美語情景對話 第694期:Little Sister 妹妹

Kara: So, you mentioned there's a large gap between the oldest and you being towards the youngest. What do you think the differences growing up were between your life and their life and what were the advantages and disadvantages?

卡拉：你之前提到過，在你的家庭裏，最大的孩子和最小的孩子之間有很大的年齡差距。你認爲在成長過程中，你的生活和他們的生活之間有什麼不同？這種年齡差距又有何利弊？

Lupe: Well, I think for the most part, it was a great advantage to be one of the younger ones. I'm the second youngest, so having ten, you know, ten siblings, ten older than me definitely helped be growing up because I always had a lot of people to look up to and, you know, telling me right from wrong, which was always a great help. Financially, it was the biggest advantage because, you know, I hear stories from my older siblings about them growing up because they didn't have a lot of resources and financially my family wasn't very stable so as they got older, I started working and helping out with, you know, all the expenses. It really helped us little ones to really be, you know, grow up in a better way and have all the things that maybe they didn't. And also, one of the biggest advantages was that once the older, my older siblings started working, making enough money, you know, they raised enough money to move here to the United States, and bring the rest of us here and we had the great advantage of going to school here in the United States and being able to learn another language, educate ourselves, continue to go onto college, which is something that my older siblings didn't have, so I'm very grateful for that. I think the only disadvantage of being one of the younger ones is a lot of the traditions that were being passed in our family from generations didn't quite make it to us when we moved here to the United States. We weren't able to do many of the things my older siblings got to do when they lived in Mexico, but you know I really can't complain because we have a lot of other things that they didn't have when they were little.

盧佩：我認爲，大多數情況下，年齡小的孩子有很大優勢。我是家裏倒數第二小的孩子，我有十個哥哥和姐姐，10個年紀比我大的哥哥姐姐在我成長過程中會幫我很多，因爲他們會爲我樹立榜樣，教我區分對錯，這有很大的幫助。當然經濟上的優勢是最大的，因爲我聽我的哥哥姐姐們說過他們成長的故事，當時家裏沒有足夠的能力，家裏的經濟狀況也不穩定，所以他們漸漸長大以後，就要工作幫家裏分擔開支。這使年紀小的我們能更好地成長，我們有的東西他們可能都沒有。另外一個大優勢就是哥哥姐姐開始工作以後，他們能賺到、攢到足夠搬來美國生活的錢，而且還可以把其他家人都帶過來，在美國學校上學使我們獲得很大的優勢，而且還可以學習另一門語言，自我教育，繼續上大學，這些都是我的哥哥姐姐們沒有享受到的，所以我對此非常感激。我認爲作爲家裏的老小唯一的壞處就是，因爲我們搬到了美國，所以家庭裏一些代代相傳的傳統並沒有在我們身上延續。我們的哥哥姐姐在墨西哥生活時做過的很多事我們都沒能做，不過我不能抱怨什麼，因爲我們擁有了他們小時候沒有的東西。

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重點講解：
1. for the most part 大部分；多半；通常；
例句：For the most part, staff remain with the company for at least five years.
大多數員工會在公司工作至少五年。
2. look up to （尤指對年長者）敬仰，欽佩，仰慕；
例句：You're a popular girl, Grace, and a lot of the younger ones look up to you.
你很受大家歡迎，格雷絲，很多比你小的女孩子都很崇拜你。
3. help out 幫助…做事；借錢給…；
例句：All these presents came to more money than I had, and my mother had to help me out.
我的錢不夠買所有這些禮物，我母親只好借了我一些錢。
4. be able to do sth. 可以…的，能夠…的；
例句：I admire the way she is able to shrug off unfair criticism.
我很佩服她能對錯誤的批評意見不予理會。
5. be grateful for 感激的；表示感謝的；
例句：He was grateful for all you did.
他對你所做的一切表示感激。