世纪博士综合英语课文翻译Unit-1--The-Burden-of-Womanhood

Unit1 The Burden of Womanhood女人的负担Too often in the Third World, a females life is hardly worth living. 往往在第三世界，女性的生活几乎是不值得活的。By: John Ward Anderson & Molly Moore 约翰.沃德.安德森和莫莉.摩尔 1.When Rani returned home from the hospital cradling her newborn daughter, the men in the family slipped out of her mud hut while she and her mother-in-law mashed poisonous oleander seeds into a dollop of oil and dropped it into the babys throat. As soon as darkness fell, Rani crept into a nearby field and buried her baby girl in a shallow, unmarked grave next to a small stream. 当拉尼抱着她刚出生的女儿从医院回到家时，男人们溜出了她的土屋，她和她的婆婆将有毒的夹竹桃种子捣碎成一团油，并将其塞到婴儿的喉咙里。夜幕一降临，拉尼就蹑手蹑脚地来到附近的一块土地，将她的女婴埋在一条小溪浅旁边的一个不深的、没有标记的坟墓内。 2.“I never felt any sorrow,” Rani, a farm laborer with a weather-beaten face, said through an interpreter. “There was a lot of bitterness in my heart toward the baby because the gods should have given me a son.” “我从来没有感到任何悲哀”，脸部饱经风霜的拉尼通过翻译说，“我的心对孩子充满了辛酸，因为神本应该赐予我一个儿子”。 3.Each year hundreds and perhaps thousands of newborn girls in India are murdered by their mothers simply because they are female. Some women believe that sacrificing a daughter guarantees a son in the next pregnancy. In other cases, the family cannot afford the dowry that would eventually be demanded for a girls marriage.在印度每年有数百甚至数千名新生女婴被他们的母亲谋杀，只因为他们是女孩。有些妇女认为，牺牲一个女儿将保证下次怀孕是儿子。在其他情况下，家庭买不起女孩结婚时所需的嫁妆。 4.And for many mothers, sentencing a daughter to death is better than condemning her to life as a woman in the Third World, with cradle-to-grave discrimination, poverty, sickness and drudgery. 对于很多母亲而言，判处女儿死刑胜过让她在第三世界作为一个女人生活，经历一辈子的歧视、贫困、疾病和劳苦。 5. While women in the United States and Europe-after decades of struggling for equal rights-often measure sex discrimination by pay scales and seats in corporate board rooms, women in the Third World gauge discrimination by mortality rates and poverty levels. 虽然欧美国家的妇女，在经过了几十年对平等权利的抗争之后，通常以工薪标准和董事会中的席位来衡量性别歧视，但第三世界的妇女以死亡率和贫困程度来衡量歧视。 6. “Women are the most exploited among the oppressed,” says Kauna Chanana Ahmed, a New Delhi anthropologist who has studied the role of women in developing countries. “I dont think its even possible to eradicate discrimination, its so deeply ingrained.” “妇女是最受压迫和剥削的”，研究妇女在发展中国家的地位的新德里的人类学家Karuna Chanana Ahmed说，“我认为消除歧视甚至是不可能的，因为歧视已经根深蒂固。” 7. This is the first in a series that will examine the lives of women in developing countries around the globe where culture, religion and the law often deprive women of basic human rights and sometimes relegate them to almost subhuman status. From South America to South Asia, women are often subjected to a lifetime of discrimination with little or no hope of relief. 这是第一次系列地调查全世界范围内发展中国家妇女的生活，这些国家里的文化、宗教和法律常常剥夺妇女们的基本人权，并时常将她们归入几乎低于人类的地位。从南美到南亚，妇女通常遭受一生的歧视，很少或根本没有希望获得减轻。 8. As children, they are fed less, denied education and refused hospitalization. As teenagers, many are forced into marriage, sometimes bought and sold like animals for prostitution and slave labor. As wives and mothers, they are often treated little better than farmhands and baby machines. Should they outlive their husbands, they frequently are denied inheritance, banished from their homes and forced to live as beggars on the streets. 作为孩子，她们被给予的食物少、被剥夺了教育，并被拒绝住院。作为青少年，许多人被迫结婚，有时像动物一样被买卖从事卖淫活动和辛苦的劳动。作为妻子和母亲，她们的待遇与雇农和婴儿机器相比没有区别。如果她们活得时间比她们的丈夫久，她们经常被拒绝继承遗产，被驱逐出她们的家园，被迫在大街上以乞讨为生。 9.Although, the forms of discrimination vary tremendously among regions, ethnic groups and age levels in the developing world. Shahla Zia , an attorney and womens activist in Islamabad, Pakistan, says there is a theme:”Overall, there is a social and cultural attitude where women are inferior-and discrimination tends to start at birth.” 巴基斯坦伊斯兰堡的律师和妇女活动家Shahla Zia说，虽然发展中国家不同地区、不同民族和不同年龄层次之间的歧视形式差异巨大，但存在一个统一的主题：“总的来说，在社会和文化的态度中妇女处于劣势，歧视往往从出生时开始。” 10.Sociologists and government officials began documenting sporadic examples of female infanticide in India about 10 years ago. The practice of killing newborn girls is largely a rural phenomenon in India; although its extent has not been documented, one indication came in a recent survey by the Community Services Guild of Madras, a city in Tamil Nadu. Of the1,250 women questioned, the survey concluded that more than half had killed baby daughters. 大约10年前，社会学家和政府官员开始记录印度杀害女婴的零星的例子。在很大程度上，杀害新生女婴的做法是印度农村的现象，虽然其程度尚未记载，但泰米尔纳德邦马德拉斯社区服务协会的一项调查已经表明了这一点。在1250名被质疑的妇女中，调查得出的结论是，超过一半的妇女杀死了女婴。 11. In urban areas easier access to modern medical technology enables women to act before birth. Through amniocentesis, women can learn the sex of a fetus and undergo sex-selective abortions. At one clinic in Bombay, of 8,000 abortions performed after amniocentesis, 7,999 were female fetuses, according to a recent report by the Indian government. To be sure, female infanticides and sex-selective abortion are not unique to India. Social workers in other South Asian states believe that some communities also condone the practice. 在城市地区，更容易有机会享用现代医疗技术使女性在生产前采取措施。通过羊膜穿刺技术，女性可以知道胎儿的性别，从而进行性别选择性堕胎。根据印度政府最近的一份报告，在孟买的一家诊所内，8000名妇女在羊膜穿刺术之后进行了堕胎，其中7999名为女胎儿。诚然，杀死女婴和性别选择性堕胎不是印度独有的。南亚其他国家的社会工作者认为，一些社区甚至还纵容这种做法。 12. The root problems, according to village women, sociologists and other experts, are cultural and economic. In India, a young woman is regarded as a temporary member of her natural family and a drain on its wealth. Her parents are considered caretakers whose main responsibility is to deliver a chaste daughter, along with a sizable dowry, to her husbands family. 根据农村妇女、社会学家和其他专家的说法，根本问题是文化和经济。在印度，一名年轻女子只是被看成她出生家庭的临时成员，而且是对这个家庭的财力的一个极大的消耗。女孩的父母被认为是看管者，他们的主要职责是向其丈夫的家庭提供一个纯洁的女儿，以及可观的嫁妆。 13.”They say bringing up a girl is like watering a neighbors plant,” says R.Venkatachalam, director of the Community Serives Guild of Madras. “From birth to death, the expendure is there.” The dowry, he says, often wipes out a familys life savings but is necessary to arrange a proper marriage and maintain the honor of the brides family. “他们说养育一个女孩，就像给邻居的植物浇水，”马德拉斯社区服务协会主任R. Venkatachalam说：“从出生到死亡一直需要花费”。他说，嫁妆经常要花光一个家庭一生的积蓄，但这是安排适当婚姻和保持新娘家人荣誉所必需的。 14.After giving birth to a daughter, village women “immediately start thinking, Do we have the money to support her through life? and if they dont, they kill her,” according to Vasanthai, 20, the mother of an 18-month-old girl and a resident of the village where Rani lives. “You definitely do it after two or three daughters. Why would you want more?”生下一个女儿后，村里的妇女会 “立即开始思考，我们有足够的金钱维持她的生活吗？如果她们没有，她们就会杀了她” 20岁的Vasanthai说，“在有两三个女儿之后，你肯定会这么做。你为什么会想要更多呢？”Vasanthai生活在拉尼 所在的村庄，是一个18个月大女孩的母亲。 15.Few activists or government officials in India see female infanticide as a law-and-order issue, viewing it instead as a social problem that should be eradicated through better education, family planning and job programs. Police officials say few cases are reported and witness seldom cooperate. 几个激进主义分子或印度政府官员将杀死女婴视为一个法律和秩序问题，而不是一个应通过更好的教育、计划生育和就业方案根除的社会问题。警方官员说，报告的案例很少，并且证人很少合作。 16.”There are more pressing issues.”says a top police official in Madras. “Very few cases come to our attention. Very few people care.”“有更为紧迫的问题，”马德拉斯的一位高级警方官员说。“很少有案例引起我们的注意。极少数人对此关心。” 17.For most girls, however, the biggest barrier-and the one that locks generations of women into a cycle of discrimination-is lack of education. 然而，对于大多数女孩来说，最大的障碍，以及那个将几代妇女禁锢在歧视循环的障碍是：缺乏教育。18. Across the developing world, girls are withdrawn from school years before boys so they can remain at home and lug water, work the fields, raise younger siblings and help with other domestic chores. By the time girls are ten or twelve years old, they may put in as much as an eight-hour work day, studies show. One survey found that a young girl in rural India spends thirty percent of her waking hours doing household work, twenty-nine percent gathering fuel and twenty percent fetching water. 在整个发展中世界，女孩要比男孩早好几年离开学校，以便她们可以留在家里，挑水、下地干活、照看弟妹和帮忙做其他家务。研究表明，当女孩10岁或12岁时，她们就可能每天从事长达八小时的工作。一份调查表明,印度农村的年轻女孩花30%的醒着的时间做家务事,29%搜集燃料和20%提水。 19. Statistics from Pakistan demonstrate the low priority given to female education. Only one-third of the countrys schools, which are sexually segregated, are for women, and one-third of those have no building. Almost 90 percent of the women over age 25 are illiterate. In the predominantly rural state of Baluchistan, less than two percent of women can read and write. 巴基斯坦的统计数据表明，女性的受教育的优先级低：所有学校的仅三分之一为女性开办，这些学校是性别隔离的，并且其中的三分之一都没有建筑。近90的25岁以上的女性是文盲。在以农村为主的俾路支邦，可以读书写字的女性不到2。 20. In Islamic countries such as Pakistan and Bangladesh, religious concern about interaction with males adds further restrictions to females mobility. Frequently, girls are taken out of school when they reach puberty to limit their contact with males， though there exists a strong impetus for early marriages. In Bangladesh, according to the United Nations, by age 15, 73 percent are married and 21 percent have had at least one child. 在像巴基斯坦和孟加拉国这样的伊斯兰国家里,与男性交往的相关宗教诉求进一步增加了对妇女能动性的限制。经常地,当女孩们达到青春期时,就会被带出学校以限制她们与男性的联系,尽管存在很强的早婚推动力。在孟加拉国,根据联合国的说法,73%的女孩到15岁时就结婚了,这其中已有21%的人至少有了一个孩子。 21. Across South Asia, arranged marriages are the norm and can sometimes be the most demeaning rite of passage a woman endures. Two types are common-bride wealth, in which the brides family essentially gives her to the highest bidder, and dowry, in which the brides family pays exorbitant amounts to the husbands family. 在整个南亚，包办婚姻是一种习俗，并且有时可能会是妇女所忍受的最贬低身份的仪式。常见的有两种类型：新娘的财富其中新娘的家人基本上将其给予最高出价人，嫁妆新娘的家人向丈夫的家庭支付高昂的金额。 22. In India, many men resort to killing their wives-often by setting them afire-if they are unhappy with the dowry. According to the countrys Ministry of Human Resource Development, there were 5,157 dowry murders in 1991-one every hour and 42 minutes. 在印度，如果对嫁妆不满意，许多男人往往会杀害自己的妻子，通常的方式是将她们烧死。根据印度人力资源发展部，1991年有5157起嫁妆谋杀案，每隔一小时42分钟一起。 23. After being bartered off to a new family, with little education, limited access to health care and no knowledge of birth control, young brides soon become young mothers. A womans adulthood is often spent in a near constant state of pregnancy, hoping for sons. 被以“以物换物”的方式进入新的家庭后,由于极少的教育、受限的卫生保健和没有计划生育知识,年轻的新娘很快就变成年轻的妈妈。妇女的成年期几乎是在一直怀孕的状态中渡过的,希望得到儿子。 24.According to a 1988 report by Indias Department of Women and Child Development: ”The India woman on an average has eight to nine pregnancies, resulting in a little over six live births, of which four or five survive. She is estimated to spend 80 percent of her reproductive years in pregnancy and lactation.” Becauce of poor nutrition and a hard workload, she puts on about nine pounds during pregnancy, compared with 22 pounds for a typical pregnant woman in a developed country. 根据印度妇女和儿童发展部1988年的一份报告：“印度女子平均会怀孕八到九次，生产稍多于6个活婴儿，其中四个或五个婴儿生存下来。据估计其生育年龄的80用在怀孕和哺乳上。”由于营养不良和繁重的劳动量,她在怀孕期间约增加9磅体重,而相比之下发达国家里典型的孕妇增加22磅。 25.A recent study of the small Himalayan village of Bemru by the New Delhi-based Center for Science and the Environment found that “birth in most cases takes place in the cattle shed,” where villagers believe that holy cows protect the mother and newborn from evil spirits. Childbirth is considered unclean, and the mother and their newborn are treated as “untouchables” for about two weeks after delivery. 最近，由位于新德里的科学与环境中心对Bemru的小喜马拉雅村开展的一项研究发现“大多数的分娩发生在牛棚中”，这里的村民认为，神圣的奶牛会保护母亲和新生儿远离邪恶精神。分娩被认为是肮脏的，在分娩后两个星期之内，母亲和其新生儿被认为是“贱民”。 26. Studies show that in developing countries, women in remote areas can spend more than two hours day carrying water for cooking, drinking, cleaning and bathing, and in some rural areas they spend the equivalent of more than 200 days a year gathering firewood. That presents an additional hazard: The International Labor Organization found that women using wood fuels in India inhaled carcinogenic pollutants that are the equivalent of smoking 20 packs of cigarettes a day. 研究表明,在发展中国家,处在偏远地区的妇女要每天花两个小时以上的时间去提水,用来做饭、饮用、清洗和沐浴，在某些农村地区，她们每年花费相当于200多天的时间去搜集柴火。那提出了一个额外的风险，国际劳动组织发现，印度的妇女用木头燃料时吸入的致癌污染物相当于每天抽了20包烟。 27. Because of laws relegating them to a secondary status, women have few outlets for relaxation or recreation. In many Islamic countries, they are not allowed to drive cars, and their appearance in public is so restricted that they are banned from such recreational and athletic activities as swimming and gymnastics.由于法律把她们降为次等身份，妇女们几乎没有休闲或娱乐的路径。在很多伊斯兰国家里，她们不能开车，她们在公众场合的露面是受限制的，以致于她们被禁止参加诸如游泳和体操之类的文娱和体育活动。 28.In Kenya and Tanzania, laws prohibit women from owning houses. In Pakistan, a daughter legally is entitled to half the inheritance that a son gets when their parents die. In some criminal cases, testimony by women is legally given half the weight of a mans testimony, and compensation for the wrongful death of a woman is half that for the wrongful death of a man. 在肯尼亚和坦桑尼亚，法律禁止妇女拥有房屋。在巴基斯坦，当父母去世时，女儿合法享有的遗产为儿子继承遗产的一半。在一些刑事案件中，妇女证词的合法分量为男人证词的一半，而且对女子非正常死亡的赔偿也是男人的一半。 29.After a lifetime of brutal physical labor, multiple births, discrimination and sheer tedium, what should be a womans golden years often hold the worst indignities. In India, a womans identity is so intertwined and subservient to her husbands that if she outlives him, her years as a widow are spent as a virtual nonentity.In previous generations, many women were tied to their husbands funeral pyres and burned