瓊·哈珀的夢想

湖北省武漢市胡楊供稿

In 1959,when Jean Harper was in the third grade,her teacher gave the class an assignment1to write a report on what they wanted to be when they grew up.

1959年，瓊·哈珀上三年級的時候，有一次，老師給全班同學布置了一篇作文，讓大家寫一寫自己長大以后想干什么。

Jean’s father was a crop duster2pilot in the little farming community in Northern California where she was raised,and Jean was very interested in airplanes and flying.She poured her heart into her report and included all of her dreams.She wanted to crop dust,make parachute3jumps,and be an airline pilot.Her paper came back with an“F”on it.The teacher told her it was a“fairytale4”and that none of the occupations5she listed were women’s jobs.Jean was heartbroken and humiliated6.

那時候瓊的父親是北加利福尼亞農(nóng)場小區(qū)的一名給作物噴灑農(nóng)藥的飛機駕駛員。瓊就是在那里長大的，所以，一直以來瓊就非常癡迷于飛機和飛行。對于老師布置的這篇作文，瓊全神傾注地去寫，把她所有的夢想都寫進去了：她想駕駛著飛機給作物噴灑農(nóng)藥，她想去跳傘，她想成為一名飛行員?？墒?，最后，她的這篇作文卻只得了一個“F”(failure是“不及格”的意思)。老師告訴她那是一篇“童話”，因為她所列舉的工作沒有一項是女人能夠勝任的。瓊聽了之后傷心透了，并且感到了恥辱。

One day in her senior year of high school,her English teacher Mrs.Dorothy Slaton gave the class an assignment.“If you had unlimited7money,unlimited access8to the finest schools, unlimited talents and abilities,what would you do?”Jean felt a rush of her old enthusiasm9,and with excitement she wrote down all her old dreams.

在瓊高中最后一年的某天，她的英語老師——多蘿西·斯萊頓夫人給全班同學布置了一篇作業(yè)：“同學們，如果你們有足夠的金錢，有充分的機會到最好的學校去上學，并且你們本身又具有足夠的天賦和才能，那么，你們將會干什么呢？”瓊的心中涌起了以往的熱情，帶著激動的心情，她把多年前的夢想全都寫了下來。

The next thing that Mrs.Slaton said changed Jean’s life.The teacher leaned10forward over her desk and said,“You do have unlimited abilities and talents.When you leave school,if you don’t go for your dreams,no one will do it for you.You can have what you want if you want it enough.”

斯萊頓夫人接下來說的一番話改變了瓊的人生。她在講臺前稍稍俯身對同學們說：“你們每一個人的確都有足夠的才能和天賦。當你們離開學校之后，如果自己不去追求夢想，那么，沒有人會幫你去實現(xiàn)你自己的夢想。只要你們有強烈的愿望并且去努力，就能夠?qū)崿F(xiàn)你的夢想?！?/p>

The hurt and fear of years of discouragement11went away because of what Mrs.Slaton had said.Jean felt excited and a little scared.She stayed after class and went up to the teacher’s desk.Jean thanked Mrs.Slaton and told her about her dream of becoming a pilot.Mrs.Slaton started to get to her feet and hit the desk.“Then do it!”she said.

多年來的沮喪以及氣餒帶給她的傷害和畏懼，在斯萊頓夫人這番話之后消失了。瓊感到振奮，也有一點害怕。下課之后，她留下來走到講臺前，感謝斯萊頓夫人，并且告訴斯萊頓夫人她的夢想是成為一名飛行員。斯萊頓夫人隨即站了起來，拍了一下桌子，說：“那就努力去實現(xiàn)它！”

So Jean did.It didn’t happen overnight.It took her l0 years of hard work.It wasn’t in Jean’s nature to stand up for herself when someone refused or laughed at her.Instead,she would quietly try to find another way.

瓊這樣做了，但這不是一朝一夕能實現(xiàn)的。瓊為之苦苦奮斗了10年。在這10年里，有人反對或羞辱她時，瓊本性是不愿默默忍受的，然而她卻悄悄地努力尋求另外的門路。

She became a private pilot and then flew planes as a copilot12.In 1978,she became one of the first three female pilot trainees13ever accepted by United Airlines and one of only 50 women airline pilots in the nation at the time.Some years later,Jean Harper became a Boeing 737 captain for United Airlines.

終于，她成了一名私人飛機的駕駛員，之后還成為了一名客機副駕駛。1978年，她成為聯(lián)合航空公司首批錄取的三位女性實習飛行員之一，而當時，整個美國也只有50名女性飛行員。幾年后，瓊·哈珀成為了聯(lián)合航空公司波音737客機的機長。

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