A:Have you seen this?
你看过这则报道了吗?
B:What?
什么?
A:They killed another hostage.
他们又杀了一个人质。
B:Oh, how awful. What a terrible thing to do.
噢,太可怕了。这种事真令人发指。
A:I agree completely. I just don't understand what's wrong with them. Don't they have any humanity?
我完全同意。我真是搞不懂他们有什么毛病。他们一点人性都没有吗?
B:Well, maybe they've got a point. I mean, I suspect that they think the same about us.
哦,也许他们有他们的道理。我猜他们的想法就跟我们一样。
A:Yes, but that doesn't make them right, does it? Just because they think so?
是,不过这并不表示他们是对的。他们只因为想这么做,就可以这么做吗?
B:I guess not. My view is that we should give in to their demands, so that innocent people can stop getting killed.
当然不是。我的意思是,我们应该接受他们的要求,这样无辜的人就不会被杀了。
A:Come on, you can't be serious! We should never give in to terrorist's demands, otherwise where would we be?
拜托,你不是说真的吧?我们绝对不能接受恐怖分子的要求,否则我们怎么办?
B:Well, that's probably true, but I don't think we should be dogmatic about it. A colleague of mine was kidnapped once, so perhaps I have a different view of things.
嗯,这么说也许没错,不过我觉得我们不应该固执己见。我有一位同事被绑架过,所以我对于事情的看法可能不太一样。
A:Really? What happened?
真的吗?怎么回事?
B:Well, it was in the Balkans during the war. He was only held for three days, and then they simply released him. It was a case of mistaken identity, and they just let him go when they found out he was no use to them. It was lucky they didn't kill him.
嗯,那时候巴尔干半岛在打仗。他只被挟持了3天,然后就被释放了。他们认错了人,所以等他们发现他没什么用处时,就把他给放了。所幸他们没有杀了他。
A:Oh, sure.
噢,是啊。