VOA标准英语2011--US Child Abuse Scandal Tarnishes University, Football Coach

US Child Abuse Scandal Tarnishes¹ University, Football Coach

 

The arrest on child-abuse charges of a one-time assistant football coach at a prominent American university has quickly broadened into a major scandal. The president of Pennsylvania State University and the school's enormously popular football coach, Joe Paterno, have been dismissed, and further consequences are expected.

Penn State, as the school is called in the U.S., reacted decisively to show its senior officials must be held accountable if they fail to take action against such abuse.

The recent arrest of the former defensive² coordinator³ for the Penn State university football team, Gerald Sandusky, created a cascade⁴ of events dominating U.S. media headlines.

Sandusky is being charged with sexually abusing eight boys over a period of 15 years. Several more accusers have come forward to police. Sandusky denies the accusations⁵, and his lawyer says he has already been tried in the court of public opinion.

Still, the arrest did not take long to have other effects.

Legendary⁶ football coach Joe Paterno, who was still coaching at the age of 84, with a record 409 victories to his credit, was fired, as were top university officials.

Pennsylvania State University students hold candles during a vigil to show their support for sexual abuse victims involved in the recent controversy7 at their school, November 11, 2011.

Angry sports commentators⁸ are saying the entire football team, which brings the university more than $50 million in profit every year, should also quit its season now.

Paterno had been told about Sandusky violating a boy in 2002. At the time, Sandusky was running a charity for foster children with activities at the football team’s practice center. Paterno told his superiors but not police.

Child abuse in the United States is mainly the responsibility of states and local governments.

In Pennsylvania, telling your superiors is what you are mandated⁹ to do, while in other states failure to report knowing about child abuse can be a crime.

Pennsylvania state police commissioner¹⁰ Frank Noonan was clear about his priorities.

"This is not a case about football, about universities. It is a case about children who have had their innocence¹¹ stolen from them, in a culture that did nothing to stop it or prevent it from happening to others,” he said.

There had been other allegations against Sandusky which had also been ignored.

Similar scandals with attempted cover-ups have affected¹² other schools in the United States, as well as the Catholic Church.

In recent decades, thousands of victims have come forward saying they were sexually abused as children by Catholic priests.

Jon O’Brien, president of a Washington-based group called Catholics for Choice, says the Catholic Church made huge mistakes in dealing¹³ with its own scandals.

"The sexual abuse of children was outrageous," he said. "The cover-up, the subsequent cover-up, though, is what I think fundamentally disappoints and hurts so many of us, inside and outside the Church. Because we recognize that there has not been the type of far-reaching efforts to both identify what went wrong and what was the mindset that actually cannot admit, 'We made a mistake.'"

The Penn State University board of trustees moved quickly after the arrest to fire top university officials and coach Paterno. The board is now forming a special committee to investigate the school’s handling of the still unfolding Sandusky scandal.

1 tarnishes   

污点，瑕疵，无光泽( tarnish的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Brass tarnishes quickly in wet weather. 天气潮湿时黄铜很快会失去光泽。
• This metal tarnishes easily. 这种金属易变色。

2 defensive   

adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的

参考例句：

• Their questions about the money put her on the defensive.他们问到钱的问题，使她警觉起来。
• The Government hastily organized defensive measures against the raids.政府急忙布置了防卫措施抵御空袭。

3 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

4 cascade   

n.小瀑布，喷流；层叠；vi.成瀑布落下

参考例句：

• She watched the magnificent waterfall cascade down the mountainside.她看着壮观的瀑布从山坡上倾泻而下。
• Her hair fell over her shoulders in a cascade of curls.她的卷发像瀑布一样垂在肩上。

5 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

6 legendary   

adj.传奇（中）的，闻名遐迩的；n.传奇（文学）

参考例句：

• Legendary stories are passed down from parents to children.传奇故事是由父母传给孩子们的。
• Odysseus was a legendary Greek hero.奥狄修斯是传说中的希腊英雄。

7 controversy   

n.争论，辩论，争吵

参考例句：

• That is a fact beyond controversy.那是一个无可争论的事实。
• We ran the risk of becoming the butt of every controversy.我们要冒使自己在所有的纷争中都成为众矢之的的风险。

8 commentators   

n.评论员( commentator的名词复数 )；时事评论员；注释者；实况广播员

参考例句：

• Sports commentators repeat the same phrases ad nauseam. 体育解说员翻来覆去说着同样的词语，真叫人腻烦。
• Television sports commentators repeat the same phrases ad nauseam. 电视体育解说员说来说去就是那么几句话，令人厌烦。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 mandated   

adj. 委托统治的

参考例句：

• Mandated desegregation of public schools. 命令解除公立学校中的种族隔离
• Britain was mandated to govern the former colony of German East Africa. 英国受权代管德国在东非的前殖民地。

10 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

11 innocence   

n.无罪；天真；无害

参考例句：

• There was a touching air of innocence about the boy.这个男孩有一种令人感动的天真神情。
• The accused man proved his innocence of the crime.被告人经证实无罪。

12 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。

13 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。