万花筒 2009-02-17&02-18 八胞胎母亲收到死亡威胁

They are only a few weeks old, but these octuplets are already the center of public outrage¹. Los Angeles police say they plan to investigate death threats against their mom, Nadya Suleman. The 33-year-old single, unemployed² mother has been getting hundreds of angry phone calls and e-mails. The criticism is mostly directed at the public assistance Suleman is getting to care for these eight babies as well as these six other children she has conceived through in-vitro fertilization. The big share of that financial burden could fall on the shoulders of California's taxpayers³. Suleman tells NBC’s Today Show she doesn’t consider the public assistance she receives to be welfare and she doesn’t plan to stay on that assistance for long.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates the cost of raising 14 children through age 17 could go up to $2.7 million for the single mother. Suleman’s publicist says she’s living in an undisclosed location and spends time with all of her kids every day. She says she plans to go back to college in the fall to complete her master’s degree in counseling. The young mom says she’ll use additional student loans to support her children along with the school’s daycare center and volunteers. Suleman says she already owes 50,000 dollars in student loans.

Diane Kepley, the Associated Press.

 Note:

in-vitro fertilization: In-vitro fertilization is a method of helping⁴ a woman to have a baby in which an egg is removed from one of her ovaries, fertilized⁵ outside her body, and then replaced in her womb. (From Collins)

1 outrage   

n.暴行，侮辱，愤怒；vt.凌辱，激怒

参考例句：

• When he heard the news he reacted with a sense of outrage.他得悉此事时义愤填膺。
• We should never forget the outrage committed by the Japanese invaders.我们永远都不应该忘记日本侵略者犯下的暴行。

2 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

3 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

4 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

5 Fertilized   

v.施肥( fertilize的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• The study of psychology has recently been widely cross-fertilized by new discoveries in genetics. 心理学研究最近从遗传学的新发现中受益匪浅。
• Flowers are often fertilized by bees as they gather nectar. 花常在蜜蜂采蜜时受粉。