【英语语言学习】发生在阿根廷的谋杀迷案

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

In Argentina the case of a dead prosecutor¹ has riveted² the country and caused a political crisis. Alberto Nisman was found in his apartment with a bullet to the head just over a month ago. That was after he accused Argentina's president of being involved in a cover-up. It is still not known how he died. The mystery deepens, the cast of characters fascinates and NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports that Argentina is preoccupied³ with conspiracy⁴.

LOURDES GARCIA-NAVARRO, BYLINE⁵: The locksmith, the journalist, the computer technician, the waitress, the carpenter - no, this isn't a job fair.

ADRIAN BONO: This is a murder mystery. Every single day we discover there's a new development that could potentially change the entire case.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And one of the strangest parts - these developments, or plot twists, says journalist Adrian Bono, come in the form of people.

BONO: A lot of people have been discussing this on social media, how there are these particular characters that show up and they grab our attention for a few days and then they disappear.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So bear with me here while I give you the background to a very complicated case. Alberto Nisman was a famous prosecutor in Argentina. He was investigating the country's worst-ever terror attack - a bombing of a Jewish community center in 1994. He built a case showing that Iran masterminded the attack. He then accused the government of Argentina, the president and some of her ministers of being involved in a cover-up because they wanted to cement an oil for grain deal with the Islamic Republic. Needless to say, the charges were explosive. And when he was found with a bullet to the head, many in Argentina believed it was murder. The entire investigation⁶ has played out in the public realm, starting in the first few days after Nisman's death when a humble⁷ locksmith was called in to testify. And he was swarmed⁸ by reporters.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PEOPLE: (Foreign language spoken).

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Foreign language spoken).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: He'd been brought in by Nisman's mother to open the door to her son's apartment when he didn't respond to phone calls. The next figure to gain a brief notoriety was the journalist Damian Pachter. He broke the news of Nisman's death on Twitter and then suddenly he told everyone - again through the media - that he was being followed and his life was in danger and he fled the country to Israel.

(SOUNDBITE OF PRESS CONFERENCE)

DIEGO LAGOMARSINO: (Foreign language spoken).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: After that, a computer expert who gave Nisman the gun, which was found next to his dead body, became a subject of fascination⁹. Diego Lagomarsino gave a teary press conference where he said Nisman had asked him for the gun and that he had nothing to do with the prosecutor's death.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: (Foreign language spoken).

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: (Foreign language spoken).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: And right now, as you can hear here, all the airwaves are obsessing¹⁰ over a waitress and a carpenter. Argentina has this unusual system where people are picked up off the street and taken to crime scenes to act as impartial¹¹ witnesses. A 26-year-old waitress and a carpenter were there during Nisman's crime scene investigation. And, again through the media, they came out and said that the crime scene was compromised, which has set off another firestorm.

CAROLINA BARROS: Everything in Argentina has to be placed in a conspiracy theory - everything.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Carolina Barros is a journalist and the ex-editor-in-chief of the Buenos Aires Herald¹². She says even the president of the country, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, came out on national television giving her conspiracy theories on Nisman's death. And in the cafes and bars, regular people are talking, too.

BARROS: Everybody is an expert on what's going on and everybody is a Sherlock Holmes here.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Part of this has to do with Argentina's murky¹³, bloody¹⁴ history. It's suffered a brutal¹⁵ dictatorship, where people were disappeared, where babies were stolen to be brought up by their real parents' torturers. Conspiracy theories in Argentina often turn out to be true. Barros says, though, that all this interest in these characters has acted as a kind of distraction¹⁶.

BARROS: Some of them say A, some of them say B, and this is a great mess, a great soap opera, and what is going on regarding the truth.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Jose Luis Fernandez is a sociologist¹⁷ at the University of Buenos Aires.

JOSE LUIS FERNANDEZ: (Foreign language spoken).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: He says people are concentrating on the frivolous¹⁸ to avoid thinking about the dark heart of this story. It began with the murder of dozens of people in a bombing that is still unresolved and despite the endless stream of characters appearing on TV to talk about what they know about the case, no one believes in Argentina that they will ever find out what really happened to Alberto Nisman. Lourdes Garcia-Navarro, NPR News, Buenos Aires.

1 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

2 riveted   

铆接( rivet的过去式和过去分词 )； 把…固定住； 吸引； 引起某人的注意

参考例句：

• I was absolutely riveted by her story. 我完全被她的故事吸引住了。
• My attention was riveted by a slight movement in the bushes. 我的注意力被灌木丛中的轻微晃动吸引住了。

3 preoccupied   

adj.全神贯注的，入神的；被抢先占有的；心事重重的v.占据（某人）思想，使对…全神贯注，使专心于( preoccupy的过去式)

参考例句：

• He was too preoccupied with his own thoughts to notice anything wrong. 他只顾想着心事，没注意到有什么不对。
• The question of going to the Mount Tai preoccupied his mind. 去游泰山的问题盘踞在他心头。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

5 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。

6 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

7 humble   

adj.谦卑的，恭顺的；地位低下的；v.降低，贬低

参考例句：

• In my humble opinion,he will win the election.依我拙见，他将在选举中获胜。
• Defeat and failure make people humble.挫折与失败会使人谦卑。

8 swarmed   

密集( swarm的过去式和过去分词 )； 云集； 成群地移动； 蜜蜂或其他飞行昆虫成群地飞来飞去

参考例句：

• When the bell rang, the children swarmed out of the school. 铃声一响，孩子们蜂拥而出离开了学校。
• When the rain started the crowd swarmed back into the hotel. 雨一开始下，人群就蜂拥回了旅社。

9 fascination   

n.令人着迷的事物，魅力，迷恋

参考例句：

• He had a deep fascination with all forms of transport.他对所有的运输工具都很着迷。
• His letters have been a source of fascination to a wide audience.广大观众一直迷恋于他的来信。

10 obsessing   

v.时刻困扰( obsess的现在分词 )；缠住；使痴迷；使迷恋

参考例句：

• Why is everyone obsessing over system specs right now? 为啥现在人人都对系统配置情有独钟？ 来自互联网
• A nitpicker, obsessing over dimes, is too stiff to place orders. 一个连一毛钱都舍不得亏的人，因太过拘谨而不能下单。 来自互联网

11 impartial   

adj.(in,to)公正的，无偏见的

参考例句：

• He gave an impartial view of the state of affairs in Ireland.他对爱尔兰的事态发表了公正的看法。
• Careers officers offer impartial advice to all pupils.就业指导员向所有学生提供公正无私的建议。

12 herald   

vt.预示...的来临，预告，宣布，欢迎

参考例句：

• In England, the cuckoo is the herald of spring.在英国杜鹃鸟是报春的使者。
• Dawn is the herald of day.曙光是白昼的先驱。

13 murky   

adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗

参考例句：

• She threw it into the river's murky depths.她把它扔进了混浊的河水深处。
• She had a decidedly murky past.她的历史背景令人捉摸不透。

14 bloody   

adj.非常的的；流血的；残忍的；adv.很；vt.血染

参考例句：

• He got a bloody nose in the fight.他在打斗中被打得鼻子流血。
• He is a bloody fool.他是一个十足的笨蛋。

15 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

16 distraction   

n.精神涣散，精神不集中，消遣，娱乐

参考例句：

• Total concentration is required with no distractions.要全神贯注，不能有丝毫分神。
• Their national distraction is going to the disco.他们的全民消遣就是去蹦迪。

17 sociologist   

n.研究社会学的人，社会学家

参考例句：

• His mother was a sociologist,researching socialism.他的母亲是个社会学家，研究社会主义。
• Max Weber is a great and outstanding sociologist.马克斯·韦伯是一位伟大的、杰出的社会学家。

18 frivolous   

adj.轻薄的；轻率的

参考例句：

• This is a frivolous way of attacking the problem.这是一种轻率敷衍的处理问题的方式。
• He spent a lot of his money on frivolous things.他在一些无聊的事上花了好多钱。