2012年高考英语北京卷 - 阅读理解B

Peanuts to This

从花生到这

Proudly reading my words, I glanced around the room, only to find my classmates bearing big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes. Confused, I glanced toward my stone-faced teacher．Having no choice, I slowly raised the report I had slaved over, hoping to hide myself．“What could be causing everyone to act this way?”

我自豪地读着我的文章，环视了一下教室，同学们笑得眼泪都要流出来了。我困惑地朝我那面无表情的老师看了一眼。我别无选择，缓缓地举起我费尽心机写的报告，希望能找个地方把自己给藏起来。“大家这是怎么了？”

Quickly, I flashed back to the day Miss Lancelot gave me the task. This was the first real talk I received in my new school. It seemed simple: go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington. Since my idea of history came from an ancient teacher in my home country, I had never heard of that name before. As I searched the name of this fellow, it became evident that there were two people bearing the same name who looked completely different! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts, while the other led some sort of army across America. I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant. I called my grandfather for a golden piece of advice; flip a coin. Heads－the commander, and tails－the peanuts guy. Ah! Tails, my report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver．

我快速回想起兰斯洛特小姐给我分配任务的那天，这是我在新学校里第一次真正的演讲。看起来很简单：上网查找一个名叫乔治·华盛顿的人的资料。由于我对历史的认识来自我家乡的一位年长老师，我以前从未听说过这个名字。当我搜索这个人的名字时，很明显，有两个同名的人看起来完全不同！其中一个发明了数百种花生的用途，而另一个则带领着一支军队横扫美国。我盯着屏幕，想知道我的老师指的是哪一种。我打电话给我爷爷，他让我掷硬币。正面——指挥官，反面——花生人。啊！我的报告是关于发明花生酱的伟人乔治·华盛顿·卡弗的。

Weeks later, standing before this unfriendly class, I was totally lost. Oh well, I lowered the paper and sat down at my desk, burning to find out what I had done wrong. As a classmate began his report, it all became clear，“My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American Revolution.” The whole world became quiet! How could I know that she meant that George Washington?

几周后，站在这个不友好的班级面前，我完全不知所措。哦，好吧，我放下报纸，坐在课桌前，急切地想知道我做错了什么。当一位同学开始他的报告时，一切都变得清晰起来，“我的报告是关于乔治·华盛顿的，他是美国革命的先驱。”整个世界都安静了！我怎么知道老师指的是乔治·华盛顿？

Obviously, my grade was awful．Heartbroken but fearless, I decided to turn this around．I talked to Miss Lancelot, but she insisted：No re-dos; no new grade．I felt that the punishment was not justified, and I believed I deserved a second chance．Consequently, I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year．Ten months later, that chance unfolded as I found myself sitting in the headmaster's office with my grandfather, now having an entirely different conversation．I smiled and flashed back to the embarrassing moment at the beginning of the year as the headmaster informed me of my option to skip the sixth grade．Justice is sweet!

显然，我的成绩很糟糕。心碎但无所畏惧，我决定扭转局面。我和兰斯洛特小姐谈过，但她坚持说：不要再来了；分数不会改。我觉得惩罚是不合理的，我认为我应该得到第二次机会。因此，我在学年剩下的时间里全力以赴地投入到学习中。十个月后，当我发现自己和祖父坐在校长办公室时，这个机会开始了，现在有了一个完全不同的对话。我笑了笑，回忆飞速定格到了年初校长通知我选择跳过六年级的那个尴尬时刻。公平是甜蜜的！