【英语语言学习】选择错误还是运气不好

LYNN NEARY, HOST:

NPR's Pam Fessler has been covering inequality around the country gathering¹ stories from people struggling with poverty. And she's found that these stories prompt strong opinions and questions like who's at fault and what should be done about it.

PAM FESSLER, BYLINE²: Reporting about poverty can at times be frustrating³. The problems seem so intractable - families stuck in a cycle of bad housing, bad health, bad education, bad jobs, a situation often made worse by bad decisions.

Kelly Wells is a caseworker at a nonprofit agency in Steuben County, N.Y. She told me she was sometimes exasperated⁴ with the choices made by her clients.

KELLY WELLS: That will have the latest cell phone that you can do almost everything but make cake with and their nails done. And then they'll say to me in the next breath, oh, I don't have any diapers. Do you have any diapers? Can you get me diapers?

FESSLER: She thinks a lot of it's about instant gratification, the need for people who are hard up to make themselves feel better. And then there are all those stories of poor, single women who have children again and again, sometimes with different men, who by the way, seldom seem to stick around.

TRACY BOGGS: I guess I made bad choices. You know, he made me a million promises he never kept.

FESSLER: Tracy Boggs is a mother of two I met in Reading, Pa. She knew she'd made mistakes, but she had also inadvertently hit hard times. The factory where she worked moved to China, and the job she was retrained to do - medical billing and coding - was outsourced. She was cleaning toilets instead trying to make ends meet.

BOGGS: Just keep praying.

FESSLER: And that's the flipside of covering poverty. For every story about someone doing something that makes you scratch your head, you see so many more people struggling against the odds⁵, working long hours for low pay, sometimes doing incredible things.

Like Norma Moore, a woman I met in Eastern Kentucky. She lives in a small trailer home where she cares for her 8-year-old grandson. He's severely⁶ disabled. He squeals⁷ almost constantly as he rolls his body across the floor bumping into walls and doors.

NORMA MOORE: And there's nights, many nights that he cries, and he can't tell me what's hurting him. And I have to try a little everything. I have to try the ears, the nose, the eyes the stomach.

FESSLER: I was exhausted⁸ just watching her, but she said she felt blessed. Still, Americans are divided when it comes to poverty. Polls find that about half think people are poor due to circumstances beyond their control. But more than a third think it's their own fault. So it's no wonder these stories get responses from listeners that run the gamut⁹.

The subject of one recent profile I did, the mother of three children by three different fathers, was called stupid and lazy and irresponsible in online comments. But there were other listeners who asked how can we help her. One even offered to give the woman a car so she could get to work.

David Hill, who runs ProAction, the nonprofit agency where Kelly Mills works, says he thinks that intolerance of the poor is growing.

DAVID HILL: If they're in poverty, there's something wrong with them. They probably got that way by choice. They're not trying hard enough. Every negative reason in the world is built for why they're in poverty.

FESSLER: But he says that's not what he sees every day on the front lines. Instead, he sees people living in poverty who are working extremely hard to get out. Pam Fessler, NPR News.

 

1 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 frustrating   

adj.产生挫折的，使人沮丧的，令人泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的现在分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's frustrating to have to wait so long. 要等这么长时间，真令人懊恼。
• It was a demeaning and ultimately frustrating experience. 那是一次有失颜面并且令人沮丧至极的经历。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 exasperated   

adj.恼怒的

参考例句：

• We were exasperated at his ill behaviour. 我们对他的恶劣行为感到非常恼怒。
• Constant interruption of his work exasperated him. 对他工作不断的干扰使他恼怒。

5 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

6 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。

7 squeals   

n.长而尖锐的叫声( squeal的名词复数 )v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• There was an outburst of squeals from the cage. 铁笼子里传来一阵吱吱的叫声。 来自英汉文学
• There were squeals of excitement from the children. 孩子们兴奋得大声尖叫。 来自辞典例句

8 exhausted   

adj.极其疲惫的，精疲力尽的

参考例句：

• It was a long haul home and we arrived exhausted.搬运回家的这段路程特别长，到家时我们已筋疲力尽。
• Jenny was exhausted by the hustle of city life.珍妮被城市生活的忙乱弄得筋疲力尽。

9 gamut   

n.全音阶，(一领域的)全部知识

参考例句：

• The exhibition runs the whole gamut of artistic styles.这次展览包括了所有艺术风格的作品。
• This poem runs the gamut of emotions from despair to joy.这首诗展现了从绝望到喜悦的感情历程。