2015考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：中国高铁追尾

　　2015考研英语复习正是强化复习阶段，考研英语阅读在考研英语中占了40分，所以考研英语阅读是英语科目中重要的一项。新东方名师范猛老师曾建议过考研生需要坚持每天泛读10-15分钟的英文原刊。强烈推荐了杂志《经济学人》.杂志中的文章也是考研英语的主要材料来源.希望考研考生认真阅读，快速提高考研英语阅读水平。

　　China’s train crash

　　中国高铁追尾

　　Curiouser

　　追查真相的公众

　　The angry response to the Wenzhou crashcontinues

　　温州追尾事故继续引发公众的愤怒

　　Aug 6th 2011 | BEIJING | from the print edition

　　THE official death toll from the high-speed railcollision near the east-central city of Wenzhou onJuly 23rd now stands at 40, with 191 injured. Among the tens of millions in China who nowshare their thoughts on the nation’s microblogging outlets are many who suspect the toll iseven higher. Whatever the true numbers, other casualties may be counted in the disaster andthe nature of its clumsy handling afterwards. One of these is the credibility of thegovernment.

　　七月二十三日，在中国东部城市温州附近发生的高铁追尾事故的官方死亡人数现在为40人，同时有191名伤者。 在中国数千万通过微博来分享自己的观点的网友中，他们大部分都怀疑死亡人数甚至更多。不论真实人数是多少，其他的损失可能会算入这次事故中，以及事故发生后地处理不当。 其中一点就是政府的公信力。

　　Days after the crash, many continue to gripe openly about the government’s response, and todoubt anything officials say. Complaints focus not only on whatever neglect caused theaccident—officials say it was a signalling flaw—but also on the government’s callousness intrying to clean up the site. It buried one of the stricken rail carriages and restored rail services,all before rescue operations had ended.

　　在事故发生后的几天中，很多人继续公开地的对政府的回应表示不满和质疑。这些不满不仅集中在所有可能导致事故的忽略因素—官方称其是信号系统的问题—也集中在政府在处理现场时的冷漠上。 政府在抢救工作停止前，他们埋了一节撞毁的乘客车厢并且重新运行了高铁。

　　In a belated attempt at damage control, the primeminister, Wen Jiabao, visited the site five days afterthe accident. He is known as “Grandpa Wen” for hisbenevolent demeanour and his role in visitingscenes of disaster and discomfort. But this time hislate appearance raised eyebrows. He said he hadwanted to come sooner, but had been on his sick-bed for 11 days—Chinese leaders’ health problemsare almost never disclosed. The mystery deepenedwhen it turned out that Mr Wen had met delegationsin Beijing while he was supposedly laid up.

　　在迟来的控制事故破坏性的尝试，中国总理温家宝在事故发生五天后亲临此地。因为他的和蔼可亲以及他在每次亲临灾难事故现场，被大家尊称为“温爷爷”。但是，他这次晚来的露面吸引了大家的目光。他说他在事故发生很马上想赶来，但是他却在病床上度过了十一天—中国领导人的健康问题几乎从来不透露出来。据称温总理在卧病在床期间会见了到北京的日本代表团，这使得这个消息更加难以琢磨了。

　　There was speculation that Mr Wen’s absence might point to high-level disagreement overhow to handle the matter. Mr Wen is thought to champion greater political openness than hissenior colleagues would like. If discord at the top existed, it would have a bearing on theprocess by which the Communist Party is now choosing leaders due to take over the country’srunning next year. But everything is unknowable at the Communist heart of the world’s mostpopulous country.

　　有人推测说温总理的缺席可能是由于他在如何处理事故问题上与其他官员存在较大的分歧。温总理比起他的同级别的干部们来说，更加支持政治透明化。如果在高层中出现分歧，通过中国共产党现在进行的选举未来国家领导人这样的方式，能够做出选择。但是，这一切在世界人口最多的国家内部核心来说还是个未知数。

　　Mr Wen’s comments on the accident itself were no less intriguing. In another rare departurefrom common practice, he took an open slap at the Ministry of Railways, conceding that “thepublic had many suspicions about the cause of the accident and the way it was handled”. Hepromised to investigate whether corruption, equipment or management problems were toblame, with no “soft-pedalling”.

　　温总理对事故的评论是毫不含糊的。在另一个罕见的违反惯例的情况下，温总理公开批评中国铁道部，承认“公众对事故原因的质疑以及事故处理上面的质疑”。他承诺不管调查出来的是腐败问题抑或是设备和管理问题，都将会追究责任，绝不“姑息”。

　　State media, already surprisingly vocal about the crash, took this as licence to ignore earlierorders to refrain from reporting controversy. Xinhua, the official news agency, beganreporting on widespread suspicions about the reasons for the crash, as did the central state-television station. Some state media proved yet more defiant: the Economic Observerpublished an astonishing open letter to a rescued two-year-old girl, orphaned by the crash,laying bare concerns about systemic corruption and hypocrisy. Microblogging sites, notablySina Weibo, China’s homespun version of the banned Twitter, ran unusually free comment.Reining it in would have been hard or counterproductive. Microblogs also provided an avenuefor Chinese journalists to publish details on the accident in the crucial early hours, beforeslower-footed propaganda authorities could issue “guidance”.

　　国家媒体认为这是允许其不顾之前禁止报道负面消息的命令的许可，而且他们已经难得的报道了这次追尾事故。官方新闻机构新华社以大众对事故原因的质疑报道开始，就像中央电视台报道一样。一些国有媒体甚至更加大胆: 经济观察报 发表了一份写给获救的12岁女孩的令人惊奇的信直接的指出对制度腐败和虚伪的担心，这个女孩由于这次事故成为孤儿。在中国有影响力的中国版推特新浪微博则不同寻常地让人们自由评论。监控微博会是很棘手的，甚至带来相反的效果。微博也能在反映通常慢一步的宣传部的官员提出“规定”前，提供一个渠道来让记者在第一时间报道事故细节。

　　The anger expressed there and elsewhere poses aproblem for the authorities. Other disasters havespawned scandals and earned public scorn, as afterthe 2008 Sichuan earthquake, in which manychildren died because of shoddy schoolconstruction. But that disaster was a natural one,and the government’s response was in manyrespects effective. After the ethnic clashes thatrocked Tibet and Xinjiang in recent years, officialswere able to deflect blame on to minority agitatorsand outside provocateurs. This time they have nosuch recourse.

　　这新浪微博上和其它地方上发表愤怒的人们，都是向官方提出质疑。其它灾难已经引发了丑闻以及公众的指责，就像2008年四川地震，在地震中许多孩子的死是由于不牢固的学校建筑物。但是那是场自然灾难，并且政府对其处理在很多方面是高效的。在最近几年种族冲突影响力西藏和新疆之后，官方能够对将其归罪于少数煽动分子和国外的破坏分子。这次他们没有这样的筹码了。

　　The irrepressible nature of the internet is more troubling for them in the long run, eventhough having an outlet for people to let off steam can do the regime a service. The leadersmay regret the haste with which they built the high-speed rail network. But they may come toregret more the haste with which they fostered that other high-speed network, Sina Weibo.

　　互联网难以控制的特性在长期以来越来越困扰着中国政府了，即使互联网可以提供一个让人们发泄的方式这一点能给中国政府带来点帮助。中国的领导人可能后悔过快地建造中国的高速铁路专线网。但是他们可能更加后悔他们过快地建造中国另一个高速网络，新浪微博。

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