寻亲少年刘学州自杀,外媒如何报道?

今天的精读内容来自对刘学州自杀事件的报道,文章出自《南华早报》《独立报》《每日邮报》。
 

一、南华早报
 
先看《南华早报》的报道,题目是这么说的:
题目中有三个悲剧元素:
  1. was rejected twice by birth parents 被亲生父母拒绝两次
  2. was bullied online 遭遇网暴
  3. was found dead 死亡
 
英文的新闻标题不能是句子,需要把原句的谓语动词非谓语化(如果是实意动词则改成分词形式;如果是be动词则省略)。这则新闻标题就是省略了be动词,补充完整了是:
Teenage boy in China who was rejected twice by birth parents and then bullied online was found dead in apparent suicide.
 
  • 这句话的主干是:Teenage boy in China was found dead in apparent suicide

字面意思翻译过来:一名中国青年被人发现在一起明显的自杀事件中身亡。
说人话:一名中国青年自杀身亡。
问题来了,Teenage boy前面为什么没有冠词a?这是因为英文新闻标题为了节约版面,常常省略一些虚词,把具有实际含义的词挤压到一起,更具有“刺激性”。
suicide指“自杀”,后缀“-cide”跟 kill 有关,比如 suicide 自杀,homicide 蓄意杀人罪,pesticide 杀虫剂,genocide 种族灭绝(geno-跟“基因”有关,把一类基因杀死,就是“种族灭绝”。)
suicide 的搭配有 commit suicide 或 make one's suicide,比如毛姆小说《月亮与六便士》中有这么一句话:
Women are constantly trying to commit suicide for love, but generally they take care not to succeed. It’s generally a gesture to arouse pity or terror in their lover.
女人不断为了爱情而自寻短见,但是一般说来她们总是做得很小心,不让自杀真的发生。通常这只是一个姿态,为了引起她们情人的怜悯或者恐惧。
  • 回到文中来,单说Teenage boy in China was found dead in apparent suicide还不足以引起读者的唏嘘,所以又在Teenage boy后面加了一个定语从句,补充了“青少年”的悲惨遭遇:who was rejected twice by birth parents and then bullied online
birth parents指“亲生父母”,也可以说 biological parents。与之相对的则是 adoptive parentsfoster parents,读过《乔布斯传》的同学对这几个词应该不陌生。
 

我们再来看第一段:
寻亲少年刘学州自杀,外媒如何报道?
如果说新闻标题的作用是为了吸睛,那么第一段就是简要概述事件。
先看一下这段话的翻译:

The body of a teenager who was sold by his birth parents as a baby and deserted by them again after a recent reunion was found on a beach in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan early Monday morning.

周一早上,有人在中国南部岛屿海南省的一处沙滩上发现了一名少年的尸体。这位少年婴儿时期被亲生父母卖掉,最近与亲生父母团聚,却又被他们遗弃。

 

  • 看句子主干:The body of a teenager was found on a beach
一名少年的尸体在海滩被人发现
注意“在沙滩上”用介词on.
主干后面又补充了地点:in the southern Chinese island province of Hainan 在中国南部岛屿海南省,以及时间:early Monday morning 周一早上。
  • a teenager后面又加了一个定语从句,进行补充:who was sold by his birth parents as a baby and deserted by them again after a recent reunion
从句中有两个并列成分:
1)who was sold by his birth parents as a baby 婴儿时期被亲生父母卖掉;
2)and (was) deserted by them again after a recent reunion 最近团聚之后,又被他们遗弃。
desert 是“抛弃、遗弃”的意思,可以和标题里的reject替换,此处也可以用 cut ties with 表示,《南华早报》后面的报道里就用到了这个词:
It all started earlier in January when he posted on the social media platforms Weibo and Douyin saying that his birth parents had decided to cut ties with him after they were reunited in December 2021 with help from the police.
一切始于1月初,当时他在社交媒体平台微博和抖音上发文称,在警方的协助下,他于2021年12月与亲生父母团聚,但随后父母决定与他断绝关系。
post在这里是动词,表示在社交媒体平台上“发布动态”,也可以作可数名词,表示社交媒体平台上的“动态、文章”。
 

二、独立报
 
我们看一下英国《独立报》(The Independent)是怎么报道的:

A Chinese teenager sold by his birth parents as a child and later abandoned by them after a recent reunion has allegedly died by suicide.

一名中国少年在童年时被亲生父母卖掉,在最近的一次团聚后又被他们所抛弃。据称这位少年已自杀身亡。

  • 这句话的主干是:A Chinese teenager has allegedly died by suicide.
一名中国青少年据说已自杀身亡。
allegedly指“据说”,相当于reportedly, it is reported that..., it is alleged that...
die by suicide = commit suicide
  • A Chinese teenager后面跟了两个过去分词形式的后置定语,对这名“青少年”的信息进行补充:
  1. sold by his birth parents as a child(=who was sold by his birth parents as a child)
  2. later abandoned by them after a recent reunion(=who was later abandoned...)
表示“抛弃、遗弃”,这里用的是 abandon——中国学生最熟悉的一个词,至此我们积累了很多关于“遗弃、抛弃”的表达,总结一下:reject, desert, cut ties with, abandon.
 

三、每日邮报
 
在警方的帮助下,刘学州于2021年12月与亲生父母团聚,但随后又被父母遗弃,《每日邮报》(Daily Mail)是这么说的:

But after an initially joyous reunion, the relationship turned sour before he was rejected once again by his parents - with his mother even blocking him on social media.

但在最初的欢乐团聚之后,他们关系开始恶化,之后刘学州再次被父母抛弃——他的生母甚至在社交媒体上屏蔽了他。

joyous(joy的形容词形式,表示“欢乐的”)更加反衬出后面的悲剧性。
sour是“酸的”,比如 sour apples 酸苹果,turn sour 就是“便酸”的意思,搭配relationship,可形容关系“恶化”,“国家关系恶化”也可以用这个词,比如:
The relationship between Russia and Europe Union has turned sour over Ukraine issues.
由于乌克兰问题,俄罗斯和欧盟的关系恶化。
我上学的时候积累了很多表示“关系紧张、恶化、降温、缓和”之类的表达,分享给大家,有兴趣的同学可以积累一下:
寻亲少年刘学州自杀,外媒如何报道?

 

汉语

英文

出处

关系降温

there is a chilling in relations / relations chilled

经济学人,中俄关系

关系紧张

relations have been strained

经济学人,日本加入AIIB

关系恶化

the relations have turned sour

the economist, 2015.3.13. Looking up the Nile

改善关系、修补关系

mend fences with / patch up relations / relations on the mend

经济学人,中国南海

关系缓和

XX(事件) marks an upturn in relations

同上

外交缓和

diplomatic detente

经济学人,古巴

恢复邦交

rapprochement

经济学人,古巴

 
回到文中来,with his mother even blocking him on social media 他的母亲甚至在社交媒体上屏蔽了他。
block是“屏蔽、拉黑”的意思,也可以用 blacklist 替换。
 

刘学州的离去让我感到无比痛心,对这个世界怎样的失望透顶才能让年仅16岁的他做出这样的选择。也许他只想换来父母的道歉,也许他要向网暴他的人证明他真的只想要个家。
每一个人包括我自己都该反思,是否在未知事情全貌的情况下对别人妄加评论。不做键盘侠,不做刽子手。
希望每一个小孩都能在爱中长大,生了就好好养,不然别生。
 

本文由拔丝英语网 - buzzrecipe.com(精选英语文章+课程)收藏,供学习使用,分享转发是更大的支持!由 经济学人双语精读原创,版权归原作者所有。

最后编辑于:2022/1/26 拔丝英语网

admin-avatar

英语作文代写、国外视频下载

高质量学习资料分享

admin@buzzrecipe.com