（雅思課外精讀）命喪美國警察的喬治·弗洛伊德是個怎樣的人

中國教育在線小編為大家收集整理了【雅思課外精讀】命喪美國警察的喬治·弗洛伊德是個怎樣的人？，那么接下來就跟著小編一起來看看，相信你通過以下的文章內(nèi)容就會有更深入的了解。

*注：本文摘自6月4日《經(jīng)濟學(xué)人》

The life pressed out斯人已逝George Floyd was killed on May 25th喬治弗洛伊德于5月25日被殺The unarmed black man whose death has convulsed America was 46這位手無寸鐵的黑人享年46歲，他的死亡震驚了美國 1. TUESDAYS WERE usually George Floyds night on security-guard duty at El Nuevo Rodeo club, the hottest venue for Mexican music in Minneapolis. That was urban-music night, when blacks came crowding in to hear RB, soul, hip-hop and rap. Things could get rowdy sometimes, but he kept order with calm and a big smile and the sheer presence of himself, six-feet-six and with bulging muscles under his coat. That wasnt the style of another guy there who had done the job for 17 years, an off-duty white police officer with jittery eyes, who would reach for his pepper spray as soon as a fight broke out and fire it over everyone. But few thought their paths had crossed, or that they ever would.

El Nuevo Rodeo俱樂部是明尼阿波利斯最熱鬧的墨西哥音樂場地。喬治弗洛伊德是El Nuevo Rodeo俱樂部的保安，周二他一般會去這里值班。在城市音樂之夜，黑人們會蜂擁走進俱樂部，來聽RB、靈歌、嘻哈和饒舌音樂。俱樂部有時候會很混亂，但是憑借著他的平靜沉穩(wěn)和燦爛笑容，他總能維持秩序。他身高六尺六，肌肉發(fā)達。而另外一個在這里干了17年的白人警察和弗洛伊德卻完全不同，他總是緊張不安，一有打斗發(fā)生就伸手去拿胡椒噴霧噴向每一個人。但是，沒有人會想到他們的人生道路竟會有相交。

2. He liked being a bouncer. His regular stint was at the Conga Latin Bistro on East Hennepin, another Mexican-Latino joint with dining and dancing. There he sometimes wore a blue boiler suit with Security in large white letters, but also a navy jacket and black polo-neck that made him look a million dollars. At the door he always beamed out his warm welcoming smile, and expected a hug in return from the regulars. He would dance badly, just to make them laugh. (Jovanni Thunstrom, the owner, once tried to teach him Bachata dance, but he was so tall he couldnt turn him.) Some customers came early to eat the spicy Mexican food with him. In return he did favours for them: drove them home if they were drunk, put their things in his own closet if they didnt bring spare change for the coat-check. At the end of business, he helped clean down the bar. Mr Thunstrom (Bossman, as he kept calling him), was a friend, almost family, and rented him a duplex in St Louis Park, uptown. He liked his neighbours there, and would spend time chatting over the fence to their little boy, teaching him the proper way to shoot hoops. He had been pretty good at basketball, back in Texas.

弗洛伊德喜歡當(dāng)保鏢。他平常是在東亨內(nèi)平的墨西哥-拉丁裔的餐館康加拉丁小酒館里工作，這是一家吃飯和跳舞結(jié)合的餐館。在這里，他有時會穿著一件藍色連衫褲套裝，上面有大大的白色文字保安，也會穿海軍藍夾克和黑色polo領(lǐng)，這讓他看起來像個百萬富翁。在店門口，他總是帶著熱情的微笑，也期待著和常客們來一個大大的擁抱。他會跳出滑稽的舞蹈來逗樂那些顧客（餐館老板喬萬尼斯托姆曾試圖教弗洛伊德跳巴塔舞，但是他個子太高了，轉(zhuǎn)不開）有些顧客會提前到店里和弗洛伊德一起用餐，吃那些辣辣的墨西哥菜。作為回報，他會幫他們一些忙：如果他們喝醉了，他就開車送他們回家；如果他們沒有帶夠零錢付存衣服的支票，他就把他們的東西放在自己的柜子里；下班后，他會幫忙打掃衛(wèi)生。斯托姆（弗洛伊德一直叫他老大哥）是弗洛伊德的朋友，甚至可以說是親近的家人，為他在圣路易斯公園租了一套復(fù)式公寓。他喜歡那里的鄰居，經(jīng)常隔著柵欄和他們的小男孩聊天，教他正確的投籃方法。他在德州時籃球打得很好。

3. Since coming to Minneapolis from Houston, several years ago, he had had no problem getting a job. Friends who had gone north before him had persuaded him to come, and they were right. There was no shortage. He worked as a truck driver, revelling in taking big rigs on the Interstate, and found his two security places. He also found a new girlfriend, Courtney Ross. And with that he seemed determined to stay in Minnesota.

自幾年前從休斯頓來到明尼波阿斯里，弗洛伊德很容易就能找到工作。之前來北方的朋友一直勸他來這邊，他就來了。他們是對的，這里工作很好找。他是一名卡車司機，喜歡在州際公路上開大卡車。他找到了兩家可以去做保安的地方，他還交了新女友，名叫考特尼羅斯。種種跡象都表明，他似乎決心留在明尼蘇達州。

4. That was not the plan at first. H-Town was still home. He grew up there in the Third Ward, the old black section of the city, full of shotgun shacks and run-down public housing as well as more notable buildings, like the Jack Yates High School, which he attended, and Wheeler Avenue Baptist church, where Martin Luther King preached. At Yates, with his height, more than six feet at 12 years old, he shone at sports: he was recruited by South Florida State to play basketball, and was on the Yates football team that made the final of the Texas statechampionship in 1992 in the Astrodome. The Houston music scene drew him, too; he was Big Floyd in a group that backed DJ Screw, a legendary hip-hop DJ, inventor of a newremix technique of slowing tracks down and playing the same track on different turntables(chopped-and-screwed, hence the Screw). Best of all, he met attractive women, by several of whom he had children. He was a good father while he was around.

他一開始并沒有這樣的計劃。休斯頓仍然是他的家。他在那里的黑人聚居區(qū)長大，那里到處是散置式棚屋和老舊的公共住房，也有一些著名的建筑，比如他曾就讀的杰克耶茨高中以及馬丁路德金等演講過的惠勒大道浸禮會教堂。弗洛伊德12歲時就6英尺多高了，在杰克耶茨高中，他在體育方面表現(xiàn)出眾：他被錄取進入南弗羅里達州籃球隊；他所在的耶茨高中也在1992年Astrodome體育館舉行的德克薩斯州立大學(xué)橄欖球錦標(biāo)賽的決賽獲得冠軍；休斯頓音樂界也向他伸出橄欖枝；他還加入了DJ Screw所在的樂隊里面。DJ Screw是一位頗具傳奇的嘻哈DJ，他發(fā)明了一種新的混音技術(shù)，即放慢音軌并在不同唱盤播放同段音軌的混音技巧(注：他的藝名Screw即來源于此)。最重要的是，弗洛伊德遇到了一位迷人的女子，他們有了幾個孩子。他是一個好父親。

5. Yet Houston was tough, too, especially in the Third Ward. He lived in Cuney Homes, otherwise known as The Bricks, a project overrun with drugs, gangs and guns. In 1997 the place was modernised and even won an award, but its reputation did not change much. And as a brickboy he did not escape it. In his early 20s he did jail time for theft with a firearm. After that came various arrests for possession of cocaine. He was not made for crime; he admitted in a video later that bustin a gun was crazy and made his knees shake. But he seemed to drift into these things because there was no line of work or life he was especially good at. His friend Stephen Jackson had become a player for the NBA, in the San Antonio Spurs, and he liked to call Stephen his twin, excited by his successes as if they were his own. But he, Big Floyd, was famous mostly for his sizea size that made people think he was not gentle or calm, but a fighting person.

然而，休斯頓的日子并不好過，尤其是在黑人貧民區(qū)。他住在被稱為磚房堆的康尼之家社區(qū)，這里充斥著毒品、黑幫和槍支。1997年，這里進行了現(xiàn)代化改造，甚至還獲了一些獎，但是它的聲譽并沒有多大改變。而作為一名在這樣條件下長大的孩子，弗洛伊德也難逃宿命。在他20多歲的時候就曾因持槍盜竊入獄。此后，他又多次因攜帶可卡因多次被捕。他并不是為犯罪而生的。在后來的一段視頻中，他承認(rèn)，開槍射擊太瘋狂了，讓他膝蓋發(fā)抖。但他隨波逐流，因為這里并沒有他擅長的工作謀生。他的好友斯蒂芬杰克遜是NBA圣安東尼奧馬刺隊的一名球員，他喜歡稱斯蒂芬為自己的孿生兄弟。他因斯蒂芬的成功而興奮，似乎這就是他的成功一樣。但是他，大弗洛伊德，最出名的是他的體型這個體型讓人覺得他不夠溫和冷靜，而是一個好斗的人。

6. So it could turn out. In 2007 he and five other men forced their way into a womans house. He held a gun to her stomach and then searched through the rooms and cabinets, looking for money and drugs. This aggravated robbery earned the large suspect five years in prison. When he emerged, he pledged himself to a new life. He became active in his church, Resurrection Houston, organising not only barbecues and basketball games but Bible studies and open-air baptisms, pushing the big tub right into Cuney Homes to evangelise the hardest part of town. It was a Christian work programme that drew him to Minnesota, and he felt ready for that challenge, too. There he could make a completely fresh start, perhaps earn enough money to be a better father. His calls to his friends bubbled with hope for the future.

這可能是事實。2007年，他和五名男子闖入一名婦女家中。他拿槍指著她的肚子，然后在房間和柜子里翻找錢和毒品。這起嚴(yán)重的搶劫案使得這位第一號嫌疑人被判五年徒刑。出獄的時候，他發(fā)誓要重新做人。他開始活躍在休斯頓復(fù)活教會，不僅組織燒烤會和籃球賽，還組織圣經(jīng)學(xué)習(xí)和露天洗禮，把大澡盆推廣到居民家里，在城市最貧困的地區(qū)布教。一個基督教的工作計劃把他吸引到了明尼蘇達州，他也覺得自己已經(jīng)準(zhǔn)備好迎接這個挑戰(zhàn)了。在明尼蘇達，他可以有一個全新的開始，甚至可以賺到足夠的錢成為一個更好的父親。他給朋友們的電話中充滿了對未來的希望。

7. By the end of May the picture was cloudier. He had been laid off from his security jobs when covid-19 had closed the restaurants. The rent-money for Mr Thunstrom was scraped togethersomehow, but it was not clear when work would return. He made many calls to friends asking for advice. Meanwhile, the old life brushed him again. On the evening of the 25th he went with two acquaintances to buy cigarettes at Cup Foods on 38th and Chicago, where he was a regular. He tried to pay with a $20 bill which the store clerk thought looked counterfeit, then would not return the cigarettes. The clerk, thoroughly frightened, called 911 and identified the tall guy as the man to blame.

到了今年五月底，境況更糟了。受疫情影響，餐館停業(yè)，他也被迫失業(yè)。給湯斯特倫的租金也該交了，但是他并不知道自己什么時候才能復(fù)工。他給朋友打了很多電話尋求建議。與此同時，過去的生活又時不時在他腦海中浮現(xiàn)。25號晚上，他和兩個熟人一起去芝加哥38街的Cup Foods買煙，他是那里的?？汀Ｋ靡粡?0美元的鈔票結(jié)賬，但是店員說這是一張假鈔，他因此不得不退還香煙。店員嚇壞了，打了911，并說這個人高馬大的家伙才是罪魁禍?zhǔn)住?/p>

8. When the police arrived he struggled at first, but calmed down once the cuffs were on. Then he refused to get into the squad car. An officer dragged him aside, threw him to the ground helpless and then, for almost nine minutes, knelt on his neck, pressing, pressing, as he cried out for his mother and his breath and his life. He possibly never knew that this was the same white guy with jittery eyes who had worked at El Nuevo Rodeo, the one so ready with the pepper spray to keep the blacks in line.

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