美国第一夫人教我们如何择校

在美国最新一期的杂志Seventeen的访谈中，the first lady分享了一些她给自己女儿们的择校意见。采访中她指出，不愿让女儿纠结名校title，一定要选择适合自己发展的高校。虽然有很多网友吐槽，比如Michelle Obama本身就是出自常青藤名校(1985年毕业于普林斯顿，又于1988年获得了哈佛大学法律博士学位)，不过这位第一夫人的择校观确实值得我们“挤破头也要冲名校”的中国家长借鉴。而且站在英语学习者的角度，奥巴马及其夫人的演讲或访谈，用词精准地道，用“小词”表达“大智慧”，必须拿来一学哦!

When it comes to picking the right college, Michelle Obama’s No. 1 guideline is: you do you.

我们的家长们，很少有放手让孩子们“做自己”的勇气啊!

“The one thing I’ve been telling my daughters is that I don’t want them to choose a name,” she says. “I don’t want them to think, ‘Oh, I should go to these top schools.’ We live in a country where there are thousands of amazing universities. So, the question is: What’s going to work for you?”

【name】: a reputation that somebody/ something has; the opinion that people have about somebody/ something. 名声，名气。例如：

She first made her name as a writer of children’s books.

The college has a good name for languages.

This kind of behavior gives students a bad name.

【work】: to have the result or effect that you want. 例如：

The pills the doctor gave me aren’t working.

My plan worked, and I got them to agree.

His charm doesn’t work on me (= does not affect or impress me).

“When it was time for me to apply to colleges there were some counselors who said, ‘Maybe, with Princeton, you’re reaching a little high,’ ”she recalls. “And I thought, ‘You really don’t think I can do it?’ ”

【apply to】很多孩子问“填报志愿”怎么翻译，不要考虑直译，说成“申请学校”就可以了(apply to a university)。

“But here’s what I did: I decided to ignore the doubters. I plunged ahead and I got in. I went on to Harvard Law School and every step of the way I used those doubting voices as motivation.”

【get in】: to be admitted to a school, university, etc. 被录取，例如：

She’s got into Harvard to study law.

“One piece of advice that I’ve given her is not to stress too much about having to get into one particular college,” Obama previously said. “There are a lot of good colleges and universities out there, and it’s important, I think, for everybody here to understand you can find a college or university that gives you a great education. Just because it’s not some name-brand, famous, fancy school doesn’t mean that you’re not going to get a great education there. So one is, lower the stress levels in terms of just having to get into one particular school."

【Just because… doesn’t mean…】: 虽然… 但并不表示… 例如：

Just because you’re older than me doesn’t mean you know everything.

所以，大家看，用小学初中学过的词，照样可以把语言说的高大上嘛!无论在日常交流，还是口语考试，都要注意语言的地道性，而这些新闻里的素材就是我们绝佳的学习资料哦!