美国有线新闻 CNN 2013-04-01

Hi, welcome to the Thursday edition of CNN’s Student News. I’m Carl Azuz. Today we’re going to start at the U.S. Supreme¹ Court, and if you watched our show on Tuesday you know the court’s nine justices are hearing two cases this week about the issue of same-sex marriage. Yesterday, the focus was on a federal law. It’s called the Defense² of Marriage Act, or DOMA. It was passed in 1996 and what it says is that for federal purposes, so we’re talking about U.S. government purposes, marriage is defined as only between one man and one woman. That legal definition can impact things like taxes and benefits. For example, same-sex couples who get married in a state where that’s legal, don’t get access to the same federal benefits as other couples. 

 

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court heard arguments about a law in California that bans same-sex marriage. So this week we focused on two cases - same general topic, but different legal focus. The court’s rulings aren’t expected for a few months, but we want to give you an idea of what it was like inside the Supreme Court. What you’re about to hear is from Tuesday’s hearings on the law in California.

 

Outside of the marriage context, can you think of any other rational basis, reason, for a state using sexual orientation³ as a factor in denying homosexuals benefits?

 

Your honor, I cannot. I do not have any - anything to offer you. 

 

I’m curious - when did it become unconstitutional to exclude homosexual couples from marriage?

 

The label marriage means something. Even our opponents ….

 

Sir, if you tell a child that somebody has to be their friend, I suppose you can force that child to say this is my friend, but it changes the definition of what it means to be a friend. And that’s, it seems to me, what supporters of Proposition 8 are saying here. All you’re interested in is the label and you insist on changing the definition of the label. 

 

Traditional marriage has been around for thousands of years. Same-sex marriage is very new. I think it was first adopted in the Netherlands in 2000. So there isn’t a lot of data about its effect. 

 

If you’re over the age of 55, you don’t help us serve the government’s interest in regulating procreation through marriage. So, why is that different?

 

Your honor, even with respect to couples over the age of 55, it is very rare that both parties to the couple are infertile⁴. And the traditional … 

 

I can assure you, if both the woman and the man are over the age of 55, there are not a lot of children coming out of that marriage.

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

3 orientation   

n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍

参考例句：

• Children need some orientation when they go to school.小孩子上学时需要适应。
• The traveller found his orientation with the aid of a good map.旅行者借助一幅好地图得知自己的方向。

4 infertile   

adj.不孕的；不肥沃的，贫瘠的

参考例句：

• Plants can't grow well in the infertile land.在贫瘠的土地上庄稼长不好。
• Nobody is willing to till this infertile land.这块薄田没有人愿意耕种。