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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
I think a lot of people might have felt a jolt1 in their souls when Dr. Christine Blasey Ford2 told the Senate Judiciary Committee that one of the most vivid, indelible memories she has of the night she says she was sexually assaulted at 15 by a 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh behind a closed door, while his friend looked on, was what she recalled as the uproarious laughter between the two - and they're having fun at my expense. Judge Kavanaugh denies the allegations.
It is hard not to be chilled and sickened to hear a woman recall how she heard cruel laughter from two older boys as they stumbled drunk back to the party after they had pinned her to a bed and tried to strip off her clothes, sexually assault her and made her fear for her life by clapping a hand over her mouth to stop her screams. It was a story of cold, brute3 male force followed by uncaring laughter - demeaning and dismissive laughter that, in a way, is its own kind of assault. Many women have heard that kind of laughter.
It is always a little precarious4 when a specific human story with many moving parts becomes a social or political symbol. Christine Blasey Ford's moving testimony5 unlocked a heavy door in America this week. Her pointed6, painful memories helped inspire many women to unearth7 their own, often for the first time - to talk about the times they have been assaulted, pawed, groped, humiliated8 or raped9. These are stories many women have locked away just to keep going. They need to be heard now, both out in the open and in the privacy of families. All of those stories from so many women don't necessarily prove that 17-year-old Brett Kavanaugh attacked 15-year-old Christine Blasey in the summer of 1982, just as middle-age Brett Kavanaugh's record of promoting women or coaching a girls basketball team doesn't prove that he didn't.
That door Christine Blasey Ford and so many other women have opened, often at great personal cost, could throw more light onto the darkness of sexual assault. But will events of this week encourage more women and men to trust they will be heard if they have the courage to come forward? Or do they have to fear they will be met with disbelief, indifference10 and even the cold, derisive11 laughter that Christine Blasey Ford made so many people remember?
(SOUNDBITE OF ZOE KEATING'S "FLYING AND FLOCKING")
1 jolt | |
v.(使)摇动,(使)震动,(使)颠簸 | |
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2 Ford | |
n.浅滩,水浅可涉处;v.涉水,涉过 | |
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3 brute | |
n.野兽,兽性 | |
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4 precarious | |
adj.不安定的,靠不住的;根据不足的 | |
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5 testimony | |
n.证词;见证,证明 | |
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6 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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7 unearth | |
v.发掘,掘出,从洞中赶出 | |
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8 humiliated | |
感到羞愧的 | |
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9 raped | |
v.以暴力夺取,强夺( rape的过去式和过去分词 );强奸 | |
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10 indifference | |
n.不感兴趣,不关心,冷淡,不在乎 | |
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11 derisive | |
adj.嘲弄的 | |
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