日光浴。

4 peeked   

v.很快地看( peek的过去式和过去分词 )；偷看；窥视；微露出

参考例句：

• She peeked over the top of her menu. 她从菜单上往外偷看。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• On two occasions she had peeked at him through a crack in the wall. 她曾两次透过墙缝窥视他。 来自辞典例句

5 shaft   

n.(工具的)柄，杆状物

参考例句：

• He was wounded by a shaft.他被箭击中受伤。
• This is the shaft of a steam engine.这是一个蒸汽机主轴。

6 shack   

adj.简陋的小屋，窝棚

参考例句：

• He had to sit down five times before he reached his shack.在走到他的茅棚以前，他不得不坐在地上歇了五次。
• The boys made a shack out of the old boards in the backyard.男孩们在后院用旧木板盖起一间小木屋。

7 rickets   

n.软骨病，佝偻病，驼背

参考例句：

• A diet deficient in vitamin D may cause the disease rickets.缺少维生素D的饮食可能导致软骨病。
• It also appears to do more than just protect against rickets.除了防止软骨病，它还有更多的功能。

8 ambivalence   

n.矛盾心理

参考例句：

• She viewed her daughter's education with ambivalence.她看待女儿的教育问题态度矛盾。
• She felt a certain ambivalence towards him.她对他的态度有些矛盾。