VOA标准英语2013--Cleveland Women's Escape From Long Captivity Unprecedented

（单词翻译）

Cleveland Women's Escape From Long Captivity¹ Unprecedented²

The news that Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight³ were alive and free - after being kidnapped a decade ago - sparked celebrations in their home town. Robert Lowery, with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, said their miraculous⁴ escape from years of captivity is unprecedented in the U.S.

“This is the first time we’ve ever seen multiple women held by an abductor, or it looks like it may have been singular, but we are not sure yet.  We haven’t got all the details from Cleveland, but it is highly unusual and it is not something that we see every day,” said Lowery.

Usually, the longer children go missing, the smaller the chance they will be found alive. But Lowery said this case and others give new cause for hope. Jaycee Dugard was found alive 18 years after she was kidnapped in California, and Elizabeth Smart spent nine months in captivity in Utah before she was found.

In Cleveland, public joy over the return of the missing women is tempered by the horror of their ordeal⁵. The women say Ariel Castro, the 52- year-old man charged with kidnapping and rape⁶, chained them in the basement, impregnated some and repeatedly beat them.  

Lowery said it is important for children to know that there are sexual predators⁷ out there, and that they should be on guard when strangers approach them.  

“If someone tries to grab them, we really encourage parents to tell their children, ‘Fight back, kick, scream, bring as much attention to that situation as you can' because it is the assertive⁸ children that we find are escaping from the clutches of these kind of offenders,” said Lowery.

While horrific kidnappings are relatively⁹ rare, Lowery says public awareness¹⁰ can help deter¹¹ future abductions and find those who are still missing.