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Big Challenges
\"Keep staring, I might do a trick\" That's the message on a T-shirt of mine. People stare at me all the time so I thought this shirt would be funny. See, I'm a dwarf.
dwarf n. 矮子、侏儒
Most of the time people aren't trying to be rude—they just haven't seen many dwarfs like me before. I can understand that. But I also want to let them know that I see them staring. Usually the T-shirt makes them laugh at themselves not at me.
I was born with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism. I have an average size torso but my arms and legs are shorter and my head is bigger than average.
achondroplasia n. 软骨发育不全 dwarfism n. 矮小、侏儒症
torso n. 人体的躯干
Right now I'm almost four feet tall and that's about as tall as I'm going to get. I'm not going to pretend that my height isn't a challenge. It is. Light switches and counters are usually too high for me. I can't reach some shelves in the grocery stores. It takes me three steps to keep up with one step of an average size adult. And my mom has to hem almost all of my pants.
switch n. 开关、电闸 grocery n. 杂货、食品 hem v. 缝…的褶边
But everyone faces challenges. You just have to face them with a good attitude. So I have a long barbecue fork to pull things down from pantry shelves. I'm a great climber and I can make a stool out of just about anything. I'll even be able to drive a car with the help of pedal extensions. If all else fails I ask for help.
barbecue n. 吃烧烤肉的野餐 pantry n. 食品室、餐具室 pedal n. 踏板
The way I see it I can do just about anything that an average size person can do. OK, so I'll never play professional sports but I have no problem testing my limits. I have to. For instance, everyone uses stoves. Little people just have to figure out how to use them in different ways. I use a stool to reach mine at home. It may take me longer and it may be harder but I can still do it. (to be continued)
中文：
“瞧着吧，我会有我的高招！” 这就是我的一件T恤衫上面写的东西。因为人们总爱盯着我瞧，所以我想这件T恤衫会让他们感觉很有意思。猜到了吧，我是一个小矮人。
大多数时候人们都不是有意表现出无礼——他们只不过以前很少看到过像我这样的矮人而已。我能理解这点，但仍想让他们知道我注意到他们在盯着我看。这件T恤就常常使他们自嘲起来，而不是笑话我。
我生来就患有软骨发育不全症，这是侏儒症最常见的一种。我的躯干大小和常人一样，但胳膊和腿都比常人短，脑袋也比常人大一些。
现在我差不多有四英尺高，但基本上不可能再高了。事实就是如此，我不能装作无视身高这个挑战。对我来说灯的开关和柜台常常太高了；在杂货店里有些货架我够不着；我要走上三步才能赶得上普通成人迈一步。妈妈不得不为我把几乎所有的裤子都缝上折边。
但每个人都会遇到挑战，我们必须用良好的心态去面对它们。所以我会用一个很长的烤肉叉把东西从食品室的架子上弄下来；我擅长攀爬，任何东西都能被我当作凳子来用。借助踏板延伸设施，我甚至还能开车。要是所有其他的努力都不管用，那我就会请求帮助了。
正是这种态度，使得普通人能做的我也一样能做到。是的，我将永远无法参加职业运动项目，但我总有办法测试我的极限——我不得不如此。例如人人都用炉子，我们小矮人就必须想出怎样用不同的方法来使用炉子（在家里我站在凳子上才能够到煤）。这可能会让我花更长的时间，做起来也更困难，但我总算能做到。（待续）
( To continue)
The hardest thing about being a dwarf is dealing with people's reactions. Sometimes people seem to think I'm invisible and they'll do stuff like cut in front of me in a line as if I'm not even there. And one time I was with about five of my dwarf friends and this woman wanted to take our picture. We said no, but she kept asking. It was like she thought we were street performers or something.
My average size friends will stick up for me like when there's a new kid at school who's making fun of me. If I'm with my dwarf friends mostly we just ignore the stares and the teasing. Sometimes we'll stare back—hard—and that usually embarrasses the person so much that the staring stops.
stick up for 为…辩护 teasing n. 戏弄、逗弄
Except for rude people I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable. So I don't mind some questions. Usually people want to know what to call a person with my condition. I tell them it's OK to refer to people like me as dwarfs or little people. Just don't call us midgets—it's an outdated term that offends us. I don't mind talking about dwarfism because that makes people see I'm a person just like them.
midget n. 侏儒 outdated adj. 过时的 offend v. 冒犯、使…不愉快
My T-shirt kind of does the same thing. It shows people the real me, a kid with a sense of humor. And maybe that's the real trick showing others that I'm just like them. I play sports and video games, I go to school and I hang out with my friends. I'm just shorter. I mean no one is exactly the same. We're all different in some way, so we should just accept each other's differences. And anyway I'm proud of who I am. Why would I want to change?(finished)
kind of 有几分
中文：
（续）身为矮人最难的事就是应对人们的一些反应。有时人们好像对我视而不见，在我面前显示他们的本领——比如站成一排挡住我的去路，好像我根本不在那儿。甚至有一次我和五个矮人朋友在一起时，有个女人还想给我们拍照！她不顾我们的反对一直要求，好像把我们当成了街头表演者之类的人了！
当学校里有新生作弄我的时候，我那些身高正常的朋友都会保护我。如果和矮人朋友在一起，我们大部分时候都不理会别人的注视和嘲弄。有时我们也会回以严厉的目光，这常常令那个人很尴尬而停止注视。
我不想弄得别人不愉快，除非他们表现得很粗鲁无礼，所以我并不介意人们提一些问题。通常人们想知道该怎么称呼像我这样的人，我就告诉他们叫我们矮子或小矮人都没关系，但是别叫侏儒，那可是个令我们恼怒的过时词汇。我也不介意谈论侏儒症，因为那会让人们明白我和他们一样也是人。
我的T恤衫也就有这方面的意思：它向人们展示真正的我——一个有幽默感的孩子。也许这才是我的真实用意：告诉人们我和他们没什么两样。我不仅运动、玩电子游戏、上学，还和朋友们一起闲逛。我只是矮了一点，我是说没有人同别人一模一样，人和人之间总有某些方面是不同的，所以我们应该接受彼此的不同之处。不管怎么样，我为自己感到自豪。既然这样，为什么还想着改变呢？（完） |
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发表于 2006-6-24 21:29:33