美国国家公共电台 NPR Opinion: A Bond Beyond Politics

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Republicans, Democrats¹, soldiers, sports stars, celebrities², conservatives and liberals are among John McCain's pallbearers. So is Vladimir Kara-Murza. John McCain called him a personal hero whose courage, selflessness and idealism I find awe-inspiring. Vladimir Kara-Murza is 36 years old and chairman of the Boris Nemtsov Foundation for Freedom, named for the admired opponent of Vladimir Putin - and who was shot in the back on a bridge near the Kremlin in 2015. Five men were convicted of his murder, but it's never been determined³ who ordered the killing⁴.

Vladimir Kara-Murza was in a meeting after lunch just a few months later when he fell violently ill. His organs shut down. He fell into a coma⁵. Doctors said he'd been poisoned. His family flew him to the U.S. to recuperate⁶. And his father told the BBC, if someone did want to frighten us, then they succeeded. But Vladimir Kara-Murza returned to Moscow. He became a leading opposition⁷ figure. Two years later, in 2017, he experienced similar symptoms and fell into another coma but recovered. Doctors said he'd been poisoned but never found the source. He told The Independent, the doctors say if there is a third time, that'll be it. I will not survive this again. And then he continued to oppose the Putin regime.

Vladimir is a brave, outspoken⁸ and relentless⁹ advocate for freedom and democracy in Russia, John McCain said at a rally in Washington, D.C., who was poisoned in order to intimidate¹⁰ him or worse. This was shortly after President Trump¹¹ gave an interview to Fox News in which he scoffed¹² at the charge that Putin's a killer¹³. There are a lot of killers¹⁴, said Trump. What, do you think our country is so innocent? This past spring, as John McCain contended with cancer, Vladimir Kara-Murza says the senator asked him to be one of his pallbearers. This is the most heartbreaking honor you can imagine, he told NPR's Ailsa Chang on All Things Considered this week.

I understand why Politico would say McCain's choice of Russian dissident as pallbearer is final dig at Putin-Trump. But I also see how one man, an American, who was beaten in a prison camp but refused release until all other prisoners had been let go, too, with no reason to believe he wouldn't just be left to perish in that prison, and another man, a Russian, who survived two poisonings but kept working for liberty and change in his country, would have a bond beyond politics, Putin, Trump or the babble¹⁵ of talking heads. Each man knew what it's like to risk their life for their country over and over again.

(SOUNDBITE OF EMANCIPATOR'S "WITH RAINY EYES")

1 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 celebrities   

n.（尤指娱乐界的）名人( celebrity的名词复数 )；名流；名声；名誉

参考例句：

• He only invited A-list celebrities to his parties. 他只邀请头等名流参加他的聚会。
• a TV chat show full of B-list celebrities 由众多二流人物参加的电视访谈节目

3 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

4 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

5 coma   

n.昏迷，昏迷状态

参考例句：

• The patient rallied from the coma.病人从昏迷中苏醒过来。
• She went into a coma after swallowing a whole bottle of sleeping pills.她吃了一整瓶安眠药后就昏迷过去了。

6 recuperate   

v.恢复

参考例句：

• Stay in the hospital for a few more days to recuperate.再住院几天，好好地恢复。
• He went to the country to recuperate.他去乡下养病去了。

7 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

8 outspoken   

adj.直言无讳的，坦率的，坦白无隐的

参考例句：

• He was outspoken in his criticism.他在批评中直言不讳。
• She is an outspoken critic of the school system in this city.她是这座城市里学校制度的坦率的批评者。

9 relentless   

adj.残酷的，不留情的，无怜悯心的

参考例句：

• The traffic noise is relentless.交通车辆的噪音一刻也不停止。
• Their training has to be relentless.他们的训练必须是无情的。

10 intimidate   

vt.恐吓，威胁

参考例句：

• You think you can intimidate people into doing what you want?你以为你可以威胁别人做任何事？
• The first strike capacity is intended mainly to intimidate adversary.第一次攻击的武力主要是用来吓阻敌方的。

11 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

12 scoffed   

嘲笑，嘲弄( scoff的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He scoffed at our amateurish attempts. 他对我们不在行的尝试嗤之以鼻。
• A hundred years ago people scoffed at the idea. 一百年前人们曾嘲笑过这种想法。

13 killer   

n.杀人者，杀人犯，杀手，屠杀者

参考例句：

• Heart attacks have become Britain's No.1 killer disease.心脏病已成为英国的头号致命疾病。
• The bulk of the evidence points to him as her killer.大量证据证明是他杀死她的。

14 killers   

凶手( killer的名词复数 )； 消灭…者； 致命物； 极难的事

参考例句：

• He remained steadfast in his determination to bring the killers to justice. 他要将杀人凶手绳之以法的决心一直没有动摇。
• They were professional killers who did in John. 杀死约翰的这些人是职业杀手。

15 babble   

v.含糊不清地说，胡言乱语地说，儿语

参考例句：

• No one could understand the little baby's babble. 没人能听懂这个小婴孩的话。
• The babble of voices in the next compartment annoyed all of us.隔壁的车厢隔间里不间歇的嘈杂谈话声让我们都很气恼。