时间:2019-01-12 作者:英语课 分类:2006年VOA标准英语(七月)


英语课

By Al Pessin
Honolulu
27 July 2006


The effort to identify the remains 1 of missing American troops from past wars is very technical, involving anthropology 2, forensic 3 analysis, and DNA 4. But behind it all are thousands of families that are sometimes eagerly waiting for news, and other times surprised that their long lost child, parent or spouse 5 has been found. VOA's Al Pessin talked to officials at the U.S. military laboratory in Hawaii where the work is done, and where the families go to be reunited with the remains of their loved ones.


--------



Inside US military identification laboratory  
  
When the remains arrive here from distant battlefields they receive full military honors. And when they leave, they are often accompanied by a member of their family, perhaps a widow who lost her husband 35 years ago, perhaps a now-grown son or daughter who never met his or her father.


The remains, by now, are unrecognizable piles of bones, identified through highly technical scientific analysis. The center's deputy scientific director, Dr. Robert Mann, says although families can understand the basics of the science involved, it is sometimes something very unscientific that enables family members to really re-connect with their loved one.


"We have some things that really do kind of clinch 6 it for a family member, such as the pencil sharpener, for one individual, who, once she saw the pencil sharpener that convinced her that we really had identified her dad. It was emotional for her because her dad used to write to her every day from the field and use a pencil. And he had to sharpen his pencil with his pencil sharpener. So a little old 15-, 20-cent pencil sharpener was the thing that really convinced her and made her feel good and comfortable that in fact they had found her dad," he said.


 
Johnie Webb
  
The senior advisor 7 to the military command that searches for and identifies the missing, Johnie Webb, has been involved in the effort since 1975. He remembers another woman who came to Hawaii to collect the remains of her father. "She was two months old when he was shot down. So she had no memory of her father. And she relayed to me the story that she had been, all of her life, trying to get to know her father," he said.


Retrieving 8 his bones did not help in that. But when the center announced that the man's remains had been identified, many of his former comrades got in touch with the family to express their condolences, men the daughter had never met. "And so she got to talk to many of the other pilots that flew with him, many of the others that served with him, listened to the war stories that they shared with her. And she said that for the first time, she felt like she really knew her father. And then, as she related, to be able to see her children and see any of the tendencies her children had that would remind her of the stories that she had heard about her dad," he said.


In his job, Johnie Webb meets with many family members who come to accompany remains to their final resting places. He remembers one Vietnam War widow who came to collect her husband's remains nearly 40 years after he had been shot down. "They had bought matching wedding bands, gold bands and each of them had five diamonds. And so she was convinced that he was wearing his wedding band, even though he wasn't supposed to do it. And when we did the recovery, we recovered that wedding band. It was tarnished 9. It was bent 10. But the five diamonds were still there. And when she came out to receive the remains, she wore her wedding band around her neck, and I was able to add her husband's wedding band on the chain that she had around her neck," he said.


Webb says the effort to identify the missing is also important to their former comrades-in-arms, who did make it home alive. "I have stood in a group of old veterans who lost a friend in battle and watched the tears flow down their eyes as they say, 'Thank you, I have lived with this guilt 11 all these years that I could not get my buddy 12 back. And now you have brought him back home,'" he said.


Webb says the worldwide effort to find and identify the remains of missing American servicemen and women is still important even after so many years. "As a Vietnam veteran, I think that had I not come back home, I would want somebody be trying and provide those answers to my wife and my children as to what happened to me," he said.


American military teams are working in Southeast Asia and elsewhere around the world to find the remains of the missing and send them to Hawaii for identification. The effort is made more difficult by the harsh jungle environment, by people who have taken remains and artifacts over the years, and sometimes by politics, which keeps teams away from old battlefields for many years.


But Johnie Webb says the effort will continue for the families and the veterans, and to demonstrate to today's troops that the U.S. military will not leave anyone behind on any battlefield, no matter how long it takes to bring them home.



n.剩余物,残留物;遗体,遗迹
  • He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
  • The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。
n.人类学
  • I believe he has started reading up anthropology.我相信他已开始深入研究人类学。
  • Social anthropology is centrally concerned with the diversity of culture.社会人类学主要关于文化多样性。
adj.法庭的,雄辩的
  • The report included his interpretation of the forensic evidence.该报告包括他对法庭证据的诠释。
  • The judge concluded the proceeding on 10:30 Am after one hour of forensic debate.经过近一个小时的法庭辩论后,法官于10时30分宣布休庭。
(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸
  • DNA is stored in the nucleus of a cell.脱氧核糖核酸储存于细胞的细胞核里。
  • Gene mutations are alterations in the DNA code.基因突变是指DNA密码的改变。
n.配偶(指夫或妻)
  • Her spouse will come to see her on Sunday.她的丈夫星期天要来看她。
  • What is the best way to keep your spouse happy in the marriage?在婚姻中保持配偶幸福的最好方法是什么?
v.敲弯,钉牢;确定;扭住对方 [参]clench
  • Clinch the boards together.用钉子把木板钉牢在一起。
  • We don't accept us dollars,please Swiss francs to clinch a deal business.我方不收美元,请最好用瑞士法郎来成交生意。
n.顾问,指导老师,劝告者
  • They employed me as an advisor.他们聘请我当顾问。
  • The professor is engaged as a technical advisor.这位教授被聘请为技术顾问。
n.检索(过程),取还v.取回( retrieve的现在分词 );恢复;寻回;检索(储存的信息)
  • Ignoring all, he searches the ground carefully for any cigarette-end worth retrieving. 没管打锣的说了什么,他留神的在地上找,看有没有值得拾起来的烟头儿。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子
  • Retrieving the nodules from these great depths is no easy task. 从这样的海底深渊中取回结核可不是容易的事情。 来自辞典例句
(通常指金属)(使)失去光泽,(使)变灰暗( tarnish的过去式和过去分词 ); 玷污,败坏
  • The mirrors had tarnished with age. 这些镜子因年深日久而照影不清楚。
  • His bad behaviour has tarnished the good name of the school. 他行为不轨,败坏了学校的声誉。
n.爱好,癖好;adj.弯的;决心的,一心的
  • He was fully bent upon the project.他一心扑在这项计划上。
  • We bent over backward to help them.我们尽了最大努力帮助他们。
n.犯罪;内疚;过失,罪责
  • She tried to cover up her guilt by lying.她企图用谎言掩饰自己的罪行。
  • Don't lay a guilt trip on your child about schoolwork.别因为功课责备孩子而使他觉得很内疚。
n.(美口)密友,伙伴
  • Calm down,buddy.What's the trouble?压压气,老兄。有什么麻烦吗?
  • Get out of my way,buddy!别挡道了,你这家伙!
学英语单词
Abdel
acceleration of ripening
additional advance
anecdotically
antiriot ammunition
apical bud
arecaceaes
augelli
average repair
Bankia spengler
bankruptcy administrator
basic lead sulphate
bilge logs
booster inoculation
bored shitless
boringly
chain and sprocket drive
Chalkedon
checking off symbol
CLMW
course-stability
cross rod
Curley
damper segment
declaratory judgments
deflection calculation
delivered free to destination
dietary-supplement
dress in
dust crops with an insecticide
emince
enterouterine anus
equitangential
faralatrioside
farbs
finely divided scale
folia vermis
heavy work
helius (helius) minusculus
Hose Connectors
hyperhomocysteinemic
intermolecular respiration
lava column
lead number
lends out
lenticel(le)
lywallzyme
macnee
magnitude spectrum
master screw
max sth out
mellower
memory error report analysis
movable appendage
naked-flame mine
nickel-vanadium steel
nominal ocular hazard area
oculometry
one pack
ordinary wheel
organizational climate index
over-grateful
over-indulged
overtowered
pattern representation
phenoxathin
phenylphosphine
pick-up attachment
pilot flame burner
pipeline stopcock
plash
pot-holder
preservative substance
pressure admission chamber
pressure of blast
Prohepes
pseudodiploidy
r.d
ramming up
rankine thermometric scale
riborg
righi-leduc effect
roricon
sclenchyma
self-illuminating sight
selfcontradictory
sniper
sousant
Subhanallah
sukhooei
Swap Curve
tahsildars
thermo anelasticity
three stages fluidized-bed dryer
toner concentration
unkissing
unvote
upright drill
visual agnosia
Wiener schnitzel
with a swing in it
worldless