I suppose everyone has something they don’t like about themselves. For me, it was the birthmark on my face. It was bright red, the colour of a strawberry.
我想，每个人都有自己不太喜欢的地方。对我来说，就是脸上的胎记。它红红的，就像草莓一样。
Sometimes, I felt people secretly looking at my face. But when I turned my head, they looked away. On crowded buses and trains, it felt just like a disaster. With so many people around me, my birthmark burnt red hot. Therefore, I always kept my hair long to cover it until that day.
有时候，我总觉得别人会偷偷看我的脸。但我一转头，他们就把目光移开。在挤满人的公交车和火车上，我觉得特别难受。人太多的时候，我的胎记像火一样烫。所以，我一直把头发留得很长，把它遮住，直到那一天。
It was a cloudy morning. A new student named Maddie arrived in our class. She sat right beside me. Instead of looking away, Maddie studied my face. This made me so nervous. Clouds came through the window and filled my heart. Suddenly, she said something I would never forget.
那天早上，天阴阴的。一个叫玛蒂的新同学来了，她正好坐在我旁边。她没有避开我的脸，而是一直看着我。这让我紧张得心里乱糟糟的。窗外的云好像飘进了我的心里。突然，她说了一句话，我永远不会忘记。
“Sally, right?” she said. “You have a red rose on your face. How beautiful!”
“你是莎莉，对吧？”她说，“你脸上的红色像一朵玫瑰，好漂亮啊！”
I looked up and met her smiling eyes. Although I only replied “thank you”, it turned sunny in my heart. When I got home, I rushed to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. For the first time, I could look at my birthmark without quickly turning away. The shape of it was truly like a flower. The next day, to my surprise, Maddie painted a red rose on her own face!
我抬起头，看着她笑眯眯的眼睛。虽然我只说了“谢谢”，但是心里一下子像晴天一样亮了起来。回到家，我冲进浴室，对着镜子看自己。那是我第一次能好好看自己的胎记，而不是赶紧转开。它的形状真的像一朵花。第二天，让我惊讶的是，玛蒂竟然在自己的脸上画了一朵红玫瑰！
I haven’t told Maddie the whole story yet. Anyway, she has changed me. I have already learnt that I am what I am. Everyone has something special and different – that is what’s interesting.
我还没把整个故事告诉玛蒂。不过，不管怎样，她改变了我。我学会了接受真实的自己。每个人都有特别的、不一样的地方——这才有意思。
生词表 / Vocabulary
| 单词 | 音标 | 词性 | 中文释义 |
|---|---|---|---|
| suppose | /səˈpəʊz/ | v. | 认为；猜想 |
| birthmark | /ˈbɜːrθmɑːrk/ | n. | 胎记 |
| strawberry | /ˈstrɔːbəri/ | n. | 草莓 |
| secretly | /ˈsiːkrətli/ | adv. | 秘密地；悄悄地 |
| crowded | /ˈkraʊdɪd/ | adj. | 拥挤的 |
| disaster | /dɪˈzɑːstər/ | n. | 灾难 |
| therefore | /ˈðɛərfɔːr/ | adv. | 因此 |
| instead of | — | prep. | 而不是；代替 |
| although | /ɔːlˈðəʊ/ | conj. | 虽然 |
| bathroom | /ˈbæθruːm/ | n. | 浴室 |
| truly | /ˈtruːli/ | adv. | 真正地；确实 |
| different | /ˈdɪfrənt/ | adj. | 不同的；有差异的 |
原文来自：外研社八年级英语上册第一单元（孙有中版）