美国国家公共电台 NPR 'What Is Aleppo?' There's No Easy Answer

'What Is Aleppo?' There's No Easy Answer 

play pause stop mute unmute max volume 00:0003:03repeat repeat off Update Required To play the media you will need to either update your browser¹ to a recent version or update your Flash plugin. SCOTT SIMON, HOST: 

Gary Johnson, the Libertarian candidate for president, was chagrined² and embarrassed this week after he asked, what is Aleppo? - in reply to a question on MSNBC. Mr. Johnson made no excuses and said later he simply blanked - his word - when asked what he would do about the besieged³ Syrian city in which hundreds of thousands of civilians⁴ are trapped and starving and defenseless against artillery⁵, bombs and alleged⁶ chemical weapons.

But it's not as if the major party candidates for president have brimmed with new ideas about Aleppo or what the United States should do about the conflict that began five years ago after the regime of Bashar al-Assad brutally⁷ repressed Syrians calling for democratic reforms.

Talks between U.S. Secretary of State Kerry and Russia's Foreign Minister Lavrov to find a political settlement, or at least actions that could ease the humanitarian⁸ crisis, have been held off and on since February 2013. That's three and a half years of talking. And just this morning, they announced a plan for a ceasefire.

But the suffering has grown in ways that strain the imagination and the heart. The aid group Save the Children says there's been an increase of Syrian children who've tried to take their own lives. The humanitarian group says that at least six children and seven young adults have attempted suicide in the past two months alone in the town of Madaya, which is also besieged like Aleppo.

The children are psychologically crushed and tired, a teacher in Madaya told Save the Children. When we do activities like singing with them, they don't react at all. They don't laugh like they would normally. Those of us who've covered wars may be especially staggered to know this. Usually in war, you are amazed to hear the laughter of children rise above the rubble⁹ and sorrow.

This follows a report from refugee camps by Sulome Anderson in Foreign Policy magazine of Syrian children, like a 12-year-old girl named Khowla who swallowed rat poison. She survived but said, all I could think about was that we have nothing. Our lives will never improve. And I could relieve my mother of another burden.

You can hear her words and wonder, under what category of casualties of war do we put the suicide of a child? Syria has been savaged¹⁰ while the world has looked on, then looked away. Before we ask political candidates, maybe we should ask ourselves what Aleppo and the rest of Syria mean for us.

1 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

2 chagrined   

adj.懊恼的，苦恼的v.使懊恼，使懊丧，使悔恨( chagrin的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• I was most chagrined when I heard that he had got the job instead of me. 当我听说是他而不是我得到了那份工作时懊恼极了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He was [felt] chagrined at his failure [at losing his pen]. 他为自己的失败 [遗失钢笔] 而感到懊恼。 来自辞典例句

3 besieged   

包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Paris was besieged for four months and forced to surrender. 巴黎被围困了四个月后被迫投降。
• The community besieged the newspaper with letters about its recent editorial. 公众纷纷来信对报社新近发表的社论提出诘问，弄得报社应接不暇。

4 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

5 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

6 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

7 brutally   

adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地

参考例句：

• The uprising was brutally put down.起义被残酷地镇压下去了。
• A pro-democracy uprising was brutally suppressed.一场争取民主的起义被残酷镇压了。

8 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

9 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。

10 savaged   

（动物）凶狠地攻击（或伤害）( savage的过去式和过去分词 )； 残害； 猛烈批评； 激烈抨击

参考例句：

• The horse threw its rider to the ground and savaged him. 那马将骑马者摔在地上，乱踢他。
• The drink had savaged him. 酒使他变得野蛮。