可可網友們，大家好。歡迎和Rose一起聽故事，學英語。有些人安于別人賦予自己的角色，有些人卻寧可流血流汗，只為自己向往的位置。Cristina就是這樣的一個女孩兒。這樣的執著也使她最終成為西班牙的第一個女斗牛士。

When Cristina was a little girl, she loved to watch her father fight bulls. She knew that bullfighting was a dangerous profession. And she knew that there were no women bullfighters in Spain. But still she wanted to become a matador, to follow in her father's footsteps.

Her father was totally opposed to her future plans, but Cristina insisted. "I didn't want the role of a traditional woman," she says. Finally, her father changed his mind and gave in. He saw that Cristina had bullfighting in her blood. He gave her the green light to attend the most famous school in Spain to learn the ropes of bullfighting. And then he became her trainer.

Now Cristina is a star in her country. As the first female matador, she is always in the public eye. But it hasn't been smooth sailing for her. She has been hurt three times by bulls. Also, many people are angry about her participation in the sport. "When I hear insults from the crowd," says Cristina, "it makes me try harder. I want those people to eat their words."

算是一個小勵志故事了。盡管知道斗牛是危險的，是從沒有女人涉足過的職業，小Cristina依然想要follow in her father's footsteps步父親的后塵，成為一名職業斗牛士。對此，父親was totally opposed to。Be opposed to sth，意思是disagree strongly with a plan, an idea。強烈的反對某個觀點。再比如：Most Americans would , I suspect be opposed to this proposal. 我猜，大多數美國人都會反對這個提案。

然而Cristina非常堅決，最后，父親不得不承認Cristina had bullfighting in her blood。in one's blood，意思是in one’s personality or character。也就是“天生的，血液中帶有的”。比如：Acting runs in their blood. 演戲是他們家族遺傳的天分。

承認了這一點，父親gave her the green light to attend the most famous school in Spain to learn the ropes of bullfighting. 首先，give the green light to意思是give someone permisssion to do or start something. 允許某人做某事，允許某人開始做某事。這個用法和漢語中我們常說的“開綠燈”有相似之處。再來看去西班牙最好的學校學什么呢？learn the ropes of bullfighting，這里learn the ropes of可不是學習什么繩子，而是learn how to do something “摸到門道”的意思。比如：When you go to a new school , it takes a while learn the ropes. 你要去一所新學校，得過一段時間才能熟悉那里的人和環境。

然而，這個世界上不會有真正的smooth sailing，字面意思為“平穩的航行”，也就是沒有什么事情會永遠easy and without problems，沒有任何問題，沒有任何阻礙的。很多人，特別是同行們對她的加入非常不滿。有些人甚至在她上場的時候辱罵她。不過，對于Cristina來說，這些辱罵恰恰成為她不斷努力的動力。她要用實力讓罵她的人eat their words. 通過上下文意思，大家可以判斷出eat one’s words意思是admit that what one said is wrong。讓某人承認自己說的是錯的。也就是“收回某人所說的話”之意。例如：I never expect him to win , but he did ! I have to eat my words. 我真沒想到他會贏，可他真的贏了。我得收回說出的話了。

好了，今天的故事就到這里。我們下期“布朗尼加分”口語再見吧。