狗越来越“爱”咬人（一）
Dog bites on the rise

Megan Boger of La Belle, Pa., returned from shopping with her mother and ran into the yard to greet the family pet, a part-cocker mutt named Blaze. Seconds later, her mom, Elena Boger, heard a snap and then shrieks from three-year-old Megan. There was blood all over her face from tooth punctures under an eye and around her mouth, she recalls. Elena and her husband rushed their sobbing child to a local hospital. But the injuries were severe enough that the Bogers were sent to Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh, where a plastic surgeon stitched the gashes.

*part-cocker mutt：“cocker”指“西班牙长耳猎犬”，“mutt”指“杂种狗”。合起来意思就是“有部分西班牙长耳猎犬血统的杂种狗”。
*puncture：小孔。这个词也作动词，意思是“穿（孔）、刺穿”，比如：He looked like a punctured balloon.（他看起来象只泄了气的破气球。）
*plastic surgeon：整形外科医生。“plastic”在医学上意思是“整形（外科）的”。而与“surgeon”相对的是“physician”——内科医生。
*stitch：缝，缝合。小梅甘被自家的狗咬伤后，因伤势严重，被送到儿童医院缝合伤口（gash指“深长的伤口、切口”）。

Little Megan is far from alone in having been the victim of a dog bite. According to a 1994 survey (the most recent) by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, some 4.7 million people were bitten by dogs. About 800,000 required medical treatment. Many bites are to children, and most are from family pets or familiar dogs, not strays.

* far from alone：alone是“孤单”的意思，far from alone在这里形容被狗咬的人数之多。
*stray：这里指“走失了的动物”。文中说，被狗咬伤的很多是孩子，而且大多是被自家或熟悉的狗咬，而不是野狗之类。

Many bites are treated at home or in a doctor's office, and as a consequence are often not reported to authorities. Meanwhile, there is no ongoing national system for counting dog bites, says the CDC's Dr. Jeffrey Sacks. In some locales bites are reported to the police, in others to the animal-control folks or the health department. Some counties don't collect data at all.

*authorities：当“authority”（权力，权威）为复数形式时，解释为“当局，官方”。比如：the local authorities（地方当局）；the military authorities（军事当局）。文中提到，许多人被咬伤后并未告之有关当局。
*locale：（事情发生的）场所，地点。比如：the actual locale of the crime（犯罪现场）。

[画外音]
　　为什么自家养的宠物狗会咬人呢？被狗咬后，还涉及保险索赔的问题，那……
　　请继续看——狗越来越“爱”咬人（二）！

（to be continued）