美国国家公共电台 NPR 20 Years Later, Sibling Columbine Survivors Reflect

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

And it's Friday, which is when we hear from StoryCorps. Tomorrow marks 20 years since Columbine, the school shooting, at the time, the deadliest school shooting on record. On April 20, 1999, two students opened fire at a high school in Littleton, Colo., killing¹ 13 people and themselves.

Sophomore² Lauren Cartaya escaped from the school quickly that morning, but her older brother Zach was stuck for three hours, hiding in a classroom. The siblings³ came to StoryCorps to recall that day.

ZACH CARTAYA: When you pile 60 17-year-olds together in a small space, you're going to go through what everybody would expect - fear and tears and prayers. But as the minutes drag into hours, you start to become a 17-year-old again, whether you like it or not. One of my friends was laughing and scared that she was going to die a virgin⁴. A girl peed in Mr. Andres' (ph) thermos⁵, and we never told him about it. We popped the ceiling tiles off, and we signed it in case we die. There was so much going on. I don't remember a lot of getting home.

LAUREN CARTAYA: I remember standing⁶ outside, waiting for you. You walked right by me like I was a ghost.

Z CARTAYA: I was a ghost. I was just in a state of shock.

L CARTAYA: That summer after Columbine happened, I played softball nonstop. And I was so angry. I chewed so much bubble gum, I had 10 cavities.

Z CARTAYA: There's no real good way to express your anger. And it comes out in the weirdest⁷ places. I remember we would smoke cigarettes and pot in the men's room. And a Jefferson County police officer walked in. And he's like, are you smoking pot? And we looked at him dead-eyed and said, what the [expletive] are you going to do about it? And he pivoted⁸ and walked out the door.

L CARTAYA: Yeah. You know, after the shooting, I definitely blocked out a lot of life before that.

Z CARTAYA: It eliminated most of that year for me, that academic year.

L CARTAYA: Yeah. I remember my 16th birthday - like, going and getting my driver's license⁹. But that's it. I can't tell you anything that happened up until the time that I sat down, and I started taking a test and heard people screaming. And this year, it's just - I have these dreams that are so vivid of me, you know, having to tell parents that their kids aren't coming out while I'm holding mine.

Z CARTAYA: It never goes away.

L CARTAYA: Never.

Z CARTAYA: But recovery is a marathon and not a race. And you just have to keep running it. So over 20 years, I had to let my anger go because if you don't let that anger go, it's going to consume you. And it's consumed way too many of us.

L CARTAYA: Yeah. And it's always good to have a brother that can relate. You definitely have given me strength to heal.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

INSKEEP: That was Zach and Lauren Cartaya, survivors¹⁰ of the Columbine school shooting, which took place 20 years ago tomorrow. They sat for StoryCorps in Littleton, Colo. The interview will be archived, along with hundreds of thousands of others, at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.

1 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。

2 sophomore   

n.大学二年级生；adj.第二年的

参考例句：

• He is in his sophomore year.他在读二年级。
• I'm a college sophomore majoring in English.我是一名英语专业的大二学生。

3 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

4 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

5 thermos   

n.保湿瓶，热水瓶

参考例句：

• Can I borrow your thermos?我可以借用你的暖水瓶吗？
• It's handy to have the thermos here.暖瓶放在这儿好拿。

6 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。

7 weirdest   

怪诞的( weird的最高级 )； 神秘而可怕的； 超然的； 古怪的

参考例句：

• Think of the weirdest, craziest shit you'd like to see chicks do. 想想这最怪异，最疯狂的屁事。你会喜欢看这些鸡巴表演的。
• It's still the weirdest damn sound I ever heard out of a Jersey boy. 这是我所听过新泽西人最为怪异的音调了。

8 pivoted   

adj.转动的，回转的，装在枢轴上的v.（似）在枢轴上转动( pivot的过去式和过去分词 )；把…放在枢轴上；以…为核心，围绕（主旨）展开

参考例句：

• His old legs and shoulders pivoted with the swinging of the pulling. 他一把把地拉着，两条老迈的腿儿和肩膀跟着转动。 来自英汉文学 - 老人与海
• When air is moving, the metal is pivoted on the hinge. 当空气流动时，金属板在铰链上转动。 来自辞典例句

9 license   

n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许

参考例句：

• The foreign guest has a license on the person.这个外国客人随身携带执照。
• The driver was arrested for having false license plates on his car.司机由于使用假车牌而被捕。

10 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者