2022半岛星空体育·(中国)官方网站英语：《经济学人》中英读译Day205

英语阅读能力依靠什么？必然是词汇的积累，但，仅仅是词汇的积累是不够了，更应该了解英语句式，不同句型所表达意义。如何培养自己的阅读语感呢？那么就跟着半岛星空体育·(中国)官方网站小编每天学一点英语，一起为半岛星空体育·(中国)官方网站筑起坚实的地基。阅读是需要积累的，就像我们需要经常和人沟通才会促进我们的表达能力一样~小伙伴跟着小编一起，每天坚持打卡，培养英语阅读能力及语感，了解文章一些经典词汇的用法。

经济学人:死亡的权力--安乐死(2)

Henry planned to kill herself with the Mexican drugs in her bathtub, but fretted that she would soil herself and that her house would smell. Dignity—in life and death—seems to preoccupy her and others above all. Even more than a bad death they fear a bad end to life, in which they are no longer themselves. A desire for autonomy runs through their stories like the thin veins of some of the characters.
译文

亨利打算服用从墨西哥买的戊巴比妥钠，在浴缸里了结生命，但她担心这样会弄脏自己，还会让家里有臭味。生死存亡之际，尊严似乎是她与其他想要安乐死的人最关心的问题。其分量甚至重于他们害怕的恶终（糟糕的结束生命会让他们失去自我）。对自主的渴望就像人的静脉一样贯穿于他们的故事。

 

Yet this is not a right-to-die manifesto. The author’s own ethical doubts are among the book’s strengths. She writes compassionately of her subjects’ struggles, but is more reserved about the motives of some of their helpers. She remains torn about what is perhaps the hardest question of all: euthanasia for victims of dementia. Rather than passing judgment, she presents facts. About half of Americans think patients do not have enough control over end-of-life decisions. Existing laws often have arbitrary effects.
译文

然而，这并不是死亡权利宣言。这本书的长处之一在于作者本人基于道德的怀疑。她富有同情心地描写了主人公的挣扎，但对一些帮助者的动机却有所保留。她仍然纠结于可能是所有问题中最难的问题，即痴呆症患者的安乐死。她没有作出判断，只是陈述事实。有大约一半的美国人认为痴呆症患者对临终决策没有足够的控制权。现行法律往往具有任意效力。

 

After the drugs arrived from Mexico, Henry’s house was raided by police. She had discovered the concept of the “Completed Life”. “That’s when you feel that your life is shaped and finished. And the direction thereafter is down. I did have a complete life. It was a great life ,” she told a friend. Soon after the raid she was found in her bathtub, having drunk the poison the police had missed. The note she left had a postscript: “If I have fouled the bath in death, please please be kind to wash it down.” She provided the disinfectant.

译文

戊巴比妥钠从墨西哥运来后，亨利的家就遭到了警察的突袭。她发现了“完满人生”的概念。她对一个朋友说：“就是当你觉得你的生活被塑造和完成的时候。你此后的生活会走向下坡。我确实拥有了完满的人生。我之前的生活很美好。”警察突袭后不久，人们发现了因喝下警察遗漏的毒药而死在浴缸里的亨利。她留下的纸条上有一个附言：“如果死去的我弄脏了浴缸，请把它清洗干净。”她还提供了消毒剂。

注释

1.refer to 查阅;提到

What I laughingly refer to as my garden is a corner lot by our postage-stamp size house.

我戏称为花园的地方，是我们家那豆腐块大小的屋子旁边的一个犄角旮旯。

 

2.life and death 生死攸关

Well, never mind, John, it's not a matter of life and death.

好了，约翰，别太在意了。这又不是什么生死攸关的大事。