里斯.蘭根的故事說(shuō)明了什么?
His explanations, as heartbreaking as they are, are also a little strange.
和那些悲傷的往事一樣,他述說(shuō)的一切令人傷感,但又令人覺(jué)得驚異。
His mother forgets to sign his financial aid form and, just like that, no scholarship.
他的母親忘記了填寫他的經(jīng)濟(jì)資助表,結(jié)果——正如已經(jīng)回顧的——他沒(méi)能申請(qǐng)到獎(jiǎng)學(xué)金。
He tries to move from a morning to an afternoon class, something students do everyday, and gets stopped cold.
為了回避嚴(yán)寒,他希望把早上的課調(diào)整到下午——這并不為過(guò),很多學(xué)生都這樣做過(guò)。
And why were Langan's teachers at Reed and Montana State so indifferent to his plight?
為什么蘭根在里德學(xué)院和蒙大納州立大學(xué)的老師們對(duì)學(xué)生的窘境卻視而不見(jiàn)?
Teachers typically delight in minds as brilliant as his.
在老師的心中,像蘭根這樣聰明的學(xué)生應(yīng)該非常受歡迎。
Langan talks about dealing with Reed and Montana State as if there were some kind of vast and unyielding government bureaucracy.
但在蘭根的眼中,里德學(xué)院和蒙大納州立大學(xué)仿佛成為了一個(gè)結(jié)構(gòu)龐大、體制僵硬的官僚機(jī)構(gòu)。
But colleges, particularly small liberal arts colleges like Reed, tend not to be rigid bureaucracies.
按理來(lái)說(shuō),像里德學(xué)院這種比較小的文理學(xué)院,往往不可能成為死板的官僚機(jī)構(gòu)。
Making allowances in the name of helping someone stay in school is what professors do all the time.
為幫助學(xué)生在學(xué)校的生活而提供資助,也一直是教師們?cè)谧龅氖虑椤?/p>
Even in this discussion of Harvard, it's as if Langan has no concept of the culture and particulars of the institution he's talking about.
即便說(shuō)到哈佛大學(xué),看起來(lái)蘭根也沒(méi)有了解他所談機(jī)構(gòu)的文化和特點(diǎn)。
When you accept a paycheck from these people,
“如果你想從他們手中領(lǐng)取薪水,
it's going to come down to what you want to do and what you feel is right
那還得看你想怎樣做,看你的想法是否正確,
versus what the man says you can do to recieve another paycheck.
否則,他們會(huì)說(shuō)你可以做自己的事情,但必須到別人那里領(lǐng)取薪水。”
What? One of the main reasons college professors accept a lower paycheck than they could get in private industry
什么意思?大學(xué)的教授們?cè)敢饨邮鼙绕渌饺似髽I(yè)更低的工資,選擇教師生涯,
is that university life gives them the freedom to do what they want to do and what they feel is right.
最重要的原因就是大學(xué)能給他們想怎么做就怎么做,有什么就說(shuō)什么的自由。
Langan has Harvard backwards.
蘭根對(duì)哈佛的觀點(diǎn)顯然有些落伍。
When Langan told me his life story, I couldn't help thinking the life of Robert Oppenheimer,
當(dāng)蘭根向我談起他的生活經(jīng)歷時(shí),我不由得想起物理學(xué)家羅伯特.奧本海默(RobertOppenheimer)的一生,
the physicist who famously headed the American effort to develop the nuclear bomb during world war II.
奧本海默是美國(guó)二戰(zhàn)期間發(fā)展核武器的著名帶頭人。
Oppenheimer, by all accounts, was a child with a mind very much like Chris Langan's.
據(jù)說(shuō)孩童時(shí)期的奧本海默也像克里斯.蘭根一樣擁有過(guò)人的智商,
His parents considered him a genius.
他的父母認(rèn)為他是一個(gè)天才,
One of his teachers recalled that "he recieved every new idea as perfectly beautiful."
他的一個(gè)老師回憶“他能夠極其透徹地理解各種思想”。
He was doing lab experiments by the third grade and studying physics and chemistry by the fifth grade.
小學(xué)三年級(jí)的時(shí)候,他就開(kāi)始做各種實(shí)驗(yàn),到了五年級(jí),他開(kāi)始學(xué)習(xí)物理學(xué)和化學(xué)。