He loathed the idea of "registering" with the government, so did not obtain birth certificates for Ms Westover and three other children.
他不愿意与政府"打交道"，所以没有为韦斯托弗女士以及另外三个孩子获取出生证明。
He spent his meagre income from scrap metal on a cache of huge guns and a giant gasoline tank, for fighting or fleeing when the authorities showed up.
他把靠收废弃金属得来的微薄收入都用于枪支囤积和一个巨大的汽油箱上，当政府到来时用以对抗或者逃跑。
Ms Westover slept with a "head-for-the-hills" bag by her bed.
韦斯托弗女士睡觉时枕边有一个"逃跑"提包。
As she entered adolescence, she writes, one of her brothers grew frighteningly violent.
随着她进入青春期，她写道，他的一个兄弟变得非常暴力。
He would drag her to the bathroom by her hair and slam her head into the toilet.
他经常会拽着她的头发把她拖进卫生间并且把她的头用力撞在马桶上。
Her parents mostly ignored it.
她的父母通常都对此视若无睹。
They even tried to convince Ms Westover that she was imagining things, and that she was the devilish party.
他们甚至试图让她相信她出现了幻觉，相信她是有过错的那一方。
When another brother left the compound to attend college, Ms Westover was inspired to emulate him.
当她另一个哥哥离开了这个是非之地去了大学，韦斯托弗女士受到了鼓舞要效仿他。
She taught herself enough algebra and grammar to pass Brigham Young's exam and enrolled in 2004.
她自学了足够多的代数和语法来通过杨百翰大学的考试，并于2004年入学。
At first she floundered, academically and socially.
起初，她在学业和社交上都一团乱麻。
How could people call themselves Mormon and drink Diet Coke-or wear skirts that revealed their knees?
人们如何能够自称为摩门教徒并喝着无糖可乐或者穿着露出膝盖的短裙？
But in time she excelled, winning a fellowship to study at Cambridge, where she immersed herself in history and philosophy.
但是最后她超越自我，获得了助学金前往剑桥大学学习，在那里她迷上了历史和哲学。
Then she did a doctorate at Harvard.
之后她在哈佛完成博士学位。
Her story is remarkable, as each extreme anecdote described in tidy prose attests.
她的故事是非同寻常的，因为每一个用整洁散文描述的极端轶闻都证明了。
That someone who grew up in her circumstances could achieve as much as she has is astonishing.
跟她在同样环境下长大的人能达到她所有的成就是令人惊讶的。
All the same, readers who enjoyed more mundane backgrounds will empathise.
不管怎么说，那些更享受平凡生活的读者会产生共鸣。
The central tension she wrestles with throughout her book is how to be true to herself without alienating her family.
贯穿全书，她一直与之斗争的核心矛盾是如何在不疏远她的家庭的前提下对自己的真实。
Her upbringing was extraordinary, but that struggle is not.
她的成长是非凡的，但她的拼搏不是。
（全文共249个词）（红色标注词为考研重点词汇）
考研重点词汇：
loathe [ləʊð] vt. 讨厌，厌恶
frighteningly ['fraitniŋli] adv. 令人恐惧地
compound ['kɒmpaʊnd] n. 化合物；混合物 v. 合成；混合；恶化，加重；和解，妥协
emulate ['emjʊleɪt] n. 仿真；仿效 vt. 仿真；模仿；尽力赶上；同…竞争
immerse [ɪ'mɜːs] vt. 沉浸；使陷入
mundane ['mʌndeɪn; mʌn'deɪn] adj. 世俗的，平凡的；世界的，宇宙的
empathise ['empəθaiz] vt. 移情；神会
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