听遍美国社会新闻--锡克人进入戒严状态

Sikh Family Takes Precautions

Born in the USA, eight-year-old Jajhaar Singh, like most American kids loves baseball. But since the attack the only place his parents will let him play is in his own backyard.

Jajhaar Singh: “I can’t play basketball; I can’t go on the street; I have to be really extra careful.”

Extra careful because Jajhaar and his six-year-old brother are Sikhs, a religion formed 500 years ago in India. In public Sikh men and some women wear turbans【缠头巾】. Turbans that often mean they are mistaken for Muslims.

Jajhaar: “I usually say it’s called a turban, and we don’t cut our hair because we’re Sikhs, and we believe in one god.”

Charon Kamel Singh: “They look different with their little turbans and their dark skin. I just don’t want anybody randomly(1) coming by in a car, and, either yelling(2) out something at them or you know my big fear is shooting.”

J.J. Singh : “Right now they’re not allowed out doors at all whether it be basketball or a walk in the park or going to a friend’s house.”

Every day, their mother Charon meets them at school on foot and walks them to the car. Then it’s off to karate【空手道】or computer class. She used to run errands(3) during class , now she parks herself right at the front door.

Jajhaar: “Now she sometimes stays with us instead of going.（Do you know why?）Yeah (why?) ‘Cause somebody might shoot us or something.”

At home a well-loved scooter【踏板车】 stands idle(4). Bicycles hung up indefinitely(5). The reasons don’t make sense to an eight-year-old.

Jajhaar: “Just because they look different doesn’t mean or they have a beard or something doesn’t mean they’re bad. Even if we were Muslims, it doesn’t matter. If one person did, it doesn’t mean all Muslims are bad.”

Inside four walls a family makes the best of it while sometimes imagining the worst.

Charon: “It’s claustrophobic(6) to some extent; it’s shocking; it’s just unnerving, and to imagine it’s happening here with freedom of everything and liberty, it’s scary.”

For the Singhs it’s the current cost of living the American dream in troubled times.


听音瓶颈词汇

1. randomly[] adv.任意地；随便地
2. yell[] v.叫喊；吼叫
3. errand [] n.琐事；差事
4. idle[] adj.闲置；空闲
5. indefinitely [li] adv.不定期地；无期限地
6. claustrophobic [] adj.患恐怖症的

听音高级短语

in public 公众地；当众地
believe in 相信；信仰
on foot 步行
used to 过去时常
instead of 不…而；代替
hang up 搁置；挂断电话
make sense 使人理解
make the best of it 充分利用；将就
to some extent 一定程度上

听音超级句型

They look different with their…
他们的…使他们看起来与众不同。

The reasons don’t make sense to…
这些原因让…无法理解。