雅思口语Part2：崇拜的老人 Describe an old person you admire

This is an easy topic for me as I know exactly who I want to tell you about! I’ll say who she is, how long I have known her, a bit about her special qualities and why I admire her so much.

这对我来说是一个简单的话题，因为我知道我到底想告诉你谁!我会说她是谁，我认识她多久了，她有什么特别的品质，为什么我这么崇拜她。

I don’t think of this person as old, but I suppose she is because she will be 90 next year, and that’s certainly a good age. She is a distant cousin of mine, she now lives in a residential nursing home, which makes me sad, but she has had a full and interesting life and done many amazing, brave and brilliant things.

我不认为这个人老了，但我想她是老了，因为她明年就90岁了，这当然是个好年龄。她是我的一个远房表妹，她现在住在一个养老院，这让我很伤心，但她已经有了充实和有趣的生活，做了很多惊人的，勇敢的和辉煌的事情。

I think I have known her about twenty one years, but the story of how we came to be friends is a little strange. I was about to go travelling to Australia, and was staying with my parents in London overnight before catching a plane from Heathrow the following day. Whilst I was there my parents told me about this distant cousin who had been in a road accident and was in a hospital. She was/is a very well educated woman with many academic and cultural interests, and they were wondering what to take her to read during her stay. I offered some of my collection of short story books. I wasn’t sure they would be to her taste, they dealt with political issues and were not by any means what I would have expected an elderly sick relative to be interested in. The volumes were by Alice Walker, Susan Hill and other such writers.

我想我认识她大概有21年了，但是我们如何成为朋友的故事有点奇怪。我准备去澳大利亚旅行，在第二天从希思罗机场搭乘飞机之前，我和父母在伦敦过夜。当我在那里的时候，我的父母告诉我有一个远房的表弟，他在一次交通事故中住院了。她是一个受过良好教育的女性，有很多学术和文化方面的兴趣，他们想知道在她逗留期间带她去看什么书。我提供了一些短篇小说集。我不确定它们是否符合她的口味，它们处理的是政治问题，绝不是我所期待的一位生病的老人会感兴趣的东西。这些书是爱丽丝·沃克、苏珊·希尔和其他这样的作家写的。

My cousin loved them! She wrote to me whilst I was in Australia to tell me, and also mentioned that she herself had worked in Australia for many years. She had a very illustrious career as a pediatric pathologist, but also did research on things like mammalian hearts which took her all over the world. She asked me to look up an old friend of hers whilst I was there, which I did with some reluctance as I wasn’t sure what I’d find. I met another amazing woman who lived in the middle of a beautiful rainforest and was passionate about conservation. When I came back to England a year later, I visited my cousin to tell her all about my travels, and that was the beginning of an ongoing friendship. We have always corresponded with one another and I find her wise and a great role model. We have shared interests and I think our personalities are also rather alike – for better or worse! Opinionated and stubborn at times, but also caring very much about the world and those around us and constantly curious and restless. Endlessly wanting to go and explore and experience new things. We share a wanderlust at least!

我的表弟喜欢他们!我在澳大利亚的时候，她写信告诉我，还提到她自己在澳大利亚工作了很多年。作为一名儿科病理学家，她的职业生涯非常辉煌，但她也做过哺乳动物心脏的研究，这些研究让她周游世界。她让我去找她的一位老朋友，当时我在那里，我有点不情愿，因为我不确定能找到什么。我遇到了另一位住在美丽的热带雨林中，对环境保护充满热情的女士。一年后，当我回到英国时，我拜访了我的表妹，告诉她我的旅行，那是一段持续不断的友谊的开始。我们一直保持着联系，我发现她很聪明，是一个很好的榜样。我们有共同的兴趣，我认为我们的性格也相当相似——无论是好是坏!有时固执己见，但也很关心这个世界和我们周围的人，总是好奇和不安。不断地想去探索和体验新的事物。我们至少有一种旅行的欲望!

My cousin is intelligent, well-travelled and very independent. She has insight and great skill in academic writing. Over the years I’ve shared with her my own writing efforts, looked to her for advice on what to do when facing certain decisions, and gained inspiration from her lifestyle. She is very good at setting herself goals and getting on with things – it would be fair to say she doesn’t suffer fools gladly, so she is certainly someone who will put you straight on things. I think of her as a ‘critical friend’ I know she cares about me a lot, as I do her, but that doesn’t mean she’ll indulge me at all if she feels I’m being foolish in any way. She never married, and I too am on my own, so I think we sort of understand one another, and we both like our own space, which can be confusing for some people at times.

我的表弟很聪明，游历甚广，而且很独立。她在学术写作方面有很强的洞察力和技巧。这些年来，我和她分享了我自己的写作努力，向她寻求在面临某些决定时该做什么的建议，并从她的生活方式中获得了灵感。她很擅长为自己设定目标，并能把事情做好——公平地说，她不会乐意忍受傻瓜，所以她肯定会让你明白事情的真相。我认为她是一个“挑剔的朋友”，我知道她很关心我，就像我关心她一样，但这并不意味着她会纵容我，如果她觉得我在任何方面都是愚蠢的。她从未结婚，而我也是一个人，所以我觉得我们有点互相理解，我们都喜欢自己的空间，这有时会让一些人感到困惑。

I admire her hugely, her health is frail now, and that makes me sad, but she has achieved so much in her career, life and network of friends. If I can do half as well in the time I have I’ll be very content with that!

我非常钦佩她，她现在身体虚弱，这让我很难过，但她在事业、生活和朋友圈中取得了如此大的成就。如果我能在剩下的时间里做到一半，我会很满意的!