Lesson twenty-five ;
Words and Expressions ;
aid/eid/n.援助,帮助 arrest/’rest/ vt.逮捕,拘留 ;
bar/ba:/ n.(铁,木等)条,杆,棒 bone/bun/n.骨 ;
cell/sel/n. 小房间,单人牢房 ;
champagne /’tm’pein/ n.香槟酒 ;
clothe/klu/ vt.为..提供衣服 commit/k’mit/ vt.犯(错误,罪行) ;
content/kn’tent/ adj.满足的,满意的 crime/kraim/ n.罪行,罪 ;
criminal/’kriminl/ n.罪犯,犯人 decent/’di:snt/ adj.体面的,像样的 ;
defend/di’fend/ vt.为...辩护 diner/’dain/ 吃饭的(客)人,就餐者 ;
donate/du’neit/ vt.捐赠,赠送 drift/drift/ vi.漂泊,游荡 ;
entree/’ntrei/ n.[英]两道正菜间 的小菜,[美]主菜 ;
feed/fi:d/ vt.喂(养) fed/fed/ (过去分词,过去式) ;
fried/fraid/ adj.油煎的,油炸的 grand/grnd/ adj.豪华的,华丽的 ;
hunger/’hg/ n.饥饿的 illegal/i’li:gl/ adj.不合法的,非法的 ;
island/’ailnd/ n.岛屿,岛 jail/deil/n.[美]监狱 [英] ;
gaol/deil/ lawyer/’l:j/ n.律师 ;
legal/’li:gl/ adj.法律(上)的;合法的 ;
lunchtime/’lnttaim/ n.午餐时间 maddening/’mdni/ n.使人发疯,使人恼火的 ;
midtown/’midtaun/ n.(使城市的)商业区与 住区之间的地区 ;
napkin/’npkin/ n.餐巾 offender/’fend/ n.冒犯着,罪犯 ;
order/’:d/ n.秩序 vt.订购 petty/’peti/ adj.微小的,次要的 ;
plead/pli:d/ vt.辩护,申明 plead guilty服罪 ;
pocket/’pkit/ n.衣袋 pork/’p:k/n.猪肉 ;
prison/’prizn/ n.监狱 ;
prosecutor /’prsikju:t/ n.原告,起诉人 ;
punish/’pni/ 惩罚 ;
punishment /’pnimnt/ n.惩罚,刑罚 ;
quit/kwit/ vt.放弃 (思想,行动,职业)等 ;
reduce/ri’dju:s/ vt.缩减 refuge/’refju:d/ n.避难 ;
repeat/ri’pi:t/ n.重复 screen/skri:n/ n.隔板;(粗野)筛子 ;
seat/si:t/ vt.使就座, 帮助找到座位 ;
seldom/’seldm/ adv.很少,不常,难得 sentence/’sentns/ n.判决,判刑 ;
serial/’siril/ adj.连续的 slip/slip/vi.滑动 slip on匆忙地穿上 ;
society/s’saiti/ n.社会 steal/sti:l/ vt.偷,窃取 ;
stole/stul/(过去式) stolen/’stuln/ (过去分词) ;
tasty/’teisti/ adj.美味的,可口的 ;
taxpayer /’tkspei/n.纳税人 tooth/tu:/n.牙齿 teeth/ti:/n. ;
thief/i:f/ thieves/i:vz/ n.小偷 ;
unfold/n’fuld/vt.. 摊开,打开 urge/:d/ vt.催促,怂恿 ;
Proper Nouns Bragg/brg/(姓) Christina /krist’ti:n/(女人名) ;
Gangaram /’ggrm/(男人名) Mahes/’meihis/姓 ;
Manhattan /mn’htn/(地名) 曼哈顿 Rick/rik/(男人名) ;
Rikers Island /’raikz’ailnd/ 地名 Swarns/sw:nz/(姓) ;
TEXT ;
The Simple Life: A Fine Dinner, a Drink and Jail (after Rick Bragg) ;
Every now and then, ;
Gangaram Mahes slips on his best donated clothes and lives the high life. ;
He walks to a nice restaurant, has a glass of champagne, ;
eats a $ 50 meal and finishes with hot black coffee. ;
The waiters call him "sir", ;
but Mahes could not find a dollar from his pocket for even a bus ride. ;
He is a thief who never runs, ;
a criminal who picks his teeth as the police close in. ;
To be arrested,to go home to a cell at ;
Rikers Island-that’s his plan when he unfolds his napkin. ;
Homeless off and on for several years, he steals dinner from the restaurants ;
because he wants the courts to return him to a place in New York ;
where he is guaranteed three meals a day and a clean bed. ;
In a prison system filled with repeat offenders, ;
the 36-year-old Mahes is a serial diner. ;
He has committed the same crime at least 31 times, ;
always pleads guilty and never urges his lawyer to ask for a reduced sentence. ;
"It’s tough on the outside,"said Mahes, ;
who is serving 90 days for stealing a steak from a midtown Manhattan restaurant. ;
Prosecutors say it isn’t their job to consider whether ;
locking up some criminals actually gives them what they ;
want refuge from poverty or hunger. ;
But Legal Aid lawyers say they’ve seen a small but growing number of people ;
who commit petty crimes with the intention of going to prison. ;
Life in prison is sometimes violent, ;
but to Mahes it is better than drifting ;
from shelter to shelter or living in cardboard boxes. ;
"There is order in a prison,and you always eat on time," he said. ;
"I like to live decent," he said. "I like to be clean." Christina Swarns, ;
a Legal Aid lawyer defending a man who does not want her help, ;
faces Mahes through the wire screen and does not know whether to laugh or cry. ;
"It’s funny at first- ’The Serial Eater’," she said. "But it’s a very sad thing. ;
How bad is it, his life, that he would prefer prison?" ;
On one hand is a man who goes to jail at will without having hurt anyone, ;
who steals only expensive New York restaurant food. ;
Instead of throwing a rock through a window, he orders a T-bone steak. ;
On the other hand is a man who seems to ;
have given up hope of ever having anything better, ;
who prefers society’s punishment to his place in the society. ;
In the past two years he has seldom been ;
free more than a few days before enjoying an illegal entree. ;
He chooses restaurants that are not too cheap, not too expensive. ;
If a restaurant is too grand, it might not seat him. If it is too cheap, ;
he might not be arrested for stealing its food. ;
"If they really wanted to punish him," said Swarns," ;
they would stand outside Rikers and say, ’You go away.Instead, ;
Mahes does 90 days for stealing fish. It costs taxpayers $ 162 a day to feed, ;
clothe and house him at Rikers Island. ;
His 90 day sentence will cost them $14,580, ;
to punish him for refusing to pay the $51.31 check. ;
In five years he has cost them more than $250,000. ;
Swarns said it was maddening to defend him. ;
Every time she gives him her card and tells him to call, ;
so she can help when he gets out, he throws it away. ;
She cannot compete with prison. The food at Rikers is tasty, ;
said Mahes.For supper, he had pork chops. ;
He said he was thinking of quitting this life someday. ;
But when the bus came to take him back to Rikers,he was content. ;
It was almost lunchtime. "Fried chicken," he said. ;
He does not have a family to miss him. ;
He does not have an old neighborhood where people know his name. ;
The bars at Rikers Island are there to hold him in and to hold onto. ;
Lesson twenty-six ;
Words and Expressions ;
ahead/’hed/ adv.在前,向前 axe/ks/n.斧子 ;
hark/ba:k/vi.狗叫 below/bi’lu/ adv.在下面 ;
bite/bait/vt.咬 bit/bit/(过去式) bitten/’bitn/ (过去分词) ;
chop/tp/n.砍 cleanly/k’li:nli/ adv.干净的,整洁的 ;
courage/’krid/ n.勇敢,勇气 ;
excitement /ik’saitmnt/ n.兴奋,激动 ;
fireplace/’faipleis/ n.壁炉 fog/fg/n.雾 ;
glove/glv/n.手套 honest/’nist/ adj.诚实的,正直的 ;
honesty/’nisti/ n.诚实,正直 interfere/,int’fi/ vi.防碍,打扰 ;
ma’am=madam夫人,太太 ;
mountain/’mauntin/ n.山,复数山脉 pant/pnt/ n.(通常用复数) ;
pile/pail/n.n.鞋 purple/’p:pl/ adj.紫色的 ;
repair/ri’pe/ vt.修理 settle/’setl/vt.& vi 使安静,安静 ;
shoulder/’uld/ n.肩膀 smoky/’smuki/ adj.多烟的,烟雾弥漫的 ;
steady/’stedi/ adj.平稳的,有规律的 surround/s’raud/ vt.包围,围绕 ;
tear/te/vt.撕开 tore/t:/(过去式) torn/t:n/(过去分词) ;
thin/in/adj.薄 thoughts/:t/ n.思想,想法 ;
troubled/’trbld/ adj.(过去分词) 不安,烦恼 ;
warn/w:n/vt.提醒,警告 washing/’w:i/ n.洗涤 ;
Proper Nouns Carolina 卡罗来纳州 ;
Jerry/’deri/(男人名) Kinnan/’kinn/(人名) Majorie/’meidri/ (女人名) ;
Pat/pt/n.狗名 Rawlings/’r:liz/ (姓) ;
Smoky Mountains /’smuki’mauntinz/ 斯莫基山脉(美) ;
Text ;
A Small Boy’s Mother(1) ;
I was living in the Smoky Mountains in Carolina. ;
It was autumn. I needed quiet to be away from people. ;
My mind was troubled and the mountain air helped me write better. ;
I also wanted to see the red autumn leaves, ;
the pumpkins and to feel the excitement of living free and alone. ;
I found them all in a small house which belonged to the Children’s Home. ;
The house is cut off from the village below and from the world by deep mountain snows. ;
The heavy fog that surrounds the Smoky ;
Mountains hides the house from the eyes of the people. ;
When I moved into the house,I asked the lady ;
at the Children’s Home to send a boy to cut wood for the fireplace. ;
About a week later, 1 looked up from my writing, a little surprised. ;
There in front of me was a small boy. My dog, Pat, had not barked to warn me. ;
The boy wore old torn pants and a shirt worn thin from too many washings. ;
He wore no shoes on his feet. "I can cut some wood today," he said. ;
"But I have a boy coming from the Children’s Home." I’m the boy. ;
"You? But you’re so small." ;
"I can carry milk to the babies’ house, ma’am. ;
Some days I carry it two times." "In this bitter wind?" ;
"Yes’m. Stiff fingers don’t feel bad once you get used to them. ;
We get our faces bitten by the cold wind because ;
we can’t put our hands over them. But I have gloves. ;
Some of the boys don’t have any gloves." "But cutting wood is a man’s job." ;
He smiled at me. "I know all kinds of wood ma’am. ;
I’ve been cutting wood at the Children’s Home for a long time." ;
"Very well. There’s the axe. Go ahead and try cutting and see what you can do." ;
1 began to work again. The first sounds of the axe cutting ;
through the wood interfered with my thoughts. ;
But soon the steady "chop, chop" stopped troubling me. ;
I settled down and wrote for the rest of the afternoon. ;
The sun was slowly dropping behind the cold purple mountains ;
when 1 heard the boy’s footsteps coming toward my door. ;
"1 have to go eat now. I can come again tomorrow afternoon." ;
"I’ll pay you for what you’ve done." ;
We went together to see his work. ;
Next to the house was a lot of cleanly-cut wood. ;
"But you’ve cut as much as a man. This is a wonderful pile of wood!" ;
I gave him some money. "You may come again tomorrow, ;
and thank you very much." ;
He looked at me and then at the money. He seemed as if he wanted to talk, ;
but he could not. He turned away but over his thin shoulder, ;
he shouted back to me. will cut some small pieces tomorrow. ;
You’II need some small thin pieces and some heavier ones." ;
He came again the next day and worked until it was time to leave. ;
His name was Jerry. He was 12 years old and had been at the ;
Children’s Home since he was only four. ;
I thought of him as he must have looked when he was 4 years old. ;
The same strong grey eyes with a small ring of blue around them. ;
The same integrity and courage.Integrity is honesty, ;
