I remember the first day I saw her playing basketball. I watched in wonder as she ran circles around the other kids. She managed to shoot jump shots just over their heads and into the net. The boys always tried to stop her but no one could.
I began to notice her at other times, basketball in hand, playing alone. She would practice dribbling and shooting over and over again, sometimes until dark. One day I asked her why she practiced so much. She looked directly in my eyes and without a moment of hesitation she said, “I want to go to college. The only way I can go is if I get a scholarship. I like basketball. I decided that if I were good enough, I would get a scholarship. I am going to play college basketball. I want to be the best. My daddy told me if the dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.” Then she smiled and ran towards the court to recap the routine I had seen over and over again.
Well, I had to give it to her—she was determined. I watched her through those junior high years and into high school. Every week, she led her varsity team to victory.
One day in her senior year, I saw her sitting in the grass, head cradled in her arms. I walked across the street and sat down in the cool grass beside her. Quietly I asked what was wrong. “Oh, nothing,” came a soft reply. “I am just too short.” The coach told her that at 5'5" she would probably never get to play for a top ranked team—much less offered a scholarship—so she should stop dreaming about college.
She was heartbroken and I felt my own throat tighten as I sensed her disappointment. I asked her if she had talked to her dad about it yet.
She lifted her head from her hands and told me that her father said those coaches were wrong. They just did not understand the power of a dream. He told her that if she really wanted to play for a good college, if she truly wanted a scholarship, that nothing could stop her except one thing—her own attitude. He told her again, “If the dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.”
The next year, as she and her team went to the Northern California Championship game, she was seen by a college recruiter. She was indeed offered a scholarship, a full ride, to a Division I, NCAA women’s basketball team. She was going to get the college education that she had dreamed of and worked toward for all those years.
It’s true: if the dream is big enough, the facts don’t count.
透过厨房的窗户，我经常看见她穿梭于操场上，挤在一群男孩子中间，显得格外瘦小。学校就在我家街对面，课间休息时，我经常能看见孩子们在操场上打球。在很多孩子中，我总觉得，她与众不同。
我还记得第一天看到她打篮球的情景，看着她在其他孩子身边兜来转去，我感到非常惊奇。她总是设法在他们头顶跳投，使球命中篮筐。那些男孩子拼命阻止，但没人做得到。
在其他的时间我也注意到她，她一个人打篮球，反复地练习运球和投篮，有时一直练到天黑。一天，我问她为什么这样刻苦地练习。她直视我的眼睛，不假思索地说：“我想上大学，唯一方法就是获得奖学金。我喜欢打篮球，我想只要我打得好，到大学里打篮球了，就能获得奖学金，我还想成为最优秀的球员。父亲告诉我，如果梦想足够大，什么也难不倒。”说完，她笑着跑向篮球场，又开始了无数次的练习。
我很佩服她这么有决心，我看着她从初中升到高中，每星期，她带领的校篮球队都能取得胜利。
她读高中的一天，我见她坐在草地上，头埋在臂弯里。我穿过街道，坐在她身旁的草地上，轻声问她发生了什么事。“噢，没什么，”她轻轻地回答我，“只是我个子太矮了。”教练告诉她，5.5英尺的身高绝对达不到一流球队的标准——更别说拿奖学金了——所以，她应该放弃大学梦了。
她沮丧极了，见她如此失望，我也很难过，我问她是否和父亲谈过此事。
她把头从臂弯里抬起来，告诉我，父亲说教练的想法是错误的，他们根本不懂梦想的力量。他告诉她，如果她真想去一个好大学打球并获得奖学金，除了自己的态度，没有什么能阻止她。他一再说：“如果梦想足够大，什么也难不倒。”
第二年，当她和她的球队去参加北加利福尼亚州冠军赛时，她被一位大学的招生人员看中。她真的获得了奖学金，并且是全额，同时进入了全国大学体育协会中的一支女子甲组篮球队。她将接受梦寐以求并为之奋斗了多年的大学教育。
的确，如果梦想足够大，什么也难不倒。
心灵小语
态度决定一切，客观因素和别人的评价往往成为我们实现梦想的路上的绊脚石。只要我们坚定信念，目光只盯着梦想的目标，不环顾左右，就能使这一切障碍化为乌有，顺利地抵达梦想之境。
记忆填空
1. I remember the first day I saw her playing___ . I watched in wonder____ she ran circles around the other kids. She managed to shoot jump shots just over their_____and into the net. The boys always tried to stop her_____no one could.
2. I want to go to college. The only way I can go is if I get a___. I like basketball. I decided that if I were good_____, I would get a scholarship. I am going to play college basketball. I want to be the____ .
佳句翻译
1. 如果梦想足够大，什么也难不倒。
译________________________________
2. 她读高中的一天，我见她坐在草地上，头埋在臂弯里。
译________________________________
3. 如果她真想去一个好大学打球并获得奖学金，除了自己的态度，没有什么能阻止她。
译________________________________
短语应用
1. A sea of children, and yet to me, she stood out from them all.
stand out：站出来；突出；引人注目，脱颖而出；坚持
造_______________________________
2. She was going to get the college education that she had dreamed of and worked toward for all those years.
dream of：梦见；梦想
造_______________________________
大学生活回忆（1）
University Days(1)
詹姆斯?瑟伯 / James Thurber
I passed all the other courses that I took at my University, but I could never pass botany. This was because all botany students had to spend several hours a week in a laboratory looking through a microscope at plant cells, and I could never see through a microscope.
I never once saw a cell through a microscope. This used to enrage my instructor. He would wander around the laboratory pleased with the progress all the students were making in drawing the involved and, so I am told, interesting structure of flower cells, until he came to me.
I would just be standing there. “I can’t see anything,” I would say. He would begin patiently enough, explaining how anybody can see through a microscope, but he would always end up in a fury, claiming that I could too see through a microscope but just pretend that I couldn’t. “It takes away from the beauty of flowers anyway,” I used to tell him.“We are not concerned with beauty in this course,” he would say. “We are concerned solely with what I may call the mechanics of flowers.” “Well,” I’d say, “I can’t see anything.” “Try it just once again,” he’d say, and I would put my eye to the microscope and see nothing at all, except now and again a nebulous milky substance—a phenomenon of maladjustment.
You were supposed to see a vivid, restless clockwork of sharply defined plant cells, “I see what looks like a lot of milk,” I would tell him. This, he claimed, was the result of my not having adjusted the microscope properly, so he would read just it for me, or rather, for himself. And I would look again and see milk.
