雙語故事:美94歲老太將大學畢業 世界第二老畢業生
【英文原文】
This month, at the 2010 commencement ceremonies for Mills College, 94-year-old Hazel Soares Soares will become a college graduate, 78 years after her high school graduation from then-Roosevelt High School in East Oakland。
Soares has been married twice, raised six kids, seen two economic depressions, 15 US presidents and two world wars. She's been a working single mother, a nurse, a concert event organizer and an art lover. She has more than 40 grandchildren。
Born in Richmond on June 21, 1915, Soares traces her interest in art history back to age 11 and the impression made on her the first time she saw Michelangelo's "David" in the Book of Knowledge. In 1996, at age 80, she traveled to Florence, Italy, to see the sculpture for herself。
But setting records isn't what motivated Soares to renew her lifelong quest for education when she enrolled at Chabot Community College in the mid-1980s and settled on an art history major in Mills College in 2005. "I've always had a basic curiosity about how to do things, whether it's a (cooking) recipe or identifying pieces of art in historical context," she said。
Then she plans to start looking for a job where she can use the skills and knowledge she acquired at the prestigious, private women's undergraduate college. "I'd like to be a docent in a museum," Soares said. Soares still drives and she is as healthy as a horse。
Soares just might qualify as the second-oldest student in the world to ever earn a college degree. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Nola Ochs, 95, is the oldest person to ever graduate from college。
【中文譯文】
美國加州聖裏安卓的94歲老太太海蘇。蘇亞雷斯，在從羅斯福高中畢業78年後，終於將在本月從密爾斯女子大學畢業，據信是全世界年紀第二老的大學畢業生。
蘇亞雷斯經歷了兩次世界大戰，有過兩次婚姻，見證過兩次經濟蕭條，歷經15任美國總統，育有6名子女，現有40多名孫子女。她也是單親職業婦女、護士、音樂會主辦人和藝術愛好者。
蘇亞雷斯於1915年6月21日在列治文出生，11歲時在百科全書上看到米開朗基羅的大衛雕像後開始對藝術產生興趣，1996年，當時80歲的蘇亞雷斯還親自到意大利看大衛像。
蘇亞雷斯於上世紀八十年代中期在夏堡社區大學上課，2005年轉學到密爾斯大學後主修藝術史。她重拾書本不是爲了創紀錄，蘇亞雷斯說：“我對任何事一直都有求知慾，不論是食譜或監定藝術品的歷史背景，我都非常有興趣。”
蘇亞雷斯計劃在畢業後開始找工作，運用她在大學時學到的知識和技能，她說：“我希望能在博物館裏當導遊。”蘇亞雷斯身體非常健康，還能開車。
根據吉尼斯世界紀錄，95歲的諾拉。歐克斯是至今全世界最年長的大學畢業生。歐克斯於2007年從堪薩斯州海斯堡州立大學取得歷史學學位。
