2007年NPR美国国家公共电台一月-A Man of Letters Inserts Himself Into Sud

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A troubled part of Africa gets an unlikely advocate in this next item. It's the story of Eric Reeves. He is a Smith College professor of renaissance² literature. And he's become one of the world's authorities on the violent conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. His command central is a cramped³ home office in a small New England town. From member station, WFCR, Caren Brown reports.

Eric Reeves upstairs den⁴ in Northampton, Massachusetts is testament⁵ to the yen⁶ and yen of his professional life. Portraits of Charles Dickens share wall space with political maps of Africa. The poetry of W. H. Auden sits on a bookshelf next to Samantha powers' seminal⁷ book on genocide. Most of his novels are collecting dust.

I read very very little that's not related to Darfur or the course I'm teaching which's, the moment is Shakespeare. And that's a strangely bifurcated⁸ life I can assure you.

Reeves remembers the moment when his life split in two. It was 1998. The humanitarian⁹ organization, Doctors without Borders had just named the Sudan Civil War, the most underreported crisis in the world. Reeves, a long-time donor¹⁰ to the group was talking to the executive director.

And we were lamenting¹¹ Sudan's invisibility, the intractability, the conflict, and I said something like I'll see what I can do.

In the eight years since, Reeves has published more than 100 articles and op-eds. He speaks at congressional hearings and writes a weekly 6000-word analysis of Darfur which is read online by key policymakers and activists¹². It goes beyond armchair blogging. He gets information from highly placed confidential¹³ sources in Sudan and pores over stacks of original documents.

These are various files. The International Criminal Court, and the reports from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty international, mortality reports.

At 56, Reeves is tall and fit with a youthful face and gentle demeanor¹⁴. But don't let it fool you. Reeves was among the first to label the killing¹⁵ of 9 Arab civilians¹⁶ in Darfur genocide. And his meticulous¹⁷ death count now close to half a million people blew previous estimates out of the water. He is on the enemy list of the Sudanese government which has spent thousands of dollars on mailings to discredit¹⁸ him.

Hello?
This could explain why journalists look to him even beyond his expertise¹⁹. Here is Radio France calling him to comment on Ethiopia's former dictator.

Actually I work only on Sudan. So I really wouldn't be able to comment on that trial.

Reeves makes no money from his political work. He donates all speaking fees to a Sudan charity he founded. There is something else that keeps him going.

I'm pretty much always angry, extremely angry at the international community for failing to respond to what we have known to be genocide. And I see part of my task as creating a(n) historical record that is simply irrefutable so that somebody going back, looking archivally at what I've written. We will see what we knew and when we knew it.

Reeves came of an age in the Vietnam era. He still carries his conscientious²⁰ objecter card. Today he rattles²¹ off details of U. N. resolutions and military budgets the way other people talked about batting averages. His friends say his encyclopedic knowledge is matched only by his passion for sharing it.

You can see it in his eye. You can see it in the words that he used.

Ten Darnea is an African specialist for the congressional research service. He says Reeves takes every individual tragedy in Sudan personally.

It's as if they're family. You know, a loss of life in a remote village in Darfur. When you call Eric, you know he is really sad and in the bad mood. And he writes about it the next day.

Reeves has enjoyed a few incremental²² victories including a college divestment campaign. There have also been personal costs. His two daughters went through adolescence²³ while Reeves was consumed by his cause. His wife Nancy says the family understands that Darfur needs him right now.

Eric's very persuasive²⁴. It's hard to deny it. This is the important moment that it is. Even a diagnosis²⁵ of leukemia two years ago, only focused his efforts.

It was always easy to get up no matter how wretched I felt after chemotherapy. I always had something to do that meant a great deal. And I didn't have to go any further than my computer.

Eric Reeves' leukemia is in remission. And he is only working half time for Smith. But he still hasn't gotten to the 3-foot stack of book reviews by his bed.

I dream as that peace will come to Sudan, I will return to being a professor of English, and I will teach a seminar in the short fiction of Alice Munroe. At the moment it seems like a very far off dream, but that's the dream.

For NPR news, I am Carmen Brown. Trying our dose at NPR's your health, a podcast that's good for your body. Get a full prescription²⁶ at NPR. org/podcasts.
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cramped
a cramped room, building etc does not have enough space for the people in it [?? crowded]:
The kitchen was small and cramped.
a cramped apartment
The troops slept in cramped conditions with up to 20 in a single room.
yen
[singular] a strong desire
yen for
a yen for foreign travel
yen to do something
She'd always had a yen to write a book.
seminal
formal
a seminal article, book etc is important, and influences the way things develop in the future:
a seminal study of eighteenth-century France
bifurcate
formal if a road, river etc bifurcates²⁷, it divides into two separate parts
op-ed
op-ed page/articleTCN a page in a newspaper that has articles containing opinions on various subjects, or one of these articles
armchair traveller/fan etc someone who talks or reads about being a traveller, or watches sport on television but does not have any real experience of doing it:
Her books about her adventures give enjoyment²⁸ and inspiration to armchair travellers.
Armchair fans will have to pay extra to watch the best games live.
pore over something phrasal verb
to read or look at something very carefully for a long time:
She was poring over a book
blow somebody/something out of the water to defeat someone or something that you are competing with, or to achieve much more than they do:
Motown had blown all the other record companies out of the water.
irrefutable
an irrefutable statement, argument etc cannot be proved to be wrong, and must be accepted
irrefutable evidence/proof/facts
irrefutable proof of his innocence
conscientious objecter
someone who refuses to become a soldier because of their moral or religious beliefs
divestment
the process of taking your money out of a company by selling your shares in it [≠ investment]
in remission
a period when a serious illness improves for a time
in remission
The chemotherapy was successful, and she is now in remission.
The cancer has gone into remission.

1 subscribe   

vi.(to)订阅，订购；同意；vt.捐助，赞助

参考例句：

• I heartily subscribe to that sentiment.我十分赞同那个观点。
• The magazine is trying to get more readers to subscribe.该杂志正大力发展新订户。

2 renaissance   

n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴

参考例句：

• The Renaissance was an epoch of unparalleled cultural achievement.文艺复兴是一个文化上取得空前成就的时代。
• The theme of the conference is renaissance Europe.大会的主题是文艺复兴时期的欧洲。

3 cramped   

a.狭窄的

参考例句：

• The house was terribly small and cramped, but the agent described it as a bijou residence. 房子十分狭小拥挤，但经纪人却把它说成是小巧别致的住宅。
• working in cramped conditions 在拥挤的环境里工作

4 den   

n.兽穴；秘密地方；安静的小房间，私室

参考例句：

• There is a big fox den on the back hill.后山有一个很大的狐狸窝。
• The only way to catch tiger cubs is to go into tiger's den.不入虎穴焉得虎子。

5 testament   

n.遗嘱；证明

参考例句：

• This is his last will and testament.这是他的遗愿和遗嘱。
• It is a testament to the power of political mythology.这说明，编造政治神话可以产生多大的威力。

6 yen   

n. 日元；热望

参考例句：

• He wanted to convert his dollars into Japanese yen.他想将美元换成日币。
• He has a yen to be alone in a boat.他渴望独自呆在一条船上。

7 seminal   

adj.影响深远的；种子的

参考例句：

• The reforms have been a seminal event in the history of the NHS.这些改革已成为英国国民保健制度史上影响深远的一件大事。
• The emperor's importance as a seminal figure of history won't be diminished.做为一个开创性历史人物的重要性是不会减弱的。

8 bifurcated   

a.分为两部分

参考例句：

• Over the past 15 years the marketplace for art books has bifurcated. 过去15年里，卖艺术类书籍的市场逐渐分化。
• This bifurcated view was reflected in how U.S. officials described the trip. 这种一分为二的观点也反映在美国官员自己对访华之行的描述上。

9 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

10 donor   

n.捐献者；赠送人；(组织、器官等的)供体

参考例句：

• In these cases,the recipient usually takes care of the donor afterwards.在这类情况下，接受捐献者以后通常会照顾捐赠者。
• The Doctor transplanted the donor's heart to Mike's chest cavity.医生将捐赠者的心脏移植进麦克的胸腔。

11 lamenting   

adj.悲伤的，悲哀的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Katydids were lamenting fall's approach. 蝈蝈儿正为秋天临近而哀鸣。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Lamenting because the papers hadn't been destroyed and the money kept. 她正在吃后悔药呢，后悔自己没有毁了那张字条，把钱昧下来！ 来自英汉文学 - 败坏赫德莱堡

12 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 confidential   

adj.秘（机）密的，表示信任的，担任机密工作的

参考例句：

• He refused to allow his secretary to handle confidential letters.他不让秘书处理机密文件。
• We have a confidential exchange of views.我们推心置腹地交换意见。

14 demeanor   

n.行为；风度

参考例句：

• She is quiet in her demeanor.她举止文静。
• The old soldier never lost his military demeanor.那个老军人从来没有失去军人风度。

15 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

16 civilians   

平民，百姓( civilian的名词复数 )； 老百姓

参考例句：

• the bloody massacre of innocent civilians 对无辜平民的血腥屠杀
• At least 300 civilians are unaccounted for after the bombing raids. 遭轰炸袭击之后，至少有300名平民下落不明。

17 meticulous   

adj.极其仔细的，一丝不苟的

参考例句：

• We'll have to handle the matter with meticulous care.这事一点不能含糊。
• She is meticulous in her presentation of facts.她介绍事实十分详细。

18 discredit   

vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑

参考例句：

• Their behaviour has bought discredit on English football.他们的行为败坏了英国足球运动的声誉。
• They no longer try to discredit the technology itself.他们不再试图怀疑这种技术本身。

19 expertise   

n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长

参考例句：

• We were amazed at his expertise on the ski slopes.他斜坡滑雪的技能使我们赞叹不已。
• You really have the technical expertise in a new breakthrough.让你真正在专业技术上有一个全新的突破。

20 conscientious   

adj.审慎正直的，认真的，本着良心的

参考例句：

• He is a conscientious man and knows his job.他很认真负责，也很懂行。
• He is very conscientious in the performance of his duties.他非常认真地履行职责。

21 rattles   

（使）发出格格的响声， （使）作嘎嘎声( rattle的第三人称单数 )； 喋喋不休地说话； 迅速而嘎嘎作响地移动，堕下或走动； 使紧张，使恐惧

参考例句：

• It rattles the windowpane and sends the dog scratching to get under the bed. 它把窗玻璃震得格格作响，把狗吓得往床底下钻。
• How thin it is, and how dainty and frail; and how it rattles. 你看它够多么薄，多么精致，多么不结实；还老那么哗楞哗楞地响。

22 incremental   

adj.增加的

参考例句：

• For logic devices, the incremental current gain is very important. 对于逻辑器件来说，提高电流增益是非常重要的。 来自辞典例句
• By using an incremental approach, the problems involving material or geometric nonlinearity have been solved. 借应用一种增量方法，已经解决了包括材料的或几何的非线性问题。 来自辞典例句

23 adolescence   

n.青春期，青少年

参考例句：

• Adolescence is the process of going from childhood to maturity.青春期是从少年到成年的过渡期。
• The film is about the trials and tribulations of adolescence.这部电影讲述了青春期的麻烦和苦恼。

24 persuasive   

adj.有说服力的，能说得使人相信的

参考例句：

• His arguments in favour of a new school are very persuasive.他赞成办一座新学校的理由很有说服力。
• The evidence was not really persuasive enough.证据并不是太有说服力。

25 diagnosis   

n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断

参考例句：

• His symptoms gave no obvious pointer to a possible diagnosis.他的症状无法作出明确的诊断。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做一次彻底的调查分析。

26 prescription   

n.处方，开药；指示，规定

参考例句：

• The physician made a prescription against sea- sickness for him.医生给他开了个治晕船的药方。
• The drug is available on prescription only.这种药只能凭处方购买。

27 bifurcates   

n.（指道路、河流、树枝等）分岔，分成两支( bifurcate的名词复数 )；使分枝，使分叉；分叉的v.（指道路、河流、树枝等）分岔，分成两支( bifurcate的第三人称单数 )；使分枝，使分叉

参考例句：

• The stream bifurcates into two narrow winding channels. 那条小溪分成两股窄而弯曲的支流。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The blood supply bifurcates between eight and thirty times before reaching each particular location in the body. 血液要分流8到30次才能到达身体的各个部位。 来自辞典例句

28 enjoyment   

n.乐趣；享有；享用

参考例句：

• Your company adds to the enjoyment of our visit. 有您的陪同，我们这次访问更加愉快了。
• After each joke the old man cackled his enjoyment.每逢讲完一个笑话，这老人就呵呵笑着表示他的高兴。