国家地理:China's Lost Girls 被抛弃的女孩 -1

Not too far away is a little girl who has never known a mother, and she's never known a father, and she's never known a big sister. And today she's gonna get out of that.

Hi, welcome to Ultimate Explorer, I'm Lisa Ling. Tonight, a story I've been wanting to do for a long time. Over one quarter of all the babies adopted from abroad into this country come from China, and most are girls. It's a consequence of one of the biggest efforts to control population growth in history, China's so-called "one child" policy. It limits millions of families there to having only one child. Now traditionally baby boys are preferred, and as a result, girls are often abandoned, aborted¹, or hidden, sometimes they are even killed. Where do they end up and what does it all mean for China? Take a look.

China, one of the world's oldest civilizations, with more than 4,000 years of history and culture. Today, China is booming². With over a billion people, it has the world's largest population. One in every five people on the planet lives here. And for China, that is a big problem. So the Chinese government has put limits on how many children people can have. When combined with the centuries-old preference for boys, this means that untold³ thousands of Chinese girls are being aborted, hidden, or abandoned every year. Where do some of these abandoned girls end up?
Marissa, whatever you do, don't touch the tits...
Places like Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
Ready?

Richard and Denise Holler adopted their daughter Marissa from China three and a half years ago. Today they are taking Marissa to her Chinese dance performance.
Can I give you a hug. Ok. Oh, that's sweet.
Not long after, they'll take her back to China.
Marissa, why do you close your eyes when you take a picture?
I'm going with Richard, Denise and Marissa who frankly⁴ looks more like me than her parents.
I just smiled.
That's the way you smile?
In every way Marissa is an ordinary American kid. But this American kid was abandoned in a park in China when she was three days old. Now her parents are headed back to China because they want to adopt another baby girl.

"Well, actually, sometimes my parents say that, like I was meant for them, and sometimes I really do think that. But sometimes I think it's just a miracle, or sometimes I just think it just happened."

As soon as we arrive in Beijing, we meet dozens of families from all over America who are also adopting little girls. Some of them have never been out of the US.

"And these are the Knives. They are also gonna be adopting a baby girl."

Orson and Tracy North Ross from Alabama. Donna McPhillips and Gary King from North Carolina. Richard and Lisa Foaken from Texas who are also going back to adopt their second child.

"It's not about us getting a daughter, it's about her getting a sister, you know"

The adoption⁵ process has taken more than a year for most of these couples and cost them upwards⁶ of $18,000. (First time you get the picture of your new child. How is, it's real...) They've waited anxiously for the Chinese government to approve them and then assign them a baby whom they've never even met. The couples are given little more than a photo which many of them carry everywhere. Now in three days they'll meet the babies for the first time.

So what do you do for the three days before your life changes forever? How about take a tour of Beijing?

"This is Chairman Mao. OK? Chairman Mao lighter⁷."
"OK. First, let's look at this building."
"Is that a temple over there?"
"One, two, three, cheeeeeese. Thank you."
"This is a bald man."
"Do you know who that is? It's in the big picture right there."
"Chairman Mao."
"Chairman Mao. Chairman Mao Zedong. We have his Little Red Book at home."

Under Mao in the 50s and 60s, China's population exploded. By 1980 Mao's successors⁸ began limiting most families to only one child, or in some cases two. It's been called the largest population control effort in human history.

1 aborted   

adj.流产的，失败的v.（使）流产( abort的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）（某事物）中止；（因故障等而）（使）（飞机、宇宙飞船、导弹等）中断飞行；（使）（飞行任务等）中途失败

参考例句：

• The rocket flight had to be aborted because of difficulties with computer. 因电脑出故障，这次火箭飞行只好中辍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They aborted the space flight finally. 他们最后中止了这次宇航飞行。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 booming   

adj.急速发展的v.激增( boom的现在分词 )；猛涨；发出隆隆声；以低沉有力的声音说话

参考例句：

• The opera singer has a deep, booming, masculine voice. 这位歌剧演唱家有一副深沉而又浑厚有力的嗓音。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• He is booming as a teacher. 作为一位教师，他日趋成功。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 untold   

adj.数不清的，无数的

参考例句：

• She has done untold damage to our chances.她给我们的机遇造成了不可估量的损害。
• They suffered untold terrors in the dark and huddled together for comfort.他们遭受着黑暗中的难以言传的种种恐怖，因而只好挤在一堆互相壮胆。

4 frankly   

adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说

参考例句：

• To speak frankly, I don't like the idea at all.老实说，我一点也不赞成这个主意。
• Frankly speaking, I'm not opposed to reform.坦率地说，我不反对改革。

5 adoption   

n.采用，采纳，通过；收养

参考例句：

• An adoption agency had sent the boys to two different families.一个收养机构把他们送给两个不同的家庭。
• The adoption of this policy would relieve them of a tremendous burden.采取这一政策会给他们解除一个巨大的负担。

6 upwards   

adv.向上，在更高处...以上

参考例句：

• The trend of prices is still upwards.物价的趋向是仍在上涨。
• The smoke rose straight upwards.烟一直向上升。

7 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。

8 successors   

接替的人或事物，继任者，继承人( successor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Our cause is flourishing and has no lack of successors. 我们的事业兴旺发达，后继有人。
• His successors, however, were too weak to contain the Vikings. 但是，他的继承者们因太软弱而无力遏制海盗。 来自英汉非文学 - 文明史