英語高級聽力 09 課 （譯文及圖片）

Lesson Nine

Section One: News in Brief

1. There was an assassination attempt against Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi today. A man fired several shots at Gandhi and other Indian leaders participating in an open-air prayer meeting. Gandhi was not injured. Six people received minor wounds when the gunman burst from the brushes where he had apparently hidden prior to the ceremony to avoid security checks. He surrendered when guards surrounded him. Those in charge of Gandhi's security have been suspended, and an investigation is under way.

2. Jess Moore, NASA's top official in charge of the shuttle program when Challenger exploded, announced today he's leaving his new post as Director of the Johnson Space Center . Moore will take a leave of absence and then be reassigned to NASA headquarters in Washington . NPR's Daniel Zwerdling reports. “The obvious question, of course, is this: Is Jess Moore leaving his job and taking a year off work because of the Challenger accident? Moore came under quite a bit of pressure before a congressional committee early this summer when his former assistant testified that he told Moore in detail almost a year ago that there were serious problems with the, shuttle rocket's 0-rings, the same 0-rings that eventually caused the Challenger accident. That testimony flatly contradicted what Moore 's been saying all along: that he did not know the 0-ring problems were serious until after the Challenger exploded. Congressional sources who've interviewed Moore told me that they have no way of knowing just who's telling the truth, Moore , or Moore 's former assistant. But one top congressional aide who met with Moore recently says the NASA veteran's been depressed since the Challenger blew up. He says, ' Moore doesn't have the edge he used to. He's hollow inside, just like a lot of guys at NASA who worked on the shuttle.' 'Jess Moore ,' the aide says, 'is not the man he was before the accident, and he needs a rest.' I'm Daniel Zwerdling in Washington ."

第一節 簡明新聞

1. 今天發生了一起針對印度總理拉吉夫甘地的未遂遇刺事件。一名男子在甘地和其他印度領導人參加的露天祈禱會上向他們開槍。甘地沒有受傷。當槍手顯示是躲過典禮期間的安全檢查，從事先隱藏的灌木叢中跳出來的，隻有六人受了輕傷。他在被警衛包圍後便投降了。那些甘地安全的負責人員已被停職，正在接受調查。

2. 傑斯摩爾，“挑戰者號”航天飛機爆炸時的美國宇航局負責航天飛機計劃的高層官員今天宣布，他將離開他所擔任的約翰遜航天中心主任這一新職位。摩爾離職後將重新被分配到美國宇航局華盛頓總部。全國公共電台的丹尼爾茨韋德林報道說。“很明顯的問題當然是這樣的：傑斯摩爾離開自己的工作而且一年沒有上班是由於‘挑戰者號’失事嗎？今年夏天早些時候，他的前助理作證說，他曾在一年前詳細地告訴摩爾航天飛機火箭的 O 型環有嚴重問題，而正是這些 O 型環最終導致挑戰者失事。所以摩爾受到相當多的來國會委員會的壓力。那個證詞和摩爾一直以來的說法非常矛盾：他說直到‘挑戰者號’爆炸後他才知道 O 型環的問題有這樣嚴重。詢問過摩爾的國會消息人士告訴我，他們沒有辦法知道誰說的是真話，是摩爾還是摩爾的前助理。但是，一個會見過摩爾的前國會助理最近說，美國航天局人員自‘挑戰者號’爆炸以來，情緒低落。他說，‘摩爾沒有優勢，他內裏空洞。仿佛是一群工作在航天飛機上的美國宇航局的小夥子。’‘爾斯摩爾，’那名前助理說，‘他和事故發生以前判若兩人，他需要休息。’我是丹尼爾茨韋德林在華盛頓報道。”

NASA Official Jess Moore 

Section Two: News in Detail

Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi survived an assassination attempt in New Delhi today. The assailant fired a succession of shots at Gandhi, who was attending a Hindu prayer service with his wife and Indian President Zail Singh. Official sources have called the incident a major security lapse. Witnesses say Gandhi told security guards two times he had heard gun shots; the security forces reportedly dismissed the noise as motorcycle backfire. It was over half an hour later that police finally surrounded and captured the gunman. Six people were injured during the arrest. The BBC's Humphrey Hoxley reports.

An official statement from the Home Ministry said that those police officials who were directly responsible for the security arrangements for Mr. Gandhi have been suspended from duty. Senior officials in the Ministry say that a top-level investigation is under way to determine why the security around the Prime Minister, who's meant to be one of the most closely protected government leaders in the world, collapsed and how a gunman armed with an illegally manufactured revolver broke through the security cordon undetected to get within a few feet of the Prime Minister. Police say the gunman who's in his twenties may even have fired at Mr. Gandhi and his party as they were approaching the area to commemorate the birthday of the independence leader Mohandas Gandhi, who is cremated there. The area was searched immediately; but security men failed to spot the gunman, who was hiding on top of a concrete shelter hidden among thick green vines. The man opened fire again when Mr. Gandhi was leaving half an hour later. But when he was spotted, eyewitnesses say, he threw up his arms and shouted in Hindi, "I surrender.' Police say he's not connected with any terrorist organization., nor is he part of the Sikh movement which murdered Mr. Gandhi's mother, Indira, two years ago. Humphrey Hoxley, BBC, Delhi .

第二節 詳細新聞 印度總理拉吉夫甘地幸免於一次未遂刺殺行動

印度總理拉吉夫甘地今天在新德裏躲過一次未遂暗殺。襲擊者向正在與夫人和印度總統宰爾辛格一同出席印度教祈禱儀式的甘地連續開槍。官方消息人士稱這次事件是重大的安全漏洞。目擊者說，甘地 2 次告訴保安警衛他聽到槍聲，保安部隊報告稱撤銷了噪音是“摩托車回火”的說法。半個多小時後，警方終於包圍並抓住了槍手。逮捕過程中有六人受傷。 BBC （英國廣播公司）的漢弗萊赫克斯雷伊報道。

一名內政部官員發表聲明說，那些直接負責甘地先生的保安安排的警官已被停職。在該部的高級官員說，一項高級別的調查正在進行，以確定為什麽世界上保護最嚴密的政府領導人之一的印度總理身邊的警衛會被瓦解掉，一個槍手是如何拿著非法製造的左輪手槍，突破了安全警戒線出現在距總理幾英尺的地方。警方說，槍手 20 多歲，甚至可能在甘地先生一行出席印度獨立運動領導人“聖雄”甘地誕辰紀念典禮，當接近他的火化地點時開過槍。該地區立即被搜查，但保安人員沒有發現槍手，因為他藏在有厚厚的綠色藤蔓遮擋下的混凝土掩體的頂端。該名男子在甘地先生在離開半小時後又接著開槍。當他被發現時，目擊者說，他扔掉了他的武器用印度語高喊，“我投降”。警方說，他不和任何恐怖組織有關，也不是兩年前殺害甘地先生的母親英迪拉的錫克運動的成員。漢弗萊赫克斯雷伊，英國廣播公司，新德裏報道。

Rajiv Ratna Gandhi (1944 – 1991)

Section Three: Special Report

It is not just the weather with which farmers contend; there are higher costs for growing food and lower prices when selling it. And these combined to make farming an increasingly difficult life, especially for small family farms. In New York , a new organization called 'Farm Hands' is trying to help struggling farms in the region by linking city dwellers with farmers. As John Kailish reports, the scheme seems to benefit both.

Last week, two actors, a housewife, a tour guide, a dog walker and an unemployed social worker, all from the New York metropolitan area, spent a day working on Hall Gibson's fruit and vegetable farm located in the Upstate New York town of Brewster . The contingent also included two four-year-olds. The group listened attentively as Gibson gave the lengthy orientation talk complete with aerial photographs of his 125-acre farm. 'This area was called part of the New York milk shed. One of the big incentives to producing milk in this area was the founding of the Borden plant.' After the orientation talk the group walked to a five-acre field that was lined with rows of tomatoes and turnips, eggplants and cabbage. Gibson gave some brief picking instructions to two women who were going to harvest cherry tomatoes. 'If they are split like this, throw them away or eat them.' "OK.' The transplanted urbanites picked six bushels of tomatoes and sixty pints of raspberries over the course of several hours. The farmhands were perfect strangers when they left Manhattan , but out in the field in Putnam County , they had no trouble striking up conversations that included such heady topics as romance in television.

Laura Moore, a housewife and part-time teacher from Brooklyn , has made four trips to area farms with her daughter She was picking yellow lowacid tomatoes as she explained why she enjoys the Farm Hands program.

"It's therapeutic, mentally, physically, and it's exhilarating. This is my way of getting out, escaping the city life for a while. I love the city. But in the fresh air, you get a feeling that you are really living."

In addition to the one-day farm outings, Farm Hands also places individuals on farms for periods ranging from a week to several months. In exchange for their labor, participants get a minimum wage, room and board, or produce to take back with them to the city. In its first year of operation, Farm Hands has placed twenty people on farms for a period of two months or longer. More than two hundred people have gone on the one-day work intensives or the field trips that are often more play than work. Hall Gibson has had four long term farm-hands this summer. At the moment, he's benefiting from the hard work of a twenty- eight-year-old New York City painter named Debby Fisher. Because Gibson's farm is organic, weeds are a major problem. Farmer Gibson says that when Debby Fisher clears weeds from the fields, she works like a demon.

“She's been just driven to rescue crops and she's rescued a number of crops. My bok choy crop - the best I've ever had - was rescued by her. Debby is a gem.”

The Farm Hands program was founded by twenty-seven-year-old Wendy Dubid, an enthusiastic advocate of linking farms and cities. In an interview at a farmers' market in New York city , Dubid said Farm Hands may mean cheap labors for farmers, but she maintains the program has a broader impact.

"It's not just the labor that helps those farmers; it's the appreciative consumers. They suddenly realize after an hour of picking raspberries and scratching their own arms on the bramble, they understand the farm reality and the value of food, and may become valuable consumers and customers for those farmers.

Dubid says there was only one Farm Hand placement that did not work out this year, a fifteen-year-old football player who antagonized his host family in Upstate New York. Farmhands are currently working in New York , Connecticut and New Jersey . Plans are already under way to expand the Farm Hands program to Maryland , Pennsylvania , Massachusetts and Vermont .

第三節 特別報道 “農場幫手”計劃

農民不僅僅和氣候抗爭；用較高成本種出的糧食要用更低的價格賣掉他們。這些攪擾在一起，使農民的生活越來越困難，尤其是對小型家庭農場。在紐約，一個新的叫做“農場幫手”的組織正在嚐試幫助該地區正在掙紮中的農場，讓城市居民與農民建立聯係。正如約翰卡利什報導的，這計劃似乎對雙方都有利。

上周，兩個演員，一個家庭主婦，一個導遊，一個遛狗員和一名援助失業者的社會工作者，他們全來自紐約大都會地區，他們花了一天時間在位於紐約州北部小鎮――魯斯特霍爾吉布森的水果和蔬菜農場裏工作。這隻隊伍裏還包括兩個 4 歲的孩子。這群人很認真地聽了吉布森冗長的介紹和全部的 125 英畝農場的航拍照片。“這一地區是被稱為紐約的牛奶棚的一部分。在這一地區生產牛奶的一大動機是因為波登工廠的成立。”介紹之後，這隊人走向一個五英畝的農田，長滿成行的西紅柿和蘿卜，茄子和白菜。吉布森向兩位正要采摘小西紅柿的婦女簡要介紹了采摘說明。“如果他們是這樣裂開的，那就扔掉或者吃掉。”“行。”剛剛到來的城裏人花了幾個小時摘了 6 蒲式耳 * 的西紅柿和 60 品脫覆盆子 ** 。莊稼漢們很欣賞這些離開曼哈頓來到普特南縣農場上的陌生人，他們沒有毫不費勁地通過交談彼此結識，包括一些刺激的話題比如電視上的緋聞。

勞拉摩爾，是個家庭主婦，布魯克林的兼職教師，已經帶著她的女兒 4 次來到農場，她一邊解釋她為什麽她喜歡“農場幫手”項目時，一邊摘著黃色低酸西紅柿。

“ 這是一種調劑，精神上的，和身體上的，而且令人振奮。使我能夠解脫，擺脫一下城市生活。我喜歡城市。但在新鮮空氣裏你會感覺到你是在真正地生活。 ”

除了為期一天的農場遊，“農場幫手”還給個人在農場安排了從一個星期到幾個月不等的時間。作為他們的勞動的交換，參加者可以獲得較低的工資，食宿，或把作物帶回城裏。在開始運作的第一年裏，“農場幫手”已經安排了 20 人在農場工作了兩個月或更長的時間。超過 200 人參加了為期一天的密集勞動或遊玩多於工作的農場遊。霍爾吉布森在今年夏天有了四個長期的“農場幫手”。目前，他正受益於一名 28 歲名叫黛比費施爾的紐約市畫家的努力工作。由於吉布森的農場是有機的，雜草成為主要問題。農夫吉布森說，當戴比費施爾在田間除草時，她的作品就像一個惡魔。

“開著（除草）車來救援這些作物，她拯救了大量的作物。我的小白菜作物 – 是我有過的最好的 - 被她救了過來。黛比是一個貴人。”

“農場幫手”項目是由 27 歲的溫迪杜彼得發起的，一個農場和城市相結合的熱心倡導者。在采訪一家紐約市的農貿市場時，溫迪杜彼得說，“農場幫手”對農民可能意味著廉價的勞動力，她始終讓該計劃有著更廣泛的影響。

“這不隻是些幫助那些農民的勞動力，而是些心存感激的消費者。他們在采摘覆盆子時被荊棘刮傷了自己的胳膊，一小時後他們就會猛然意識到，理解農場的現實和食物的價值，並有可能成為有價值的消費者和這些農民的顧客。”

杜彼得說，今年隻有一個被安置的“農場幫手”沒有成功，一個 15 歲的橄欖球運動員，與紐約上州的寄宿家庭發生了對抗。農場幫手們目前正在紐約，康涅狄格州和新澤西州工作。籌劃要把“農場幫手”計劃擴大到馬裏蘭，賓夕法尼亞，馬薩諸塞和佛蒙特州。

* 英美等國用來衡量農作物的體積單位， 1 蒲式耳相當於 32 升；由於不同作物的比重不同 , 所以不同作物的重量相差懸殊。――野鶴注

**1 品脫＝ 1/8 加侖＝ 1/64 蒲式耳――野鶴注

Raspberry

Small family farm in Brewster

The Feild Trips