《中英對照讀新聞》Belgian man coughs up screw after operation比利時男子手術後咳出螺絲釘

◎張沛元

Four years ago, Etienne Verhees broke two vertebrae falling off a ladder, after which doctors put a metal plate in his neck to help heal the wound.

4年前，安提尼．沃希斯從梯子上摔落跌斷兩節脊椎骨，之後醫生在他的頸部放了一片鐵板，以協助傷勢痊癒。

This week, the Belgian coughed up one of four screws used to hold the plate in place.

本週，這名比利時人咳嗽咳出4個用來固定這塊板子的螺絲釘中的1個。

“I have had a cold for the past few days,” Verhees told daily Gazet Van Antwerpen. “I had a terrible cough a few days ago. That's when I suddenly felt something in my mouth.

「我過去幾天來一直有傷風，」沃希斯告訴安特衛普日報說。「我幾天前咳嗽咳得很嚴重。我就是在那個時候突然感覺到我的嘴巴裡有東西。」

“It turned out to be a screw.”

「結果是一個螺絲釘。」

One of the doctors involved told the paper he assumed the screw had moved because of an infection Verhees suffered following a second operation, which caused his neck to swell.

治療沃希斯的其中一名醫生告訴這份報紙，他猜想可能是沃希斯在第二次手術後的感染，使這枚螺絲釘位移，導致他的脖子腫大。

新聞辭典

vertebra：名詞，脊骨，脊椎。複數加e，為vertebrae。形容詞為vertebrate，意思為脊骨的；脊椎動物的；結構嚴謹的。例句：This is a vertebrate piece of composition。（這是一篇結構嚴謹的作文。）

fall off：片語，從…掉下來，跌落；減少，降低；（健康等）衰退，減弱；疏遠，離開。fall，動╱名詞，落下。例句：President Bush fell off his bicycle Saturday while riding on his ranch。（布希總統週六在他的農莊騎車時從他的單車上跌落下來。）

cough up：片語，咳出；勉強說出，吐露；掏出，支付；出錢，掏腰包。cough，動╱名詞，咳嗽。例句：He couldn't cough up the fish bone and suffered a lot。（他無法把魚刺咳出來而且很痛苦。）

hold in place：片語，在合適的（或常處的、原來的、指定的）位置。Her hair was held in place by a pin。（她用髮夾把頭髮夾住。）