VOA常速英语2014--对奥巴马来说种族暴力是个人问题

 

For Obama, Racial Violence is Personal Issue 对奥巴马来说种族暴力是个人问题

WHITE HOUSE—

The racial violence in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson is presenting President Barack Obama with an issue to which he has a deep personal connection. To many Americans, Obama's election as America's first black president marked a turning point in race relations in the United States, and Obama has made ending the violence a policy priority. On Monday he issued a new call for calm and understanding.

The time for healing for which President Barack Obama hopes has yet to arrive in Ferguson.

巴拉克·奥巴马总统希望弗格森愈合的时间尚未来到。

Interrupting a vacation, the president returned to the White House Monday and met with Attorney General Eric Holder¹, the man spearheading the administration's efforts to independently investigate the shooting of a young unarmed black man by a white police officer.

周一，旅行期间的总统掉头回到白宫并会见大法官埃里克·霍尔德，霍尔德负责政府独立调查手无寸铁黑人少年被白人警察开枪打死一案。

At a briefing, the president called for understanding.

在发布会上，总统呼吁谅解。

“To a community in Ferguson that is rightly hurting and looking for answers, let me call once again for us to seek some understanding rather than to simply holler at each other. Let's seek to heal rather than to wound each other.  As Americans we've got to use this moment to seek our shared humanity that's been laid bare by this moment,” said Obama.

“在弗格森这个社区依然存在伤害，人们仍在寻求解答，我要再次呼吁大家实现谅解，而不是简单地相互抱怨。让我们寻求愈合伤口，而不是相互伤害。作为美国人，我们要在这时刻彰显人道主义。”

In a bid to find the truth, the family of the 18-year-old victim requested a preliminary autopsy².

为寻求真相，这名18岁受害者的家人请求进行初步尸检。

And another autopsy, by a federal medical examiner, has been ordered by Attorney General Holder as part of an administration effort to shed light on the truth and restore calm. 

联邦医学检察官进行的另一次尸检是在得到大法官霍尔德的命令后进行的，这也是政府希望解开真相和保持冷静努力的一部分。

For Obama, it's a personal issue. Following the 2012 killing³ of Trayvon Martin, another unarmed black teenager shot in a racially charged incident, the president spoke⁴ of how he sees race relations in his country.

对奥巴马来说这却是私人问题，在2012另一名手无寸铁黑人少年马丁在种族事件中被杀，总统谈到自己如何看待美国的种族关系。

“There are very few African American men who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping at a department store.  That includes me. There are very few African American men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happened to me, at least before I was a senator,” said Obama.

“很少有非裔美国人没有经历过在商场购物时被跟踪，其中包括我。很少有非裔美国人没有经历过走在大街上却听到车门上响起锁门的声音，我就经历过这事，至少在我成为参议员之前经历过。”

With infant mortality and incarceration⁵ rates higher, and income and education levels lower, than non-blacks, Professor Greg Carr, head of Afro-American Studies at Howard University, said there hasn't been any real fundamental change in race relations in the U.S.

哈佛大学美国黑人研究教授格雷格·凯尔说，黑人的婴儿死亡率和囚禁率更高些，同时收入和教育水平要低些，因此美国的种族关系没有发生根本的改变。

“Regardless of the color of the occupant of the Oval Office - certainly with President Obama in office and Attorney General Eric Holder, there perhaps is an expectation that there may be more swift action taken to resolve some of these issues or to at least deal with some of the issues in real time. However, that expectation is tenuous⁶ because we understand that Barack Obama is not the president of black America as he frequently reminds us, he’s the president of the United States of America,” said Carr.

“不管入住椭圆办公室的人肤色是什么，当然随着奥巴马执政和大法官埃里克·霍尔德的存在，我们有希望期待可能会采取立即措施来解决部分问题，或者至少能实时解决部分问题。然而，这样的期待很微弱，因为我们明白巴拉克·奥巴马并不是美国黑人的总统，因为他经常提醒我们，他是美利坚合众国的总统。”

President Obama announced he's sending the attorney general to Ferguson to meet with investigators⁷ who are carrying out the independent federal probe that's under way.

奥巴马总统宣布他将派大法官去弗格森和调查者见面，调查者目前在进行独立的联邦调查。

The president says he hopes the truth will be what eventually brings peace to Ferguson and allows the country to move beyond this bout⁸ of racial tensions.

总统称希望真相将最终给弗格森带来和平，并让美国远离种族紧张之痛。

1 holder   

n.持有者，占有者；(台，架等)支持物

参考例句：

• The holder of the office of chairman is reponsible for arranging meetings.担任主席职位的人负责安排会议。
• That runner is the holder of the world record for the hundred-yard dash.那位运动员是一百码赛跑世界纪录的保持者。

2 autopsy   

n.尸体解剖；尸检

参考例句：

• They're carrying out an autopsy on the victim.他们正在给受害者验尸。
• A hemorrhagic gut was the predominant lesion at autopsy.尸检的主要发现是肠出血。

3 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。

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 incarceration   

n.监禁，禁闭；钳闭

参考例句：

• He hadn't changed much in his nearly three years of incarceration. 在将近三年的监狱生活中，他变化不大。 来自辞典例句
• Please, please set it free before it bursts from its long incarceration! 请你，请你将这颗心释放出来吧！否则它会因长期的禁闭而爆裂。 来自辞典例句

6 tenuous   

adj.细薄的，稀薄的，空洞的

参考例句：

• He has a rather tenuous grasp of reality.他对现实认识很肤浅。
• The air ten miles above the earth is very tenuous.距离地面十公里的空气十分稀薄。

7 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 bout   

n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛

参考例句：

• I was suffering with a bout of nerves.我感到一阵紧张。
• That bout of pneumonia enfeebled her.那次肺炎的发作使她虚弱了。