【英语语言学习】更美好的生活

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

All this month, we've been hearing about the lives of teenage girls from around the world. Some of them say they dream of coming to the United States, where they believe their lives would be better. Our next story is about a girl who was forced to come here, and, like a lot of migrants, her journey didn't end when she crossed the border. NPR's Jasmine Garsd reports.

JASMINE GARSD, BYLINE¹: The week she turned 15, Rosi got an amazing birthday present. She was in a government shelter in New York and then her dad walked in. It was the first time she'd seen him in almost four years.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Through interpreter) Oh my God, to be honest, we were crying. She was wearing jeans, tennis shoes, this little collared blouse.

ROSI: (Through interpreter) And I felt so happy. I didn't even want a party. I didn't want anything. To just see him there - and he brought me a big cake as a present. It was vanilla².

GARSD: Until her dad showed up, she'd been thinking she should just go home to Guatemala and face the nightmare she'd run away from. Rosi still has trouble talking about it. She calls it lo que paso, or the thing that happened. Lo que paso was that when her dad first got to the U.S., he had several roommates. One of them saw pictures of Rosi and became obsessed³. He's her nightmare and the reason we aren't using Rosi's full name or the names of anyone in her family. They're still worried about this man who, once upon a time, went back to Guatemala and started tracking Rosi down. She was 13. He was 31. He wanted to marry her. When Rosi's dad found out, he was furious.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Through interpreter) If you don't want to have a problem, stay away from my home, I told him. Well, you know what, he told me. You are there, and I am here - just like that. The thing is, in our country, everything gets fixed⁴ with money.

GARSD: And this guy had American money. The dad thinks Rosi's mom was seduced⁵ by this. She forced Rosi to marry the guy.

ROSI: (Through interpreter) I wanted to be dead rather than live through that. I tried killing⁶ myself with a knife. But an aunt found me and told me, don't do it. It's going to be OK.

GARSD: It wasn't. Now that he had his child bride, Rosi's husband decided⁷ to head back to the U.S. with her. They got caught at the U.S.-Mexico border. This is what most migrants fear. But for Rosi, it meant getting away from her husband. He made a run for it. She never saw him again. Rosi's ordeal⁸ was over but far from finished. She ended up in a government shelter for unaccompanied children in California, then Texas, then New York, where her dad was finally able to come get her. When she was released, he took her home to Pennsylvania.

Rosi and her dad share a small apartment with another migrant. It's a crisp autumn day, and outside, the trees are shivering. Inside, it's turned into a sauna from all the cooking. Rosi makes a mean pollo sudado - chicken stew⁹ with rice, salad and steamed plantains with sugar. She tells me, in the months after being released to her father, she barely ate.

ROSI: (Through interpreter) All I did was cry. I felt really depressed¹⁰. I didn't want to speak to men. I hated them. I asked myself, why is this happening to me?

GARSD: Like so many kids who come to the U.S. as migrants, Rosi felt lost. Her lawyer referred her to a woman named Cathi Tillman.

CATHI TILLMAN: You know, five years ago, we maybe had 10 percent of our referrals were specifically of youth. And now it's probably 60 percent.

GARSD: Tillman is the executive director of La Puerta Abierta, an organization that works to give migrants improved access to mental health care. Rosi was able to get a green card and the marriage annulled¹¹. Her father doesn't have papers. Tillman says when she first met Rosi, she was lucky to get a few words out of her. Rosi started attending a youth group.

TILLMAN: She was pretty shut down - very, very quiet. But one of the things that helped her connect was that she loves bachata.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG)

UNIDENTIFIED SINGER: (Singing in Spanish).

TILLMAN: And she decided, one day after group, to turn on some music. And she started dancing and showing - there were a couple of other girls that she had become somewhat friendly with - and they started doing it. And we were all laughing.

GARSD: Maybe it was the melancholy¹² Caribbean guitar pluck or being around people who cared about her, but something gave. Rosi was ready to talk about the thing that happened in Guatemala.

ROSI: (Through interpreter) The first time, I couldn't talk. It was hard. I just cried and cried with my therapist. And she told me to get it all out, what I had inside of me.

GARSD: The next day we go check out clothing at H&M. She loves this store and swings by whenever she has some extra cash. She picks out a lot of lacy, girly blouses and wrinkles her nose at the skull¹³ print sweatshirt I grabbed.

It's been almost four years since Rosi started going to therapy. She tells me about her boyfriend and how she doesn't want kids until she has a nursing career. I ask her if she's forgiven her mother for selling her out. Rosi pauses and says, well, you only get one mother. They aren't on speaking terms. But she and her dad adore each other.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: (Through interpreter) Imagine, when she was in Texas, I could only speak to her for 15 minutes every eight days - 15 minutes. I'd tell her - how are you, my daughter? How are you, my beautiful girl? And she would say, don't be sad, Papa, I'm going to be OK. And I'd say, OK, I'm here waiting for you. I'm fighting for you.

GARSD: Cathi Tillman says it's not your run-of-the-mill happy ending, but it's close.

TILLMAN: There isn't necessarily closure. There's peace. There's reconciliation¹⁴. There's acceptance. But closure - how do you close a wound that is, you know, 100 miles wide? Sometimes, the wound stays open, and it scabs over. And you just have to take care of it and then go on with your life.

GARSD: Outside the store, Rosi and I part ways. She told her dad she'd be home a while ago, and he gets worried. Jasmine Garsd, NPR News.

SIMON: We'd like to hear your stories about life at 15. You can share them on Twitter at #15girls.

1 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。

2 vanilla   

n.香子兰，香草

参考例句：

• He used to love milk flavoured with vanilla.他过去常爱喝带香草味的牛奶。
• I added a dollop of vanilla ice-cream to the pie.我在馅饼里加了一块香草冰激凌。

3 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

4 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

5 seduced   

诱奸( seduce的过去式和过去分词 )； 勾引； 诱使堕落； 使入迷

参考例句：

• The promise of huge profits seduced him into parting with his money. 高额利润的许诺诱使他把钱出了手。
• His doctrines have seduced many into error. 他的学说把许多人诱入歧途。

6 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。

7 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。

8 ordeal   

n.苦难经历，（尤指对品格、耐力的）严峻考验

参考例句：

• She managed to keep her sanity throughout the ordeal.在那场磨难中她始终保持神志正常。
• Being lost in the wilderness for a week was an ordeal for me.在荒野里迷路一星期对我来说真是一场磨难。

9 stew   

n.炖汤，焖，烦恼；v.炖汤，焖，忧虑

参考例句：

• The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
• There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。

10 depressed   

adj.沮丧的，抑郁的，不景气的，萧条的

参考例句：

• When he was depressed,he felt utterly divorced from reality.他心情沮丧时就感到完全脱离了现实。
• His mother was depressed by the sad news.这个坏消息使他的母亲意志消沉。

11 annulled   

v.宣告无效( annul的过去式和过去分词 )；取消；使消失；抹去

参考例句：

• Their marriage was annulled after just six months. 他们的婚姻仅过半年就宣告取消。
• Many laws made by the former regime have been annulled. 前政权制定的许多法律被宣布无效。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 melancholy   

n.忧郁，愁思；adj.令人感伤（沮丧）的，忧郁的

参考例句：

• All at once he fell into a state of profound melancholy.他立即陷入无尽的忧思之中。
• He felt melancholy after he failed the exam.这次考试没通过，他感到很郁闷。

13 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

14 reconciliation   

n.和解，和谐，一致

参考例句：

• He was taken up with the reconciliation of husband and wife.他忙于做夫妻间的调解工作。
• Their handshake appeared to be a gesture of reconciliation.他们的握手似乎是和解的表示。