课文翻译 课后翻译在最后
There was just one problem: The University of Washington didn't have any grant money to give Priscilla. It offered her only a small loan and expected her family to come up with the rest. "My family was making enough money to get by, but not enough to pay that much for me to go to school," she said.
只有一个问题华盛顿大学没有为普丽西拉提供助学金。它只为她提供了一笔数目不大的贷款并要求她的家庭负担其余的费用。“我家挣的钱刚够全家生活但要花那么多钱供我上学却还不够”她说。
Priscilla called the financial-aid office for advice. They told her that prospective students seeking more financial aid are eligible only if they have lived apart from their parents for a minimum of two years. During that time, their parents cannot have claimed them as a dependent on the family's tax forms. "Hearing this, I was totally stunned," Priscilla recalls. "I realized I was going to have to take some time off, work, become financially independent from my parents, and then reapply to school. Postponing my dream hurt, but it was the only possibility."
普丽西拉打电话向经济资助办公室咨询。他们告诉她说未来的大学生要寻求更多的经济资助必须与父母分开生活至少两年才符合条件。在这期间他们的父母不能在家庭税单上称他们为被赡养人。“听到这话我完全惊呆了”普丽西拉回忆道“我意识到我必须抽出一些时间去工作在经济上不依靠父母然后重新申请入学。推迟实现我的梦想令人伤心但这是唯一的选择。”
Within a month, Priscilla had found a job at a restaurant and moved into a cheap apartment in a poor neighborhood of Seattle. She also signed up for a job-training program in the city, to learn to be a secretary. It was a hard lifestyle to adjust to. "I got up at 6 a.m. for a long commute to school, finished class at 2 p.m., started work at three, got off my shift at 11 p.m., and then I came back home and collapsed."
不到一个月普丽西拉就在一家餐馆找到了一份工作并搬到了西雅图贫民区一套低廉的公寓房去住。她还报名参加了城里的一个职业培训班学的是秘书专业。那是一种很难适应的生活方式。“我早上6点起床坐很长时间的公交车去学校下午2点下课3点开始工作 晚上11点下班然后回到家就累垮了。”
Priscilla soon found that her restaurant job just didn't pay enough for her to make ends meet. "So I went to the landlord of my apartment building and asked if there was any cleaning work I could do. Since he felt sorry for me, he agreed to give me thirty hours a month."
普丽西拉不久就发现她在餐馆的那份工作的收入还不够她维持生计。“于是我找到我那幢公寓楼的楼主问有没有什么清洁工作可以让我做。他因为同情我便同意让我每月工作30个小时。”
The job-training program was designed to last six months. Priscilla finished it in four. "They taught me various office skills and word-processing programs. I also learned to answer the phone in an office setting, and write proper business letters," she said. The program helped Priscilla find employment as a secretary with a small company. "It was my first decent job," she says. "I was nineteen years old, living on my own, and making $15,000 a year."
职业培训班按计划要历时6个月。但普丽西拉只用了4个月就读完了。“他们教我各种办公技能和文字处理程序。我还学会了如何在办公室环境里接电话以及如何撰写得体的商业函件”她说。培训班帮普丽西拉在一家小公司找到了一份秘书工作。“这是我第一份像样的工作”她说。“我那时19岁独立生活每年挣15000美元。”
Priscilla reapplied to the University of Washington and was accepted. She qualified for financial aid because she had been independent from her parents for more than two years. As of the fall of 1990, Priscilla was finally a college student — working full-time during the day as a secretary and going to school full-time at night.
