2006年NPR美国国家公共电台一月-The American Hunter: Going Extinct

Frank Deford: It is well-known that hunting is one of our most popular participant sports. So what species of animal do you think hunters are looking for these days? The answer is, human-beings. No, hunters are not actually trying to bag homo sapiens and throw them over their car hood 1. But what they desperately 2 want is more people to join them out in the woods, guns locked and loaded.

Frank Deford: Fewer and fewer Americans are hunting these days. Most dramatically, younger people are not picking up the sport. If the trend continues, soon enough , few American hunter will be as extinct as the passenger pigeon.

Frank Deford: Hunters, you see, are getting caught in a crunch 3. On the one hand, more and more of the traditional gun-toting citizenry are leaving rural areas for the suburbs, where golf carts, video games and slot machines are more likely to be the avant-garde choice tool of recreation.

Frank Deford: On the other hand, the people who live in metropolitan 4 areas are buying second homes out in the pristine 5 sticks and immediately erecting 6 "No Hunting" signs up on their property. It is sort of a modern version of all those Western movies where the farmers and the ranchers were at odds 7. Any update of the musical Oklahoma will have a hoedown song that goes, Oh, the hunters and the second-homers can be friends.

Frank Deford: Hunters are particularly frustrated 8 at the love affair that citified folk have with deer. Nothing this side of gay marriage now divides this country so much as deer do. Many Americans absolutely adore deer. They are all darting 9 little Bambis who are so unnerved by inconsiderate humans that their big soulful eyes are forever being caught in those headlights we always hear about.

Frank Deford: Hunters, meanwhile, pretty much see deer as big rats, Lyme disease-carrying vermin who happen to taste good once they properly get shot and become venison. But as the deer reproduce prolifically 10, their main predators 11, the hunters, are rapidly declining. Hunters are panicking. In some states, they are trying to get age limits lowered so tykes can take up hunting early, get it in their system.

Frank Deford: Hunters are even proselytizing women, our primordial 13 gatherers, so that the whole family can go a-shooting. The family that slays 14 together, stays together.

Frank Deford: Of course, the hunters are not alone in decline. The latest US government statistics suggest that we are doing less of everything--bowling, golfing, skiing, playing tennis--well, most anything that actually requires activity. Instead, we are going to more games, and watching longer hours of them on television. We watch real good, we Americans do.

Frank Deford: But if hunters are endangered, their fishing brethren are holding their own. At least 30 million Americans try to catch bass 15. Bass fishing is hot. Bass tournaments are on television. But then, there is no save-the-bass constituency. Bass aren't cute like deer. Walt Disney never drew a baby bass. The poor put-upon bass don't ever get their eyes caught in the headlights.

NEW WORDS:

homo sapiens: the type of human being that exists now
gun-toting: someone carrying a guy. i.e. gun-toting gangs on the street
avant-garde: extremely modern and shocking
pristine: not spoiled or damaged in any way
rancher: someone who owns or works on a big farm
slot machine: a machine for a game when you put money into it
vermin: unpleasant people who cause problems for society
prolifically: fertilely
proselytize 16: to try to persuade someone to join a religious group or political party
primordial: = primitive 17
brethren: [plural] a member of a group, especially a religious one.
constituency: = supporter
put-upon: a feeling of put-upon is occurs when one feels being treated of doing thing unfairly or too much.