Passage One
Alexia Sloane, a 10-year-old girl, lost her sight when she was two following a brain disease But despite her disability she has excelled at languages and is already fluent in English, French, Spanish and Chinese-and is learning German.
Now she has experienced her dream job of working as an interpreter after East of England MEP(欧盟议员) Robert Sturdy invited her to the parliament building in Brussels, thus becoming the youngest interpreter to work at the European Parliament.
"She was given a special permit to get into the building, where there is usually a minimum age requirement of 14,and sat in a booth listening and interpreting,"said her mother, Isabelle."The other interpreters were amazed at how well she did as the debate was quite complicated and many of the words were rather technical."
Alexia has been tri-lingual since birth as her mother, a teacher, is half French and half Spanish, while her father, Richard,is English. She started talking and communicating in all three languages before she lost her sight but adapted quickly to her blindness. By the age of four, she was reading and writing in Braille(盲文). When she was six, Alexia began to learn Chinese. The girl is now learning German at school in Cambridge.
Alexia has been longing to be an interpreter since she was six and she chose to go to the European Parliament as her prize when she won a young achiever of the year award. She asked if she could shadow interpreters and Mr.Sturdy agreed to take her along as his guest.
Alexia worked with the head of interpreting and had a real taste of lire in parliament. "It was fantastic and I’m absolutely determined now to become an interpreter,"she said.
What does the passage tell about Alexia Sloane?
