英語(yǔ)美文：有個(gè)女孩叫莉兒

英語(yǔ)美文：有個(gè)女孩叫莉兒

　　以下是小編整理的情感類英語(yǔ)美文欣賞：有個(gè)女孩叫莉兒，希望對(duì)你有所感觸。

　　A Lady Named Lill

　　Lillian was a young French Canadian girl who grew upin the farming community of River Canard, Ontario.At the age of 16, her father thought "Lill has hadenough schooling,"and she was forced to drop out ofschool to contribute to the family income. In 1922,with English as her second language and limitededucation and skills, the future didn't look bright forLill.

　　Her father, Eugene Bezaire, was a stern man whorarely took no for an answer and never accepted excuses. He demanded that Lill find a job. Buther limitations left her with little confidence and low self-esteem, and she didn't know whatwork she could do.

　　With small hope of gaining employment, she would still ride the bus daily into the "big cities"ofWindsor or Detroit. But she couldn't muster the courage to respond to a Help Wanted 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 meekly.

　　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 knockon a door.

　　On one of her trips, Lill saw a sign at the Carhartt Overall Company in downtown Detroit. "HelpWanted,"the sign said, "Secretarial. Apply Within."She walked up the long flight of stairs to theCarhartt Company offices. Cautiously, Lill knocked on her very first door. She was met by theoffice manager, Margaret Costello. In her broken English, Lill told her she was interested in thesecretarial position, falsely stating that she was 19. Margaret knew something wasn't right, butdecided to give the girl a chance. She guided Lill through the old business office of the CarharttCompany. With rows and rows of people seated at rows and rows of typewriters and addingmachines, Lill felt as if a hundred pairs of eyes were staring at her. With her chin on her chestand her eyes staring down, the reluctant farm girl followed Margaret to the back of thesomber room.

　　Margaret sat her down at a typewriter and said, "Lill, let's see how good you really are."Shedirected Lill to type a single letter, and then left. Lill looked at the clock and saw that it was11:40 a.m. Everyone would be leaving for lunch at noon. She figured that she could slip away inthe 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. Shepulled the paper out and threw it away. The clock now read 11:45. "At noon,"she said toherself, "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. Againshe pulled out the paper, threw it out and started over. This time she completed the letter, buther work was still strewn with errors. She looked at the clock: 11:55 — five minutes tofreedom.

　　Just then, the door at one end of the office opened and Margaret walked in. She came directlyover to Lill, putting one hand on the desk and the other on the girl's shoulder. She read theletter and paused. Then she said, "Lill, you're doing good work!"

　　Lill was stunned. She looked at the letter, then up at Margaret. With those simple words ofencouragement, her desire to escape vanished and her confidence began to grow. Shethought, "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 aDepression, through presidents and six prime ministers — all because someone had theinsight to give a shy and uncertain young girl the gift of self-esteem when she knocked onthe door.

　　莉蓮是個(gè)年輕的法裔加拿大女孩，在安大略省加納德河畔的農(nóng)業(yè)社區(qū)中長(zhǎng)大。16歲那年，父親認(rèn)為“莉兒學(xué)得已經(jīng)夠用了”，硬要她輟學(xué)掙錢，貼補(bǔ)家用。那是1922年，對(duì)于一個(gè)英語(yǔ)并非母語(yǔ)，而所受的教育和培訓(xùn)又有限的女孩來(lái)說(shuō)，莉兒的未來(lái)并不怎么看好。

　　她的父親尤金·貝扎爾是個(gè)非常嚴(yán)厲的人，幾乎不允許孩子說(shuō)半個(gè)“不”字，也從不接受任何辯解。他要莉兒找份工作。然而，因?yàn)闂l件有限，莉兒沒(méi)有一點(diǎn)自信，她很自卑，不知道自己能干點(diǎn)什么。

　　雖然就業(yè)機(jī)會(huì)渺茫，可莉兒仍然每天搭公車到溫澤或底特律那樣的“大城市”去。但是她鼓不起勇氣去應(yīng)聘那些廣告上的職位，甚至連敲門的信心都沒(méi)有。每天她就這樣乘車來(lái)到市里，在大街上漫無(wú)目的地閑逛，逛到傍晚再乘車回家。父親總是問(wèn)：“今天運(yùn)氣怎么樣，莉兒?”“今天運(yùn)氣不……不好，爸。”她囁嚅著回答。

　　日子一天天過(guò)去，莉兒繼續(xù)著她的公車旅行，父親則繼續(xù)關(guān)心著她的工作。父親的問(wèn)題變得越來(lái)越苛嚴(yán)，莉兒知道她必須馬上敲開(kāi)一家公司的門。

　　這天，在底特律市中心的卡哈特服裝公司，莉兒看到這樣一則招聘告示：“招聘文秘，應(yīng)聘者請(qǐng)進(jìn)。”莉兒踏上了通往卡哈特公司辦公室的長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)樓梯，生平第一次，她小心翼翼地扣響了一扇陌生的門。接待她的是辦公室經(jīng)理瑪格麗特·科斯特洛。莉兒用結(jié)結(jié)巴巴的英語(yǔ)說(shuō)對(duì)那個(gè)秘書職位很感興趣，并謊稱自己已經(jīng)19歲了?，敻覃愄刂浪f(shuō)的不全是真話，但還是決定給這個(gè)姑娘一次機(jī)會(huì)。她帶莉兒穿過(guò)卡哈特公司那間陳舊的辦公室，里面有一排排的人，坐在一排排的打字機(jī)、計(jì)算器前面，莉兒覺(jué)得仿佛有一百雙眼睛正盯著自己。這個(gè)鄉(xiāng)下女孩羞得下巴抵到了胸前，兩眼盯著地面，不情愿地跟著瑪格麗特來(lái)到那間昏暗的辦公室后排。

　　瑪格麗特安排她坐到一臺(tái)打字機(jī)前，對(duì)她說(shuō)：“莉兒，讓我們見(jiàn)識(shí)一下你的真本事吧。”她給了莉兒一封信讓她打出來(lái)，隨后就走了。莉兒看了看鐘，現(xiàn)在是上午11：40，馬上就該吃午飯了。她尋思到時(shí)就可以混在人群中溜掉，不過(guò)她覺(jué)得自己起碼應(yīng)該試試那封信。

　　第一次，她打了一行，五個(gè)單詞，她打錯(cuò)了四個(gè)。她把那張紙抽出來(lái)扔掉。時(shí)鐘指向11：45。“到了中午，”她自言自語(yǔ)道，“我就和這些人一起出去，然后他們?cè)僖膊粫?huì)見(jiàn)到我了。”

　　第二次，她打了一段，但還是錯(cuò)了很多。她又把那張紙抽出來(lái)扔掉，然后重新開(kāi)始。這次她把信打完了，可還是滿篇錯(cuò)誤。她看看鐘：11：55，再過(guò)五分鐘就解放了。

　　這時(shí)辦公室另一端的門開(kāi)了，瑪格麗特走了進(jìn)來(lái)。她徑直走到莉兒跟前，一只手放在桌上，另一只手放在莉兒的肩上，讀著那封信，然后停下來(lái)對(duì)莉兒說(shuō)：“莉兒，你做得很棒!”

　　莉兒幾乎不相信自己的耳朵。她看看信，又抬頭看看瑪格麗特。正是這么簡(jiǎn)短的一句鼓勵(lì)話打消了莉兒逃跑退縮的念頭，讓她鼓起了信心。她想：“她覺(jué)得我做得很棒，那么我一定是真的做得很棒。我想我會(huì)被留下的。”

　　莉兒確實(shí)留了下來(lái)，而且一待就是51年，其間經(jīng)歷了兩次世界大戰(zhàn)和一次經(jīng)濟(jì)大蕭條，歷經(jīng)了數(shù)屆總統(tǒng)和首相。而她之所以能做到這一切，完全是因?yàn)樵幸粋€(gè)人在當(dāng)初那個(gè)羞怯的小女孩敲門的一刻給了她自尊自信。