美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Mommy, You Can Do That': Navigating Work-Life Balance Thousands Of Miles From Home

 

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

It's time now for StoryCorps. Zoe Courville and Lora Koenig first met in the middle of an ice sheet in Greenland. They are scientists, and their work takes them to the most remote parts of the world. They spend weeks at a time studying the impact¹ of climate change. At StoryCorps, they talked about their friendship and balancing work and family.

LORA KOENIG: I remember the first time my son said, Mom, are you taking your big bag or your little bag? And that was his question of, how long are you going to be gone for?

ZOE COURVILLE: Yeah.

KOENIG: I had gotten my first grant². I went to the field. I cried the whole plane ride when I left. And I missed his first Christmas. But when I got back, he snuggled right in.

COURVILLE: I had my son in 2011. So you were the pioneer, and I had to ask you a lot of questions. The biggest question I had was if your son remembered you when you came back after being gone.

KOENIG: When you asked me that, I remember thinking I didn't necessarily³ have good advice. We're scientists. We want data. And we don't have that.

COURVILLE: When I did get back home, my son didn't recognize me. He sort of recoiled⁴ when I went to go have my imagined moment of us running into each other's arms. You know, I wondered if I had done the right thing.

KOENIG: Yeah.

COURVILLE: I had one instance⁵ that I still sort of struggle with. Someone I respect as a scientist immensely - unsolicited, he said to me, you know, I was in the field a lot. And I was always grateful that my wife stayed home with the kids because kids need their mothers. He very pointedly⁶ wanted to let me know that he felt that that was very important. But kids also need their fathers. And you don't hear that a lot.

KOENIG: Yeah. I think I'm a better scientist because I'm a mother because I work harder in the field. If I'm away from my children, there is an extra weight that I have to do even better.

COURVILLE: Just recently, I wanted to do an extra trip to the South Pole. And the way I had phrased it to my husband was, you know, honey, they might need someone to go to the South Pole to drill some ice cores⁷. And my son actually piped up and he said, Mommy, you can do that. And so there was a moment where I felt like things would be OK, that my son actually understands what I do is important and is kind of proud of me.

(SOUNDBITE OF PULLMAN'S "WIRE AND ONE GOOD SHOE")

MARTIN: That was Dr. Zoe Courville and Dr. Lora Koenig at StoryCorps. Their conversation will be archived along with the quarter million other StoryCorps interviews at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress⁸.

1 impact   

n.冲击，碰撞；影响；vt.装紧，压紧

参考例句：

• The computer had made a great impact on modern life.计算机对现代生活产生了巨大的影响.
• How will the war impact on such a poet?战争对这样一个诗人会产生什么影响？

2 grant   

vt.同意给予，授予，承认；n.拨款；补助款

参考例句：

• If you grant my request, you will earn my thanks.如果你答应我的要求，就会得到我的感谢。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

3 necessarily   

adv.必要地，必需地；必定地，必然地

参考例句：

• More work does not necessarily call for more men.增加工作量不一定就要增添人员。
• A voter must necessarily be no younger than eighteen.选民必须在18岁以上。

4 recoiled   

v.畏缩( recoil的过去式和过去分词 )；退缩；报应；返回

参考例句：

• She recoiled from his touch. 她躲开他的触摸。
• Howard recoiled a little at the sharpness in my voice. 听到我的尖声，霍华德往后缩了一下。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 instance   

n.例，例证，实例

参考例句：

• Can you quote me a recent instance?你能给我举一个最近的例子吗？
• He's a greedy boy,yesterday,for instance,he ate all our biscuits!他是个贪吃的孩子――比如，他昨天把我们的饼干都吃了！

6 pointedly   

adv.尖地，明显地

参考例句：

• She yawned and looked pointedly at her watch. 她打了个哈欠，又刻意地看了看手表。
• The demand for an apology was pointedly refused. 让对方道歉的要求遭到了断然拒绝。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 cores   

n.果核( core的名词复数 )；核心；[地质学]地核；[亦称作 magnetic core][电学]铁心（构成电磁铁、感应线圈、变压器等物内部之铁质物）

参考例句：

• Quasars are the highly energetic cores of distant galaxies. 类星体是遥远星系的极为活跃的核心体。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• In the meantime the protoplanet cores were proceeding to consolidate. 在此期间，原行星的核开始凝成。 来自辞典例句

8 Congress   

n.(代表)大会；(C-:美国等国的)国会，议会

参考例句：

• There were some days to wait before the Congress.大会的召开还有几天时间。
• After 18 years in Congress,he intented to return to private life.在国会供职18年后，他打算告老还乡。