美国国家公共电台 NPR The 'Downwinders' From Atomic Testing Get Deserved Attention

 

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

In 1945, the people of southern New Mexico saw the flash of the first atomic bomb when it was tested at a place called the Trinity Site. They weren't warned, and they weren't protected from fallout. Six years later, the composer John Adams premiered "Doctor Atomic," his opera about the physicist¹ J. Robert Oppenheimer and the birth of the bomb. But New Mexicans were largely ignored again. It's finally changed in a new production at the Santa Fe Opera. Here's Megan Kamerick of member station KUNM.

MEGAN KAMERICK, BYLINE²: It's dress rehearsal³ at the Santa Fe Opera, and Tina Cordova is waiting for her cue.

TINA CORDOVA: We're downwinders. We're going to be onstage with the members of the actual cast.

KAMERICK: Downwinders are people who lived near the first nuclear explosion at the Trinity Site, and their descendants, like Cordova.

CORDOVA: There is not a single one of us onstage that isn't either a cancer patient dealing⁴ with a tumor⁵ or a cancer.

KAMERICK: The first bomb was tested in southern New Mexico near towns with Hispanic and Native American residents who say they were damaged by fallout. But unlike downwinders in other states, they've never received compensation.

CORDOVA: But then to be invited by Peter Sellars to participate in this opera has been outside of anything we could have ever imagined.

KAMERICK: Director Peter Sellars created the libretto⁶ for "Doctor Atomic." And ever since its premiere in 2005, he has wanted to bring it here.

PETER SELLARS: The subsequent history of what the nuclear age has done to the world is a story that has to be told from New Mexico and through the lives of people in this state.

UNIDENTIFIED SINGERS: (Vocalizing).

KAMERICK: Before the opera begins, dancers from three Native American pueblos⁸ near Los Alamos, where the bomb was built, perform a sacred corn dance for healing.

MINA HARVIER: It's really amazing - truly blessed to be here.

KAMERICK: Mina Harvier is from Santa Clara Pueblo⁷, which was polluted by activity at Los Alamos.

HARVIER: No one's ever come and asked, you know, what do you think? What do you have to say about this?

KAMERICK: The dancers exit and the opera begins.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "DOCTOR ATOMIC")

KAMERICK: An enormous steel ball that represents the nuclear bomb looms⁹ ominously¹⁰ over the opera stage throughout the night. As action moves to the Trinity Site, Manhattan Project Director General Leslie Groves¹¹ is indignant when the scientist Oppenheimer, Dr. Atomic, suggests evacuating¹² nearby communities.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "DOCTOR ATOMIC")

DANIEL OKULITCH: (As General Groves, singing) If I have to compromise security by sending an evacuation force into nearby towns, our cover's blown.

KAMERICK: Groves refused to tell people living less than 20 miles near the site about the detonation¹³. Standing¹⁴ silently on stage, Tina Cordova and the downwinders listen.

CORDOVA: To hear the discussion around the consideration or the lack of consideration that was given to us as people, as human beings - it's difficult to hear.

KAMERICK: Then the countdown begins.

(SOUNDBITE OF OPERA, "DOCTOR ATOMIC")

CORDOVA: I can tell you that during the last scene, it takes a lot to stay composed. The first time that we practiced it, most of us were in tears afterwards because it's a pretty intense scene.

KAMERICK: The stage goes dark. Mina Harvier of Santa Clara Pueblo says despite the harm, her people are resilient.

HARVIER: We're still going to be here no matter what happens. And our tradition, our songs, our dances are going to live on forever.

KAMERICK: Tina Cordova says she hopes this new production of "Doctor Atomic" makes audiences realize how many people were affected¹⁵, unknowingly, by the creation of the bomb. For NPR News, I'm Megan Kamerick in Santa Fe.

1 physicist   

n.物理学家，研究物理学的人

参考例句：

• He is a physicist of the first rank.他是一流的物理学家。
• The successful physicist never puts on airs.这位卓有成就的物理学家从不摆架子。

2 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。

3 rehearsal   

n.排练，排演；练习

参考例句：

• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。
• You can sharpen your skills with rehearsal.排练可以让技巧更加纯熟。

4 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

5 tumor   

n.（肿）瘤，肿块(英)tumour

参考例句：

• He was died of a malignant tumor.他死于恶性肿瘤。
• The surgeons irradiated the tumor.外科医生用X射线照射那个肿瘤。

6 libretto   

n.歌剧剧本，歌曲歌词

参考例句：

• The printed libretto was handsomely got up.这本印刷的歌剧剧本装帧得很美观。
• On the other hand,perhaps there is something to be said for the convenience of downloading a libretto in one's own home rather than looking for it in a library or book store.但是反过来看，或许尤为重要的是如果网

7 pueblo   

n.（美国西南部或墨西哥等）印第安人的村庄

参考例句：

• For over 2,000 years,Pueblo peoples occupied a vast region of the south-western United States.在长达2，000多年的时间里，印第安人统治着现在美国西南部的大片土地。
• The cross memorializes the Spanish victims of the 1680 revolt,when the region's Pueblo Indians rose up in violent protest against their mistreatment and burned the cit

8 pueblos   

n.印第安人村庄( pueblo的名词复数 )

参考例句：

9 looms   

n.织布机( loom的名词复数 )v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的第三人称单数 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• All were busily engaged,men at their ploughs,women at their looms. 大家都很忙，男的耕田，女的织布。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The factory has twenty-five looms. 那家工厂有25台织布机。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 ominously   

adv.恶兆地，不吉利地；预示地

参考例句：

• The wheels scooped up stones which hammered ominously under the car. 车轮搅起的石块，在车身下发出不吉祥的锤击声。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mammy shook her head ominously. 嬷嬷不祥地摇着头。 来自飘（部分）

11 groves   

树丛，小树林( grove的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The early sun shone serenely on embrowned groves and still green fields. 朝阳宁静地照耀着已经发黄的树丛和还是一片绿色的田地。
• The trees grew more and more in groves and dotted with old yews. 那里的树木越来越多地长成了一簇簇的小丛林，还点缀着几棵老紫杉树。

12 evacuating   

撤离，疏散( evacuate的现在分词 )； 排空（胃肠），排泄（粪便）； （从危险的地方）撤出，搬出，撤空

参考例句：

• The solution is degassed by alternately freezing, evacuating and thawing. 通过交替的冻结、抽空和溶化来使溶液除气。
• Are we evacuating these potential targets? 能够在这些目标地域内进行疏散吗？

13 detonation   

n.爆炸；巨响

参考例句：

• A fearful detonation burst forth on the barricade.街垒传来一阵骇人的爆炸声。
• Within a few hundreds of microseconds,detonation is complete.在几百微秒之内，爆炸便完成了。

14 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

15 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。