A Californian Sixth-grade Student Won 2019 NASA Langley Art Contest

侯怡

We can express our inspiration and imagination1 in many ways， especially in the world of art. Roa Lee is a sixth-grade student from California， and she explored2 her imagination about the future human spaceflight3 and created a work that won the grand-prize for NASAs Langley Research Centers annual Student Art Contest.

我們可以用很多方法表达自己的灵感和想象力，尤其是在艺术的世界里。罗亚·李是一名来自加利福尼亚州的六年级学生，她探寻了自己对未来人类航天事业的想象并为此创作了一幅画作，在美国国家航空和宇宙航行局兰利研究中心举办的年度学生艺术比赛中获得特等奖。

“I was inspired by the theme of exploration because I imagined what it would be like for someone like me to become an astronaut4，” Roa Lee said.

罗亚·李说：“我受到了‘探索这一主题的启发，因为我曾想象过像我这样的人成为一名航天员的话，将会是什么样子。”

It was the first time that Roa had attended this competition. Before she learned about this contest， she didnt really have much interest in space because she never learned much about it in school.

这是罗亚第一次参加这种比赛。在知道这场比赛之前，她对太空真的没有什么兴趣，因为关于太空，她在学校里没有学过太多相关的知识。

“However， when I was doing research on what kind of artwork to make， I became more interested in space，” she said. “I think it would be really cool to visit space one day and explore different planets outside of Earth. There is so much to learn that we havent even discovered yet！”

“但是，当我在研究创作什么样的艺术作品时，我对太空越来越感兴趣了，”她说。“我觉得，要是有一天能够去太空探索地球之外的不同星球，真的很酷。有太多我们还未发现的事物有待了解！”

Hundreds of children in 42 states， the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico handed in 764 works in total. This years art contest theme “Explore” aimed to5 get the students to explore the furthest reaches of the unknown.

来自42个州、哥伦比亚特区和波多黎各的数百名学生总共提交了764幅作品。本届艺术比赛的主题“探索”旨在让学生能够最大程度地探索未知的事物。

Roas work draws that a young girl dreams about being an astronaut while doing schoolwork. She used different kinds of materials like pencils， watercolor， markers， glue and so on.

罗亚的作品描绘了一个小女孩在做学校作业时，梦想着自己成为一名航天员。她使用了不同的材料来作画，如铅笔、水彩笔、马克笔和胶水等等。

Roa said that people always thought of space with math and science， but they didnt connect it to art. “However， I think art is important when it comes to space because you need to be creative in order to think of new ways to help make discoveries，” Roa said.

罗亚说，人们总是从数学和科学的角度来思考太空，但是他们没有将其与艺术相联系。“然而，我认为在谈及太空时，艺术这门学科很重要，因为要想出有助于产生新发现的新方法，你需要具有创造性。”罗亚说。

“Because I am shy， I have a hard time expressing myself by talking to others， but art gives me a chance to show what I am thinking without having to use words， and I think that is really great，” she also said.

她还说：“由于我很害羞，在通过交谈向他人表达自己的想法时，我会觉得困难，但是艺术让我有机会不使用语言文字就能表达出我的想法，我认为这样很不错。”

Notes

1. imagination [       ] n. 想象力

2. explore [       ] v. 探索，探寻

3. spaceflight [       ] n. 航天

4. astronaut [       ] n. 航天员，宇航员

5. aim to 以……为目标;旨在……