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      考研英语阅读理解中的文章，很多来自一些外刊杂志方面的题材。接下来，北京文都考研网为扩宽2020考研学子的知识面，整理了考研英语经济学人:哈特岛的百万魂灵，供考生参考。

2020考研英语经济学人:哈特岛的百万魂灵

What happens to those who die poor or unclaimed in NYC

纽约那些死去的穷人和无名尸最后会去哪?

The city council wants to make Hart Island more accessible

市议会希望让人们更容易登上哈特岛

“No one who sleeps there had a dollar to their name in life…the bodies interred here are as utterly forgotten and wiped away as if they never existed.” This is how the New York Herald described Hart Island in 1874, five years after the city began burying its poor on the island off the Bronx.

“长眠于此的人，究其一生都身无分文…埋葬在这里的人就好像从没来过这个世界，被人们彻底地遗忘和抛弃了。”这是《纽约先驱报》在1874年对哈特岛的描述，也就是纽约开始将穷人埋葬到距离布朗克斯不远处的哈特岛上的5年后。

A century and a half later the poor and unclaimed are still buried in pine coffins, usually marked only with numbers, not names. These are stacked three deep in a trench, three feet below the surface. Each trench holds 150 adult coffins. Roughly 1,200 people are buried there each year.

150年后，穷人和无名尸仍被装在松木棺材埋葬于此，棺材上仅仅被标上编号，甚至都没有刻上姓名。一具具棺材被堆放在一条3英尺深的沟渠里。每条沟渠可以埋葬150具成人棺材。这里每年埋葬约1200人。

Jurisdictions across America are wrestling with what to do with their unclaimed dead. A state fund in West Virginia, which has been hit hard by opioid overdoses, ran out of money to bury the unclaimed dead last year.

美国各地的司法部门都在想尽办法解决无名尸的处理难题。去年，西弗吉尼亚州为解决阿片类药物滥用问题用掉了州基金会的大量资金，导致没有多余资金可用于埋葬无名尸了。

Some cities, including Los Angeles, cremate the unclaimed after a certain period, which is cheaper than burial. In North Carolina unclaimed bodies are cremated, then stored for three years before being scattered at sea.

包括洛杉矶在内的一些城市会在一定时间后将无名尸火化处理，这比埋葬更省钱。北卡罗莱纳州会将无名尸火化，其骨灰在保存3年后会被撒入海中。

In Washington’s King County, which includes Seattle and its suburbs, the poor and the unclaimed are cremated and stored until a biennial burial ceremony. Because of the high number of migrant deaths in Pima County in Tucson, Arizona, its medical examiner’s office handles more unidentified remains relative to population than any office in America.

包括西雅图及其郊区在内的华盛顿国王郡会将穷人和无名尸火化，并将其骨灰保存，直至举行葬礼(每隔两年举办一次)。亚利桑那州图森市皮马县的移民死亡率居高不下，其法医局处理的无名尸与人口的比例高于美国其他任何地方。

Those who die without the means to pay for a funeral, which costs nearly $9,000 on average, end up on Hart Island. Nearly two-thirds had next of kin who opted for a public burial. In all about 1m people lie there.

那些死后无力支付近9000美元丧葬费的人最终将被埋葬于哈特岛。葬于岛上的近三分之二的死者仍有直系亲属，他们为死者选择了公共葬礼。大约有100万人长眠于此。

The earliest victims of AIDS were buried there in 1985, far away from the other graves. Hart Island may be the largest cemetery for victims of the epidemic. During heavy rains bones are sometimes washed away and end up on nearby beaches.

1985年，最早的艾滋病患者死后被埋葬在那里，以便远离其他墓地。因此，哈特岛可能是最大的传染病患者的墓地。大雨有时会将骨头冲走，最终搁浅在附近的海滩上。

The island, which has a stark beauty, is under the jurisdiction of the city’s Department of Corrections. Four days a week eight inmates from Rikers, New York’s biggest jail, travel to the island to dig graves and lower coffins into them. They are paid a $1 an hour.

这座有着荒凉之美的岛屿隶属于纽约市的管教部。里克斯岛监狱(纽约市最大的监狱)每周有四天时间派遣8名囚犯到岛上挖墓坑，并将棺材埋入其中。他们的时薪为1美元。

Because of Hart Island’s close connection with jail and prisoners, it is difficult for relatives (or anyone else) to visit. “It is clear to me we can do better, much better for the people buried on Hart Island,” says Corey Johnson, the Speaker of the city council. “This needs to be changed immediately.”

鉴于哈特岛与监狱和囚犯之间的密切联系，埋葬于此的死者的亲属(或其他人)很难前去探望。纽约市议会发言人科里•约翰逊说：“我很清楚，我们可以为那些埋葬于哈特岛的人们做得更好、再好一些，我们必须立即改变现状。”

He is backing a bill that would transfer operations to the Parks Department, create an office to help those who need help with a burial and make travel to the island easier. The city also needs to think about what to do when Hart Island is full. The Department of Corrections says there will only be space for eight or ten more years.

他正在推动一项法案，该法案将把岛上事务移交给园林管理部门，并设立一个办公室来帮助那些需要埋葬于此的人，也让人们更容易前往岛上。纽约市还得考虑，当哈特岛葬满之后该怎么办。管教部表示，哈特岛上剩余的空间只够8至10年的埋葬量了。

 

【重难点词汇】

unclaimed [,ʌn'klemd] adj. 无人领取的;物主不明的;无人要求的

inter [ɪn'tə] vt. 埋;葬

stack [stæk] n. 堆;堆叠;大量;烟囱;堆栈 vt. 使堆叠;把…堆积起来 vi. 堆积，堆叠;跌倒

opioid ['opi,ɔɪd] n. 阿片样物质;类鸦片

cremate ['krimet] vt. 火葬;烧成灰

burial ['bɛrɪəl] n. 埋葬;葬礼;弃绝 adj. 埋葬的

      以上是北京文都考研网给出的“2020考研英语经济学人:哈特岛的百万魂灵”，希望对备考2020考研英语的考生有所帮助!祝2020考研顺利!

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