【导读】国际妇女研究中心数据显示，从2000年到2015年，美国北卡罗来纳州共有8800名18岁以下未成年人登记结婚，这使得该州位列童婚率最高的五大州之首。此外，在2000-2019年期间，该州93%的结婚申请来自未成年人与成年人。据美媒《政客》1月9日披露，美国有45个州仍在允许18岁以下的女孩结婚。针对禁止童婚的提议，竟有官员表示“童婚人数已经很少，不值得被禁止”。
Child marriage in America has fallen sharply—but not far enough
美国童婚数量已经大幅下降，但这还远远不够
When April Kelley was 15 she was married, against her will, to a family friend seven years her senior. He drove her six hours from her home state of Arkansas into Missouri, which then had looser laws governing the marriage of minors.
Senior is used when indicating how much older one person is than another. For example, if someone is ten years your senior, they are ten years older than you. 年长 (岁数) 的人
She became involved with a married man many years her senior.
她与一名比她年长很多的已婚男子坠入情网。
A minor is a person who is still legally a child. In most states in the United States, people are minors until they reach the age of eighteen. 未成年者
The approach has virtually ended cigarette sales to minors.
这一作法实际上已经终止了向未成年人出售香烟。
在艾普丽尔·凯利 15 岁时，她违背自己的意愿嫁给了一个比她大7岁的氏族朋友。他驱车6小时将她从家乡阿肯色州接到密苏里州，当时密苏里州对未成年人婚姻的管理相对宽松。
April remembers a county clerk at the ceremony peering at her tear-stained face and asking if she wanted to go ahead; she was too terrified to reply, she recalls. Her mother and husband-to-be nodded their assent.
peer at
美 [pɪr æt]
凝视
She didn't even glance at the titles on Susan's bookshelf or peer at her family photos.
她甚至都没有看一眼苏珊书架上摆放着的各种名衔牌匾和她的全家福照片。
tear-stained
美 ['tɪə steɪnd] 英 ['tɪə steɪnd]
adj.布满泪痕的；泪水涟涟的
If you assent to something, you agree to it or agree with it. 同意
I assented to the request of the American publishers to write this book.
我同意了美国出版商们写这本书的请求。
艾普丽尔记得，在婚礼仪式上，一名县办事员看着脸上满是泪痕的她，问她是否想继续下去；她回忆说，当时她吓得说不出话来。她的母亲和准丈夫点头表示同意。
Back in Arkansas, she lived with her in-laws. April’s husband would take her out of school at lunch break to have sex and often kept her home, sending fake medical notes to her teachers. He would not even let her shower alone.
in-law
英 ['inlɔ:] 美 [ˈɪn lɔː]
n. 姻亲
回到阿肯色州后，她和公婆住在一起。艾普丽尔的丈夫会在午休时间将她带离学校行房，并经常把她留在家里，给她的老师发假的医疗证明。他甚至不让她单独洗澡。
More than a decade later, April cries as she describes the experience, which she endured for a little over a year. After her father-in-law started acting lasciviously towards her, she ran away.
lasciviously
英 [ləˈsɪviəsli] 美 [ləˈsɪviəsli]
adv. 好色地；淫乱地；猥亵地
十多年后，艾普丽尔在描述这段经历时哭了，她忍受了一年多的时间。在她公公开始对她动手动脚之后，她就跑掉了。
Laws ought to protect children from such horrors, but America’s too often do not. Though most states have a minimum marrying age of 18, most also have exceptions—generally, by the consent of a parent or approval of a judge.
If you consent to something, you agree to do it or to allow it to be done. 同意
He finally consented to go.
他最终同意去。
法律应该保护儿童免受此类恐怖行为的伤害，但美国的法律往往做不到这一点。虽然大多数州都规定了最低结婚年龄为18岁，但在执行上却有例外——一般来说，只要征得父母同意或法官批准即可。
Missouri is one of 14 states (as well as Washington, DC) that gives county clerks rather than judges the power to issue marriage licences for minors. Nine states have no lower age limit.
issue
英 [ˈɪʃuː] 美 [ˈɪʃuː]
n. 议题，争论点；（报纸、杂志等的）期，号；发放，分配；（新股票或邮票等的）发行；子女，后嗣；流出，发出；<旧>结果，后果
v. 发表，颁布；分发，分配；正式发行；流出，发出；由……产生，由……得出
密苏里州就是14个州（包括华盛顿特区）中的一个，这些州赋予了县办事员（而非法官）为未成年人颁发结婚证的权力。还有9个州没有最低结婚年龄的限值。
A push for legal Reform is having some success. In recent years at least 27 states have passed laws to limit child marriages. In the past four years Delaware, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island have all eliminated the exemptions that allow minors to marry.
Reform consists of changes and improvements to a law, social system, or institution. A reform is an instance of such a change or improvement. 改革; 改良
The party embarked on a programme of economic reform.
这个政党开始了一个经济改革的计划。
To eliminate something, especially something you do not want or need, means to remove it completely. 根除
Recent measures have not eliminated discrimination in employment.
最近的举措还未能根除就业歧视。
exemption
英 [ɪɡˈzempʃn] 美 [ɪɡˈzempʃn]
n. 免除，豁免；免税，免税额
推动法律改革取得了一些成效。近年来，至少有27个州通过了限制童婚的法律。在过去的四年里，特拉华州、明尼苏达州、新泽西州、纽约州、宾夕法尼亚州和罗德岛州都取消了允许未成年人结婚的豁免。
Yet resistance to such reforms remains, on both the right and the left. In 2017 an attempt to set a minimum marrying age of 18 in California (which has no lower age limit) failed after opposition from advocacy groups including the left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union.
An advocacy group or organization is one that tries to influence the decisions of a government or other authority. 游说 (组织)
Consumer advocacy groups are not so enthusiastic about removing restrictions on the telephone companies.
各顾客游说组织对于取消对电话公司的限制不是那么热衷。
然而，无论是左翼还是右翼，对此类改革的抵制仍然存在。2017年，加利福尼亚州试图将最低结婚年龄设定为18岁（该州此前没有最低结婚年龄限制），但遭到了包括左倾美国公民自由联盟在内的倡导团体的反对。
The same year Chris Christie, then the Republican governor of New Jersey, vetoed a similar bill, saying it did not “comport with the sensibilities and, in some cases, the religious customs, of the people of this state”. More generally, lawmakers have failed to press for reform because the number of marrying minors has fallen dramatically. In 1960, 6.8% of American girls aged 15-17 were married; today less than 1% are.
veto bill
英[ˈviːtəʊ bɪl] .美[ˈviːtoʊ bɪl]
【法】否决议案;
The White House says the president would veto the bill.
白宫称总统将否决这项议案。
religious customs
英[rɪˈlɪdʒəs ˈkʌstəmz] 美[rɪˈlɪdʒəs ˈkʌstəmz]
宗教习俗;
dramatically
英 [drəˈmætɪkli] 美 [drəˈmætɪkli]
adv. 剧烈地，明显地；戏剧性地，夸张地
The cost of living has increased dramatically.
生活费用已大幅增长了。
同年，时任新泽西州州长的共和党人克里斯·克里斯蒂也否决了一项类似的法案，称该法案“不符合该州人民的情感，在某些情况下，也不符合该州的宗教习俗”。 更普遍的是，由于未成年人结婚人数的大幅下降，立法者未能推动改革。1960 年，15-17 岁的美国女孩中有 6.8% 已婚，而如今这一比例还不到 1%。
That is still too many, say campaigners. A study published last year by Unchained At Last, an advocacy group, estimated that 297,000 minors were married in America between 2000 and 2018, and 60,000 of them were under their state’s age of consent (for sex).
campaigner
英 [kæmˈpeɪnə(r)] 美 [kæmˈpeɪnər]
n. 竞选者；从军者；出征者；老兵
A campaigner is a person who campaigns for social or political change. 从事活动者
unchain
英 [ʌnˈtʃeɪn] 美 [ʌnˈtʃeɪn]
vt. 释放；解除
活动人士表示，这仍然太多了。倡导组织“最终解放”去年发表的一项研究估计，2000年至2018年间，美国有29.7万未成年人结婚，其中6万人未达到她们所在州的法定最低年龄。
Patchy state data mean this is almost certainly a big undercount, says Fraidy Reiss, Unchained’s executive director. Most minors who marry are girls, she says, and the practice occurs across all ethnic groups and religions. Many of the marriages are prompted by religious beliefs or are immigration-related. Federal immigration law does not specify a minimum age for marriage-related visa petitions.
If something is patchy, it is not completely reliable or satisfactory because it is not always good. 不很可靠的; 不很令人满意的
The evidence is patchy.
这个证据不很可靠。
undercount
英 [ʌndəˈkaʊnt] 美 [ˌʌndərˈkaʊnt]
v. 少计（尤指人口统计数）
n. 少计（额）
If you specify something, you give information about what is required or should happen in a certain situation. 明确要求
They specified a spacious entrance hall.
他们明确要求门厅要宽敞。
petition
英 [pəˈtɪʃn] 美 [pəˈtɪʃn]
n. 请愿书； 申诉书，申请书；请愿，祈求，祈祷
v. （向政府或组织）请愿，请求；起诉，递交诉状；（向上帝或国王等）祈求，祈愿
A petition is a formal request made to a court of law for some legal action to be taken. 诉状; (向法院提出的) 申请
His lawyers filed a petition for all charges to be dropped.
他的律师们提出申请要求撤销所有指控。
“最终解放”的执行董事弗雷迪·赖斯说，各州数据并不完整，这意味着几乎可以肯定的是，这个数字大大低估了。她说，大多数结婚的未成年人都是女孩，这种情况存在于所有种族和宗教中。许多婚姻是由宗教信仰促成的，亦或与移民有关。联邦移民法没有规定与婚姻相关的签证申请的最低年龄。
Escaping from a legal child marriage is difficult. Domestic-violence shelters tend not to accept lone children, who are considered runaways; the police may try to send them back home. Securing a divorce is also tricky. Few lawyers will take on child clients , even if the child has the means to pay them.
Domestic-violence shelters
家庭暴力庇护所
If you secure something that you want or need, you obtain it, often after a lot of effort. 争取到
Federal leaders continued their efforts to secure a ceasefire.
联邦政府的领导人们继续他们争取停火的努力。
If you describe a task or problem as tricky, you mean that it is difficult to do or deal with. 难对付的
Parking can be tricky downtown.
在市中心停车会很难。
想要从合法的童婚中逃离是很困难的。家庭暴力庇护所往往不接纳那些被视为离家出走的儿童；警察可能会设法把她们送回家。想要离婚也很难。很少有律师愿意接受儿童客户，即使她有能力支付费用。
,
