At 84, US man gets high school diploma 84歲美國男子獲得高中文憑

◎張沛元

There’s at least one guy with a new high school diploma who’s not worrying about getting into college or finding a job.

至少有一個領到嶄新高中文憑的傢伙，不擔心能不能上大學或者找不找得到工作。

After all, Takeshi Murata is 84.

畢竟，村田武（譯音）84歲了。

Murata was 18 and a student at University High School in Greeley, Colorado, in 1944 when he was drafted to fight in World War II, according to the Greeley Daily Tribune newspaper.

根據格里利每日論壇報的報導，1944年，當18歲的村田還是科羅拉多州格里利的大學高中的學生時，他被徵召參與第二次世界大戰。

Though he was the son of Japanese immigrants, he grew up speaking English. In the Army, he was trained in an intelligence unit and given some studies in Japanese. After the war, he was sent to serve in U.S. military headquarters in Tokyo.

儘管身為日本移民之子，他從小到長大都是說英文。他在軍中的一個情報單位受訓，並且學了一些日文。戰後，他被派到位於東京的美軍總部服役。

"I really didn’t know Japanese that well," Murata told the Tribune. "But I’d learned a little in the intelligence schools, so they sent me." He met his wife, Chikako, there, he said. They married in Japan and in 1947 returned to northeast Colorado.

「我的日文真的不太好」，村田告訴論壇報。「但我在情報學校學了一些，所以他們派我去（東京）。」他說，他在那裡認識他的妻子千賀子（譯音）。兩人在日本結婚，1947年回到科羅拉多州東北部。

The high school finally granted Murata’s diploma after a teacher heard his story and found his old report cards.

在一名教師聽說了他的故事以及找到他以前的成績單後，該高中最後終於頒發村田文憑。

新聞辭典

draft：動詞／名詞，徵兵，徵募（美式）。draftee指被徵召服兵役者，draft dodger則指逃避兵役者。

immigrant：名詞，（外來）移民。immigrate，動詞，遷徙，移入。emigrant，動詞，移居國外，移出。

report card：學生的成績報告單。例句：I failed my final exams; I’ll be dead when my parents see my report card.（我期末考搞砸了；我爸媽看到我的成績單時會宰了我。）