《中英對照讀新聞》Croatian court calls on four-year-old to testify
克羅埃西亞法庭傳喚四歲兒童作證

◎羅彥傑

A court in the Croatian capital Zagreb called a four-year-old girl to give testimony about a traffic accident which happened when she was two, a news report said.

克羅埃西亞首都札格雷布的一間法庭傳喚一名四歲女童，就一樁她兩歲時發生的交通意外作證，新聞報導指出。

The child received summons warning that “unless she appears before the judge, police could take her to court by force, and moreover, she could be fined 10,000 kunas (1,724 dollars),” according to the daily.

這名兒童收到傳票，上面警告「除非她出現在法官的面前，否則警方可以強制帶她出庭，此外，她還可能被處以一萬庫納的罰款（一千七百二十四美元），」據這家日報報導。

“Obviously, they didn't bother to check how old my daughter was, because if they did, they surely wouldn't have called her to testify,” the child's father told the paper.

「很明顯，他們根本沒有查我女兒的年紀多大，因為他們如果有這麼做，肯定不會傳喚她去作證，」這名兒童的父親告訴這家報紙。

Nevertheless, the father had to appear in court to excuse his daughter's absence and explain how old she was.

儘管如此，這名父親還是必須出庭，以便說明女兒為何缺席並解釋她的年紀才多大。

“If I hadn't done so, the police would undoubtedly have come knocking on my door,” the man said.

「如果我不這麼做，警方毫無疑問就會過來敲我的門，」這名男子說。

Dictionary-新聞辭典

by force：片語，指使用暴力或強制手段。例句：Peace is never built by force alone.（光靠強制手段不可能建立和平。）

bother：動詞，意指費心、費力。例句：Few people bothered to talk to him, and many deliberately avoided him.（很少有人會想和他說話，許多人更是刻意對他敬而遠之。）

nevertheless：副詞，意指儘管如此，也可當作連接詞用。例句：He was extremely tired, but he was nevertheless unable to sleep until after midnight.（他雖然非常累，仍要到午夜過後才能入睡。）

knock on：片語，意指敲打、撞擊。例句：New college graduates start knocking on employers' doors.（大學新畢業生開始對雇主們投石問路。）