Agree that the second translation conveys the message more clearly, but also used a lot more words. 还是中文原文言简意赅。一个在美国出生的华人孩子能把这句话翻成英文巧妙地用到面试里,中文基础太厉害了!
For some reason, this story is unbelievable - yes, you can understand either way:-).
Anyway, the fishing part is probably not a good idea to include in a college app assay, as it will get lost in translation.