To this day, the very thought of red oak bark tea nauseates me; my mouth still retains that bitter flavor. As a child in a rural community in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, even the threat of home remedies like red oak bark tea was usually sufficient to scare the sickness out of me. Once, when my mother administered powdered alum to my sore throat, I concluded that my family must have had enough of me. They assured me, however, that alum was not supposed to make you gag quite that much.

I never considered becoming a doctor as a child. My family could rarely afford the luxury of proper medical treatment. Thus, unpleasant home remedies were my earliest experiences of healthcare, and I cannot say that they were exactly prepossessing. Nor was my opinion unusual in my environment: in my rural farming town, doctors were the people you went to when all your family remedies had failed, and you couldn’t get out of bed to go to work anymore. Medicine was seen less as a way to improve your quality of life than as an expensive method of postponing the inevitable.

I could not point to a specific date as the day I decided that I wanted to commit my life to medicine. Rather, it was a gradual realization that grew out of my love for biology and my sense that the path I was taking was not meant for me.

Merely attending junior college was an enormous achievement for me, as none of my family had ever graduated from high school. Initially, I intended to earn my associate's degree in biology. Unfortunately, my family’s difficult financial situation prevented me from following my interest in this field, for I soon had to find a full-time job to help out at home. I continued taking classes at night, but unfortunately, no lab courses were offered in the evening. Finally, after four years, I completed the requirements for an associate’s degree in economics. That was when I realized that I wanted to explore biology further. At moments, I even began to think of attending medical school, only to dismiss these daydreams as no more plausible than winning the lottery.

I soon married and entered a very difficult period in my life. Trying to keep my husband happy and my marriage together, after earning my associate's degree I quit the job I had enjoyed since high school graduation. I proceeded to change jobs every six months or so for the next two years before separating from my husband. When I knew there would be no reconciliation, I decided to follow the dream I had put on hold, and I applied to the institution I now attend to study biology. Being a doctor may not have been a lifelong dream for me, but it is my calling.

點(diǎn)評(píng)：

文章思路：

1.以小時(shí)侯的個(gè)人經(jīng)歷為線索引出醫(yī)學(xué)。

2.第二段是轉(zhuǎn)折部分，點(diǎn)明對(duì)生物產(chǎn)生了興趣。

3.以后的個(gè)人經(jīng)歷。

文章開始時(shí)引出醫(yī)學(xué)所用的例子很吸引人。如果作者能更好地把握住這條主線，繼續(xù)闡述思想發(fā)生變化的過程，即從對(duì)醫(yī)學(xué)不感興趣發(fā)展到喜歡上醫(yī)學(xué)這個(gè)轉(zhuǎn)折上能作很好的說明，就更加有感染力了。但是在這方面作者沒有作很好的鋪墊，在沒有任何基礎(chǔ)上卻對(duì)生物產(chǎn)生了興趣，令人無所適從。因?yàn)闆]有突出為什么對(duì)生物感興趣，從而對(duì)申請(qǐng)生物專業(yè)就顯得目的不明確了。

另外，在敘述以后的個(gè)人經(jīng)歷時(shí)出現(xiàn)了材料堆砌的現(xiàn)象，作者像在記錄流水帳一樣把經(jīng)歷寫了出來，看完之后仍然沒有給人一種感覺：強(qiáng)烈希望pursue醫(yī)學(xué)，即是你對(duì)學(xué)習(xí)醫(yī)學(xué)做過的努力，你對(duì)這個(gè)領(lǐng)域的認(rèn)識(shí)。因?yàn)闆]有對(duì)枝節(jié)進(jìn)行篩選，所以削弱了文章的整體感覺。總體來說，文章還有值得進(jìn)一步修改完善的地方。

譯文：

遲來的夢(mèng)

至今，我仍記得那種惡心的紅橡木皮茶的味道；苦味依然保留在我的口中。我的童年是在洛磯山脈的山麓中度過的。甚至連諸如黑橡木皮茶的家居補(bǔ)救也會(huì)把我嚇得失魂落魄。一旦我母親將明礬的粉末灌進(jìn)我疼痛的喉嚨時(shí)，盡管他們安慰我這些明礬不會(huì)太難咽，但我已經(jīng)認(rèn)定他們一定是受夠了我才會(huì)這樣對(duì)我。

我從來都沒想過要當(dāng)一位醫(yī)生。因?yàn)槲业募胰藷o法承擔(dān)恰當(dāng)?shù)乃幬镏委煹陌嘿F費(fèi)用，所以不愉快的家居補(bǔ)救就成了最初的保健經(jīng)歷，我實(shí)在是無法說我對(duì)它有好感。我的觀點(diǎn)其實(shí)在我的生活環(huán)境里是很平常的：在我那從事勞作的農(nóng)村里，除非家居補(bǔ)救確實(shí)派不上用場(chǎng)，人們才會(huì)去看醫(yī)生，并且你不能離開床而去工作。醫(yī)學(xué)被看成了是一種不可避免的昂貴治療而不是能改善生活質(zhì)量的方法。

我已經(jīng)忘了是哪天起我決定以醫(yī)學(xué)看成是我的終身事業(yè)。準(zhǔn)確地說，我對(duì)生物的喜愛應(yīng)該是逐漸形成的。而我感覺與我之前經(jīng)歷的路程相比，醫(yī)學(xué)才是我真正想從事的。

對(duì)于我來說，就是進(jìn)入初中都已經(jīng)是個(gè)很了不起的成就了，因?yàn)槲壹依餂]有人是中學(xué)畢業(yè)。最初，我希望能獲得生物專業(yè)的副學(xué)士學(xué)位。不幸的是，因?yàn)榧揖池毢木壒适刮冶仨毘鋈フ曳萑毠ぷ鱽眇B(yǎng)活家人，而無法再把我的興趣進(jìn)行下去。我繼續(xù)上夜校，但可惜的是，晚上是沒有提供實(shí)驗(yàn)課可以讓我學(xué)習(xí)的。四年后，我讀完了經(jīng)濟(jì)專業(yè)，那時(shí)我才意識(shí)到我更希望能深入學(xué)習(xí)生物。有一段時(shí)間我甚至開始想進(jìn)入醫(yī)學(xué)院，但這些白日夢(mèng)就像嬴彩票那樣遙遙無期。

隨后我很快就結(jié)婚了，那是一段我一生中最難過的日子。為了令我丈夫開心和使婚姻和睦，我在完成副學(xué)士課程后就辭掉了高中畢業(yè)后就一直喜愛的工作。分居之前的兩年間我每隔六個(gè)月就換一份工作。當(dāng)我意識(shí)到這段婚姻無法挽回時(shí)，我決定繼續(xù)追尋我的夢(mèng)想，申請(qǐng)到研究機(jī)構(gòu)學(xué)生物。雖然成為醫(yī)生可能不是我終身的夢(mèng)想，但這是我的追求。