《手工制作马鞍一托福阅读机经背景.docxVIP

智课网TOEFL备考资料手工制作马鞍一托福阅读机经背景 Nancy Martiny has made it in a mans world. She started making western saddles as a hobby but theres now a three-year waiting list of people lined up to buy her designs. 南西·马蒂尼开始制作马鞍时，只是为了兴趣。而现在，要买她的马鞍要等三年呢。曾几何时，马鞍制作是牛仔们包揽的。但马蒂尼对此从不在意。 Martiny builds her saddles from the ground up, eventually carving and stampingintricate patterns into the leather. She works in a field that’s been dominated by cowboys for years, but thats never bothered her. Martiny is no stranger to working with men. She grew up on a ranch, working cattle, riding and roping. 对南西·马蒂尼来说，和男人一起工作不是什么新鲜事。她在一个牧场长大，整天和牛、马、套索打交道。 From whenever I was a little kid I was always doing what the men did, she says. And then, as I got older and rodeoed and then, producing rodeos, I’ve always worked with men. 她说：“我从小就经常做男人的工作。长大以后，我学习牛仔竞技表演，然后又制作牛仔表演节目。我总是和男人一起工作。” So it never occurred to her that she couldn’t build her own saddles, something that men -- cowboys -- usually do. Something that comes as a surprise to many. 既然男人--也就是牛仔--通常都自己制作马鞍，所以马蒂尼从来就没想过她为什么就不能为自己制作一套马鞍。 They think you have to big and strong to build saddles but you don’t, says Martiny. You have to have a sharp knife. And you need an artistic eye for carving and stamping designs into the leather. 马蒂尼说，把图案雕刻和烙印在皮革上，需要有艺术眼光。 It’s more of a finesse thing than a strength thing. If you’re trying to overpower your leather, you’re going to get in a wreck and you probably haven’t done it right. “与其说这是件力气活儿，不如说是件细活儿。如果你只会下死力去整治你的皮革，你八成没做对。” Carving elaborate patterns into the leather is a skill Martiny first learned as a teenager, while watching her father tool leather. 马蒂尼在皮革上雕出花朵的枝干，花瓣，叶子。它们看来就像是从皮革上长出来的。马蒂尼十几岁时就看着父亲加工皮革，慢慢也学会了这种技巧。 So when I was 15, I talked him into helping me start tooling, she recalls. And then I kind of took his tools and made myself a belt and of course my friends at school wanted a western belt and it kind of started just like that. 她说：“我15岁那年说服父亲帮助我开始