Translation & Interpretation 2014

Lengua Inglesa II
Struggling to Overcome Anorexia

I Listen to the podcast about how to overcome anorexia and fill in the gaps with words/phrases
from the recording (1 pt each space)

A high school Junior from Berkley California recently became part of AN ALARMING STATISTIC. Three

years ago Lauren Silverman started TO SUFFER from anorexia nervosa, AN ILLNESS THAT AFFECTS

one of every 100 high school college age girls. People SUFFERING it think they’re heavier than they are and

have an INTENSE FEAR OF gaining weight. From Youth Radio Lauren Silverman shares her struggle with

anorexia.

When I was 13 the image of the perfect young woman BEGAN TO FORM in my mind, and unfortunately I

looked nothing like her. This RAISED THE QUESTION of how could I be special. It’s not like I woke up

one morning and decided the answer was to stop eating. My diet JUST KEPT GETTING more restrictive, like

half cup of cottage cheese for dinner. I was performing a disappearing act and FOR while no one noticed that

I WAS VANISHING. By the time they did it, I had got used to the friendship anorexia PROVIDED ME. It

promised to make me feel unique. In a matter of months I went from 95 pounds to 60 and I WAS LOSING

my ability to think straight. On a Wednesday morning in March of 2003, when I should have been in school,

my parents took me to a NUTRITIONIST and then to a doctor, who said my pulse and HEART RATE were

dangerously low. Without a change in my behavior I’d have to go to the hospital. I had tried to GET BETTER

on my own but it didn’t work. So, I just surrendered. That night I was ADMITTED to the hospital. March 21,

around 2:30 am, I was LYING in bed shivering and alone. Since my heart was weak, when I finally FELL

ASLEEP it slowed down too much, so WOKE to the sound of a heart rate monitor alarm GOING OFF. The

nurse rushed into my room clutching a heat blanket in one hand and a NASTY HIGH CALORIE milkshake in

the other.

I thought I was going to die right then and there. April 4 th, I waited for the nurse to come and draw my blood

like he had every day for two weeks. I WORE only a paper gown and tugged at the uncomfortable scratchy

edges with my BONY FINGERS. The nurse made me stand up to take my blood pressure and I GOT DIZZY.
 Translation & Interpretation 2014
Lengua Inglesa II
I lost my balance in front of my friends who were visiting. It was so embarrassing. The memories of my

THREE WEEKS in the hospital are very vivid, but now I can’t even imagine that person was me. April 11 th,

my parents BEGAN TO WATCH me at home like the nurses did in the hospital. So, there I was, at the dining

room table for one of my ENDLESS MEALS. I watched the clock flip its numbers like a deck of cards,

WATCHED THE FOOD on my plate, looked down at it as if it were the problem. Watched my parents stare

hopefully at me, dicing and rearranging my carrots, stake, turkey sandwich with extra cheese, slice of butter

and toast on my OVERSIZED PLATE I glanced back at the clock, back at the plate, TOOK ONE bite, one

small bite, then another, and another, then I LAUGHED, for the first time in over a month, mouth curved into

a WIDE OPEN SMILE as I REALIZED what I had done. I had begun to DEFEAT ANOREXIA, begun to

conquer my old companion.

That’s the story of Lauren Silverman, she IS 16 YEARS OLD.