美国国家公共电台 NPR This Boy Scout Welcomes Girls To His Troop

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

This week, the Boy Scouts² of America decided³ to allow girls into its scouting⁴ program. Families are figuring out what this week's announcement means. Anna Boiko-Weyrauch caught up with a few parents and Scouts in Seattle.

ANNA BOIKO-WEYRAUCH, BYLINE⁵: For 11-year-old Charlie Underdown, letting girls into Boy Scouts is actually a very Boy Scout¹ thing to do.

CHARLIE UNDERDOWN: A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous⁶...

BOIKO-WEYRAUCH: He reads from his Scout book. Charlie takes the law to mean you shouldn't exclude anybody.

C UNDERDOWN: They literally⁷ have, like, these pledges in the Oath to be kind and courteous and considerate.

BOIKO-WEYRAUCH: He says keeping people out would be unfair.

PERRY UNDERDOWN: Would you say that doesn't align⁸ with our kind of core values as a family?

C UNDERDOWN: Yes.

BOIKO-WEYRAUCH: Charlie is getting pizza after school with his dad, Perry Underdown, their weekly ritual. Perry was a Boy Scout, and he says it meant a lot to him.

P UNDERDOWN: There was a sense of belonging and having a community and having positive male role models that I could look to the kind of help guide me.

BOIKO-WEYRAUCH: So when his son was old enough, he signed him up. The Boy Scouts' decision this week to allow girls to participate was in the works for a while. And it's the organization's latest step to stay relevant and accommodate modern families from cultures that value family togetherness and have busy parents and busy kids. Michael Quirk⁹ is the scout executive with the Chief Seattle Council of the Boy Scouts, which runs programs around the Puget Sound region. He says parents have asked for girls programs for decades.

MICHAEL QUIRK: We've always heard a lot of anecdotal stories from parents and leaders saying, gosh, wouldn't it be great if we had a program for our daughter so that we weren't having to run across town for a second meeting of some sort?

BOIKO-WEYRAUCH: Next fall, girls who are Cub¹⁰ Scout age, in first through fifth grade, can join a Cub Scout pack or den¹¹ with other girls. But Quirk says boys and girls will still be separated to some extent.

QUIRK: So there won't be any commingling¹² at this point. So you won't get coed den. It will be a den of all boys or girls.

BOIKO-WEYRAUCH: The rules will probably look similar for girls ages 10 through 18. They'll be able to join Boy Scout troops starting 2019. Quirk says the details about what that might look like haven't been finalized¹³ yet. For some people, the changes just extend their daughters' informal involvement.

KRISTA HOLMES: In a sense, they already are part of Cub Scouts.

BOIKO-WEYRAUCH: Krista Holmes from Issaquah, Wash., has a son in Boy Scouts and two twin daughters in Girl Scouts. Holmes still volunteers with her son's old Cub Scout Pack, which she says is not just for boys.

HOLMES: Our pack meetings are always family oriented. So the whole family, even extended family, would be invited along to do activities. Like, this month, for our Cub Scout troop, we're having a holiday Halloween bash.

BOIKO-WEYRAUCH: The loudest voices of opposition¹⁴ this week came from the Girl Scouts, saying, quote only Girl Scouts has the expertise¹⁵ to give girls and young women the tools they need for success. Holmes says her girls will stay in Girl Scouts. But if they had had the option earlier, her daughters may have become Boy Scouts. For NPR News, I'm Anna Boiko-Weyrauch in Seattle.

(SOUNDBITE OF SEAS OF YEARS' "LEDGE")

1 scout   

n.童子军，侦察员；v.侦察，搜索

参考例句：

• He was mistaken for an enemy scout and badly wounded.他被误认为是敌人的侦察兵，受了重伤。
• The scout made a stealthy approach to the enemy position.侦察兵偷偷地靠近敌军阵地。

2 scouts   

侦察员[机，舰]( scout的名词复数 )； 童子军； 搜索； 童子军成员

参考例句：

• to join the Scouts 参加童子军
• The scouts paired off and began to patrol the area. 巡逻人员两个一组，然后开始巡逻这个地区。

3 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

4 scouting   

守候活动，童子军的活动

参考例句：

• I have people scouting the hills already. 我已经让人搜过那些山了。
• Perhaps also from the Gospel it passed into the tradition of scouting. 也许又从《福音书》传入守望的传统。 来自演讲部分

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 courteous   

adj.彬彬有礼的，客气的

参考例句：

• Although she often disagreed with me,she was always courteous.尽管她常常和我意见不一，但她总是很谦恭有礼。
• He was a kind and courteous man.他为人友善，而且彬彬有礼。

7 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

8 align   

vt.使成一线，结盟，调节；vi.成一线，结盟

参考例句：

• Align the ruler and the middle of the paper.使尺子与纸张的中部成一条直线。
• There are signs that the prime minister is aligning himself with the liberals.有迹象表明首相正在与自由党人结盟。

9 quirk   

n.奇事，巧合；古怪的举动

参考例句：

• He had a strange quirk of addressing his wife as Mrs Smith.他很怪，把自己的妻子称作史密斯夫人。
• The most annoying quirk of his is wearing a cap all the time.他最令人感到厌恶的怪癖就是无论何时都戴著帽子。

10 cub   

n.幼兽，年轻无经验的人

参考例句：

• The lion cub's mother was hunting for what she needs. 这只幼师的母亲正在捕猎。
• The cub licked the milk from its mother's breast. 这头幼兽吸吮着它妈妈的奶水。

11 den   

n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室

参考例句：

• There is a big fox den on the back hill.后山有一个很大的狐狸窝。
• The only way to catch tiger cubs is to go into tiger's den.不入虎穴焉得虎子。

12 commingling   

v.混合，掺和，合并( commingle的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Sexual reproduction can bring about genetic commingling. 有性繁殖可取得杂交遗传。 来自辞典例句
• How do you prevent commingling of certified with non certified products after harvest? 如何避免收获后认证与非认证产品的混淆？ 来自互联网

13 finalized   

vt.完成（finalize的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• The draft of this article has been finalized [done]. 这篇文章已经定稿。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• The draft was revised several times before it was finalized. 稿子几经删改才定下来。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

14 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。

15 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。