【英语语言学习】自由有多难

 In the past two decades, thousands of North Koreans have fled to South Korea. Yeonmi Park is one of them. Her father had been imprisoned¹, and her family didn't have enough money to survive, so she and her mother escaped across a frozen river, finally making it to China. They thought they were free, but as Yeonmi Park writes in her new memoir², "In Order To Live," they found themselves in a different kind of hell. Her mother was sold to a Chinese farmer as a wife, and Yeonmi was sold to a man named Hongwei for $260.

YEONMI PARK: I didn't know it was even possible to sell humans. I thought people can only sell animals, chickens. But I didn't even know that kind of concept - human traffic - can be exist in the world. So I just couldn't process it when I heard it.

MARTIN: Hongwei repeatedly tried to rape³ Yeonmi. Each time, she fought back hysterically⁴ and threatened to kill herself. Finally, she made him a deal - if he could reunite her family, she would consent to sex. She was just 13 years old. Hongwei agreed. He bought back Yeonmi's mother, and he managed to help her father get out of North Korea and to join them in China. They all lived together in this strange and horrible arrangement. Months later, Yeonmi's father died of cancer and she and her mother pleaded with Hongwei to release them, and he did.

PARK: He let me go. That usually never happens. That never happen in China. He would send me to a farmer. He can make money. But he let me go without asking anything. I think because even though he was very evil, he had humanity inside of him and that was the reason why I can forgive him and I can see him as a human being.

MARTIN: Eventually, Yeonmi and her mother connected with a group of Christian⁵ missionaries⁶ who helped them travel to Mongolia, where they could claim refugee status. But it meant crossing the desolate⁷ Gobi Desert at night.

PARK: I heard about desert, but I never seen them with my eyes. I just couldn't believe there was nothing, except sand and except the stars in the sky. It was very cold - so, so cold that my even face was freezing. And I thought, what have I done so wrong that that's why I'm going through this? There's nothing I did wrong. I was just born in North Korea, and that was my crime.

MARTIN: Once in Mongolia, she and her mother flew to South Korea, which welcomes refugees from the north and where they could start a new life.

PARK: The first thing that I thought, like, freedom is hard (laughter) seriously, that really hard (laughter). I don't think I can do this. I didn't escape for freedom. I didn't even know what it meant to be free. All I wanted was food and safety. And I thought freedom meant was that you don't worry about getting arrested to wear jeans or watching movies or listening to music. I thought freedom was allowing me to do those.

MARTIN: She was overwhelmed with what she didn't know. The resettlement center taught her about the subway system and about ATM machines, which strangely spit out money. But what really threw her was the question that people at the center kept asking, what do you want to do with your life? She could not fathom⁸ having the freedom to choose.

PARK: Nobody asked me, what you think? Nobody cared what I thought in my life. And I didn't know that mattered, my opinion. And I said, why does it matter? Just tell me what to do. I'll do whatever you say. It doesn't really matter to me. And I really begging them, and I was hoping there was somebody tell me what to do with my life. So it was big lost. I felt lost there.

MARTIN: Yeonmi went to school, where she exceeded everyone's expectations, including her own. She gained confidence and started telling her story publicly. Yeonmi Park is now living in New York, studying English. She still has family in North Korea. And I asked her if she misses anything about the place where she grew up.

PARK: Human intimacy⁹ that I don't get to experience in this world. Because there was a - something indescribable closeness between humans, and I think there's no technology and there's nothing. So just we had to connect with each other. And I think those things that I'm missing the most.

MARTIN: Yeonmi Park now give speeches to crowded auditoriums¹⁰ in cities around the world. At age 21, she is a human rights activist¹¹ on a global stage. When I ask her what she wants in her future now, her answer is a simple one.

PARK: I think everybody deserve to be free and to have a happy life. I wanted to show North Korean people that they have hope, and they can be free someday, like myself.

MARTIN: Yeonmi Park, her new memoir is called "In Order To Live: A North Korean Girl's Journey To Freedom."

1 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

2 memoir   

n.[pl.]回忆录，自传；记事录

参考例句：

• He has just published a memoir in honour of his captain.他刚刚出了一本传记来纪念他的队长。
• In her memoir,the actress wrote about the bittersweet memories of her first love.在那个女演员的自传中，她写到了自己苦乐掺半的初恋。

3 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

4 hysterically   

ad. 歇斯底里地

参考例句：

• The children giggled hysterically. 孩子们歇斯底里地傻笑。
• She sobbed hysterically, and her thin body was shaken. 她歇斯底里地抽泣着，她瘦弱的身体哭得直颤抖。

5 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

6 missionaries   

n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Some missionaries came from England in the Qing Dynasty. 清朝时，从英国来了一些传教士。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The missionaries rebuked the natives for worshipping images. 传教士指责当地人崇拜偶像。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

7 desolate   

adj.荒凉的，荒芜的；孤独的，凄凉的；v.使荒芜，使孤寂

参考例句：

• The city was burned into a desolate waste.那座城市被烧成一片废墟。
• We all felt absolutely desolate when she left.她走后，我们都觉得万分孤寂。

8 fathom   

v.领悟，彻底了解

参考例句：

• I really couldn't fathom what he was talking about.我真搞不懂他在说些什么。
• What these people hoped to achieve is hard to fathom.这些人希望实现些什么目标难以揣测。

9 intimacy   

n.熟悉，亲密，密切关系，亲昵的言行

参考例句：

• His claims to an intimacy with the President are somewhat exaggerated.他声称自己与总统关系密切，这有点言过其实。
• I wish there were a rule book for intimacy.我希望能有个关于亲密的规则。

10 auditoriums   

n.观众席( auditorium的名词复数 )；听众席；礼堂；会堂

参考例句：

• The walls and ceilings of contemporary auditoriums usually conceal light, sound, and air-conditioning equipment. 当代观众厅的墙壁和天花板常设灯光、音响以及空调设备。 来自互联网
• The interior follows an exceedingly compact plan of different types and sizes of rooms and auditoriums. 在室内装饰方面，不同类型不同尺寸的空间以及观众席都追寻一种极端简洁的装饰风格。 来自互联网

11 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。