美語情景對話 第520期:Crime in America 美國的犯罪情況

Nitiya: OK, there is one other thing I want to ask you about America, I mean I see it a lot in movies, but I don't know whether it is true or not, do you really have so many serial killer in America?

妮提亞：好，我還想問你另一件有關美國的事，我在電影中看到過很多次，可是我不知道那是不是真實的，美國真的有那麼多連環殺手嗎？

Todd: You mean people that go and they kill many people? Um, yeah, sadly there is a lot of killers. I don't know that it's only unique to America. I think it happens in all industrialized countries, but yeah, unfortunately it seems that every two or three years in the news, they'll be a story of some person going and killing multiple people, which is why they are called a serial killer, so and it's actually, it's because of people like that, that I actually believe in the death penalty. I think that even though you can argue that, you should not be, you should never kill someone else, you should not do an eye for an eye, people like that, I just think there is no excuse, they really..

託德：你是說到處殺很多人的那種兇手？不幸的是的確有很多連環殺手。我想並不是只有美國是這種情況。我認爲許多工業國家都有這種問題，不幸的是每兩三年就會有某人殺害了很多人的新聞報道，他們也因此被稱爲連環殺手，人們很感興趣，實際上我同意死刑。我認爲即使你可能會爭辯說不應該殺害別人，不應該以眼還眼，我只是覺得沒有任何藉口，他們……

Nitiya: Exactly, exactly. I agree with you. But why do you think that industrial countries thing connected with serial killing?

妮提亞：沒錯，沒錯。我同意你的觀點。不過爲什麼你認爲工業國家和連線殺人案有聯繫呢？

Todd: Well, once I saw something on TV with an FBI specialist and he said it's probably because that the parents are away from the family and there's not a community, there's not a village type environment. That because families live in these really closed units, mother, father, children, and that's it, that maybe some children get, feel distant, from their families, they feel distant from society, and they have some type of trauma and that psychologically effects them.

託德：有一次我看到了一個電視節目，節目中請了一名美國聯邦調查局的專家，他說可能是因爲兇手的父母與家庭疏遠，沒有社區，沒有鄉村式環境。因爲爸爸、媽媽和孩子生活在獨立的環境中，一些孩子可能會感覺遠離家人、遠離社會，他們會有一些創傷，受到心理影響。

Nitiya: Exactly, psychological, yeah.

妮提亞：沒錯，心理問題。

Todd: Which actually, though makes me think, if that's the case then maybe you shouldn't kill them because it's not their fault, but I don't know.

託德：可是我在想，如果是這種情況，那你不應該殺害他們，因爲那不是他們的錯，我也不清楚。

Nitiya: But you know, sometimes to stop for another upcoming thing you got to do something. You got to really put a break on it. (Right) but stress is one thing, I guess, psychological.

妮提亞：可是你要知道，有時要做些事情來阻止某些事的發生。你要停止。（對）不過壓力是其中一個原因，對，心理壓力。

Todd: Right, but you don't have serial killers in India? You never have that in the news?

託德：沒錯，印度沒有連環殺手嗎？你從來沒有看到過這種新聞嗎？

Nitiya: I guess they are, they're there. I don't know much about serial killers in India, but I think they will have been.

妮提亞：我想也有。我不太清楚印度連環殺手的事情，不過我認爲有。

Todd: Right. I would imagine that pretty much anywhere in the world it must be a problem.

託德：好。我能想象得出世界大部分地方都存在這一問題。

Nitiya: I guess.

妮提亞：我想也是。

Todd: The thing is, is that I think life is so precious, I don't even like to kill insects, I mean because if you have life, you should never extinguish life, so at the human level I just don't understand it.

託德：我認爲生命非常寶貴，我甚至都不會殺昆蟲，因爲我認爲不應該去毀滅生命，所以以人類的角度來說我真的不理解殺害動物的行爲。

Nitiya: But I think, like you say, people don't even like killing insects, but if they don't eat chicken, there are people who can't eat, who cannot survive one day without having at least one meal of meat (right) so, more or less, you cannot stop that thing I guess.

妮提亞：可是就像你所說，人們不會去殺昆蟲，如果他們不吃雞肉……有人不吃葷，但是也有那種一餐不吃肉就活不下去的人，我認爲你不能阻止這種事情。

Todd: Now are you a vegetarian?

託德：你是素食主義者嗎？

Nitiya: Yep.

妮提亞：對。

Todd: Ah, so most Hindi people are vegetarian?

託德：是不是大部分印度人都是素食主義者？

Nitiya: Not like that. Many of them eat, and many of them don't eat. I used to eat but I stopped eating. My family does eat.

妮提亞：並不是這樣。大部分印度人吃肉，也有許多人不吃肉。我以前也吃肉，不過我戒葷了。我家人吃肉。

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重點講解：
1. be unique to
獨有的；特有的；
eg. This problem is not unique to Brazil.
並不僅是巴西存在這一問題。
eg. The custom is unique to the region.
這種風俗是這一地區特有的。
2. an eye for an eye
以眼還眼；以牙還牙；一報還一報；
eg. The death penalty for murder works on the principle of an eye for an eye.
犯謀殺罪處以死刑，其原則是一命抵一命。
eg. An eye for an eye, and we will all go blind.
以牙還牙，兩敗俱傷。
3. more or less
或多或少；大概；幾乎；
eg. We decided, more or less on a whim, to sail to Morocco.
我們多少有點心血來潮，決定航海去摩洛哥。
eg. I was more or less pitiful at the news he couldn't come.
聽到他不能來的消息後，我多少有些遺憾。