VOA标准英语2010年-Disabled South Korean Musician Pushes

Concert pianist, Lee Hee-ah, was born in South Korea with severe physical impairments, but her disabilities have not stopped her from achieving her goals

Nothing worth having is easy to get.  That is especially true for one young South Korean woman, who has overcome extraordinary physical challenges in her pursuit of artistic¹ fulfillment. 

Lee Hee-ah was born in South Korea with severe physical impairments. Where other people have knees, her legs come to an end in stubs that resemble feet.

On each hand, Lee has only two thick fingers.  She refers to them jokingly as her "crab² hands."

But her disabilities have not stopped her from achieving her goals.

Lee is a concert pianist.  She manages with four fingers classical pieces that others struggle to perform with 10.

What makes 24-year-old Lee's ability all the more impressive is that she also has a cognitive³ impairment that makes it all but impossible for her to handle math.

"My IQ is terribly low. It is like a seven-year-old kid," she said. "It should be technically⁴ impossible to teach a person who can not even do simple calculations to play the piano. Once or twice, I seriously thought of quitting.  But playing piano was how I met new people."

Lee says she got this good by practicing relentlessly⁵ - up to 10 hours a day, for years on end. "There was no result at first, even after hours of practice.  My skill remained exactly the same for one or two years.  It was like eating the same side dish every day.  I got so sick of it," she explained.

But she progressed, with the help of her mother, who raised her alone after Lee's father died about 10 years ago. She says she provided the mixture of patience and tough love that prevented Lee from feeling sorry for herself.  She says Lee's own good humor got her through.

"School kids made fun of her all the time.  It broke my heart.  But Hee-ah was actually nice to the kids who ridiculed⁶ her. Kids would say things like 'hey you have scissors in your hands,' or 'hey, you have crab hands.' She would just answer back things like, 'you're right-- crabs⁷ are my ancestors,' and she would even let them touch her hands. When she approached them like that, the kids stopped making fun of her," her mother said.

Lee spends much of her time doing performances like this, to rally support and hope for the disabled.

"I always live with a can-do spirit," she said. "And even though your body may be challenged, it does not necessarily mean your thinking has to change. I can do anything. My dreams make everything possible."

Lee also promotes South Korea's reconciliation⁸ with North Korea.  She hopes to go to Pyongyang later this year, to perform and raise awareness⁹ of the potential of those with physical setbacks.

 

1 artistic   

adj.艺术(家)的，美术(家)的；善于艺术创作的

参考例句：

• The picture on this screen is a good artistic work.这屏风上的画是件很好的艺术品。
• These artistic handicrafts are very popular with foreign friends.外国朋友很喜欢这些美术工艺品。

2 crab   

n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气

参考例句：

• I can't remember when I last had crab.我不记得上次吃蟹是什么时候了。
• The skin on my face felt as hard as a crab's back.我脸上的皮仿佛僵硬了，就象螃蟹的壳似的。

3 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

4 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

5 relentlessly   

adv.不屈不挠地；残酷地；不间断

参考例句：

• The African sun beat relentlessly down on his aching head. 非洲的太阳无情地照射在他那发痛的头上。
• He pursued her relentlessly, refusing to take 'no' for an answer. 他锲而不舍地追求她，拒不接受“不”的回答。

6 ridiculed   

v.嘲笑，嘲弄，奚落( ridicule的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Biosphere 2 was ultimately ridiculed as a research debade, as exfravagant pseudoscience. 生物圈2号最终被讥讽为科研上的大失败，代价是昂贵的伪科学。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She ridiculed his insatiable greed. 她嘲笑他的贪得无厌。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 crabs   

n.蟹( crab的名词复数 )；阴虱寄生病；蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• As we walked along the seashore we saw lots of tiny crabs. 我们在海岸上散步时看到很多小蟹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The fish and crabs scavenge for decaying tissue. 鱼和蟹搜寻腐烂的组织为食。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。

9 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。