英语高级视听说 下册 unit 2

2020年12月10日发(作者：顾非熊)
Not Your Average Teen
Lots of teenage girls dream of becoming rich and famous. But it's not a fantasy for Michelle Wie.
Just before her 16th birthday last fall, she became the highest-paid woman golfer in history simply
by turning professional and lending her name to commercial endorsements that will pay her
between $$10 million and $$12 million a year, most of which will go into a trust fund until she
becomes an adult.

Wie has been a celebrity since she was 13, when people began predicting she would become the
Tiger Woods of women’s golf. But, as correspondent Steve Kroft reports, that has never been
enough for Wie. She wants to become the first woman ever to successfully compete with men in a
professional sport. She has tried a couple of times on the PGA Tour without embarrassing herself.

As you will see, she has changed a lot since we first talked to her way back in 2004, when she was
14.

At the time, Wie told Kroft her ultimate goal was to play in the Masters.



It was a neat dream for a 14-year-old kid. Nothing has happened in the last two years to change
Wie's mind or shake her confidence.

She is stronger now, more mature and glamorous. She has already demonstrated that she can play
herself into the middle of the pack against the best men on the PGA Tour and has come within a
shot of winning her first two starts on the LPGA Tour this year as a part-time professional.

The day before 60 Minutes interviewed her at the Fields Open in Honolulu, she shot a final round
of 66, coming from six strokes off the lead to just miss a playoff.

ou won your first check yesterday,


was like 'Oh my God.'

Wie says she won around $$72,000.

Asked whether she gets to keep that money, Wie said she didn't know.


working it out. But, you know, I'm definitely gonna go shopping today,

Half of her life is spent in the adult world, competing with men and women twice her age for
paychecks they may need to make expenses and dealing with the media, sponsors and marketing
executives. The rest of the time she is a junior at Punahou High School in Honolulu, where she is
an A student and claims to lead the life of a typical 16-year-old.


she says, laughing.

What about boys?





I don't know, I mean, that's what everyone else says, she replies, laughing. I don't
really care. I'm way too busy as it is.

She has already been on the David Letterman Show, graced countless magazines and played golf
with former President Clinton, who, she claims, can be rather vague when recording his score.

Continued

To help manage all of this, her parents have surrounded her with the best people all that money
can buy. Besides her caddy, Greg Johnston, and renowned golf coach David Leadbetter, her
retinue includes agents, a sports psychologist, physical trainer and image consultant.

Two years ago, it was just Wie and her parents. Now she has an entourage.


team. It feels nice to have, you know, people that you can trust around you.





Most of the shots are still being called by her parents, B.J. and Bo, with recommendations from
the William Morris Agency, which was hired by the Wie family to manage the business aspects of
her career and line up endorsements from sponsors who were already standing in line.

They include a ubiquitous sporting goods and apparel company, a Japanese electronics giant and a
Swiss watch manufacturer? --who collectively contribute an eight-figure sum to the Michelle Wie
trust fund.

William Morris president David Wirtschafter says Michelle is, and will remain, their only golf
client in a talent stable mostly filled with Hollywood actors, directors and writers. He sees her as
someone who can easily make the jump from sports to entertainment.
Asked if he thinks there is a difference anymore between sports and entertainment, Wirtschafter
says: don't think so. We think that sports is a subset of entertainment. And we feel that so
many people are interested in her because almost every demographic is anxious to watch her play
and anxious to see what she does next, that she will be one of the few athletes who essentially
transcends sports and becomes somebody that people pay attention to in popular culture.

Why are so many people interested in her?


in a style that is much more like men. It's a power golf style. She hits the ball a long, long way. I
think women find her attractive, particularly young women, because she, again, is playing against
boys. And, yet, when she's off the course, she's very much like them.

Wirtschafter acknowledges that Wie has also become very attractive and that it makes a huge
difference.
skill level that's off the charts. And I think that's a very, very rare combination.



don't think there'd be this level of interest. But if she was 5-2 and weighed 160 pounds and
could play golf as she plays golf, she'd still be a great golfer,

Much of the interest in Michelle is in Asia. She is of Korean descent, already speaks Japanese and
is now taking a stab at Mandarin. When she arrived at an airport in Japan last year before playing
in a tournament there, she was styled and greeted like a major movie star, although she tries to
pretend otherwise.

Wie says she doesn’t feel the level of celebrity she has already achieved. Referring to her movie
star- like reception in Japan, Wie says,
they had a plane to catch.

Wie admits juggling high school life while playing on the LPGA Tour is hectic but says that's the
way she likes it.


just, like, walking around my house trying to find something, actually cleaning up my room, she
says, laughing.

Asked if her parents still rule her life, Wie says:
the head of the household. So I guess I have to listen. But I'm still stubborn. I won't give in easily,
that’s the thing.

That stubbornness has helped propel her to stardom. She passed up junior events and amateur
tournaments that she could win for the chance to lose and learn from the best professionals. She
also ignored people like John Hawkins, a senior writer at
advised her to stay away from the men’s tour and go play with the girls.

an iconoclast. She is somebody who dares to separate herself from her so-called
peers,

Hawkins says it's a huge part of Wie's appeal.

is unlike anybody else,he says. has the guts? Can’t refer to any other part of the
anatomy here? Who has the guts to play against men when they're 16? I have a tremendous
amount of respect for the satchel it takes to go out there and tee it up with the big boys. You gotta
turn your TV on and watch that, don't you? I mean, you got to.

And people watched.
news when she tries,

Continued

No one is happier with the prospect than the TV networks and tournament sponsors. When
Michelle plays against men or women, television ratings and ticket sales go up an average of 50
percent. But Hawkins points out that Michelle hasn't won anything since she was 13, and if she is
going to justify her eight-figure endorsement deals over any length of time, she needs to win some
tournaments.

think a lot of that money is predicated on her not only competing against men, Steve, but
beating the women. She is a special talent. She is a transcendent figure,
it all. But you still gotta have W's in your pocket. I mean, that's the deal.

Does Michelle feel the pressure to start winning tournaments?


recognize that I'm still a full-time student,
do. And, hopefully, they'll be patient with me because I believe that I can do it.

Last weekend at the Kraft Nabisco Tournament, she just missed another opportunity to win a
major championship on the women’s tour. After making a birdie on the 16th hole, all she had to do
to make the playoff was get it down in two from the edge of the 18th green. But her chip shot went
10 feet past the hole and she just missed the putt coming back.


says Hawkins. ou still feel emotions that you've never felt. Your heart beats a little harder.
You're not used to feeling the crunch of pressure. I think she's still learning.

But if you ask Michelle what has been her most stressful experience this year, she’ll likely give
you the 16-year-old answer? Which was taking and barely passing her driver’s test?



While she just made the cut, she says she was really nervous and didn't know what to expect.

event?



Michelle says she would rate her driving skills as OK. I kind of panic sometimes. It's not
very good. I have to get better on that.

When her parents finally allow her to have her own car, she’ll not only get exactly what she wants,
some company will gladly pay her to drive it. But to her friends at Punahou High, she is just
another junior.


Raquel.

And Meghan, another friend, says even when Michelle is halfway around the world, they text
message each other a lot.

Wie is not one of those prodigies who has been robbed of her childhood; in some ways she is still
holding on to it? --the final stages, anyway, and enjoying every minute of it. At 16, the days and
weeks still last a long time for her. An endless summer competing against some of the best golfers
in the world still feels a long way off. Anything beyond that is hard for her to grasp.


she says. then the reality sinks in that I never booked a hotel room by myself. I've never
bought a plane ticket. I barely know how to do laundry. I can't cook. I can't even, I almost cannot
microwave stuff. I mean it's pathetic. So basically the reality sets in and I can't do that.








guess I just have to learn how to do laundry,

Asked whether she wants to get married and have kids, Michelle Wie said, laughing: eah, most
definitely. That's way down the road. I mean, I'm 16 right now. Might be illegal right now.