2023年06月四级第3套仔细阅读 Passage 2 原文翻译及答案解析

There are close to 58,000 homeless people in Los Angeles county. That's a shocking and tragic number for a region that's home to some of the richest people in the world. At last, the problem became so acute-and so visible-that Los Angeles took extraordinary action. The citizens of this county voted in November 2016 and again in March 2017 to raise their own taxes. The purpose of such action is to fund an enormous multibillion-dollar, 10-year program of housing and social services for the homeless.

洛杉矶县有近58,000名无家可归者。对于一个居住着世界上最富有的一些人来说，这是一个令人震惊和悲惨的数字。最终，问题变得如此严重且如此明显，以至于洛杉矶采取了非凡的行动。该县的公民在2016年11月和2017年3月两次投票决定提高自己的税收。这种行动的目的是资助一个庞大的、数十亿美元的、为期10年的无家可归者住房和社会服务计划。

As a result, Los Angeles now has its best chance in decades to combat homelessness. This is an opportunity that surely all can agree must not be wasted. It is neither desirable nor morally acceptable nor practical for this county to tolerate the signs of deprivation more commonly associated with the slums (贫民窟) of Rio de Janiero.

因此，洛杉矶现在拥有数十年来对抗无家可归问题的最佳机会。这无疑是一个所有人都会同意不应浪费的机会。对于这个县来说，容忍那些更常见于里约热内卢贫民窟的贫困迹象，既不可取、也不道德上可接受、也不切实际。

How did we get here? For as long as there are homeless people, there is a tendency to blame the victims themselves for their condition—to see their failure to thrive as an issue of character, of moral weakness, of laziness. But contrary to popular belief, the homeless in Los Angeles are not mostly mentally ill or drug addicted or frightening, although a sizable minority meet some of those descriptions. Today, a greater and greater proportion of people living on the streets are there because of bad luck or a series of mistakes, or because the economy forgot them—they lost a job or were evicted (逐出) or fled an abusive marriage just as the housing market was growing increasingly unforgiving.

我们是如何走到这一步的？只要有无家可归者存在，就有一种倾向将受害者自身的状况归咎于他们——将他们未能成功视为性格问题、道德弱点或懒惰。但与普遍看法相反，洛杉矶的无家可归者大多并非精神疾病患者、吸毒者或可怕之人，尽管有相当一部分少数群体符合这些描述。如今，越来越多的街头露宿者之所以在那里，是因为运气不好或一系列错误，或者因为经济忽略了他们——他们失业、被逐出家门，或逃离一段虐待婚姻，而与此同时住房市场正变得越来越不宽容。

The challenges are enormous, even if everyone is pulling in the same direction. That reality was driven home this month by a new Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority report showing that the county's homeless population is growing faster than the supply of new housing.

挑战是巨大的，即使每个人都朝着同一个方向努力。本月，一份新的洛杉矶无家可归者服务局报告强化了这一现实，报告显示该县无家可归人口的增长速度超过了新住房的供应。

In the world's richest nation, homelessness on this scale should be shameful and shocking. But most Los Angeles residents are no longer either shocked or shamed. Increasingly, we are uncomfortable, annoyed, disgusted, scared or unaware. Compassion (同情心) is being replaced by resignation.

在这个世界上最富有的国家，如此规模的无家可归现象应该是令人羞愧和震惊的。但大多数洛杉矶居民不再感到震惊或羞愧。越来越多地，我们感到不安、烦恼、厌恶、害怕或未意识到。同情心正被顺从所取代。