2006年VOA标准英语-Two Lebanese Girls, Alone, Fear for Their Famil

By Challiss McDonough
Tyre, Lebanon
03 August 2006
 
By the latest estimates, Israel's military campaign against Hezbollah militants¹ in Lebanon has forced up to one million people to flee from their homes.  An unknown number of civilians² remain in besieged³ southern Lebanese villages because they either cannot or will not leave.  From the southern coastal⁴ city of Tyre, VOA Correspondent Challiss McDonough has the story of two little girls separated from their family by the violence.

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A displaced young Lebanese girl holds a placard with writing in Arabic reading, 'How can peace come from a blaze of fire?' 
  
Medics from the Red Cross are unloading three patients from an ambulance after a treacherous⁵ journey from Aaitaroun, a village near the Israeli border that has been the center of intense fighting.

Scenes like this are rarer now than they were three weeks ago, when the Israeli military campaign against Hezbollah started.  The wards⁶ of the Jebel Amel Hospital have gradually emptied out as the wounded have been evacuated⁷ to other, safer cities, as have most of the people of southern Lebanon.  The influx⁸ of wounded civilians has slowed.

But up on the second floor are two young patients with nowhere else to go, and nobody to take them there.

Mariam Hamadi is six years old.  She wears her hair in two braids, with a heart-shaped barrette in front, and a thin gauze sling⁹ wrapped around her right arm.  She is shyly nibbling¹⁰ away at a packet of cookies.

She says, "My shoulder was injured."

Mariam is sitting in a hospital bed, playing with a new blonde imitation Barbie doll, a gift from one of the nurses.  Her sister Fatma, 13, sits next to her, dressed in red.  The two have no idea where the rest of their family is.

Nearly two weeks ago, the Red Cross evacuated Mariam, Fatma and their father from their village of Maroun er-Ras.  It is just a few kilometers from the Israeli border and has been the scene of intense fighting.

On Monday, after Israel suspended most airstrikes for 48 hours, the girls' father headed back to the village to try to fetch their mother and seven brothers and sisters. 

TRANSLATOR:  "'My dad didn't tell me he was leaving because he didn't want me to be scared.'  And I asked her, are you scared now? And she says no."

They have heard nothing from their father since then.  The aerial bombing resumed on Wednesday, and ground fighting around Maroun er-Ras and other border villages never really subsided¹¹.

Aid workers who have visited the border region in recent days report near-total devastation¹², but say there are still a surprising number of civilians living there - people who are either unable or unwilling¹³ to leave their homes.

Fatma says she remembers the shelling, and the airplanes overhead, and the rumbling¹⁴ sound of Israeli tanks.  She says her little sister Mariam was terrified.

"She was always looking for her mother, always sitting next to her mother, always chasing after her mother," she said.  "The shelling was intense near the house."

Although not unusual, the story of Mariam and Fatma underscores how the conflict has affected¹⁵ hundreds of thousands of civilians caught up in the mayhem. 

Fatma says the day before she and her sister left their village, Israeli troops burst in and took over their house. 

"They came at like four in the morning, the Israelis. They broke the glass, they broke the front door of the house and they all came in," she added.

She speaks in a gentle voice, without showing much anger, and answers questions simply and directly.

"They were using our house as an observation, as a place to observe. If they see anyone they would shoot from our house," she recalled.

The soldiers, Fatma says, herded¹⁶ everyone into a small room.

She said the Israeli troops had one person with them who spoke¹⁷ Arabic, but not fluently.

Fatma says she, Mariam and their father were allowed to be evacuated from the village by the Red Cross because Mariam was wounded, but the rest of the family had to stay behind.

Now, Fatma and her six-year-old sister are alone in the hospital together.  Hospital staff say they have no relatives with them.  Fatma says she misses her parents a lot.

"She says my wish now is that I get my mother, my father and my sisters and we get reunited," she said.

Fatima and Mariam both say they are not scared.  Fatma says her biggest concern at the moment is that her little sister will wander off somewhere and get lost.

But as Fatma, 13, nears the end of her story, tears start to well up in her eyes.  It is as if the magnitude of what is happening to her has just really dawned on her.  But she is trying not to cry, at least not in front of her little sister.  She has to be the adult, for now.

1 militants   

激进分子，好斗分子( militant的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The militants have been sporadically fighting the government for years. 几年来，反叛分子一直对政府实施零星的战斗。
• Despite the onslaught, Palestinian militants managed to fire off rockets. 尽管如此，巴勒斯坦的激进分子仍然发射导弹。

2 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。

3 besieged   

包围，围困，围攻( besiege的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Paris was besieged for four months and forced to surrender. 巴黎被围困了四个月后被迫投降。
• The community besieged the newspaper with letters about its recent editorial. 公众纷纷来信对报社新近发表的社论提出诘问，弄得报社应接不暇。

4 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

5 treacherous   

adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的

参考例句：

• The surface water made the road treacherous for drivers.路面的积水对驾车者构成危险。
• The frozen snow was treacherous to walk on.在冻雪上行走有潜在危险。

6 wards   

区( ward的名词复数 )； 病房； 受监护的未成年者； 被人照顾或控制的状态

参考例句：

• This hospital has 20 medical [surgical] wards. 这所医院有 20 个内科[外科]病房。
• It was a big constituency divided into three wards. 这是一个大选区，下设三个分区。

7 evacuated   

撤退者的

参考例句：

• Police evacuated nearby buildings. 警方已将附近大楼的居民疏散。
• The fireman evacuated the guests from the burning hotel. 消防队员把客人们从燃烧着的旅馆中撤出来。

8 influx   

n.流入，注入

参考例句：

• The country simply cannot absorb this influx of refugees.这个国家实在不能接纳这么多涌入的难民。
• Textile workers favoured protection because they feared an influx of cheap cloth.纺织工人拥护贸易保护措施，因为他们担心涌入廉价纺织品。

9 sling   

vt.扔；悬挂；n.挂带；吊索，吊兜；弹弓

参考例句：

• The boy discharged a stone from a sling.这个男孩用弹弓射石头。
• By using a hoist the movers were able to sling the piano to the third floor.搬运工人用吊车才把钢琴吊到3楼。

10 nibbling   

v.啃，一点一点地咬（吃）( nibble的现在分词 )；啃出（洞），一点一点咬出（洞）；慢慢减少；小口咬

参考例句：

• We sat drinking wine and nibbling olives. 我们坐在那儿，喝着葡萄酒嚼着橄榄。
• He was nibbling on the apple. 他在啃苹果。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

11 subsided   

v.（土地）下陷（因在地下采矿）( subside的过去式和过去分词 )；减弱；下降至较低或正常水平；一下子坐在椅子等上

参考例句：

• After the heavy rains part of the road subsided. 大雨过后，部分公路塌陷了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• By evening the storm had subsided and all was quiet again. 傍晚， 暴风雨已经过去，四周开始沉寂下来。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

12 devastation   

n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤

参考例句：

• The bomb caused widespread devastation. 炸弹造成大面积破坏。
• There was devastation on every side. 到处都是破坏的创伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 unwilling   

adj.不情愿的

参考例句：

• The natives were unwilling to be bent by colonial power.土著居民不愿受殖民势力的摆布。
• His tightfisted employer was unwilling to give him a raise.他那吝啬的雇主不肯给他加薪。

14 rumbling   

n. 隆隆声, 辘辘声 adj. 隆隆响的 动词rumble的现在分词

参考例句：

• The earthquake began with a deep [low] rumbling sound. 地震开始时发出低沉的隆隆声。
• The crane made rumbling sound. 吊车发出隆隆的响声。

15 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

16 herded   

群集，纠结( herd的过去式和过去分词 )； 放牧； （使）向…移动

参考例句：

• He herded up his goats. 他把山羊赶拢在一起。
• They herded into the corner. 他们往角落里聚集。

17 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。