惨不忍睹的家庭惨案

一千七百多年前的中国三国时期，曹操手下有位大将叫夏候敦。曹操征张绣时，夏候敦被张绣部将曹性射中左眼，敦大叫一声，拔箭带出眼珠， 乃大呼曰："父精母血，不可弃也"。遂纳于口中吞下，复挺枪纵马，直追曹性。两边军士见者，无不悚然。

身体发肤，受之父母，不能毁弃也。这是中国古代人的观念。在尚武人眼中，夏候敦从此成了英雄。

话又说回来，两军交战，血肉横飞环境特殊。寻常人也会生出异常之举，杀红眼了，怂人变牛人，气吞山河。

一千七百多年后的今日美国，美国有位死囚犯人，在牢中因精神异常，也挖出自己眼珠吞下。真是美国社会的光怪陆离事又一桩，听了让人恶心。但学英语了解美国社会，好坏都该有，择优避劣会给人以biased picture，生出错觉。

下面请看新闻:

Texas death row inmate pulls out eye, eats it

A Texas death row inmate with a history of mental problems pulled out his only good eye and told authorities he ate it. Andre Thomas, 25, was arrested for the fatal stabbings of his estranged wife, their young son and her 13-month-old daughter in March 2004. Their hearts also had been ripped out. He was convicted and condemned for the infant's death.

While in the Grayson County Jail in Sherman, Thomas plucked out his right eye before his trial later in 2004. A judge subsequently ruled he was competent to stand trial.

A death-row officer at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice found Thomas in his cell with blood on his face and took him to the infirmary.

"Thomas said he pulled out his eye and subsequently ingested it," agency spokesman Jason Clark said Friday.

Thomas was treated at East Texas Medical Center in Tyler after the Dec. 9 incident. Then he was transferred and remains at the Jester Unit, a prison psychiatric facility near Richmond southwest of Houston.

"He will finally be able to receive the mental health care that we had wanted and begged for from day 1," Bobbie Peterson-Cate, Thomas' trial attorney, told the Sherman Herald Democrat. "He is insane and mentally ill. It is exactly the same reason he pulled out the last one."

At his trial, defense lawyers also argued he suffered from alcohol and drug abuse.

Thomas does not have an execution date.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in October upheld his conviction and death sentence for the death of 13-month-old Leyha Marie Hughes. Also killed March 27, 2004, were his wife, Laura Christine Boren, 20, and their son, 4-year-old Andre Lee.

Thomas, from Texoma, walked into the Sherman Police Department and told a dispatcher he had just murdered the three and had stabbed himself in the chest.

Thomas told police how he put his victims' hearts in his pocket and left their apartment, took them home, put them in a plastic bag and threw them in the trash.

Court documents described the three victims as having "large, gaping wounds to their chests."

这新闻读起来让人毛骨耸然，我们赶紧转移一下注意力，把交点放在词汇学习上。

mental:  精神病叫mental problems；某人有精神病可以说是he/she has mental problems，也可以说是he/she is mentally sick。但mentality却一般不是指精神有病，而是指思维方式。比如: "His/her mentality is totally different"或"He/she has a different mentality"，是说某人的想法/思维方式与别人不一样，这和他/她的精神状态正常与否无关。

authorities: 监狱当局或警察当局
stabbing:  用刀戳杀，fatal stabbing是戳杀致死。犯人Thomas才二十五岁，在04年他杀死了他离异的妻子，以及他的儿子和十三个月大的女儿。Thomas是个恶魔，虎毒还不食子呢，这位不仅杀死了自己的一双儿女，还把他们的心挖了出来(ripped out)，真叫一个惨。

pluck(常与out连用): 是"拔"、"摘"或"拉走"的意思，比如说，拔鸡毛=pluck feathers；把孩子从街里拉走 = pluck the child from the middle of the street；有些女孩喜欢"拔眉毛"，英文就是"pluck one's eyebrows。这词容易让人想起另外一词:  plug(常和in连用)，意思是"插进"或"插入"，把电器的电源插进接线板，在电脑网上下载软件(插入软件)，都可用plug in。

"He was competent to stand trial"是什么意思?  Thomas的魔鬼行为很容易让辩护律师以他有精神病作为辩词，而如果法官(judge)认为他有能力接受审判，则这样的辩词就会无效。这句话的意思正是: 法官裁定(ruled)他依旧有能力接受审判(虽然他有某种程度的精神病)。

death-row:  死刑犯名册
cell:  狱舍中每位犯人的监室，可不是cell phone里cell的意思。后者是cellular的缩写，而前者单独成字 -- 此cell非同彼cell。

infirmary:  医院是hospital，诊所是clinic，那infirmary是什么?  有点像中国的医务室。医院和诊所都是正规看病的场所，而一些单位自拥医务室，做些另时的简单处理。显然，监狱需要这么一种设施。从词义上讲，firm有"稳健强实"的意思，而infirm取其反义，就变成"弱不禁风"、"病殃殃"、"老弱病残"的意思。这些"病殃殃"患者常去的地方就是infirmary了。

Ingested:  进肚消化了。看到这词，我们还可以联想到digest和congest，知道后两个词的意思吗?  我们又怎么把ingest、digest和congest三词在词根上串在一起呢?

psychiatric facility:  看管精神病患者的地方，正规的叫法是psychiatric hospital，也有叫psychiatric asylum(精神病患者的避难者--也挺贴切)，这些都是psychiatric patients' sanctuary。

defense lawyer: 辩护律师，但上边又用了另外一词: trial attorney。律师一词在英语国家有若干个:  lawyer，attorney，barrister，solicitor，counselor，advocate等，这叫一个混乱 (如果要弄清这六位律师的不同，见相关词汇篇)。

execution date: 死刑执行日期。
uphold:  法律上的"维持原判"。这Thomas毕竟杀了他自己13个月大的女儿、4岁的儿子和离异的20岁妻子。

dispatcher:  当警察排除执勤时，就叫做dispatcher。

更恶心的是，案后是Thomas自己去警局投案，告诉警察他杀了三人并给自己当胸一刀--好一番"英雄气概"。这魔鬼还把告诉警察他如何把受害的心挖出放在塑料兜里再扔进垃圾桶 -- 禽兽不如啊!

法院文件上也说，受害者都被"开膛破肚"(large, gaping wounds to their chests)。

这种血淋淋的人间惨案，读了让人要吐。美国社会有不少健康向上的因素，但也有很多奇形发展的方方面面，这例惨案正是反映了美国社会奇形怪状的一角。