考研英語時文賞讀（96）:監(jiān)獄為何會成為日本老年人心中的天堂？

　　Why some Japanese pensioners want to go to jail

　　為什么一些日本老年人想去蹲監(jiān)獄

　　At a halfway house in Hiroshima——for criminals who are being released from jail back into the community——69-year-old Toshio Takata tells me he broke the law because he was poor. He wanted somewhere to live free of charge, even if it was behind bars.

　　在廣島的一個教習(xí)所（從監(jiān)獄刑滿釋放的罪犯回歸社會前要去的一個地方）里，69歲的高田敏夫告訴我，他之所以違法是因為他太窮了。他只是想找個免費住的地方，即便是在監(jiān)獄也無所謂。

　　“I reached pension age and then I ran out of money. So it occurred to me——perhaps I could live for free if I lived in jail,” he says. “So I took a bicycle and rode it to the police station and told the guy there: ’Look, I took this.’”

　　他說：“我到了領(lǐng)取養(yǎng)老金的年紀，但我把錢都花光了。所以我突然想到，如果我住到監(jiān)獄里去，就可以免費生活了。所以我騎了一輛自行車來到警察局，告訴警察說：‘看，這是我偷的。’”

　　The plan worked. This was Toshio’s first offence, committed when he was 62, but Japanese courts treat petty theft seriously, so it was enough to get him a one-year sentence.

　　這個辦法果然奏效。這是高田敏夫第一次犯罪，當時他62歲。日本的法律很嚴厲，對小偷小盜也嚴懲不貸，因此偷自行車讓他被判處了一年有期徒刑。

　　Small, slender, and with a tendency to giggle, Toshio looks nothing like a habitual criminal, much less someone who’d threaten women with knives. But after he was released from his first sentence, that’s exactly what he did.

　　高田敏夫身材瘦小、愛笑，看起來一點也不像一名慣犯，更不像是會拿刀威脅女人的人。但沒想到的是在他刑滿釋放后，他真就這么做了。

　　I went to a park and just threatened them. I wasn’t intending to do any harm. I just showed the knife to them hoping one of them would call the police. One did. Altogether, Toshio has spent half of the last eight years in jail.

　　我只是去公園嚇嚇他們，我沒想過要傷害任何人，我只是把刀拿出來給她們看，然后希望他們中的一個能夠馬上報警。真有一個人報警了?？傊?，在過去8年的時間里，高田敏夫有一半的時間是在監(jiān)獄里度過的。

　　I ask him if he likes being in prison, and he points out an additional financial upside——his pension continues to be paid even while he’s inside.

　　我問他是否喜歡蹲監(jiān)獄，他說蹲監(jiān)獄在經(jīng)濟上對自己有好處，因為即使在監(jiān)獄里，他的養(yǎng)老金仍會正常發(fā)放。

　　“It’s not that I like it but I can stay there for free,” he says. "And when I get out I have saved some money. So it is not that painful."

　　他說：“并不是我喜歡蹲監(jiān)獄，而是我可以免費住在這里，當我出獄的時候，我已經(jīng)存下了一筆錢，所以就不會因貧窮而那么痛苦了。”

　　Toshio represents a striking trend in Japanese crime. In a remarkably law-abiding society, a rapidly growing proportion of crimes is carried about by over-65s. In 1997 this age group accounted for about one in 20 convictions but 20 years later the figure had grown to more than one in five.

　　高田敏夫代表了日本犯罪的一種顯著趨勢。在日本這個遵紀守法的社會里，65歲以上老人的犯罪率直線上升。1997年，大約只有5％的罪犯為65歲以上的老人，但在20年后的今天，這一比率已經(jīng)達到了20％。

　　(全文共328個詞，BBC)

　　重難點詞匯：

　　criminal  adj. 犯罪的；刑事的；罪過的，錯誤的；不道德的；令人震驚的 n. 罪犯

　　offence  n. 犯罪；違反；過錯；攻擊

　　petty  adj. 瑣碎的；小氣的；小規(guī)模的

　　conviction  n. 定罪；確信；證明有罪；確信，堅定的信仰

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