发布时间 : 星期二 文章全新版大学英语(第二版)综合教程3课文原文及翻译Until1-8较完整版[精品文档]更新完毕开始阅读b0e22c783086bceb19e8b8f67c1cfad6195fe987
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our troubles.
那也许是我们将来回顾这一时代时记得最牢的精神遗产：在对付我们中间无形的恐惧之时，我们成了自己的囚徒。在我们这个问题重重的时代，所有的人都是囚徒。
Unit3 Text B Why I Bought A Gun我为什么买枪
Gail Buchalter盖尔?巴卡尔特
1 I was raised in one of Manhattan's more desirable neighborhoods. My upper-middle-class background never
involved guns. If my parents felt threatened, they simply put another lock on the door. 我在曼哈顿一个相当不错的社区长大。我的中上阶级的社会背景从来与枪支无涉。我的父母要是觉
得有威胁存在他们仅仅是在门上再加把锁。
2 By high school, I had traded in my cashmere sweaters for a black arm band. I marched for Civil Rights,
shunned Civil Defense drills and protested the Vietnam war. It was easy being 18 and a peacenik. I wasn't raising an 11-year-old child then.
高中时",我用一件开司米羊毛衫跟人换了个黑色的臂章。我参加人权游行反对国防演习",抗议越
南战争。作为妙龄18 的少女当一名反战分子真是轻松自在。那时我还没有一个11 岁的孩子要抚养。
3 (1) Today, I am typical of the women whom gun manufactures have been aiming at as potential buyers --
and one of the millions who have taken the plunge.
时至今日我成了一个典型的被枪支制造商看重并视为其潜在买主的那种女人--成了成千上万个采
取这种行动的人中的一员。
4 I began questioning my pacifist beliefs one Halloween night in Phoenix, where I had moved when I married.
I was almost home when another car nearly hit mine head-on. With the speed of a New York cabbie, I rolled down
my window and screamed curses as the driver passed. He instantly made a U-turn, almost climbing on my back
bumper. By now, he and his two friends were hanging out of the car windows, yelling that they were going to rape, cut and kill me.
一个万圣节的晚上在我婚后移居的凤凰城我开始怀疑自己的和平主义信条。一辆车与我的车差
点迎头相撞时",我几乎都到家了。我以纽约城出租车司机的敏捷快速摇下车窗高声咒骂那位开车的。他
当即掉转车头",几乎撞上我的车后保险杠。这时",他和两个同伴从车窗伸出头来嚷嚷着要强奸我砍我 杀了我。
5 I already had turned into our driveway when I realized my husband wasn't home. I was
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trapped. The car had
pulled in behind me. I drove up to the back porch and got into the kitchen, where our dogs stood waiting for me.
The three men spilled out of their car and into our yard. 我开进车道才想起丈夫不在家。这下我进退两 难。那辆车尾随着跟了进来。我把车开到后门廊停下冲进厨房我家的那两条狗站在那儿等我。那三个
家伙从汽车里一拥而出进了院子。
6 My heart was pumping. I grabbed the collars of Jack, our 200-pound Irish wolfhound, and his 140-pound
malamute buddy, Slush. Then I kicked open the back door -- I was so scared that I became aggressive -- and
actually dared the three creeps to keep coming. With the dogs, the odds had changed in my favor, and the men ran
back to the safety of their car, yelling that they'd be back the next day to blow me away. Fortunately, they never returned.
我的心怦怦直跳。我抓起杰克和斯露西的颈圈――一条是200 磅重的爱尔兰狼狗另一条是它的伙
伴140 磅重的北极犬。随后我一脚踢开后门――我吓坏了变得暴躁好斗――事实上我要激那三人过来。
有狗相助局势变得对我有利他们退回安全的车里嚷嚷着说要明天来宰了我。总算幸运",他们没再露 面。
7 A few years and one divorce later, I headed for Los Angeles with my 3-year-old son, Jordan (the dogs had
since departed). When I put him in preschool a few weeks later, the headmistress noted that I was a single parent
and immediately warned me that there was a rapist in my new neighborhood. 几年后我离了婚带着3 岁的儿子乔丹前往洛杉矶",那两条狗也死了。几个星期后我送他去幼
儿园老师发现我是个单身母亲",马上提醒我我刚搬入的居住区里有个强奸犯。
8 I called the police, who confirmed this fact. The rapist followed no particular pattern. Sometimes he would
be waiting in his victim's house; other times he would break in while the person was asleep. Although it was
summer, I would carefully lock my windows at night and then lie there and sweat in fear. Thankfully, the rapist
was caught, but not before he had attacked two more women. 我给警察局打了个电话",他们证实了这一情况。那个强奸犯没有什么特别的作案规律。有时他在受
害者家里等候有时他趁人入睡时潜入。当时正是夏天可夜间我还是谨慎地锁住窗户",然后躺在床上
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吓得浑身是汗。谢天谢地那个强奸犯被逮捕了可那是在他又强暴了两名女子之后。 9 Soon the papers were telling yet another tale of senseless horror. Richard Bamirez, who became known as
\alleged crimes were so
brutal, his desire to inflict pain so intense, that I began to question my beliefs about not taking human life under
any circumstances. The thought of taking a human life disgusts me, but the idea of being someone's victim is
worse. And how, I began to ask myself, do you talk pacifism to a murderer or a rapist? 不久报纸上又报道起另一个丧心病狂的恐怖人物的事来。此人名叫理查德?巴米里人称“入室
杀手”",被抓获前一连几个月残害、杀死他人。据称他的犯罪行为非常野蛮他加害于人的欲望非常强
烈这使我开始对自己在任何情况下决不杀人的信念产生了怀疑。取人性命的想法令我憎恨",但成为他人
受害者的念头更可怕。我开始问自己你怎么跟一个杀人犯或强奸犯来谈论和平呢
10 Finally, I decided that I would defend myself, even if it meant killing another person. (3) I realized that the
one-sided pacifism I once so strongly had advocated could backfire on me and worse, on my son. Reluctantly, I
concluded that I had to insure the best option for our survival. My choices: to count on a cop or to own a pistol.
最后我决定要自我防卫",哪怕这意味着杀死他人。我意识到自己曾积极提倡的一厢情愿的和平
主义会为害自身更糟的是会为害我的儿子。于是我极不情愿地决定为了我们的生存",我必须确保有
一个最佳选择方案。我的选择",依靠警察或拥有一支枪。
11 I called a man I had met a while ago who, I remembered, owned several guns. He told me he had a Smith
& Wesson 38 Special for sale and recommended it, since it was small enough for me to handle yet had the
necessary stopping power.
我给不久前认识的一个人打电话",我记得他有好几支枪。他告诉我他有一支史密斯韦森0.38 口
径特种枪要出售建议我买下因为那支枪小巧好使又有必要的威慑力。
12 I bought the gun. That same day, I got six rounds of special ammunition with plastic tips that explode on
impact. These are not for target practice; these are for protection.
我买下了枪。在同一天我弄到了6 发包着塑料头、一撞击就崩碎的特别的子弹。这些子弹不是打
靶练习用的是防身用的。
13 For about $50, I also picked up a metal safety box. Its push-button lock opens with a
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touch if you know the
proper combination, possibly taking only a second or two longer than it does to reach into a night-table drawer.
Now I knew that my son, Jordan, couldn't get his hands on it while I still could.
花了大约50 美元我还买了个金属安全盒。如果知道正确的暗码",它的按钮式锁一碰就开",大概
比伸手去床头柜抽屉取他只慢一两秒钟。我知道儿子乔丹拿不到它但我拿得到。 14 When I brought the gun home, Jordan was fascinated by it. He kept picking it up, while I nervously
watched. But knowledge, I believe, is still our greatest defense. And since I'm in favor of education for sex, AIDS
and learning to drive, I couldn't draw the line at teaching my son about guns. 我把枪拿回家乔丹兴奋得不得了。他不停地拿起来看我紧张地瞧着。但我相信知识仍是我们
最有力的防范手段。由于我主张对孩子进行性知识教育艾滋病知识教育以及让孩子学会开车",我不能
不赞成教儿子关于枪的知识。
15 Next, I took the pistol and my son to the target range. I rented a 22-caliber pistol for Jordan. (A .38 was too
much gun for him to handle.) I was relieved when he put it down after 10 minutes -- he didn't like the feel of it.
随后我携枪带儿子去射击场。我给乔丹租了一支0.22 口径的手枪。0.38 口径的他摆弄不了。10
分钟后他放下了枪",我不禁松了口气――他不喜欢握枪的感觉。
16 But that didn't prevent him from asking me if he should use the gun if someone broke into our house while
I wasn't home. I shouted \broke in, he's young and
agile enough to leap out the window and run for his life.
但他并不因此不来问我如果我不在家时有人闯入他能不能用枪。我大喝一声“不行”",喊声响
得把我们都吓得跳了起来。我解释说",要是真有人闯入他人小又灵活完全可以跳窗逃生。
17 Today he couldn't care less about the gun. Every so often, when were watching television in my room, I
practice opening the safety box, and Jordan times me. I'm down to three seconds. I'll ask him what's the first thing
you do when you handle a gun, and he looks at me like I'm stupid, saying: %unloaded. But I'm not to
touch it or tell my friends about it.\如今他对那支枪早没了兴趣。两人在我的卧室一起看电视时",我常常练习开启安全盒乔丹替我计 时。我已经快到只需要3 秒钟了。我会问他拿枪时第一件要做的事是什么他像看傻瓜似