GRE阅读练习：南太平洋岛国的女巫审判

>>GRE阅读训练：GRE阅读练习：南太平洋岛国的女巫审判

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It Began, as it usually does, with an unexpected death: in this case, of Jenny's husband, an esteemed village leader in the province of Eastern Highlands, in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

正如以往，一次意外死亡是这场悲剧的开始：死者是珍妮的丈夫，他是巴布亚新几内亚东部高地省一位受人尊敬的村长。

Some local boys accused Jenny of having cast a spell to kill him.

当地一些男孩指控珍妮对她的丈夫施了魔法，置他于死地。

She says they began beating her over the head with large branches.

珍妮说，这些男孩用粗树枝抽打她的头部。

Her family supported her accusers.

而这些指控者得到了她家人的支持。

She fled into the surrounding fields, eventually making her way to the provincial capital of Goroka, where she has lived for the past three years.

珍妮逃进周围的田野里，最后在省会城市戈罗卡呆了三年。

“I can never go back to my village,” she says, “and I never want to see my family again.”

“我再也不回村子去了，”她说，“我也再不想见到家人。”

Jenny was lucky: she escaped.

珍妮很幸运：她幸免于难死。

Every year, hundreds of suspected witches and sorcerers are killed in PNG.

每一年，巴布亚新几内亚有上百上千的人因被怀疑是女巫或者巫师而被杀。

Accusers often enlist the aid of a “glass man” (or “glass Mary” ) : a diviner whom they pay to confirm their accusations.

这些人被“带上女巫、男巫的帽子”：他们付钱给这些占卜者来证明实自己的指控。

Most of the victims are poor, vulnerable women including widows like Jenny.

受害者绝大多数是像珍妮这样孤苦无依的女人。

“If you have a lot of strong sons,” says Charlotte Kakebeeke of Oxfam, a charity, “you won't be accused.”

慈善机构Oxfam的Charlotte Kakebeeke说，“如果你有一大群壮实的儿子，没人敢来指控你。”

When the accused try to take shelter with relatives, their families often reject them: the supposed witches' husbands have paid their families a “bride price” which would have to be returned if the bride left the husband's family.

当被指控为巫师的人者尝试投靠亲戚向亲人求助时，经常会被拒绝：所谓的女巫的丈夫们已经给了女方她们家里一笔贿赂金“嫁妆”，如果女方新娘离开夫家，这笔嫁妆就得还回去。

Sometimes accusers come from within the family: Eriko Fufurefa, who runs the KAFE Women's Association, a feminist group in Eastern Highlands, says that the nephew of a local politician blamed his own mother for his uncle's death.

有时指控者来自家族内部有时指控者就是家里人：KAFE妇女协会是东部高地的一个女性团体，其管理者Eriko Fufurefa说当地一位政治家的外甥指控自己的母亲害死了这位舅舅。

“They chopped her with a machete and beat her with iron bars,” says Ms Fufurefa, putting her in hospital for a month.

“他们用砍刀砍伤她，还用铁条抽打她，” Fufurefa女士说，把她送到医院接受了一个月的治疗。

This too has grown more common: Ms Kakebeeke says accused sorcerers used to be dispatched quietly, at night.

这种情况变得越来越普遍：Kakebeeke女士说被指控的男巫过去经常在晚上被秘密处决。

Now they are subjected to “public torture spectacles—it has become a mass movement”.

现在他们遭受“公共酷刑的场面——这已经变成一项大规模活动”。

Belief in sorcery is widespread in PNG.

很多巴布亚新几内亚的人都相信巫术。

Only in 2013 did the government repeal a law that criminalised sorcery and allowed accusations of witchcraft as a defence in murder cases.

政府才废除了判处巫术的相关法律，并允许在谋杀案件中被控告的“巫术”者为自己辩护。

Locals do not believe that sorcerers or witches are inherently malign: many claim—or believe in—magical healing powers, and the ability to bring favourable weather.

当地人不相信，巫师们本来就身是邪恶的：许多人声称——或者相信——巫师拥有有魔法的治疗力量，以及带来好天气的能力。

Monica Paulus is a human-rights activist whose brother once accused her of using sorcery to kill their father (she thinks he wanted the family house).

Monica Paulus是一位人权活动家，她的兄弟曾经指控她使用巫术杀死父亲(她认为其兄弟他只是想要家里的房子)。

She tells people they have a right to believe what they want, but “they do not have the right to cause violence or take a life.”

她声称：告诉人们，他们有权利相信自己想要的东西，但是他们“没有权利使用引发暴力或者残害性命”。

She also reminds people that, as Christians, they believe that the body dies, but the spirit lives.

她还提醒人们，作为基督徒，他们都相信肉身虽死，魂灵不灭。

The spirit, she says with a glint in her eye, “will find another body to live in, and it could be you: if you kill a witch, that means you could become a witch yourself.”

她眼睛闪着光说：“灵魂会找另一具肉体附身，那个肉体有很可能就是你：如果你杀害过女巫，这意味着你自己也会变成女巫。”

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