In 1916, two girls of wealthy families, best friends from Auburn, N. Y.—Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood—traveled to a settlement in the Rocky Mountains to teach in a one-room schoolhouse. The girls had gone to Smith College. They wore expensive clothes. So for them to move to Elkhead, Colo. to instruct the children whose shoes were held together with string was a surprise. Their stay in Elkhead is the subject of Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West by Dorothy Wickenden, who is a magazine editor and Dorothy Woodruff’s granddaughter.
在1916年，来自纽约州奥本（Auburn）富裕家庭的两位女孩，也是好朋友——多萝西·伍德鲁夫（Dorothy Woodruff）和罗莎蒙德·安德伍德（Rosamond Underwood）——前往落基山脉的一个定居点，在一间小教室里教书。这两位女孩曾经就读于史密斯学院，并且穿着昂贵的衣服。因此，她们搬到科罗拉多州的埃尔克黑德（Elkhead）去教那些鞋子用绳子系着的孩子们，实在是令人惊讶。她们在埃尔克黑德的经历成为了多萝西·威肯登（Dorothy Wickenden）的着作《无畏之行：两位社交女士在西部的意外教育》的题材，多萝西·威肯登是一位杂志编辑，也是多萝西·伍德鲁夫的孙女。

Why did they go then? Well, they wanted to do something useful. Soon, however, they realized what they had undertaken.
那么她们为什么会去呢？嗯，她们希望做点有意义的事。然而，很快她们意识到了她们所承担的任务。

They moved in with a local family, the Harrisons, and, like them, had little privacy, rare baths, and a blanket of snow on their quilt when they woke up in the morning. Some mornings, Rosamond and Dorothy would arrive at the schoolhouse to find the children weeping from the cold. In spring, the snow was replaced by mud over ice.
他们搬进了当地的哈里森家庭，与他们一样，几乎没有隐私，很少洗澡，早上醒来时被被子覆盖着一层雪。有些早晨，罗莎蒙德和多萝西会发现孩子们因寒冷而哭泣。春天，雪被冰冻的泥土取代。

In Wickenden’s book, she expanded on the history of the West and also on feminism, which of course influenced the girls’ decision to go to Elkhead. A hair-raising section concerns the building of the railroads, which entailed（牵涉）drilling through the Rockies, often in blinding snowstorms. The book ends with Rosamond and Dorothy’s return to Auburn.
在威肯登的书中，她扩展了西部的历史，也涉及到了女权主义，这当然影响了女孩们决定去埃尔克黑德。一部令人毛骨悚然的部分涉及到修建铁路，这需要穿越落基山脉，经常在暴风雪中进行钻探。这本书以罗莎蒙德和多萝西回到奥本结束。

Wickenden is a very good storyteller. The sweep of the land and the stoicism（坚忍）of the people move her to some beautiful writing. Here is a picture of Dorothy Woodruff, on her horse, looking down from a hill top: “When the sun slipped behind the mountains, it shed a rosy glow all around them. Then a full moon rose. The snow was marked only by small animals: foxes, coyotes, mice, and varying hares, which turned white in the winter.”
Wickenden是一个非常优秀的讲故事者。土地的广袤和人们的坚忍感动着她，使她写出了一些美丽的文字。这是一个描绘Dorothy Woodruff的画面，她骑在马上，从山顶往下看：“当太阳滑落在山的背后时，四周都洒下了一片粉红色的光芒。接着，满月升起。雪地上只有一些小动物的踪迹：狐狸、郊狼、老鼠和白色的雪野兔，在冬天变成了白色。”

1. Why did Dorothy and Rosamond go to the Rocky Mountains?
   A. To teach in a school. B. To study American history.
   C. To write a book. D. To do sightseeing.
   答案：A

2. What can we learn about the girls from paragraph 3?
   A. They enjoyed much respect. B. They had a room with a bathtub.
   C. They lived with the local kids. D. They suffered severe hardships.
   答案：D

3. Which part of Wickenden’s writing is hair-raising?
   A. The extreme climate of Auburn. B. The living conditions in Elkhead.
   C. The railroad building in the Rockies. D. The natural beauty of the West.
   答案：C

4. What is the text?
   A. A news report. B. A book review. C. A children’s story. D. A diary entry.
   答案：B