a lady named lill-凯发k8官网

a lady named lill
文章来源:未知 文章作者:enread 发布时间:2012-06-19 05:15 字体: [ ] 
(单词翻译:双击或拖选)

lillian was a young french canadian girl who grew up in the farming community of river 1, ontario. at the age of 16, her father thought "lill has had enough schooling," and she was forced to drop out of school to contribute to the family income. in 1922, with english as her second language and limited education and skills, the future didn't look bright for lill. 

her father, eugene bezaire, was a 2(严厉的) man who rarely took no for an answer and never accepted excuses. he demanded that lill find a job. but her limitations left her with little confidence and low self-esteem, and she didn't know what work she could do.

with small hope of gaining employment, she would still ride the bus daily into the "big cities" of windsor or detroit. but she couldn't 3(召集) the courage to respond to a help wanted9 ad; she couldn't even bring herself to knock on a door. each day she would just ride to the city, walk aimlessly about and at dusk return home. her father would ask, "any luck today, lill?"  "no ... no luck today, dad,"she would respond 4.

as the days passed, lill continued to ride and her father continued to ask about her job-hunting. the questions became more demanding, and lill knew she would soon have to knock on a door.

on one of her trips, lill saw a sign at the carhartt overall company in downtown detroit. "help wanted,"the sign said, "secretarial. apply within."she walked up the long flight of stairs to the carhartt company offices. 5, lill knocked on her very first door. she was met by the office manager, margaret costello. in her broken english, lill told her she was interested in the secretarial position, falsely stating that she was 19. margaret knew something wasn't right, but 6 to give the girl a chance. she guided lill through the old business office of the carhartt company. with rows and rows of people seated at rows and rows of typewriters and adding machines, lill felt as if a hundred pairs of eyes were staring at her. with her chin13 on her chest and her eyes staring down, the reluctant farm girl followed margaret to the back of the 7 room.

margaret sat her down at a typewriter and said, "lill, let's see how good you really are."she directed lill to type a single letter, and then left. lill looked at the clock and saw that it was 11:40 a.m. everyone would be leaving for lunch at noon. she figured that she could slip away in the crowd then. but she knew she should at least attempt the letter.

on her first try, she got through one line. it had five words, and she made four mistakes. she pulled the paper out and threw it away. the clock now read 11:45. "at noon,"she said to herself, "i'll move out with the crowd, and they will never see me again."

on her second attempt, lill got through a full paragraph, but still made many mistakes. again she pulled out the paper, threw it out and started over. this time she completed the letter, but her work was still strewn(撒满的) with errors. she looked at the clock: 11:55 — five minutes to freedom.

just then, the door at one end of the office opened and margaret walked in. she came directly over to lill, putting one hand on the desk and the other on the girl's shoulder. she read the letter and paused. then she said, "lill, you're doing good work!"

lill was 8. she looked at the letter, then up at margaret. with those simple words of encouragement, her desire to escape vanished and her confidence began to grow. she thought, "well, if she thinks it's good, then it must be good. i think i'll stay!"

lill did stay at carhartt overall company...for 51 years, through two world wars and a depression, through 11 presidents and six prime ministers — all because someone had the 9 to give a shy and uncertain young girl the gift of self-esteem when she knocked on the door.



点击收听单词发音收听单词发音  

1 vt9yi     
n.虚报;谣言;v.流传
参考例句:
  • that canard was proved to be true later.那谣言后来被证明是真的。
  • the story itself was a canard deliberately invented by the armenians.这个传闻本身就是亚美尼亚人有意虚构的谎报。
2 4guz6     
adj.严厉的,严格的,严峻的;n.船尾
参考例句:
  • the ship was in a blaze from stem to stern.整艘船从头到尾都着火了。
  • the headmaster ruled the school with a stern discipline.校长治校严谨。
3 i6czt     
v.集合,收集,鼓起,激起;n.集合,检阅,集合人员,点名册
参考例句:
  • go and muster all the men you can find.去集合所有你能找到的人。
  • i had to muster my courage up to ask him that question.我必须鼓起勇气向他问那个问题。
4 meekly     
adv.温顺地,逆来顺受地
参考例句:
  • he stood aside meekly when the new policy was proposed. 当有人提出新政策时,他唯唯诺诺地站 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • he meekly accepted the rebuke. 他顺从地接受了批评。 来自《简明英汉词典》
5 2w5zrw     
adv.小心地,谨慎地;小心翼翼;翼翼
参考例句:
  • she walked cautiously up the drive towards the door. 她小心翼翼地沿着车道向门口走去。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • foreign bankers and economists cautiously welcomed the minister's initiative. 外国银行家和经济学家对部长的倡议反应谨慎。 来自《简明英汉词典》
6 lvqzzd     
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
参考例句:
  • this gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • there is a decided difference between british and chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
7 dfmz7     
adj.昏暗的,阴天的,阴森的,忧郁的
参考例句:
  • he had a somber expression on his face.他面容忧郁。
  • his coat was a somber brown.他的衣服是暗棕色的。
8 735ec6d53723be15b1737edd89183ec2     
adj. 震惊的,惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词
参考例句:
  • the fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
  • the leaders of the kopper company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。
9 d6fx4     
n.洞察力,洞悉,深刻的见解
参考例句:
  • good teachers have insight into the problems of students.好的教师能洞察学生的问题。
  • the research will provide direct insight into molecular mechanisms.这项研究将使人能够直接地了解分子的机理。
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