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DavidDow_2012X-_从死刑囚犯中得出的道理_
Two weeks ago, 两周前,
I was sitting at the kitchen table with my wife Katya, and we were talking about what I was gonna talk about today. 我和我的妻子,卡特亚, 坐在餐桌旁, 我们两人当时谈论着我今天将要讨论的事情。
We have an 11-year-old son; his name is Lincoln. He was sitting at the same table doing his math homework. 我们有个11岁大的儿子;叫林肯。他当时也坐在同一张餐桌旁 做他的数学作业。
And during a pause in my conversation with Katya, I looked over at Lincoln and I was suddenly thunderstruck by a recollection of a client of mine. 我和卡特亚的谈话暂停了一下, 我看着林肯 然后突然被我想起来的一位客户的经历所 震惊了。
thunderstruck:adj.遭雷击的;惊愕的;吓坏了的; recollection:n.回忆;回忆起的事物; client:n.[经]客户;顾客;委托人;
My client was a guy named Will. 我的客户是一个叫威尔的男孩。
He was from North Texas. 他来自北德克萨斯。
He never knew his father very well, because his father left his mom while she was pregnant with him. 他的父亲在他母亲怀着他的时候就离开了他们,所以 从没见过他的父亲。
pregnant:adj.怀孕的;富有意义的;
And so, he was destined to be raised by a single mom, which might have been all right except that this particular single mom was a paranoid schizophrenic , and when Will was five years old shetried to kill him with a butcher knife. 所以,命中注定他成长在一个单亲妈妈的家庭, 也许他可以成长的很好 只是他的特殊的单身母亲 有偏执型精神分裂症, 更糟糕的是她曾经想用一把屠刀杀死只有5岁的威尔。
destined:adj.注定的;命定的;去往…的;v.注定;(destine的过去式和过去分词) paranoid:adj.类似妄想狂的;属于偏执狂的;n.患妄想狂的人;偏执狂患者; schizophrenic:adj.精神分裂症的;n.精神分裂症的患者; butcher:n.屠夫;肉贩;肉店;肉铺;v.屠杀;杀戮;屠宰;宰杀;adj."butch"的比较级;
She was taken away by authorities and placed in apsychiatric hospital, and so for the next several years Willlived with his older brother until he committed suicide by shootinghimself through the heart. 她被 警察带走后并被送进了精神病院, 那之后的几年威尔和他的哥哥生活在一起直到 他的哥哥将一颗子弹送进了自己的心脏。
authorities:n.权力;威权;职权;批准;(authority的复数) committed:adj.坚信的; v.做出错事; (commit的过去分词和过去式) suicide:n.自杀;自杀行为;自杀者;adj.自杀的;v.自杀;vi.自杀;
And after that 那之后
Will bounced around from one familymember to another, until, by the time he was nine years old,he was essentially living on his own. 威尔就在亲戚家中轮流居住, 直到,他九岁的时候,他基本上只是自己独自生活了。
essentially:adv.本质上;本来;
That morning that I was sitting withKatya and Lincoln, I looked at my son, and I realized that when my client, Will, was his age, he'd been living by himself for two years. 那天早上我,卡特亚和林肯坐在一起,我看着我的儿子, 我意识到当我的客户,威尔, 和我儿子一样大的时候, 他已经独自生活了两年了。
Will eventually joined a gang and committed a number of very serious crimes, including, most seriously of all, a horrible , tragic murder. 威尔最后加入了黑手党 并严重触犯了 一系列法律, 包括,其中最严重, 一场可怕,悲剧性的谋杀。
eventually:adv.最后,终于; gang:n.一群; v.(英)去; horrible:可怕的,极讨厌的, tragic:adj.悲剧的;悲痛的,不幸的;
And Will was ultimately executed as punishment for that crime. 威尔最后被判处死刑 作为犯罪的惩罚。
ultimately:adv.最终;最后;归根结底;终究; executed:v.(尤指依法)处决,处死;实行;执行;实施;(execute的过去分词和过去式)
But I don't want to talk today about the morality of capital punishment . I certainly think that my client shouldn't have been executed, but what I would like to do today instead is talk about the death penalty in a way I've never done before, in a way that is entirely noncontroversial . 但是今天我不打算 谈论 关于死刑的道德问题。我坚定的认为 我的客户不应该被判死刑,但是我今天想从一个 以前没有讨论过的角度去 谈一谈死刑, 一个 完全无可争议的角度。
morality:n.道德;品行,美德; capital punishment:n.死刑;极刑; death penalty:死刑; noncontroversial:adj.不会引起争议的;一致的;
I think that's possible, because there is a corner of the death penalty debate -- maybe the most important corner -- where everybody agrees, where the most ardent death penalty supporters and the most vociferous abolitionists are on exactly the same page. 我认为这是可能的, 因为总有一个关于死刑争议 的角落-- 也许是最重要的角落-- 所有人都可以认同, 其中死刑最忠实的拥护者 和坚持废除死刑的人 都认同的事。
debate:n.辩论;争论;考虑;v.辩论;争论;考虑; ardent:adj.热情的;热心的;激烈的;燃烧般的; supporters:n.拥护者;(运动队的)支持者;(supporter的复数) vociferous:adj.大声叫的;喊叫的,喧嚷的; abolitionists:n.废奴主义者;废除主义者;
That's the corner I want to explore . 那就是我想探索的角落。
explore:v.探索:探测:探险:
Before I do that, though, I want to spend a couple of minutes telling you how a death penalty case unfolds , and then I want to tell you two lessons that I have learned over the last 20 years as a death penalty lawyer, from watching well more than a hundred cases unfold in this way. 在这之前,可是,我想几分钟时间向你们说明一下 死刑案例是如何开展的, 之后我想再告诉你们过去的20年中 作为一个死刑律师我学到的两件事, 从过去以这样的形式已经开展的上百例案件。
unfolds:vt.打开;呈现;vi.展开;显露;
You can think of a death penalty case asa story that has four chapters. 您可以把死刑案件看做的一个 有四个章节的故事。
The first chapter of every case is exactly the same, and it is tragic. 每宗个案的第一章是完全相同的, 是个悲剧。
It begins with the murder of an innocent human being, and it's followed by a trial where the murderer is convicted and sent to death row , and that death sentence is ultimately upheld by the state appellate court . 它始于谋杀 无辜的人, 接下来是审判 法庭上杀人凶手被定罪为死囚, 最终, 被州诉讼法院判为死刑。
innocent:adj.无辜的;无罪的;无知的;n.天真的人;笨蛋; convicted:v.定罪;宣判…有罪;(convict的过去式和过去分词) death row:n.死囚牢房;死囚区; death sentence:n.死刑; upheld:v.支持(uphold的过去式); appellate court:n.上诉法庭;
The second chapter consists of acomplicated legal proceeding known as a state habeas corpus appeal . 第二章由复杂的法律程序组成,称为 州人身保护诉讼令。
consists:v.由…构成;由…组成(consist的三单形式); legal:adj.法律的;合法的;法定的; habeas corpus:n.人身保护法(对被拘禁者的羁押期予以限制); appeal:n.上诉;吸引力;申诉;魅力;v.上诉;呼吁;申诉;恳求;
The third chapter is an even more complicated legal proceeding known as a federal habeas corpus proceeding. 第三章的法律程序更为复杂,称为 联邦人身保护令程序。
complicated:adj.复杂的;难懂的;v.使复杂化;(complicate的过去分词和过去式) federal:adj.联邦的;同盟的;联邦政府的;联邦制的;adv.联邦政府地;
And the fourth chapter is one where a variety of things can happen. The lawyers might file a clemency petition , they might initiate even more complexlitigation, or they might not do anything at all. 第四章中 各种各样的事情都可能发生。律师们可能会提出申请, 他们可能会引发更多复杂的诉讼, 或者,他们可能什么都不做。
variety:n.多样;种类;杂耍;变化,多样化; clemency:n.仁慈;温和;宽厚; petition:n.请愿;请愿书;祈求;[法]诉状;vi.请愿;请求;vt.请愿;请求;恳求; initiate:vt.开始,创始; n.开始; adj.新加入的;
But that fourth chapter always ends with an execution . 但这四章总是以 执行死刑结束。
execution:n.执行,实行;完成;死刑;
When I started representing death rowinmates more than 20 years ago, people on death row did not have a rightto a lawyer in either the second or the fourth chapter of this story. 当我 20 多年前开始为死囚牢房的囚犯做代表的时候, 死囚并没有使用律师的权利,在这个故事的第二章 或第四章。
representing:v.代表;维护…的利益;等于;相当于;(represent的现在分词)
They were on their own. 他们得靠自己。
In fact, it wasn't until the late 1980s that they acquired a right to a lawyer during the third chapter of the story. 事实上,直到20世纪80年代他们才获得在 这个故事的第三章期间 使用律师的权利。
acquired:adj.习得的; v.获得; (acquire的过去分词和过去式)
So what all of these death row inmates had to do was rely on volunteer lawyers to handle their legal proceedings . 所以所有这些死囚犯人不得不 依靠志愿律师 来处理他们的法律诉讼。
inmates:n.被收容者;居民(inmate的名词复数); rely:vi.依靠;信赖; volunteer:n.志愿者;志愿兵;adj.志愿的;v.自愿; handle:n.[建]把手;柄;手感;口实;v.处理;操作;运用;买卖;触摸; legal proceedings:un.诉讼;
The problem is that there were way moreguys on death row than there were lawyers who had both the interest and the expertise to work on these cases. 问题是死囚的数量比起 对死囚案件有兴趣以及具有相关技能的律师更多。
expertise:n.专门知识;专门技术;专家的意见;
And so inevitably , lawyers drifted to cases that werealready in chapter four -- that makes sense, of course. Those are thecases that are most urgent; those are the guys who are closest to being executed. 所以不可避免的是, 律师漂流到了已经在第四章的案件 — — 这的确有道理,当然。这些案件都是最迫切的 ; 这些家伙都是最接近于执行死刑的人。
inevitably:adv.不可避免地;必然地; drifted:v.漂流;漂移;缓缓移动;缓慢行走;(drift的过去分词和过去式)
Some of these lawyers were successful; they managed to get new trials for their clients . 这些律师有的成功的为他们的客户争取到了新的审判。
clients:n.委托人;当事人;客户机;(client的复数)
Others of them managed to extendthe lives of their clients, sometimes by years, sometimes by months. 其他的设法延长了他们的客户生命,有时 是几年,有时是几个月。
But the one thing that didn't happen was that there was never a serious andsustained decline in the number of annual executions in Texas. 但有一件事没有发生, 在德克萨斯州,每年处决的人数从没有 真正意义的持续下降。
decline:v.下降;衰退;减少;谢绝;n.下降; annual:n.年报;年鉴;年刊;adj.每年的;年度的;一年的; executions:n.死刑(execution的复数形式);实行;完成;
In fact, as you can see from this graph,from the time that the Texas execution apparatus got efficient in the mid- tolate-1990s, there've only been a couple of years wherethe number of annual executions dipped below 20. 实际上,正如您看到的这张图表,从20世纪90年代中期到晚期, 德克萨斯州执行机构有了执行能力, 只有过了几年每年处决的人数在下降 到20个案例以下。
as you can see:正如你所看到的;你是知道的; apparatus:n.装置,设备;仪器;器官; efficient:adj.有效率的;有能力的;生效的; dipped:v.蘸;浸;(使)下降;把(汽车前灯的)远光调为近光;(dip的过去分词和过去式)
In a typical year in Texas, we're averaging about two people a month. 德克萨斯州一年中, 我们现在平均大约 每个月有两人被执行。
typical:adj.典型的;特有的;象征性的;
In some years in Texas, we've executedclose to 40 people, and this number has never significantly declined overthe last 15 years. 在德克萨斯州的一些年里,我们曾经执行过近 40 人,并且这一数字 在过去的 15 年中从来没有显著下降过。
significantly:adv.意味深长地;值得注目地; declined:v.减少;下降;衰弱;婉言拒绝;(decline的过去分词和过去式)
And yet, at the same time that wecontinue to execute about the same number of people everyyear, the number of people who we're sentencingto death on an annual basis has dropped rather steeply . 然而,同时,我们继续执行 几乎每年相同数量的人数, 我们正在宣判死刑的人数 以年为单位 在急剧下降。
at the same time:同时;另一方面;与此同时; steeply:adv.陡峭地;险峻地;
So we have this paradox , which is that the number of annualexecutions has remained high but the number of new death sentenceshas gone down. 所以我们得出这种自相矛盾的结论, 就是每年处决的人数保持很高 但新的死刑判决的数目下降了。
paradox:n.悖论,反论;似非而是的论点;自相矛盾的人或事;
Why is that? 这是为什么？
It can't be attributed to a decline in the murder rate, because the murder rate has not declined nearly so steeply as the red line onthat graph has gone down. 它不能归咎于谋杀数量的下降, 因为谋杀数量没有下降 近那么快,图上的红线已经减少了。
attributed:v.归于(attribute的过去式,过去分词);属性化;
What has happened instead is that juries have started to sentencemore and more people to prison for the rest of their lives without thepossibility of parole , rather than sending them to theexecution chamber . 取而代之, 陪审团着手把更多的人判入监狱 终生监禁他们完全没有释放的机会, 而不是将它们发送到死刑室。
juries:n.[法]陪审团(jury的复数);评委会; parole:n.语言;誓言,诺言;释放宣言;v.有条件释放,假释;使假释出狱; chamber:n.(身体或器官内的)室,膛; adj.室内的; vt.把…关在室内;
Why has that happened? 为什么？
it hasn't happened because of adissolution of popular support for the death penalty. Death penalty opponents take great solace in the fact that death penalty support in Texas is atan all-time low . 这不是因民意支持取消 死刑。死刑反对者获得了极大的安慰是因为 在德克萨斯州的死刑支持率正处于历史低点。
opponents:n.对手(opponent的复数形式); solace:n.安慰;慰藉;安慰之物;vt.安慰;抚慰;使快乐; all-time low:低谷;
Do you know what all-time low in Texasmeans? 你知道在德克萨斯州创历史新低意味着什么吗？
It means that it's in the low 60 percent. 这意味着它是低于60%。
Now that's really good compared to themid 1980s, when it was in excess of 80 percent, but we can't explain the decline indeath sentences and the affinity for 与之相比,一个很好的例子是80年代中期,当时 这个数字是超过 80%, 但我们不能简单的解释死刑判决的减少是因为人们对生命的关注
compared:adj.比较的,对照的; v.相比; (compare的过去式和过去分词) excess:n.超过,超额;过度,过量;无节制;adj.额外的,过量的;附加的; affinity:n.密切关系;吸引力;姻亲关系;类同;
life without the possibility of paroleby an erosion of support for the death penalty, because people still support thedeath penalty. 而把死刑支持者言论减少的可能性排除在外。 ,因为有人仍支持死刑。
erosion:n.侵蚀,腐蚀;
What's happened to cause this phenomenon ? 发生了什么,导致这种现象呢？
phenomenon:n.现象;杰出的人;非凡的人(或事物);
What's happened is that lawyers who represent death row inmates haveshifted their focus to earlier and earlier chapters of thedeath penalty story. 说发生的事是 这些代表死囚的律师们 已经开始将他们的注意力向更早 死刑故事的章节。
So 25 years ago, they focused onchapter four. 所以 25 年前,他们关注第四章。
And they went from chapter four 25 years ago to chapter three in the late 1980s. 25年前,80年代后期,他们从 第四章转移到了第三章。
And they went from chapter three in thelate 1980s to chapter two in the mid-1990s. And beginningin the mid- to late-1990s, they began to focus on chapter one ofthe story. 他们从八十年代后期第 3 章中进入到了 上世纪 90 年代中期的了第两章。从90年代中期到后期, 他们开始专注于故事的第一章。
Now you might think that this decline indeath sentences and the increase in the number of life sentences is a good thingor a bad thing. 现在,你也许会认为死刑判决的减少和上升的 终身监禁刑罚的人数是一件好事或坏事。
I don't want to have a conversation about thattoday. 我今天不想讨论。
All that I want to tell you is that thereason that this has happened is because death penalty lawyers haveunderstood that the earlier you intervene in acase, the greater the likelihood that you'regoing to save your client's life. 所有的我想要告诉是发生的理由 正是因为死刑律师能看明白 在你的案例中越早干预, 你越有希望保护你的客户的生命。
intervene:vi.干涉;调停;插入; likelihood:n.可能性,可能;
That's the first thing I've learned. 这是我所学到的第一件事。
Here's the second thing I learned: 我学到了第二件事:
My client Will was not the exception to the rule; he was the rule. 我的客户威尔 并不是个规则的例外; 他就是规则。
exception:n.例外;异议;
I sometimes say, if you tell me the nameof a death row inmate -- doesn't matter what state he's in, doesn't matter if I've ever met him before -- 我有时会说,如果你告诉我一个死囚犯人的名字— — 不管他现在是什么状态也不管我之前是否见过他 — —
I'll write his biography for you. 我可以为你写出他的自传。
biography:n.传记;档案;个人简介;
And eight out of 10 times, the details of that biography will be more or less accurate . 80%的情况下, 该传记的细节 或多或少是准确的。
more or less:或多或少; accurate:adj.精确的;
And the reason for that is that 80 percent of the people on death row are people who came from the same sort ofdysfunctional family that Will did. 原因是 80%的死囚 都来自同一种功能失调的家庭。
Eighty percent of the people on death row are people who had exposure to the juvenile justice system. 80%的死囚 都接触过 少年司法制度系统。
exposure:n.暴露;显露;揭露;面临; juvenile:adj.青少年的;幼稚的;n.青少年;少年读物; justice:n.公平;公正;司法制度;审判;
That's the second lesson that I've learned. 这就是我学会的 第二个教训。
Now we're right on the cusp of that corner where everybody's going to agree. 现在我们就在那个角落的尖点 那里每个人都认同。
cusp:n.尖头;尖端;
People in this room might disagree about whether Will should have beenexecuted, but I think everybody would agree that the best possible version of his story would be a story where no murder ever occurs . 在这个房间里的人可能不同意 关于威尔是否应该被执行死刑, 但我想大家都会同意 他的故事最好的可能版本 是一个谋杀不曾出现的 故事。
occurs:v.重现(occur的第三人称单数);
How do we do that? 我们如何做哪？
When our son Lincoln was working on thatmath problem two weeks ago, it was a big, gnarly problem. 两周前,当我们的儿子林肯正在研究这一数学问题 的时候,是一个很麻烦的问题。
gnarly:adj.多瘤的;粗糙的;
And he was learning how, when you have a big old gnarly problem, sometimes the solution is to slice itinto smaller problems. 他学习如何（解决问题）,当你有一个麻烦的问题, 有时解决方案是把它分成较小的问题。
solution:n.解决方案;溶液;溶解;解答; slice:n.片; v.切成片; (很容易地)切开;
That's what we do for most problems -- inmath and physics, even in social policy -- we slice them into smaller, moremanageable problems. 这是我们做大多数问题--数学和物理,即使社会政策- 我们把它们分割为更小、 更易于管理的问题。
policy:n.政策,方针;保险单;
But every once in a while , as Dwight Eisenhower said, the way you solve a problem is to make it bigger. 但每隔一段时间, 正如德怀特 · 艾森豪威尔说, 解决问题的方法 是要使它变得更大。
every once in a while:有时;偶然;偶尔;时而; Eisenhower:n.艾森豪威尔(美国第三十四任总统);
The way we solve this problem is to make the issue of the deathpenalty bigger. 我们解决这个问题的方法 是要使死刑的问题更大。
issue:n.重要议题;争论的问题;v.宣布;公布;发出;发行;
We have to say, all right. 我们不得不说,好吧。
We have these four chapters of a death penalty story, but what happens before that story begins? 我们有这四章 死刑的故事, 但是故事开始之前 会发生什么？
How can we intervene in the life of a murderer before he's a murderer? 我们如何可以凶手犯罪之前干预 他的生活？
What options do we have to nudge that person off of the path that is going to lead to a result thateverybody -- death penalty supporters and death penaltyopponents -- still think is a bad result: the murder of an innocent human being? 我们有哪些选择 改变谋杀犯的 人生轨迹 这会导致一个结果,所有人— — 死刑的支持者和反对者 — — 仍然认为 是一个糟糕的结果: 一个无辜的人被杀害吗？
options:n.选择; v.得到或获准进行选择; (option的三单形式) nudge:n.推动; vt.推进; vi.轻推;
You know, sometimes people say that something isn't rocket science . 你知道,有时候人们会说 有一些事情 不是火箭科学。
rocket science:复杂的事;航天器学;
And by that, what they mean is rocketscience is really complicated and this problem that we're talkingabout now is really simple. 是,他们的意思是火箭科学确实很复杂 而这个问题,我们正在谈论其实是真的非常简单。
Well that's rocket science; that's the mathematical expression for the thrust created by a rocket. 嗯,这是火箭科学 ; 这就是数学方程式 为一枚火箭创建的推力。
mathematical:adj.数学的,数学上的;精确的; expression:n.表现,表示,表达; thrust:v.刺;塞;冲;挤;n.刺;插;重点;猛推;
What we're talking about today is just as complicated. 我们今天讨论的 事很复杂。
What we're talking about today is also rocket science. 我们今天在讨论的也是 火箭科学。
My client Will and 80 percent of the people ondeath row had five chapters in their lives that came before the four chapters of the death penaltystory. 我的客户威尔 和 80%的死囚 在他们的生活中有五个章节 这都在 死刑故事的四个章节之前。
I think of these five chapters as pointsof intervention , places in their lives when our society could've intervened in their lives andnudged them off of the path that they were on 我认为这些五个章节的干预点, 在他们的生活中当我们的社会 可以介入他们的生活并改变他们正在走向一个结局,那个我们所有人
intervention:n.介入;调停;妨碍; intervened:干涉;介入(intervene的过去式和过去分词);
that created a consequence that we all -- death penalty supporters or death penalty opponents -- say was a bad result. — — 死刑的支持者或死刑 的反对者 — — 认为是很差的结局。
consequence:n.结果;重要性;推论;
Now, during each of these fivechapters: when his mother was pregnant with him; in his early childhood years; when he was in elementary school; when he was in middle school and then highschool; 现在,这五个章节的每个章节: 当他的母亲怀孕; 在他早期的童年 ; 当他上小学 ; 当他上中学和高中 ;
childhood:n.童年;幼年;孩童时期 elementary:adj.基本的;初级的;[化学]元素的; middle school:n.初中;(英国为9到13岁儿童所设的)中间学校;
and when he was in the juvenile justicesystem -- during each of those five chapters, there were a wide variety of things that society could have done. 当他在少年司法系统 — — 期间的每个章节, 有各种各样社会能做的事情。
In fact, if we just imagine that there are five different modes ofintervention, the way that society could intervene in each of those five chapters, and we could mix and match them any waywe want, 事实上,如果我们只是想象 有五种不同模式的干预,社会可以介入的方式 五个章节的每一章, 我们可以混合匹配成任何我们想要的方式,
modes:n.模式(mode的复数形式);方法;分辨率;
there are 3,000 -- more than 3,000 -- possible strategies that we could embrace in order to nudgekids like Will off of the path that they're on. 有 3,000 — — 超过 3,000 — — 可能行性措施 我们可以帮助,像威尔一样的孩子 改变他们的人生之路。
strategies:n.策略;行动计划;部署;战略;(strategy的复数) embrace:n.拥抱,怀抱;v.拥抱;乐意采纳(思想、建议等);信奉;包括;
So I'm not standing here today with the solution. 所以我今天不是站在这里 提出解决方案。
But the fact that we still have a lot to learn, that doesn't mean that we don't know a lot already. 但事实是我们仍有很多要学, 这并不意味着我们一无所知。
We know from experience in other states that there are a wide variety of modesof intervention that we could be using in Texas, and inevery other state that isn't using them, in order to prevent a consequence that we all agree is bad. 我们从其他州的经验知道 有多种方式干预 那我们可以用在得克萨斯州,并在每个其他州都不使用它们, 为了防止我们都共同认为是不好的后果。
I'll just mention a few. 我得提一下几个。
I won't talk today about reforming thelegal system. 我今天不会讨论关于司法制度改革。
reforming:v.改革;改进;改良;(使)悔改;(reform的现在分词)
That's probably a topic that is bestreserved for a room full of lawyers and judges. 这可能是一个最好的预留给满屋子的律师和法官的话题。
Instead, let me talk about a couple ofmodes of intervention that we can all help accomplish , because they are modes of interventionthat will come about 相反,让我谈一谈几个的干预模式 我们可以所有帮助完成, 因为它们是将会出现的干预方式
accomplish:v.完成;实现;达到;
when legislators and policymakers , when taxpayers and citizens, agree that that's what we ought to bedoing and that's how we ought to be spending our money. 当立法会议员和政策制定者,当纳税人和公民, 一致认为这是我们应该做什么 而这是我们应该如何花自己的钱。
legislators:n.立法委员;(legislator的复数) policymakers:n.决策人;(policymaker的复数) taxpayers:n.纳税人(taxpayer的复数);
We could be providing early childhood care for economically disadvantaged andotherwise troubled kids, and we could be doing it for free. 我们可以提供早期儿童护理 帮助经济处于弱势和陷入其他困境的孩子们, 并且是免费的。
economically:adv.经济地;在经济上;节俭地; disadvantaged:adj.贫困的; n.弱势团体; v.使处于不利地位(disadvantage的过去式和过去分词);
And we could be nudging kids like Willoff of the path that we're on. 这样我们就可以改变像威尔这样的孩子们的命运。
nudging:v.(用肘)轻推,轻触;(朝某方向)轻推,渐渐推动;(nudge的现在分词)
There are other states that do that, but we don't. 已经其他州在这样做了,但我们还没有。
We could be providing special schools, atboth the high school level and the middle school level, but even in K-5, that target economically and otherwisedisadvantaged kids, and particularly kids who have had exposure to the juvenile justice system. 我们可以提供专门的学校,从高中 到初中,甚至是小学5年级的孩子, 目标是帮助经济和其他方面处于不利地位的孩子,特别是 已经触犯过 少年司法系统的孩子。
particularly:adv.特别地,独特地;详细地,具体地;明确地,细致地;
There are a handful of states that do that; 这正是几个州都在做的事 ;
Texas doesn't. 德克萨斯州并没有。
There's one other thing we can be doing -- well, there are a bunch of other things that we could be doing -- there's one other thing that we could be doing that I'm going to mention, and this isgonna be the only controversial thing that I say today. 有一件事,是我们可以做的 — — 也许,有很多其他我们应该做的事情 — — 但是有一件事我们可以做的, 我也不得不在这里提一下,这也是今天唯一有 争议的事。
a bunch of:一群;一束;一堆;
We could be intervening much more aggressively into dangerously dysfunctional homes, and getting kids out of them before their moms pick up butcher knivesand threaten to kill them. 我们可以更加积极 的干预 那些已经变得危险并功能失调的家庭, 并把他们的孩子 在他们的妈妈拿起屠夫刀并威胁要杀死他们之前解救出来。
intervening:adj.介于中间的;v.介入(intervene的ing形式); aggressively:adv.侵略地;攻击地;有闯劲地; dangerously:adv.危险地;不安全; dysfunctional:机能失调的,功能障碍的;
If we're gonna do that, we need a place to put them. 如果我们要这样做, 我们需要地方安置他们。
Even if we do all of those things, somekids are going to fall through the cracks and they're going to end up in that lastchapter before the murder story begins, they're going to end up in the juvenilejustice system. 即使我们做到所有这些事,仍然会有一些孩子会被漏掉 然后他们在这谋杀的故事最后一章开始之前 最终在少年司法系统中结束。
fall through the cracks:被忽视;
And even if that happens, it's not yet too late. 即使发生这种情况, 它还不算太晚。
There's still time to nudge them, if we think about nudging them rather than just punishing them. 仍有时间去改变他们的命运, 如果我们想帮助他们 而不是只惩罚他们。
There are two professors in the Northeast --one at Yale and one at Maryland -- they set up a school that is attached to a juvenile prison. 有两位教授在东北部地区 — — 个在耶鲁大学 — —一个在马里兰州 他们建立了一所学校 该学校于一个少年监狱相连。
Northeast:adj.东北的;来自东北的;n.东北;adv.向东北;来自东北; Maryland:n.马里兰(美国州名); attached:adj.依恋;v.重视;把…固定;(attach的过去分词和过去式)
And the kids are in prison, but they goto school from eight in the morning until four in the afternoon. 孩子们虽然在狱中,但他们早上八点上课 下午四点结束。
Now, it was logistically difficult. 逻辑上很难理解。
logistically:adv.逻辑地,运筹地;在后勤方面;
They had to recruit teachers who wanted to teach inside a prison, they had to establish strict separation between the people who workat the school and the prison authorities, 他们需要招聘可以在监狱内教课的教师 他们建立了严格 制度把在这所学校工作的人和监狱当局分离开,
recruit:n.新兵; v.吸收(新成员); (通过招募)组成; establish:v.创立;设立;建立;确立;使立足;查实; separation:n.分离;分开;分割;隔离;
and most dauntingly of all, they neededto invent a new curriculum because you know what? 最难的是,他们需要设计新的课程表,因为 你知道？
curriculum:n.课程;总课程;
People don't come into and out of prisonon a semester basis. 这些人不可能以学期的基础上进出监狱。
semester:n.学期;半年;
But they did all those things. 但他们做了所有这些事情。
Now what do all of these things have in common? 所有这些事情有什么共同点？
What all of these things have in commonis that they cost money. 这些事情的共同点是他们需要花钱。
Some of the people in the room might beold enough to remember the guy on the old oil filter commercial . 这里的一些年纪够大的人可能还记得 曾经在机油滤清器商业广告上那个人。
filter:n.滤波器;过滤器;滤光器;滤声器;v.过滤;渗入;(用程序)筛选;缓行; commercial:adj.贸易的;商业的;赢利的;以获利为目的的;n.(电台或电视播放的)广告;
He used to say, "Well, you can pay me now or you can pay me later." 他常说, 好吧,你现在可以支付我 或者您可以再付给我钱。“
What we're doing in the death penalty system is we're paying later. 我们正在做什么 在死刑制度中 正是我们后付钱。
But the thing is that for every 15,000 dollarsthat we spend intervening in the lives of economically andotherwise disadvantaged kids in those earlier chapters, we save 80,000 dollars in crime-related costs down the road . 但是事实是 我们每花 15000 美元越早帮助 在经济和其他方面处于 不利地位的孩子们, 我们在与犯罪有关的费用中就可以节省 80,000 美元。
down the road:只要沿着这条路;将来;在路上;
Even if you don't agree that there's a moral imperative that we do it, it just makes economic sense. 即使您不同意 我们道德责任去做这些事, 它仍然有经济意义。
imperative:adj.重要紧急的; n.重要紧急的事;
I want to tell you about the last conversation thatI had with Will. 我想告诉你们我和威尔最后的谈话。
It was the day that he was going to be executed, and we were just talking. 就是在他被执行死刑的那那天, 我们只是谈话。
There was nothing left to do in his case. 没有别的事情可以做了 在他的案子里。
And we were talking about his life. 我们谈论了他的一生。
And he was talking first about his dad,who he hardly knew, who had died, and then about his mom, who he did know, who is still alive. 首先,他谈到他的爸爸,一个他几乎不认识的人 而且已经死了, 然后关于他的妈妈, 他知道, 还活着。
And I said to him, "I know the story. 我对他说, 我知道这个故事。
I've read the records. 我读过记录。
I know that she tried to kill you." 我知道她想杀了你 。
I said, "But I've always wondered whether youreally actually remember that." 我说, 但是我一直在想是否你真的 记得。
I said, "I don't remember anything from when I was five years old. 我说, 我不记得任何件事 从我五岁那年。
Maybe you just remember somebody telling you." 也许你只是记得有人告诉你。
And he looked at me and he leaned forward, and he said, "Professor," -- he'd known me for12 years, he still called me Professor. 他看着我然后俯身向前, 说, 教授, — — 他认识了我 12 年,仍然称我教授。
leaned:v.前俯后仰;倾斜;倚靠;使斜靠;(lean的过去分词和过去式)
He said, "Professor, I don't mean anydisrespect by this, but when your mama picks up a butcher knife that looks biggerthan you are, and chases you through the housescreaming she's gonna kill you, 他说, 教授,我没有对你不尊重的意思, 但当你的妈妈 拿起一把看上去比你还要大的屠刀, 并尖叫着在房间里追杀你,
and you have to lock yourself in thebathroom and lean against the door and holler for help until the police getthere," 你只能把你自己锁在浴室,靠着门 直到警察赶到才能得救,
holler:vi.发牢骚;叫喊;抱怨;vt.大声叫喊;n.叫喊;
he looked at me and he said, "that's something you don't forget." 他看着我,说, 这是你永远忘不了的事。
I hope there's one thing you all won't forget: 我希望你们都不会忘记一件事:
In between the time you arrived herethis morning and the time we break for lunch, there are going to be four homicides in the United States. 从你今天早晨到达这里到午餐时间, 在美国就有四个人 被杀。
homicides:n.杀人;杀人犯; United:adj.联合的; v.联合,团结; (unite的过去分词和过去式)
We're going to devote enormous socialresources to punishing the people who commit those crimes, and that'sappropriate, because we should punish people who do bad things. 我们投入了大量社会资源惩治这些 犯下这些罪行的人,这是适当的,因为我们应惩罚 做坏事的人。
devote:v.贡献;把…专用于;听任; enormous:adj.庞大的,巨大的;凶暴的,极恶的;
But three of those crimes arepreventable. 但其中三起犯罪都是可以预防的。
If we make the picture bigger and devote our attention to theearlier chapters, then we're never going to write thefirst sentence that begins the death penalty story. 如果我们把眼光放的更远 同时关注早期的章节, 然后我们就永远不会撰写出 死刑故事开始的第一句。
Thank you. 谢谢。
(Applause) （掌声）