时代周刊:缺水的日子(1)

Tapped Out

缺水的日子

Millions of Americans Lack Safe Access to Life's Most Essential Ingredient

数百万美国人缺乏生存所需基本资源的保障

By Justin Worland

文/贾斯汀·沃兰

The wheels are still attached to the house trailer that Pamela Rush calls home,

尽管被帕梅拉·拉什称之为家的拖车生活仍在继续，

but the 49-year-old mother of two is trapped.

这位现年49岁，有着两个孩子的妈妈依然感到左右为难。

A lifelong resident of Lowndes County, Alabama,

从未离开过阿拉巴马州朗兹县的她一直靠伤残补助维生，

she lives off disability checks, struggling to pay the bills on a ninth-grade education.

支付孩子九年教育的学费都很吃力。

It's hard to attribute her situation to any one cause—

她的困境很难归结到单个原因上——

she was born in one of the poorest counties in one of the poorest states

她出生的县是美国最贫困的州下最贫困的县，

and, like the rest of the county's mostly African-American population,

该县人口以非裔居多，和当地其他非裔一样，

she wrestles¹ with the legacy² of slavery and systemized discrimination.

她也没能摆脱奴隶制和制度化歧视等历史遗留问题的阴影。

Just down the road from her home are the sharecroppers' quarters where she was born.

家门口那条路的前方便是她出生的佃农宿舍。

Yet the most immediate³ source of Rush's troubles is immediate:

尽管如此，困扰拉什的麻烦的直接来源却是近在眼前：

the puddle⁴ of sewage that has collected in her backyard, brewing⁵ with human feces.

积在她后院，伴随着人类粪便的废水坑。

Whenever the toilet inside is flushed, the waste travels through a 10-ft. pipe straight to her backyard.

屋内的马桶一冲水，废水就会沿着10英尺（约3m）长的管道直通后院。

Thousands of the county's residents are in the same situation.

该县还有成千上万的居民有着同样的困扰。

Local government won't pay to build infrastructure⁶ to connect them to proper wastewater-disposal lines,

当地政府不愿花钱投资基建，将各家的废水疏导到专门的废水处理管线，

so they're left to deal with the myriad⁷ problems caused by living in sewage that bubbles up into showers and bathtubs.

居民们便陷入了生活在污水里，经常有污水涌入喷头和浴缸带来的各种无奈之下。

A 2017 study of county residents found that 34% of participants suffer from hookworm,

2017年对该县居民展开的一项研究发现，有34%的参与者深受钩虫困扰——

a parasitic⁸ infection contracted by walking barefoot on soil contaminated by fecal matter;

这是赤脚行走在被粪便污染的土地上引起的一种寄生虫感染疾病，

among the issues associated with the disease is slow development in children.

这种病会进一步引发许多问题，儿童发育缓慢便是一例。

1 wrestles   

v.（与某人）搏斗( wrestle的第三人称单数 )；扭成一团；扭打；（与…）摔跤

参考例句：

• The book also wrestles with the idea of individualism. 书中也与个人英雄主义的观念进行搏斗。 来自互联网
• He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. 和我们搏斗的人锻炼了我们的勇气，磨练了我们的技能。 来自互联网

2 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

3 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

4 puddle   

n.(雨)水坑，泥潭

参考例句：

• The boy hopped the mud puddle and ran down the walk.这个男孩跳过泥坑，沿着人行道跑了。
• She tripped over and landed in a puddle.她绊了一下，跌在水坑里。

5 brewing   

n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• It was obvious that a big storm was brewing up. 很显然，一场暴风雨正在酝酿中。
• She set about brewing some herb tea. 她动手泡一些药茶。

6 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

7 myriad   

adj.无数的；n.无数，极大数量

参考例句：

• They offered no solution for all our myriad problems.对于我们数不清的问题他们束手无策。
• I had three weeks to make a myriad of arrangements.我花了三个星期做大量准备工作。

8 parasitic   

adj.寄生的

参考例句：

• Will global warming mean the spread of tropical parasitic diseases?全球变暖是否意味着热带寄生虫病会蔓延呢？
• By definition,this way of life is parasitic.从其含义来说，这是种寄生虫的生活方式。