【英语阅读】纽约时报 | 在纽约，几乎每个人身边都有人感染病毒

Ex-Wife Sick. Daughter Sick. 3 Friends Dead. Everyone Knows Someone.
在纽约，几乎每个人身边都有人感染病毒

A New York City Housing Authority retiree ticked off his running tally: an ex-wife sick, a daughter sick, and three old friends dead. In Queens, a young poet learned a friend’s parents are in the hospital, one on a ventilator.
纽约市住房管理局的一名退休人员一条条记录下来：前妻病了、女儿病了、三个老朋友死了。在皇后区，一名年轻诗人得知朋友的父母住院了，其中一人还上了呼吸机。

• Authority n.权力,职权 官方,当局
• learned adj.博学的;有学问的;学术上的
• ventilator n.通风机;换气扇 气窗;气孔

And Qtina Parson of Parkchester, the Bronx, gave a grim reversal of the cheerful family updates one expects from the proud mother, sister and aunt that she used to sound like just a couple of weeks — a lifetime — ago.
来自布朗克斯区帕克切斯特的屈蒂娜·帕森(Qtina Parson) 带来了她那个原本欢乐的家庭的最新坏消息，就在几周之前，这位自豪的母亲、姊妹和阿姨的口吻还截然不同——那仿佛是上辈子的事情了。

• grim adj.严酷的,无情的 讨厌的,糟糕的
• reversal n.逆转;撤销

“My nephew — sick, he’s 28,” she said. “Him and his girlfriend. My sister-in-law, she’s 46, she had it.” Her son, Marcus, 18, is with relatives in South Carolina, where he has developed a fever and a cough. “But he’s out there cutting grass,” she added, as if saying this aloud would make it true: “I’m telling him it’s his allergies.”
“我侄子病了，他28岁，”她说。“他和他的女朋友。我嫂子46岁，她也病了。”她的儿子马库斯18岁，住在南卡罗来纳州的亲戚家里，出现了发烧和咳嗽的症状。“但他在外面割草.” 她补充，仿佛大声说出来就能证明这是真的。“我告诉他那是过敏。”

• nephew n.侄子,外甥
• fever n.发烧,发热;狂热 v.使发烧;使狂热
• fever n.咳嗽,咳嗽声 v.咳出,咳嗽
• allergies n.过敏症

New Yorkers have watched in helpless fear as the coronavirus, with dizzying speed and ferocity, truly took hold of the city in recent days. With more than 1,500 dead, many have already lost someone in their circle — a co-worker, an old friend from high school, the parent of a child’s classmate. The parish priest, the elderly neighbor upstairs. A mother, a father.
最近几天，在无助的恐惧中，纽约市民看到新型冠状病毒以令人眩晕的速度和烈度攻克这座城市。死亡人数超过了1500人，许多人失去了身边的某个人，可能是同事、高中时的老朋友、孩子同学的家长，也可能是教区牧师、楼上年长的邻居，或者一个母亲、父亲。

• dizzying adj.令人昏乱的;极快的;灿烂的 vt.使人烟花缭乱的
• ferocity n.凶猛;残忍;暴行
• parish n.教区
• priest n.教父;神父;教士 vt.使成为神职人员;任命…为祭祀
• elderly adj.上了年纪的,中年以上的
• upstairs adv.在楼上,往楼上 adj.楼上的

Almost everyone now knows someone who is sick.
现在几乎每个人都认识某个生病的人。

The story is told in the numbers: There were nearly 52,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus infections in New York City as of Thursday. But the reality of its reach is far worse — one study of cases in China suggested that up to 10 times the people who have tested positive may be infected, which could make the true number in the city close to half a million. And t