2021年高考英语天津卷(二) - 阅读理解B

When people ask me how I started writing, I find myself describing an urgent need that I felt to work with language. Having said that. I did not know for a long time what I was looking for. It was not until I followed this feeling to its source that I discovered I had a passion for writing. With some encouragement from my colleagues, I had one of my poems published. This bit of success, however, was the point where my problem began.
当人们问我是如何开始写作时，我发现自己正在描述一种对语言的迫切需求。话虽如此，很长一段时间我都不知道在寻找什么。直到我追寻这种感觉的源头，我发现了我对写作有热情。在同事们的鼓励下，我出版了一本诗集。然而，这一点成功正是我问题开始的地方。

Back in 1978, I had to travel between three different campuses in the morning, teaching freshman composition. Afternoons I spent taking my daughter to her ballet and horse-riding lessons I composed my lectures on the way, and that was all the thinking time I had. When I returned home, there was not enough of me left for writing after a full working day.
早在1978年，我就不得不在早上往返于三处不同的校园，教新生写作。下午我带女儿上芭蕾和马术课，在路上完成演讲稿，这就是我所有的思考时间。当我工作了一整天回家后，我已经没有足够的时间写作了。

As a way out, I decided to get up two hours before my usual time. My alarm was set for 5:00 A.M. The first dayI shut it off because I had placed it within arm's reach. The second day I set two clocks, one on my night table and one out in the hallway. I had to jump out of bed and run to silence it before my family was awoken. This was when my morning writing began.
为了解决这个问题，我决定比平时早两个小时起床。我的闹钟设定早上5点。第一天因为我把它放在触手可及的地方，所以我把它关掉了。第二天我设置了两个时钟，一个在我的床头柜，一个在走廊里。我不得不从床上跳起来，在家人醒来之前跑过去把它关掉。这就是我早晨写作的开始。

Since that first morning in 1978, I have been following the habit to this day, not making or accepting many excuses for not writing. I wrote my poems in this manner for nearly ten years before my first book was published. When I decided to write a novel, I divided my two hours: the first for poetry, the second for fiction. Well or badly, I wrote at least two pages a day. This is how my novel, The Line of the Sun, was finished. If I had waited to have the time, I would still be waiting to write my novel.
从1978年的第一个早上开始，我一直遵循这个习惯，直到今天，我没有为不写作找任何借口。在我的第一本书出版之前，我用这种方式写诗将近十年。当我决定写一本小说时，我给两个小时作了划分：第一个小时写诗，第二个小时写小说。不管是好是坏，我每天至少写两页。这就是我的小说《太阳线》的完成经过。如果我得等到有时间才写，那么我将一直在等待。

What I got out of getting up in the dark to work is the feeling that I am in control. For many people, the initial sense of urgency to create easily dies away because it requires making the tough decision: taking the time to create, stealing it from yourself if it's the only way.
我从黑暗中起床工作中得到的是一种自我掌控的感觉。对许多人来说，最初的紧迫感很容易消失，因为这需要做出艰难的决定：如果这是唯一的办法，花时间去创造，从自己身上偷走它。