#6. The most important thing you want to change about your hometown
I was born in a small town named Hailin, located in the North-East of China. The most serious problems in my hometown are the backward ideas about a woman's place in the family, school, workplace, and society. These negative stereotypes hurt not only women, but all of society as well. If possible, I would change the attitudes of the people in my hometown so they would view men and women equally.
Discrimination against women in my hometown begins before they are even born. Because people here believe that only a man can carry on the family line, every family wants to have at least one son. Each family is only supposed to have one child because of the overpopulation problem. This means that if a family can find out a fetus is female before it is born they might abort it. Or in other cases, people will have many female babies before they have a son, which only makes the population problem worse. If female babies were considered as important as male babies, then these two problems probably would not exist.
Discrimination against girls continues as they go to school and work. The prevalent stereotype is that women are not as smart as men and we shouldn't waste time and money educating them. Families often insist that their daughters stay at home and help with housework while sending their sons to school. Girls are born every bit as smart as boys and equally deserve to reap the benefits of education. Many of the world's famous scientists and leaders are women, from Marie Curie to Margaret Thatcher. We need to eliminate the stereotype that women are less intelligent than men so that our community can benefit from the achievements that women are capable of making when armed with education. In fact, women need to be respected enough to hold professional and leadership jobs in our community. This would mean that in the classified section of newspapers, there would no longer be jobs for "men only.` We will never know how many women could have done those jobs better than a man could have until the parents of every baby girl decide that their daughter is worth as much as their son. This is probably the most important thing that I want to change about my hometown.
6. 最想使家乡发生的一种改变
我出生在中国东北一个名叫海林的小镇。我家乡最为严重的问题就是关于妇女在家庭、学校、工厂和社会中地位方面的落后思想。这种消极的老套思想不仅伤害妇女们，同样对社会也是一种伤害。如果可能的话，我愿意改变我家乡人的看法，让他们可以平等地看待男性与女性。
在我的家乡，对妇女的歧视在她们出生之前就已经开始了。因为这里的人们认为只有男人可以延续家庭的香火，每一个家庭都应该至少有一个男孩。因为人口太多所以每个家庭只能有一个孩子。这就意味着如果一个家庭能在孩子出生前发现胎儿是女性，他们就可能堕胎。另外的情况是，人们会在生儿子之前生下很多女儿，这会使人口问题更糟。如果女婴被视作与男婴同等重要，这两个问题或许就不存在了。
对女孩的歧视在她们上学和参加工作时依然存在。目前流行的陈腐观念是女性不像男性那样聪明，所以不应该浪费时间和金钱去教育她们。家里常常会坚持让女孩留在家里帮忙做家务，而送男孩去上学。女孩生来就和男孩一样聪明，也值得去收获教育所带来的好处。从居里夫人到撒切尔夫人，许多世界著名的科学家和领袖都是女性。我们需要去除那些认为女性不如男性聪明的陈腐观念，这样我们的社会就可以享受到用知识武装起来的女性所能实现的成就。
事实上，女性需要获得足够的尊重以在社会中从事专业或领导工作。这可能就意味着在报纸上的分类广告里就不应该有“仅招男性”的工作职位。在每一个女婴的家长都认为他们的女儿与儿子有相同的价值之前，我们永远无法知道有多少女性能比男性在那些工作中做的更好。这大概就是我想改变我家乡的最重要的事了。
- backward ［ˈbækwəd］ adj. 落后的
- intelligent ［inˈtelidʒənt］ adj. 聪明的
- stereotype ［ˈsteriəˌtaip］ n.陈词滥调，老套
- achievement ［əˈtʃi:vmənt］ n. 成就
- abort ［əˈbɔ:t］ vt. 堕胎
- professional ［prəˈfeʃənəl］adj. 职业的，专业的
- discrimination ［diˌskriməˈneiʃən］ n. 歧视
- reap ［ri:p］ vt. 收获
- classified section of newspapers eliminate ［iˈliməneit］ vt. 消除报纸上的分类广告