VOA标准英语2010年-US Military Veterans Return to Vietnam

A delegation¹ of U.S. military veterans and their families recently traveled to Vietnam, more than 30 years after the war in the southeast Asian nation. A private organization, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, organized the trip.

Many U.S. military veterans of the war in Vietnam remember the country only as wartorn. But  what greeted a group of veterans and other Americans who recently returned there was very different.

"The country is really moving forward. They're not looking back at the war," said Patrick Pellerin, a veteran of the fighting there. "The rural areas of Vietnam still do look the same, but the cities have changed dramatially. They're hustling², they're bustling³". Pellerin, his wife and other U.S. military veterans of the war participated in a recent presentation about their trip to Vietnam in January. 

It was Pellerin's first time back to Vietnam since he served in the U.S. Army during the war. "I had no idea what to expect. I didn't know whether the people were friendly, unfriendly. I didn't know how we were going to be treated. I didn't know what we were going to see and what changes we were going to see," he admitted.

One unexpected reality for several of the Americans is how the war is still devastating⁴ lives.  More than 1,000 Vietnamese a year are killed or injured from leftover⁵ explosives. "It's something we don't think about over here," said Pellerin at the Washington, D.C. presentation. "I suspect the thought never occurs to us that there is literally⁶ tons and tons of unexploded ordinance⁷ over there."

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund has been helping⁸ to de-mine problem areas in Vietnam.  "Through using public education we were able to drop casualities from unexploded ordinance by 75 percent and that continues," Jan Scruggs stated. Scruggs is the organization's founder⁹.

The U.S. government recently awarded $1 million to the organization to continue its de-mining efforts.  The organization says more than 350,000 tons of old explosives remain in Vietnam, most it from U.S. forces.

Pellerin's wife, Sally Seiler, saw some of these bombs during the trip. "It just looked like a rock. and I can see how little kids and farmers would pick these things up," she said.

Even with the remnants of war, many Vietnamese seem to have moved on. On the trip, the U.S. delegation met with former enemies.

"It was really interesting, they were very nice," Pellerin told VOA. "They greeted us at the door like we were long-lost cousins or something. They were very nice. We had a very interesting exchange with them. I think they've put it all behind them and certainly our guys have put it behind us."

But Pellerin says there are some veterans who have a hard time putting the war behind them.  He recalled seeing an outpouring of emotion at the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington. "And they were bringing flowers and dog tags and pictures and it floored me," he said. "It absolutely floored me."

Pellerin says he wishes other U.S. military veterans who served in Vietnam could return there as he did, so that they, too, can have some closure.
 

1 delegation   

n.代表团；派遣

参考例句：

• The statement of our delegation was singularly appropriate to the occasion.我们代表团的声明非常适合时宜。
• We shall inform you of the date of the delegation's arrival.我们将把代表团到达的日期通知你。

2 hustling   

催促（hustle的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• Our quartet was out hustling and we knew we stood good to take in a lot of change before the night was over. 我们的四重奏是明显地卖座的， 而且我们知道在天亮以前，我们有把握收入一大笔钱。
• Men in motors were hustling to pass one another in the hustling traffic. 开汽车的人在繁忙的交通中急急忙忙地互相超车。

3 bustling   

adj.喧闹的

参考例句：

• The market was bustling with life. 市场上生机勃勃。
• This district is getting more and more prosperous and bustling. 这一带越来越繁华了。

4 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

5 leftover   

n.剩货，残留物，剩饭；adj.残余的

参考例句：

• These narrow roads are a leftover from the days of horse-drawn carriages.这些小道是从马车时代沿用下来的。
• Wonder if that bakery lets us take leftover home.不知道那家糕饼店会不会让我们把卖剩的带回家。

6 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。

7 ordinance   

n.法令；条令；条例

参考例句：

• The Ordinance of 1785 provided the first land grants for educational purposes.1785年法案为教育目的提供了第一批土地。
• The city passed an ordinance compelling all outdoor lighting to be switched off at 9.00 PM.该市通过一条法令强令晚上九点关闭一切室外照明。

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

9 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。