时间:2018-12-17 作者:英语课 分类:2009年NPR美国国家公共电台7月


英语课
Some people carry an old hurt around for a long time. Is it possible to forgive someone if they don't apologize or express remorse 1 for their actions? The commentator 2 Mubarak Dahir has been wrestling with that question.

I got another letter from my father. I've been getting them for a decade now, ever since I stopped talking to him. The odds 3 were never good that my father, Sarber, would be able to embrace his gay son. Sarber was raised in the Arab world, where talk about sex of any kind is taboo 4 and where homosexuality remains 5 unspoken. Before he found out I was gay, Sarber spoke 6 to me only once about homosexuality when I was a teenager. "If a man ever touches you there," he said, "kick the guy in the groin." Years later, I was away at college when my mother found personal letters I thought were safely hidden in my bedroom at home. My mother eventually progressed from thinking I was mentally ill to mailing me condoms to help assure I was practising safer sex. But the leap was just too big for my father. When he retired 7 and moved with my mother back to the Middle East, I couldn't help but think it was partly to escape me. But he could never escape that I would not bear a son to carry on the family name. Soon after my parents moved back to the Middle East, Sarber decided 8 that, after 30 years of marriage, he was divorcing my mother for an arranged marriage with a woman still young enough to have children. If I would not produce a grandson the burden of carrying on the family name was once again his. So my mother moved back to the United States, and at the age of a grandfather, Sarber became a new dad again. He eventually fathered 4 more kids, 2 daughters and 2 sons. But as far as I was concerned, he’d lost his older son, me, forever. He sends me half a dozen letters a year, but I never write back. I open his latest letter already knowing what's inside. He talks about his age, now 80 and his fragile health. Why don't you write me back, he asks. I keep my father's letters in a filing cabinet and when I reread them, it's not what's in them that stands out, it's what's missing from them. He never writes "I'm sorry". He never asks for forgiveness. All these years, I've held out for those simple words, insisting I can't budge 9 until he acknowledges his wrongdoing, not against me, but against my now dead mother. I wonder if I could forgive him, even if he asked. But I know the time left to make whatever kind of peace with him I may be able to find is shrinking. I vow 10 that this last letter won't go unanswered. I only wish I knew what to say.

Mubarak Dahir lives in Florida.


1 remorse
n.痛恨,悔恨,自责
  • She had no remorse about what she had said.她对所说的话不后悔。
  • He has shown no remorse for his actions.他对自己的行为没有任何悔恨之意。
2 commentator
n.注释者,解说者;实况广播评论员
  • He is a good commentator because he can get across the game.他能简单地解说这场比赛,是个好的解说者。
  • The commentator made a big mistake during the live broadcast.在直播节目中评论员犯了个大错误。
3 odds
n.让步,机率,可能性,比率;胜败优劣之别
  • The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
  • Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗?
4 taboo
n.禁忌,禁止接近,禁止使用;adj.禁忌的;v.禁忌,禁制,禁止
  • The rude words are taboo in ordinary conversation.这些粗野的字眼在日常谈话中是禁忌的。
  • Is there a taboo against sex before marriage in your society?在你们的社会里,婚前的性行为犯禁吗?
5 remains
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。
6 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
  • 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。
7 retired
adj.隐退的,退休的,退役的
  • The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
  • Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。
8 decided
adj.决定了的,坚决的;明显的,明确的
  • This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
  • There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。
9 budge
v.移动一点儿;改变立场
  • We tried to lift the rock but it wouldn't budge.我们试图把大石头抬起来,但它连动都没动一下。
  • She wouldn't budge on the issue.她在这个问题上不肯让步。
10 vow
n.誓(言),誓约;v.起誓,立誓
  • My parents are under a vow to go to church every Sunday.我父母许愿,每星期日都去做礼拜。
  • I am under a vow to drink no wine.我已立誓戒酒。
学英语单词
alumina silica
an eager beaver
analytic models accuracy
automatic threading and rewinding
brief abstract
camouflage detection film
cancrinite
capital cost
capocchianoes
carboxymethylpachymaran
caryomitotic
centric position
cerebrology
cidoxepin
cinematizes
cobalmin
cognitology
control of manufacturing overhead
councils of vienne
Cusna, Mte.
customary law
dachas
dilute phase roasting
dipping form
drum reel
dyewater
ear holes
engenderest
ethyl cyanuramide
examination and recognition
experimental marine microbiology
fan effect
full-width fertilizer distributor
Gastopsin
general-purpose airplane
general-purpose microcontroller
glint in the milkman's eye
gloms
gnathology
go up like a rocket and come down like a stick
griselle
hexyl acetate
how't
Hymenopyramis cana
Iftar
Igorevskaya
Inula rhizocephaloides
jassims
kalember
least commitment principle
Malaya Pera
maximum royalties
meercats
micro-boredom
mock at
Muscoy
obsolete assets
one-point compactification
pathlength
permanent nuisance
phalsngeal process
piston type pressure gauge
polysaccharide-k
priority lien
progressive flooding
pterocaesio tile
pulse-modulated
rachischisis artialis
radio-acoustic method
roosveltite
rotation angle sensor
saccharephidrosis
Samanid
Sanford-Day car
saturated acyclic hydrocarbon
saturated vapour
savo(u)ry flavo(u)r
scandalmongering
screenage
second-largest
sedimentary basin
spectroheliometer
steeves
stern pamp trawler
syllogization
syn-hold
take the will for the deed
thanator
thaumaturgical
togcs
Trollius lilacinus
unbragging
us poet laureate
user system interaction
vacuum gear shift
vegetalbe
vena maxillaris inferior
Villasboas
whackings
wing top
wood chip carrier
would not