美語情景對話 第494期:Gangs 團伙

Todd: Jeanie, you are from Philadelphia, correct?

託德：珍妮，你來自費城，對吧？

Jeanie: Yep.

珍妮：對。

Todd: Now is Philadelphia a safe city? Do you have lots of crime?

託德：現在費城是座安全的城市嗎？那裏的犯罪率高嗎？

Jeanie: Yeah, we've got lots of crime. Depending on the area where you are. Um, where I grew up, I lived in a black ghetto where there was like gun shooting at least three times a week. Usually it was, it had to do with conflicts between African Americans and Jamaicans, um, pretty territorial. Basically, the African Americans were there first and when the Jamaicans moved in they decided that they wanted to take over so lots of wars going on along with that.

珍妮：對，我們那裏有很多犯罪案件。這要取決於你在哪個地區。我在黑人區長大，那裏至少每週會發生三次槍擊案。通常這些案件都與非洲裔美國人和牙買加人爲爭奪地盤而爆發的衝突有關。基本上來說，非洲裔美國人是最早來到那裏的，之後牙買加人搬來時決定佔領地盤，因此就會發生很多爭鬥。

Todd: That's pretty scary.

託德：那真是太嚇人了。

Jeanie: Yeah, so.

珍妮：是啊。

Todd: How did you get along? How did you survive or..?

託德：你是怎麼過活的？你怎麼活下來的……？

Jeanie: Um, well, I've always been to myself for the most part. A lot of people in the neighborhood, thought I was very strange because anytime you ever saw me I was walking around reading a book or something like that. I didn't have any friends, because everyone would always say I was too smart to hang with them or something like that, so yeah, I basically just kept to myself. When people wanted to fight me, instead of mouthing off which is a very big part of it, I would just sit there and say OK, let's fight and they didn't understand that kind of thing. They felt like, no we have to argue first, so I didn't encourage arguing and so they would feel intimidated just by feeling that maybe there was something more to me than they knew about.

珍妮：嗯，大部分時間我都是一個人待着。周圍的許多人認爲我很奇怪，因爲無論何時你看到我路過，我都在看書。我沒有朋友，因爲所有人都會說我太聰明瞭所以不會跟他們一起玩，或者類似的事情，所以我一直都是一個人待着。有人想和我打架時，我沒有像大部分人那樣頂嘴，我只是坐在那裏說：好啊，我們打架吧，他們對此並不理解。他們會想，不對，我們應該先爭執一下，所以我不會挑起爭端，這樣他們就會被嚇倒，因爲他們覺得我的能力比他們所知道的要強。

Todd: Wow! You're brave. You were saying earlier though that there is also a serious problem with Asian gangs.

託德：哇！你真勇敢。你之前說過亞裔暴力團伙的問題也很嚴重。

Jeanie: Yeah, in the neighborhood we moved into, I moved out of my old neighborhood when I was about 17, so my new neighborhood, we don't have so much of the African Americans versus the Jamacains, we have Korean gangs, and they're often at odds with the Hispanics.

珍妮：對，在我後來搬去的那個社區，我17歲的時候搬出了原來的社區，附近沒有太多非洲裔美國人和牙買加人對抗的案件，但是會有韓裔團伙和拉美裔的衝突。

Todd: Man!

託德：天哪！

Jeanie: Yeah, so not so much gun shooting. I don't really hear so much about guns in that area, but lots of knives and robberies and such things.

珍妮：沒有那麼多槍擊事件。那個地區不太常聽到槍聲，但是有大量持刀搶劫案。

Todd: Now do you think you have a solution to solve the problem, that we can get rid of these gangs. Is it just the poverty, or?

託德：你認爲有沒有解決這些問題、擺脫這些團伙的方法？僅僅是因爲貧窮嗎，還是別的原因？

Jeanie: It has a lot to do with the poverty, but a lot of it also is the image that these people are striving to achieve. They do rely heavily on Hip-hop, the Hip-hop culture. They feel like in order to be really cool, they've got to do this stuff that they see on TV.

珍妮：與貧窮有很大關係，不過這也是這些人努力塑造的形象。他們嚴重依賴於嘻哈樂，嘻哈文化。他們覺得爲了變得很酷，他們要做這些在電視上看到過的事情。

Todd: Ah, so it's like a peer pressure thing. Not a peer pressure, it's an image thing.

託德：所以是與同輩壓力有關。不對，不是同輩壓力，是與形象有關。

Jeanie: Mm, very much an image thing.

珍妮：對，很大程度上與形象有關。

Todd: Wow.

託德：哇。

Jeanie: And sometimes the only way to survive is to actually join a gang so that you don't get hurt from just someone not liking you.

珍妮：有時生存下來的唯一方法就是加入一個團伙，這樣你就不會被不喜歡你的人傷害。

Todd: Wow. Well, you have a very candid views and stories to tell so thank you very much.

託德：哇。謝謝你和我們分享這麼坦誠的觀點和故事。

Jeanie: No worries.

珍妮：不客氣。

譯文屬僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載

重點講解：
1. take over
（武力）佔領，接管，控制；
eg. The army is / are threatening to take over if civil unrest continues.
軍方聲稱如內亂不平息將實行軍管。
eg. We don't want the ultras to take over France.
我們不想讓激進分子來控制法國。
2. get along
勉強過活；勉強應付；
eg. You can't get along without water.
沒有水無法活下去。
eg. Many older people cannot get along on just their Social Security checks.
許多老年人僅靠社會保障金無法生活。
3. for the most part
大部分；多半；通常；
eg. The lemon drink was for the most part of water.
那檸檬飲料多半成分是水。
eg. For the most part he left the books to his managers and accountants.
他通常都把賬冊交給經理和會計們處理。
4. instead of
代替…；而不是…；
eg. Instead of pressing forward, they drew back.
他們不僅沒有前進，反而後退了。
eg. He wishes to see more new programs instead of repeat on television.
他希望看到更多新的電視節目，而不是重播的節目。
5. at odds with
（與…）不和；（與…）有矛盾；（與…）意見不一致；
eg. I think I'm at odds with you over the supply plan.
我想在供應計劃問題上我們有分歧。
eg. It's no necessary to be at odds with them.
沒必要與他們爭執。
6. get rid of
擺脫；甩掉；趕走；
eg. He hoped to get rid of the burden.
他希望去掉這個包袱。
eg. How to get rid of the difficulties is still a great problem.
怎樣才能擺脫困境仍是個大問題。
7. rely on
依賴；依靠；
eg. We will get nowhere if we rely on luck.
如果我們只依靠運氣，那將一事無成。
eg. But she can use and rely on other strengths.
但她可以借用、依賴其他的力量。
8. in order to
爲了；以便；目的在於；
eg. In order to survive the competition a company should be proactive not reactive.
要在競爭中生存下來，公司不應該消極應變，而應當先發制人。
eg. They were working double tides in order to finish the job in time.
他們晝夜工作以及時完成工作。