VOA慢速英语-EXPLORATIONS - Shadow Wolves Find and Arrest People

VOICE ONE:

I'm Steve Ember.

VOICE TWO:

And I'm Barbara Klein with EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English. Today we visit the desert of the American Southwest to learn about a group of people called the Shadow Wolves.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:
　
Lambert Cross, now retired¹, was one of the first Shadow Wolves

A Shadow Wolf is hunting. He is not looking for animals. He is hunting people. The Shadow Wolf walks slowly across the hot desert sand. His eyes move slowly over the ground. Most people would only see sand, dirt, rocks and some small plants. The Shadow Wolf sees a story. He looks closely at the ground. He can tell that five men passed this way. Four of them carried heavy loads. He can also tell they are moving quickly. They are not yet running, but they are moving as fast as their heavy loads permit. One man is not carrying a heavy load. The Shadow Wolf knows this person is the group's leader.

The Shadow Wolf increases his own speed across the dry, hot desert. Soon, he can tell that the five men are running. They know he is following them.

Minutes later, in the far distance, a group of birds suddenly flies away from the ground. The five men have frightened the birds. The Shadow Wolf slowly pulls out his radio and calls for help.

The five men are captured within an hour. They are arrested for trying to bring illegal drugs into the United States. Once again, the Shadow Wolf hunters have been successful.

VOICE TWO:

For thousands of years, people were hunter-gatherers. They survived by hunting wild animals and gathering² food that was not easily found. Their hunting skills were extremely important. The ancient hunter-gatherers of the world learned to follow the signs or marks left on the ground as animals moved along a path. This skill is called tracking. A good tracker would often spend days following the signs of a group of animals until he could make a successful kill for food.

VOICE ONE:

These skills have disappeared in most of the modern world. Yet, the Shadow Wolves use them to find and arrest people who try to sell illegal drugs. The Shadow Wolves are all Native Americans. They are special employees of the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security.

There are fifteen Shadow Wolves. They belong to the Tohono O'odham Tribe³ and seven other Native American tribes⁴.

The Shadow Wolves live by a saying that tells a lot about them and their work. The saying is: "In brightest day, in darkest night, no evil shall escape my sight, for I am the Shadow Wolf."

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:
　
A tracker studies fibers⁵ which may -- or may not -- have been left by drug smugglers

The Shadow Wolves have been doing their special work since nineteen seventy-two when they worked for what was then called the Customs Service. They work on the Tohono O'odham Reservation. It is the second largest area of American Indian land in the United States. It is a few kilometers west of the city of Tucson, in the southwestern state of Arizona.

The huge reservation shares a one hundred twenty kilometer border with Mexico. People who want to sell illegal drugs in the United States carry the drugs on their backs across the desert land of the Tohono O'odham Reservation. They try to move from the border to the nearest road, about forty kilometers away. Usually about three or four people carry the drugs through the reservation at night. Their shoes leave marks in the dirt.

The Shadow Wolves follow these shoe marks to find the drug dealers⁷ and arrest them. The Shadow Wolves have been very successful in their work.

VOICE ONE:

The Congress of the United States approved the idea of the Shadow Wolves for several reasons. Police agencies in Arizona and the United States Customs Service had all the modern technology needed to help catch people who tried to sell illegal drugs. But they lacked the skills of the ancient hunter-gatherers who could follow the signs left by people as they passed through the desert.

Customs Service officials knew drug dealers were coming across the border and into the Tohono O'odham Reservation. The government asked Indians who lived on the reservation to help in the fight against the drug dealers. The first members of the Shadow Wolves were members of the Tohono O'odham tribe.

A few years ago, the first members of this unusual group began to retire. The group asked if skilled trackers from other tribes wanted to become Shadow Wolves. The answer was yes.

VOICE TWO:

The Shadow Wolves do not use only their ancient tracking skills. They also use modern devices that help them see in the dark. They use modern radios to communicate. They use airplanes, helicopters and other methods of transportation in their work. And they carry weapons as well as water, survival⁸ devices and flashlights. The Shadow Wolves have a very good record. In recent years they have seized an average of about twenty-seven thousand kilograms of illegal drugs each year.

(MUSIC)

VOICE ONE:

The Shadow Wolves' main task is finding and stopping illegal drug dealers. However, sometimes they are asked to help rescue people who become lost in the desert. For example, in two thousand one, three Shadow Wolves saved the life of a little boy who had become lost in the desert.

The child and his dog left their home and walked into the desert. No one could find them. Special search aircraft were used. Experts with dogs were called on to help. The aircraft and the dog experts searched but could not find the little boy.

Three Shadow Wolves then joined the search. They found very little evidence of the boy in the desert. But they found just enough for them to begin tracking the child. They continued to follow the marks left by the little boy until they found him and his dog. They returned them safely to their home.

VOICE TWO:
　
Trackers on the Tohono O'Odham reservation in Arizona

The Shadow Wolves also share their skills with law enforcement agencies in other countries. They have traveled to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. They have helped train police, border guards and customs officials. They have taught them skills to help them find people who may be transporting chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.

The police and border guards in those countries were often surprised when the Shadow Wolves began teaching them ancient methods of tracking.

The Shadow Wolves say the police and guards expected to learn how to use some kind of modern electronic equipment. Instead they were taught ancient hunting skills.

VOICE ONE:

Bryan Nez is from the Navajo tribe. He has worked with the Shadow Wolves group for more than fifteen years. He learned to track as a child. Mister Nez says he learned more by finding lost children and people who became lost in the desert while on vacation.

Other officers say it is interesting to watch him work. Most people would not see anything unusual in an area. Yet, Mister Nez sees a lot of evidence of people passing through. He says anyone can be followed because they leave signs on the ground. He says he can follow them even at night, or over rocks. Sometimes, he says, the evidence he needs is something that he sees. Other times the evidence is something that he does not see. Sometimes it is just a feeling that he has.

VOICE TWO:

The work of the Shadow Wolves is dangerous. Sometimes the illegal drug dealers carry weapons. Shots have been fired more than once. One of the Shadow Wolves, Glen Miles, was shot and killed by an illegal drug dealer⁶ in nineteen eighty-six.

Two other Shadow Wolves tracked the killer⁹ all the way to the Mexican border. The signs he left on the ground crossed the Mexican border nine kilometers from where the shooting took place.

VOICE ONE:

Each month, the Shadow Wolves find hundreds of kilograms of illegal drugs and arrest those carrying the drugs. The group knows it will never catch all the criminals who try to move illegal drugs through their area. However, the Shadow Wolves will continue to prove that ancient skills can be used to solve modern crimes.

(MUSIC)

VOICE TWO:

This program was written by Paul Thompson. It was produced by Mario Ritter. For transcripts¹⁰ and MP3s of our programs, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Barbara Klein.

VOICE ONE:

And I'm Steve Ember. Join us again next week for EXPLORATIONS in VOA Special English.

 

1 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

2 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

3 tribe   

n.部落，种族，一伙人

参考例句：

• This is a subject tribe.这是个受他人统治的部落。
• Many of the tribe's customs and rituals are as old as the hills.这部落的许多风俗、仪式都极其古老。

4 tribes   

n.部落( tribe的名词复数 )；（动、植物的）族；（一）帮；大群

参考例句：

• tribes living in remote areas of the Amazonian rainforest 居住在亚马孙河雨林偏远地区的部落
• In Africa the snake is still sacred with many tribes. 非洲许多部落仍认为蛇是不可冒犯的。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 fibers   

光纤( fiber的名词复数 )； （织物的）质地； 纤维，纤维物质

参考例句：

• Thesolution of collagen-PVA was wet spined with the sodium sulfate as coagulant and collagen-PVA composite fibers were prepared. 在此基础上，以硫酸钠为凝固剂，对胶原-PVA共混溶液进行湿法纺丝，制备了胶原-PVA复合纤维。
• Sympathetic fibers are distributed to all regions of the heart. 交感神经纤维分布于心脏的所有部分。

6 dealer   

n.商人，贩子

参考例句：

• The dealer spent hours bargaining for the painting.那个商人为购买那幅画花了几个小时讨价还价。
• The dealer reduced the price for cash down.这家商店对付现金的人减价优惠。

7 dealers   

n.商人( dealer的名词复数 )；贩毒者；毒品贩子；发牌者

参考例句：

• There was fast bidding between private collectors and dealers. 私人收藏家和交易商急速竞相喊价。
• The police were corrupt and were operating in collusion with the drug dealers. 警察腐败，与那伙毒品贩子内外勾结。

8 survival   

n.留住生命，生存，残存，幸存者

参考例句：

• The doctor told my wife I had a fifty-fifty chance of survival.医生告诉我的妻子，说我活下去的可能性只有50%。
• The old man was a survival of a past age.这位老人是上一代的遗老。

9 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。

10 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句