VOA标准英语2012--Khmer Rouge Labor Camp Survivor Learns to Cry

 

Khmer Rouge¹ Labor² Camp Survivor³ Learns to Cry

Arn was only a child when the Khmer Rouge came to power in Cambodia. Sent to the labor camps, he survived by learning how to play revolutionary songs on his flute⁴. He watched as those around him were murdered or starved to death. Sometimes, he says, the music was used to cover up the screams of people being executed.

“They would put a loud microphone so I can play into it, so that people in the countryside will hear music instead of hearing the screaming," Arn recalled. "The Khmer Rouge, made a special axe⁵, they hit people in the back of the head, and you can hear miles away, I’m telling you. You can literally⁶ hear miles away. Like an axe hitting a coconut⁷ shell, but only human skulls⁸. I can hear it even today, in my head.”

Book

In a country where a quarter of the population died under the Khmer Rouge, each survivor has a unique story to tell. Now, Arn is telling his story in a new way. He’s the subject of a new novel aimed at American teenagers.

Written by U.S. author Patricia McCormick, Never Fall Down retells Arn’s childhood under the Khmer Rouge. The book is a work of fiction, but draws extensively from Arn’s own experiences, which he recounted to the author over a series of interviews. It tells of his eventual⁹ escape to a Thai refugee camp, and his new life in the United States, where he moved after he was adopted by an American aid worker.

Arn explains that "never fall down" is a phrase he used to tell himself repeatedly.

“Even working in the rice field if I fall down, just stumble in the rice field with the mud, if I step in the rice field and fall down once, just once, you will never get up,” Arn explained.

Although the novel describes events that are decades old, Arn says he hopes it will establish a vital link to a dark, but important story.

Relevance¹⁰

Today’s American teenagers were not alive back then, but their country was nonetheless closely involved in Cambodia in the years leading up to the Khmer Rouge takeover. To try to root out Vietnamese communist forces believed to be camped along Cambodia’s eastern border, American planes secretly carried out heavy aerial bombardment.

Some historians say the bombings helped to drive civilians¹¹ to support the Khmer Rouge, fueling its rise.

“Why? It's important especially for Americans to know. It’s in their consciousness, their connections to Cambodia," Arn said. "The young people now, after 25 years, a few generations down now, they say, ‘Were we involved in Cambodia?’ Sure. American kids should know also about this connection. The young people care as soon as they heard the story. When I begin to share the story they really listen, the young people in America really respond."

The book goes on to describe Arn’s experiences after leaving Cambodia - the difficulties of growing up in a new country, the only non-white kid in an all-white high school.

Turning point

But Arn struggled most with a question he still can not answer: why did he survive, while his own brothers and sisters, and so many others around him, perished? Arn says for the longest time, he kept it bottled inside until he thought he would explode. That changed when his foster father arranged for him to share his story before a large audience in New York.

“And I spoke¹² for the first time really and I broke down for the first time," Arn recalled. " And I knew how important it was for me to cry. To learn how to really share my experiences with American people. To let them know what happened here.”

Arn now splits his time between the U.S. and Cambodia. Under the Khmer Rouge, he survived because of his music. Now, he works to ensure traditional Khmer music also lives on.

“Music saved my life in the first place," noted¹³ Arn. "That’s why music's coming back to my life now again and I'm using it to the fullest, not only to just play but to pass down this culture that's dying, to the next generation.”

The organization he co-founded, Cambodian Living Arts, helps the surviving masters of traditional Cambodian instruments, and encourages young students to learn.

1 rouge   

n.胭脂，口红唇膏；v.(在…上)擦口红

参考例句：

• Women put rouge on their cheeks to make their faces pretty.女人往面颊上涂胭脂，使脸更漂亮。
• She didn't need any powder or lip rouge to make her pretty.她天生漂亮，不需要任何脂粉唇膏打扮自己。

2 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

3 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

4 flute   

n.长笛；v.吹笛

参考例句：

• He took out his flute, and blew at it.他拿出笛子吹了起来。
• There is an extensive repertoire of music written for the flute.有很多供长笛演奏的曲目。

5 axe   

n.斧子；v.用斧头砍，削减

参考例句：

• Be careful with that sharp axe.那把斧子很锋利，你要当心。
• The edge of this axe has turned.这把斧子卷了刃了。

6 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

7 coconut   

n.椰子

参考例句：

• The husk of this coconut is particularly strong.椰子的外壳很明显非常坚固。
• The falling coconut gave him a terrific bang on the head.那只掉下的椰子砰地击中他的脑袋。

8 skulls   

颅骨( skull的名词复数 )； 脑袋； 脑子； 脑瓜

参考例句：

• One of the women's skulls found exceeds in capacity that of the average man of today. 现已发现的女性颅骨中，其中有一个的脑容量超过了今天的普通男子。
• We could make a whole plain white with skulls in the moonlight! 我们便能令月光下的平原变白，遍布白色的骷髅！

9 eventual   

adj.最后的，结局的，最终的

参考例句：

• Several schools face eventual closure.几所学校面临最终关闭。
• Both parties expressed optimism about an eventual solution.双方对问题的最终解决都表示乐观。

10 relevance   

n.中肯，适当，关联，相关性

参考例句：

• Politicians' private lives have no relevance to their public roles.政治家的私生活与他们的公众角色不相关。
• Her ideas have lost all relevance to the modern world.她的想法与现代社会完全脱节。

11 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。

12 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

13 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。