To stick up for himself and his brothers, Chris started to lift weights.
為了支撐自己和弟弟們的生活,克里斯開始承擔生活的重擔。
One day, when Chris was fourteen, Jack Langan got rough with the boys, as he sometimes did, and Christ knocked him out cold
在克里斯14歲那一年的一天,杰克.蘭根又像以往一樣,粗暴地折磨這些孩子。后來,克里斯把父親打到冰天雪地里。
Jack left, never to return.
杰克從此離開了,再也沒有回來。
Upon graduation from high school, Chris was offered two full scholarships,
中學畢業(yè)之后,克里斯申請到了兩所高校的全額獎學金,
One to Reed College in Oregon and the other to the University of Chicago.
一所是俄勒岡州的里德學院,另外一所是芝加哥大學。
He chose Reed. "It was a huge mistake," Christ recalls. "I had a real case of culture shock.
他最終選擇了里德學院。“這是一個嚴重的錯誤,”克里斯回憶說,“這里顛覆了我以前所受的教育。
I was a crew-cut kid who had been working as a ranch hand in the summers in Montana,
夏天,我曾在蒙大納的農(nóng)場務工,我是一個剃著平頭的男孩,
and there I was, with the whole bunch of long-haired city kids, most of them from New York.
而我周圍的男孩全留著長發(fā),他們都是城里人,很多人來自紐約。
And these kids had a whole different style than I was used to. I couldn't get a word in edgewise in class.
這些孩子和我以前見到的類型完全不同。班里沒有我插嘴的份。
They were very inquisitive. Asking questions all the time.
他們都對我非常好奇,沒完沒了地問這問那。
I was crammed into a dorm room.
我和其他三個人擠在一間宿舍,
There were four of us, and the other three guys had a whole different lifestyle.
其他三個完全是另外一種類型,
They were smoking pot. They would bring their girlfriends into the room.
他們吸毒,把他們的女朋友帶進宿舍。
I had never smoked pot before. So I basically took the hiding in the library."
我是從來沒有吸過毒品,我躲避他們的最好辦法,就是跑到圖書館去。”
He continued: "Then I lost that scholarship....
他接著說道:“隨后我失去了獎學金,這不是我的過錯......
My mother was supposed to fill out a parents' financial statement for the renewal of that scholarship.
為了繼續(xù)申請獎學金,我的母親本應該填寫一份父母經(jīng)濟狀況的說明。
She neglected to do so. She was confused by the requirements or whatever.
但她卻忽略了這件事,她已經(jīng)被生計弄得暈頭轉向。
At some point, it came to my attention that my scholarship had not been renewed.
我在忽然之間接到我沒能繼續(xù)申請到獎學金的通知。
So I went to the office to ask why, and they told me, Well, no one sent us the financial statement,
所以我跑到學校辦公室問這到底是為什么,然后他們就告訴我說,真遺憾,沒人把你父母經(jīng)濟狀況的說明送到我們這來,
and we allocated all the scholar money and it's all gone, so I'm afraid that you don't have a scholarship here anymore.
我們已經(jīng)分配了所有的獎學資金,所有的資金都用完了,所以非常抱歉,你可能已經(jīng)無法在這里申請到獎學金了。
That was the style of the place. They simply didn't care.
這就是這樣一個地方,他們對一切都毫不在意,
They didn't give a shit about their students. There was no counseling, no mentoring, nothing."
他們只會對學生放狗屁。這里沒有學生咨詢服務,沒有好的導師,什么都沒有。”
Chris left Reed before the final set of exams. In the first semester, he had earned As.
在期末考試之前,克里斯離開了里德學院。第一學期,他的成績被評為A等,
In second semester, he had Fs.
到了第二個學期,他的成績已經(jīng)成為了F等。
He went back to Bozeman and worked in construction and as a forest services firefighter for a year and a half.
他回到了波茲曼,在之后一年半的時間里,他在建筑工地上干過,也做過森林消防員。
Then he enrolled at Montana State University.
隨后他進入了蒙大納州立大學。
"I was taking maths and philosophy courses," he recalled.
“我在那里學數(shù)學和物理學,”他回憶說,
"And then in the winter quarter, I was living thirteen miles out of town, out on Beach Hill Road,
“冬天,我住到了比切.希爾,這里離小鎮(zhèn)有十三英里多的距離。
and the transmission fell out of my car.
恰好我汽車的動力裝置有故障,
My bothers had used it when I was gone that summer.
那年夏天我來到這里以前,我的幾個弟弟常駕駛這輛車,
They were working for the railroad and had driven it on the railway tracks.
他們在附近的鐵路線上班,經(jīng)常沿著鐵路開車。