返回首页

MargaretHeffernan_2013X-_一叶障目的危险_
In the northwest corner of the United States, right up near the Canadian border, there's a little town called Libby, Montana , and it's surrounded by pine trees and lakes and just amazing wildlife and these enormous trees that scream up into the sky. 在美国的西北角, 靠近加拿大边境的位置, 有个小镇叫利比,位于蒙大拿州, 那里有很多的松树和湖泊环绕, 非常美的野生环境, 数不尽的树木高耸入云。
northwest:adj.西北的;来自西北的;n.西北;adv.在西北;来自西北; United:adj.联合的; v.联合,团结; (unite的过去分词和过去式) Montana:n.蒙大纳(美国州名); pine:n.松木;松树;vi.难过,悲伤 enormous:adj.庞大的,巨大的;凶暴的,极恶的;
And in there is a little town called Libby, which I visited, which feels kind of lonely, a little isolated . 那里有个叫利比的小镇, 我曾去过,让人感觉有点孤寂, 有点与世隔绝。
isolated:adj.偏远的; v.隔离,孤立,脱离;
And in Libby, Montana, there's a rather unusual woman named Gayla Benefield. 在这个蒙大拿州的小镇上,有一个非常不寻常的女人 名叫盖拉·本尼佛蒂（Gayla Benefield）.
She always felt a little bit of an outsider , although she's been there almost all her life, a woman of Russian extraction . 尽管她在那里几乎生活了一辈子, 但她还是觉得自己有点像个外来者, 她是俄罗斯后裔。
outsider:n.外人;无取胜希望者; extraction:n.取出;抽出;拔出;抽出物;出身;
She told me when she went to school, she was the only girl who ever chose to do mechanical drawing . 她告诉我上学时, 她是唯一一个 会选择机械制图专业的女孩。
mechanical drawing:机械制图;机械画;
Later in life, she got a job going house to house reading utility meters -- gas meters, electricity meters. 后来,她找到了一份 挨家挨户抄燃气表和电表读数的工作。
utility:n.公用事业;实用;实用程序;adj.多用途的;多效用的; electricity:n.电力;电流;强烈的紧张情绪;
And she was doing the work in the middle of the day, and one thing particularly caught her notice, which was, in the middle of the day she met a lot of men who were at home, middle aged, late middle aged, and a lot of them seemed to be on oxygen tanks. 她每天中午工作, 有一件事情特别地引起了她的注意, 每天中午她都会在那些家里遇见很多男人 岁数差不多中年或更大一些的男人们, 他们很多人看起来都要用氧气瓶。
particularly:adv.特别地,独特地;详细地,具体地;明确地,细致地;
It struck her as strange. 这事让她感到很奇怪。
Then, a few years later, her father died at the age of 59, five days before he was due to receive his pension . 几年之后,她的父亲就在马上拿退休金的前五天去世了, 享年59岁,
pension:n.养老金;退休金;抚恤金;adj.有关退休金的;v.给…养老金[恤金,津贴等];
He'd been a miner . 他曾经是一名矿工。
miner:n.矿工;开矿机;
She thought he must just have been worn out by the work. 他曾经是一名矿工。
But then a few years later, her mother died, and that seemed stranger still, because her mother came from a long line of people who just seemed to live forever. 但是,又过了几年,她母亲也去世了, 这看起来更奇怪了, 因为她母亲家的人普遍都很长寿 看起来能长命百岁似的。
In fact, Gayla's uncle is still alive to this day , and learning how to waltz . 事实上,盖拉的舅舅至今仍健在, 而且正在学跳华尔兹呢。
to this day:至今; waltz:v.跳华尔兹舞; adj.圆舞曲的; n.华尔兹舞;
It didn't make sense that Gayla's mother should die so young. 这不正常, 盖拉的母亲不应该那么年轻就去世了。
make sense:有意义;讲得通;言之有理;
It was an anomaly , and she kept puzzling over anomalies . 这很异常,盖拉一直对这些异常的死亡大惑不解。
anomaly:n.异常;不规则;反常事物; puzzling:adj.使为难的;费解的;v.迷惑;使困惑;(puzzle的现在分词) anomalies:n.异常现象,反常现象(anomaly复数形式);
And as she did, other ones came to mind. 与此同时,她也想起了另一些事情。
She remembered, for example, when her mother had broken a leg and went into the hospital, and she had a lot of x-rays, and two of them were leg x-rays, which made sense, but six of them were chest x-rays, which didn't. 比如, 她记得当她母亲腿部受伤骨折时, 她在医院做了一大堆的X光检查, 其中有两个是腿部X光检查是正常的, 但是另外六个胸部X光检查却不正常。
She puzzled and puzzled over every piece of her life and her parents' life, trying to understand what she was seeing. 她将自己和父母的每一个生活片段 一点一点拼凑起来, 试图了解她所看到的一切。
puzzled:adj.困惑的;茫然的;搞糊涂的;
She thought about her town. 她想到了她的小镇。
The town had a vermiculite mine in it. 这个小镇有一个蛭石矿。
vermiculite:n.蛭石(一种隔热材料);
Vermiculite was used for soil conditioners , to make plants grow faster and better. 人们用蛭石作土壤调节剂, 能令植物长得更快更好。
conditioners:[自]调节器;调料槽;调节剂(conditioner的复数);
Vermiculite was used to insulate lofts , huge amounts of it put under the roof to keep houses warm during the long Montana winters. 用蛭石作绝热材料封阁楼, 大量的蛭石被垫在屋顶下为房屋保温 从而抵御蒙大拿州漫长而寒冷的冬季。
insulate:vt.隔离,使孤立;使绝缘,使隔热; lofts:[建]阁楼;顶楼寓所;
Vermiculite was in the playground. 蛭石被用于操场上,
It was in the football ground. 橄榄球场上,
It was in the skating rink . 溜冰场上,
skating rink:n.旱冰场;旱冰馆;
What she didn't learn until she started working this problem is vermiculite is a very toxic form of asbestos . 直到她开始着手研究问题所在时, 她才知道原来蛭石矿被一种毒性很强的石棉材质污染。
toxic:adj.有毒的;中毒的; asbestos:n.石棉;adj.石棉的;
When she figured out the puzzle, she started telling everyone she could what had happened, what had been done to her parents and to the people that she saw on oxygen tanks at home in the afternoons. 当她找到答案时, 她开始竭尽所能地告诉每一个人 发生了什么,以及在她父母身上发生了什么, 她下午还跑到别人家里 告诉那些依靠氧气瓶生存的人们这些真相。
But she was really amazed. 但是,她非常惊讶。
She thought, when everybody knows, they'll want to do something, but actually nobody wanted to know. 她本以为,当每个人知道真相后,人们会采取些行动, 但事实是没人愿意知道真相。
In fact, she became so annoying as she kept insisting on telling this story to her neighbors, to her friends, to other people in the community , that eventually a bunch of them got together and they made a bumper sticker , 她变得很气愤 以至于她不得不继续坚持要将真相 告诉她的邻居们,朋友们,社区里的其他人们, 最后,那些人聚集在一起 做了一个大贴纸,
annoying:adj.烦人的;使生气的;使烦恼的;v.使生气;打扰;骚扰;(annoy的现在分词) community:n.社区;[生态]群落;共同体;团体; eventually:adv.最后,终于; a bunch of:一群;一束;一堆; bumper:adj.丰盛的,丰富的;n.缓冲器,保险杆,减震物;vt.装满;为…祝酒;vi.干杯; sticker:n.粘贴标签;贴纸;
which they proudly displayed on their cars, which said, "Yes, I'm from Libby, Montana, and no, I don't have asbestosis ." 骄傲地贴到她的车上, 贴纸上面写道“是,我来自蒙大拿州的利比镇, 不,我没得石棉肺。”
proudly:傲慢地 displayed:v.陈列;展出;展示;显露(display的过去分词和过去式) asbestosis:n.[医]石棉肺;石棉沉滞症;
But Gayla didn't stop. She kept doing research. 但是,盖拉没有停下来。她继续做调研。
The advent of the Internet definitely helped her. 互联网的出现无疑是帮了她大忙。
advent:n.到来;出现;基督降临;基督降临节; definitely:adv.清楚地,当然;明确地,肯定地;
She talked to anybody she could. 她尽可能得要把真相告诉所有人。
She argued and argued, and finally she struck lucky when a researcher came through town studying the history of mines in the area, and she told him her story, and at first, of course, like everyone, he didn't believe her, 她不停地辩论,终于,当一位研究人员来到小镇 研究小镇矿区的历史时, 盖拉开始走运了, 她跟这位研究人员说了她的故事, 最开始,像所有人一样,这位研究人员根本不相信她的话,
finally:adv.终于;最终;(用于列举)最后;彻底地;
but he went back to Seattle and he did his own research and he realized that she was right. 但是当他回到西雅图,他开始了自己的研究 而且他发现盖拉说的是对的。
Seattle:n.西雅图(美国一港市);
So now she had an ally. 所以,盖拉多了一位同盟者。
Nevertheless , people still didn't want to know. 但是,人们依旧不想知道真相。
Nevertheless:adv.然而,不过;虽然如此;conj.然而,不过;
They said things like, "Well, if it were really dangerous, someone would have told us." 他们总这么说“好吧,如果真得那么危险, 肯定会有人告诉我们的。”
'"If that's really why everyone was dying, the doctors would have told us." “如果那真得能让每个人丧命的话, 那医生会告诉我们的。”
Some of the guys used to very heavy jobs said, "I don't want to be a victim . 有一些过去从事繁重体力工作的人说, “我不想当一个受害者。
victim:n.受害人;牺牲品;牺牲者;
I can't possibly be a victim, and anyway, every industry has its accidents." 我不可能是一个受害者,再说了, 哪个产业不发生点事故呢。“
But still Gayla went on, and finally she succeeded in getting a federal agency to come to town and to screen the inhabitants of the town -- 15,000 people -- and what they discovered was that the town had a mortality rate 80 times higher than anywhere in the United States. 但是,盖拉继续大声疾呼, 最后她成功地邀请了一个联邦机构来到小镇 他们对小镇的居民进行筛查 共有1万5千人 他们发现这个小镇的死亡率比美国其他地区 高出了80倍。
federal:adj.联邦的;同盟的;联邦政府的;联邦制的;adv.联邦政府地; agency:n.代理,中介;代理处,经销处; inhabitants:n.居民(inhabitant的复数); mortality:n.死亡数,死亡率;必死性,必死的命运;
That was in 2002, and even at that moment, no one raised their hand to say, "Gayla, look in the playground where your grandchildren are playing. 那是2002年,甚至在那个时候, 也没有一个人举起他们的手说 “盖拉,看看你们孩子游戏的操场里面吧,
It's lined with vermiculite." 那里都是用蛭石铺的。”
This wasn't ignorance . 这不是忽视。
ignorance:n.无知,愚昧;不知,不懂;
It was willful blindness. 这是“故意无视”。
willful:adj.有意的;任性的;故意的;
Willful blindness is a legal concept which means, if there's information that you could know and you should know but you somehow manage not to know, the law deems that you're willfully blind. “故意无视”是一个法律概念, 意指:对于一个你能知晓或者你应该知晓的信息 但是你设法不去知晓, 法律认为你是故意无视。
legal:adj.法律的;合法的;法定的; somehow:adv.以某种方法;莫名其妙地; deems:vt.认为,视作;相信;vi.认为,持某种看法;作某种评价; willfully:adv.故意地;任性固执地;
You have chosen not to know. 你选择了不去知道。
There's a lot of willful blindness around these days. 近些年有许多“故意无视”的案例。
You can see willful blindness in banks, when thousands of people sold mortgages to people who couldn't afford them. 在银行里,你能看到“故意无视”, 当成千上万的人们把按揭出售给 那些根本付不起的人们。
mortgages:n.抵押贷款; v.[经]抵押(mortgage的三单形式); afford:v.给予,提供;买得起;
You could see them in banks when interest rates were manipulated and everyone around knew what was going on, but everyone studiously ignored it. 在银行里,你还能看到 利率被操纵时 虽然身边的每个人都清楚怎么回事, 但大家都故意忽视这个事实。
manipulated:v.(暗中)控制,操纵,影响;使用;治疗脱臼;(manipulate的过去式和过去分词) studiously:adv.故意地;好学地;注意地; ignored:v.忽视;对…不予理会;佯装未见;不予理睬;(ignore的过去分词和过去式)
You can see willful blindness in the Catholic Church, where decades of child abuse went ignored. 在天主教堂里,你能看到“故意无视”, 孩子们几十年遭受虐待的事实被无视。
Catholic:adj.天主教的;宽宏大量的;n.天主教徒;罗马天主教; child abuse:n.摧残儿童;虐待儿童;
You could see willful blindness in the run-up to the Iraq War. 在伊拉克战争中, 你能看到“故意无视”。
run-up:n.助跑;预备阶段;抬高;急剧增长;
Willful blindness exists on epic scales like those, and it also exists on very small scales, in people's families, in people's homes and communities , and particularly in organizations and institutions . “故意无视”不仅存在于那些大的范围, 它也存在于非常小的范围, 在人们的家庭里,在人们的屋檐下,在社区里, 而且特别是在组织和机构里。
epic:adj.史诗的,叙事诗的;n.史诗;叙事诗;史诗般的作品; scales:n.规模范围; v.攀登; (scale的第三人称单数和复数) communities:n.社区;社会;团体;共有(community的复数) organizations:n.组织,构造,有机体(organization的复数);组织机构; institutions:n.机构;慈善机构;风俗习惯,制度;(institution的复数)
Companies that have been studied for willful blindness can be asked questions like, "Are there issues at work that people are afraid to raise?" 那些被调研“故意无视”这种现象的企业们 经常会被问到这样的问题, “工作中是否存在 一些人们不敢提出来的问题？”
issues:n.重要议题;争论的问题;v.宣布;公布;发出;(issue的第三人称单数和复数)
And when academics have done studies like this of corporations in the United States, what they find is 85 percent of people say yes. 当学者们对在美国的企业 进行调研时, 他们发现85%的人们会对这个问题回答“是的”。
academics:n.学术水平;学术知识;专业学者; corporations:n.[贸易]公司,[经]企业(corporation的复数形式);
Eighty-five percent of people know there's a problem, but they won't say anything. 85%的人们知道存在一个问题, 但是他们都选择沉默。
And when I duplicated the research in Europe, asking all the same questions, 当我将调研复制到欧洲时, 问了人们相同的问题,
duplicated:v.复制;复印;复写;(duplicate的过去分词和过去式) all the same:仍然:依然:照样:
I found exactly the same number. 我得到了完全一样的调研数字,
Eighty-five percent. That's a lot of silence. 85%。那么多的沉默。
It's a lot of blindness. 那么多的视而不见。
And what's really interesting is that when I go to companies in Switzerland, they tell me, "This is a uniquely Swiss problem." 最有意思的是,当我到了瑞士的企业, 他们告诉我“这是瑞士特有的问题。”
uniquely:adv.独特地;珍奇地;
And when I go to Germany, they say, "Oh yes, this is the German disease ." 当我到了德国,他们说“哦,是的,这是德国人的毛病。”
disease:n.病,[医]疾病;弊病;vt.传染;使…有病;
And when I go to companies in England, they say, "Oh, yeah, the British are really bad at this." 当我到了英格兰,他们说, “哦,是的,英国在这方面是挺差的。”
And the truth is, this is a human problem. 真相是,这是人类的通病。
We're all, under certain circumstances , willfully blind. 我们所有人,在某些情况下,都是故意视而不见的。
circumstances:n.情况;环境;情形;(circumstance的复数)
What the research shows is that some people are blind out of fear. They're afraid of retaliation . 调研结果显示一些人视而不见是因为恐惧。 他们害怕被打击报复。
retaliation:n.报复;反击;回敬;
And some people are blind because they think, well, seeing anything is just futile . 一些人视而不见是因为他们认为, 看见问题是无用的。
futile:adj.无用的;无效的;没有出息的;琐细的;不重要的;
Nothing's ever going to change. 什么都不会改变。
If we make a protest, if we protest against the Iraq War, nothing changes, so why bother ? 如果我们提出抗议,如果我们抗议伊拉克战争, 什么都没改变,那我们干嘛要抗议呢？
protest against:反对,对…提出抗议; bother:v.烦扰,打扰;使…不安;操心,麻烦;n.麻烦;烦恼;
Better not to see this stuff at all. 最好眼不见心不烦。
stuff:n.东西:物品:基本特征:v.填满:装满:标本:
And the recurrent theme that I encounter all the time is people say, "Well, you know, the people who do see, they're whistleblowers , and we all know what happens to them." 而且我总能反反复复地听到人们说 “你知道吗,那些看到问题的人, 他们是告密者, 我们都知道在他们身上会发生什么。”
recurrent:adj.复发的;周期性的,经常发生的; encounter:v.遭遇,邂逅;遇到;n.遭遇,偶然碰见; whistleblowers:告发者;检举者;
So there's this profound mythology around whistleblowers which says, first of all , they're all crazy. 所以有这么一种深刻的神话似的言论围绕着告密者 首先,人们会说他们全都是疯子。
profound:adj.深厚的;意义深远的;渊博的; mythology:n.神话;神话学;神话集; first of all:adv.首先;
But what I've found going around the world and talking to whistleblowers is, actually, they're very loyal and quite often very conservative people. 但是,我在世界各地所见到的 并且做过交谈的那些所谓的告密者们,事实上, 他们都是非常忠诚的,而且经常是很保守的人。
loyal:adj.忠诚的,忠心的;忠贞的;n.效忠的臣民;忠实信徒; conservative:adj.保守的;n.保守派,守旧者;
They're hugely dedicated to the institutions that they work for, and the reason that they speak up, the reason they insist on seeing, is because they care so much about the institution and want to keep it healthy. 他们非常献身于自己工作的组织机构, 他们之所以站出来指出问题, 之所以坚持他们所看见的, 原因就在于他们非常关心那个组织机构 而且也希望能保持它的健康运营。
dedicated:adj.献身的; v.把…奉献给; (dedicate的过去分词和过去式)
And the other thing that people often say about whistleblowers is, "Well, there's no point, because you see what happens to them. 其次,关于告密者,人们经常提到的是 “没有半点用, 因为,你看看他们身上都发生了什么。
They are crushed . 他们被打压。
crushed:v.压坏;压伤;挤压变形;(crush的过去分词和过去式)
Nobody would want to go through something like that." 谁愿意经历那样的遭遇啊。”
And yet, when I talk to whistleblowers, the recurrent tone that I hear is pride. 但是,当我和那些所谓的告密者谈话的时候, 从他们的语气中我总能听到一种自豪感。
tone:n.语气:风格:特色:声音信号:v.使更结实:与…协调:
I think of Joe Darby . 我想起了乔·达比（Joe Darby）
Darby:n.[建]刮尺,平墙镘;手铐;钞票;
We all remember the photographs of Abu Ghraib, which so shocked the world and showed the kind of war that was being fought in Iraq. 我们都记得阿布格莱布的照片（译者注:2004年发生在阿布格莱布监狱的美军虐待伊拉克战俘的事件） 那些照片震惊全球, 而且也向世人展示了伊拉克战争的一些情况。
But I wonder who remembers Joe Darby, the very obedient , good soldier who found those photographs and handed them in. 但是,我怀疑有谁还记得乔·达比, 那个非常服从命令的好士兵 正是他发现了那些相片并把它们交了出来。
obedient:adj.顺从的,服从的;孝顺的;
And he said, "You know, I'm not the kind of guy to rat people out, but some things just cross the line. 而且他说,“你知道,我不是那种爱打小报告的人 但是,有些事做得太过分了。
Ignorance is bliss , they say, but you can't put up with things like this." 他们说,无知便是福, 但是,你不能容忍这样的事。”
Ignorance is bliss:无知是福;无知便是福;难得糊涂; put up with:v.忍受;容忍;
I talked to Steve Bolsin, a British doctor, who fought for five years to draw attention to a dangerous surgeon who was killing babies. 我和史蒂夫·博森（Steve Bolsin）,一位英国医生, 他抗争了五年时间试图警示人们关注 一个谋杀幼童的危险的外科医生。
draw attention to:吸引对;吸引注意力;指出;对; surgeon:n.外科医生;
And I asked him why he did it, and he said, "Well, it was really my daughter who prompted me to do it. 当我问他这么做的原因时, 他说“其实是我的女儿促使我这么做的。
prompted:v.促使;导致;提示;给(演员)提词;(prompt的过去分词和过去式)
She came up to me one night, and she just said, 'Dad, you can't let the kids die.'" 有一天晚上她对我说, 爸爸,你不能让那些孩子们死去。”
Or I think of Cynthia Thomas, a really loyal army daughter and army wife, who, as she saw her friends and relations coming back from the Iraq War, was so shocked by their mental condition 或者,我会想到辛西娅·托马斯, 一位非常忠诚的军人的女儿,也是一位军嫂, 当她看到她的朋友和亲人们 从伊拉克战场上回来, 她非常震惊于他们的精神状况,
Cynthia:n.月亮;月亮女神; mental:adj.精神的;脑力的;疯的;n.精神病患者;
and the refusal of the military to recognize and acknowledge post-traumatic stress syndrome that she set up a cafe in the middle of a military town to give them legal, psychological and medical assistance. 以及军队拒绝确认和承认他们患上了 “创伤后心理压力症”（译者注:指人在遭遇或对抗重大压力后,其心理状态产生失调之后遗症） 因此,她在军营中开办了一个咖啡厅 提供给这些人法律,心理,和医疗援助。
refusal:n.拒绝;回绝; military:adj.军事的;军人的;适于战争的;n.军队;军人; recognize:v.认识;认出;辨别出;承认;意识到; post-traumatic:adj.受伤后的; syndrome:n.[临床]综合征;综合症状;并发症状;校验子;并发位; psychological:adj.心理的;心理学的;精神上的;
And she said to me, she said, "You know, Margaret, 她对我说,“你知道吗,玛格丽特（Margaret）,
I always used to say I didn't know what I wanted to be when I grow up. 我过去总说我不知道我长大了要做什么。 但是,
But I've found myself in this cause, and I'll never be the same." 通过帮助他们我找到了自己, 而且我将因此而永远不一样了。”
We all enjoy so many freedoms today, hard-won freedoms: the freedom to write and publish without fear of censorship , a freedom that wasn't here the last time I came to Hungary; a freedom to vote, which women in particular had to fight so hard for; 今天,我们都享受着如此多的自由, 来之不易的自由: 写作和出版而不必担心被审查的自由 我上次来匈牙利时那里所没有的自由; 一个选举的自由, 特别是妇女们为之奋力争取的自由;
hard-won:adj.来之不易的;难得的; publish:v.出版;发表;公布; censorship:n.审查制度;审查机构; in particular:尤其,特别;
the freedom for people of different ethnicities and cultures and sexual orientation to live the way that they want. 不同的种族,文化,和性取向的人们 希望拥有的生活方式的自由。
ethnicities:n.种族划分; sexual:adj.性的;性别的;有性的; orientation:n.方向;定向;适应;情况介绍;向东方;
But freedom doesn't exist if you don't use it, and what whistleblowers do, and what people like Gayla Benefield do is they use the freedom that they have. 但是,如果你不使用的话,自由就不存在, 那些所谓的告密者们, 那些像盖拉·本尼佛蒂一样的人们, 他们所做的正是使用他们所拥有的自由。
And what they're very prepared to do is recognize that yes, this is going to be an argument, and yes I'm going to have a lot of rows with my neighbors and my colleagues and my friends, but I'm going to become very good at this conflict . 而且,他们非常愿意承认, 是的,这将会是一场旷日持久的争论, 是的,我的邻居,我的同事,我的朋友们 都会反对我, 但是,在这场冲突中我会变得非常好。
colleagues:n.同事;同行(colleague的复数); conflict:n.冲突;矛盾;争执;抵触;v.抵触;
I'm going to take on the naysayers , because they'll make my argument better and stronger. 我要去迎接那些反对者, 因为,他们将使我的辩论更完善更强大。
naysayers:n.否定者;拒绝者;老是唱反调的人;
I can collaborate with my opponents to become better at what I do. 我能和我的反对者们合作 把我所从事的事情变得更好。
collaborate:vi.合作;勾结,通敌; opponents:n.对手(opponent的复数形式);
These are people of immense persistence , incredible patience , and an absolute determination not to be blind and not to be silent. 这些人都有着巨大的持久力, 超强的忍耐力,和绝对顽强的决心, 他们拒绝视而不见,拒绝沉默。
immense:adj.巨大的,广大的;无边无际的;非常好的; persistence:n.持续;固执;存留;坚持不懈;毅力; incredible:adj.难以置信的,惊人的; patience:n.耐性,耐心;忍耐,容忍; determination:n.测定;确定;决心;计算;
When I went to Libby, Montana, 当我到了蒙大拿的利比小镇,
I visited the asbestosis clinic that Gayla Benefield brought into being, a place where at first some of the people who wanted help and needed medical attention went in the back door because they didn't want to acknowledge that she'd been right. 我参观了 由盖拉·本尼佛蒂促使建立的石棉沉滞症诊所, 起先, 一些人希望得到帮助和医疗关注时, 他们都从诊所的后门进去 因为,他们不想承认 盖拉是正确的。
clinic:n.诊所;临床实习;(医院的)门诊部;门诊时间; back door:后门;非法途径;
I sat in a diner, and I watched as trucks drove up and down the highway, carting away the earth out of gardens and replacing it with fresh, uncontaminated soil. 我坐在一家小餐馆,我看到 卡车在高速路上开来开去, 将花园中的土挖出来运走 然后填埋上新的,没有污染的泥土。
carting:n.马车运输;运出;v.载运(cart的ing形式); uncontaminated:adj.未被损害的;未受污染的;
I took my 12-year-old daughter with me, because I really wanted her to meet Gayla. 我12岁的女儿和我一起去的, 因为我很想让她认识盖拉,
And she said, "Why? What's the big deal?" 她对我说,“为什么啊,这有什么大不了的？”
I said, "She's not a movie star , and she's not a celebrity , and she's not an expert, and Gayla's the first person who'd say she's not a saint . 我说,“她不是电影明星, 她不是名人,也不是专家, 而且盖拉是 第一个说她自己不是一位圣人的这么一个人。
movie star:na.(电)影(明)星; celebrity:n.名人;名声; saint:n.圣人;圣徒;道德崇高的人;adj.神圣的;v.成为圣徒;
The really important thing about Gayla is she is ordinary. 关于盖拉很重要的一点是 她只是一个普普通通的人。
She's like you, and she's like me. 她就像你,就像我一样。
She had freedom, and she was ready to use it." 她拥有自由,而且她已经准备好去使用它了。”
Thank you very much. 非常感谢。
(Applause) （掌声）