2015考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：电话窃听丑闻

　　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。

　　The phone-hacking scandal

　　电话窃听丑闻

　　The lowest low

　　卑之何以堪

　　The phone-hacking saga jeopardises more than merely the News of the World: it threatensRupert Murdoch, the press as a whole, the police and politicians

　　电话窃听事件不仅仅危及《世界新闻报》的安危，它也威胁到鲁珀特·默多克，整个新闻界，警界及政界的未来。

　　UNTIL this week, the victims in the scandal over the illegal hacking of mobile-phone messagesby the News of the World seemed mostly to be celebrities, royals and others too privileged tocommand much sympathy. For the tabloid, that was a useful mitigation in the court of publicopinion, if not in law. No longer. The sordid antics of Britain’s biggest-selling Sunday paper—owned by News International, Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper outfit—look morepromiscuous and more gravely criminal. And the circle of blame and taint is widening.

　　截止本周为止，被《世界新闻报》非法窃听电话信息的受害者大多数都为名人，皇室成员等，他们因身份特殊，享受特权，不会得到多少同情。对于《世界新闻报》来说，这将有力的缓和公众舆论所施加的压力，可在法庭上就行不通了。但是，现在公众也不会施以谅解了。传媒大亨默多克的新闻国际旗下的英国新闻出版单位——星期日报是英国最畅销的报纸。他们哗众取宠的丑恶行为看来更杂乱无章，罪大恶极。目前，受到谴责与世界新闻报同流合污的人物网正在进一步扩大。

　　The big difference is Milly Dowler, a 13-year-old schoolgirl who was murdered in Surrey in March2002. On July 4th the Guardian reported allegations that Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigatorworking with News of the World journalists, hacked into Dowler’s voice-mail in the days afterher disappearance, removing some messages to free up space when her account became full.The effect was to make her family think she might still be alive. The relatives of people killed inthe terrorist attacks in London of July 2005, and of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, mightalso have been targeted. Ditto the families of two girls murdered in Cambridgeshire in 2002: in abizarre cameo in what is an increasingly baroque saga, the actor Hugh Grant made that link inApril, in a covertly recorded interview with a former journalist. Tom Watson, a Labour MP,made an even more serious charge in Parliament on July 6th: that News International paidpeople to interfere in a murder case “on behalf of known criminals”. The firm says it doesn’tunderstand that accusation.

　　女学生米莉·道勒于2002年3月在英国萨里郡被谋杀，年仅13岁。对米莉的窃听使整个事件大为不同。2011年7月14号英国《卫报》披露《世界新闻报》雇佣私家侦探格伦·穆尔凯尔在米莉失踪几天后窃听她的手机语音邮箱。当米莉邮箱内存已满时，他删去了部分邮件以便使新的邮件能顺利进入语音邮箱。这一行为给她的家人造成了米莉仍然活着的假象。伦敦2005年“7.7”恐怖爆炸案死者的亲属，以及在伊拉克和阿富汗牺牲的士兵家人的电话可能也被窃听。同样，2002年在剑桥郡被杀害的两个女孩的家人也成为了窃听的对象。在这一愈演愈烈的长篇荒唐闹剧中演员休·格兰特也奇怪的客串了一把。今年4月《世界新闻报》的一位前记者也对他进行了“秘密的采访”。 工党议员汤姆·沃森7月6日在国会对《世界新闻报》提出一项更为严厉的指控：新闻国际雇人以已知罪犯的身份干预谋杀案件的调查。新闻国际表示不理解这项指控用意何在。

　　Mr Mulcaire was jailed in 2007 for hacking voice-mailmessages of members of the royal household, alongwith Clive Goodman, the News of the World’s royalcorrespondent. At the time, and for a long timeafterwards, executives at News International insistedthat Mr Goodman was a lone, rogue operator. In thepast few months that defence has collapsed, amid adeluge of civil cases brought by the lengthening listof hacking victims, pay-offs, and the arrest of morejournalists. Yet the Dowler development hassupercharged the scandal—not just because of itscallous immorality but also because it potentially involves perversion of the course of justice,a new level of criminality.

　　穆尔凯尔在2007年曾因窃听王室成员手机语音邮箱与《世界新闻报》的皇家记克莱夫·古德曼一道锒铛入狱。在那时以及其后的很长时间内，新闻国际的执行官们坚称古德曼的行为是穷凶极恶的，但这只是他的个人行为。过去几个月随着被牵扯入案的受害者，抓捕的记者以及涉案金额的增多，该辩护被推翻。然而米莉·道勒事件的发展使得电话窃听不仅仅是个丑闻了。世界新闻报记者的麻木不仁和蓄意颠倒司法公正使得这一事件变成了犯罪。

　　Hanging separately

　　分别绞死

　　If much of this is true, there were no qualms, and few limits, in the way the paper went afterscoops. There might be serious legal and commercial consequences for News International.But others have been discredited, too—not least the police.

　　如果大部分的指控为真，那么《世界新闻报》记者抢先报道新闻时没有良心上的不安，也毫无顾忌和限制。新闻国际将接受严厉的法律惩处，承受巨大的经济损失。其他涉案人员也得名誉扫地，至少对警察先生们来说。

　　On July 5th News International acknowledged that, last month, it gave the Metropolitan Police aset of e-mails documenting (illegal) payments to police officers from News of the Worldjournalists in 2003 and after. That is only the latest aspersion cast on various police forces bythis affair. The police in Surrey seem to have known about the Dowler hacking but overlooked it.Worse, the Met itself stands accused of failing for several years to notify potential victims ofhacking and failing to pursue leads: the evidence for many recent allegations comes fromnotes seized from Mr Mulcaire in 2006. The Met launched a fresh probe, under new command,in January. But its contacting of targets remains mystifyingly lacklustre.

　　7月5日新闻国际承认上月曾寄给伦敦警察厅一组电子邮件，证明在2003年及以后《世界新闻报》记者给予警察的(非法)报酬。这是该事件对各警察机关最新的一次“诽谤”。萨里郡警官对道勒电话被窃听一事知情，但选择视而不见。更糟糕的是，伦敦警察厅也被指责在过去的几年没能告知受害者可能被电话窃听的危险，以及没能追踪信息。最近很多指控的证据来自2006年对穆尔凯尔的询问笔录。一月，伦敦警察厅在新的要求下展开了新一轮的调查。但警官接触到的案件仍然乏善可陈。

　　Whether intentionally or otherwise (News International says it wasn’t), the news about policepayments deflected attention onto Andy Coulson, the News of the World’s editor from 2003 to2007—and thus, indirectly onto David Cameron. Mr Coulson resigned from the paper in 2007after Mr Goodman and Mr Mulcaire were convicted, though he insisted that he knew nothing oftheir nefarious methods. He resigned again, this time from his job as Mr Cameron’scommunications chief, in January this year, as the hacking scandal escalated. Mr Cameron’sjudgment in hiring Mr Coulson after his tabloid escapades now looks ropier than ever

　　不管是否是有意为之，(《世界新闻报》称这是无心之过)警方收受贿赂的新闻使人们将注意力转向了《世界新闻报》编辑安迪·库尔森和首相戴维·卡梅伦。库尔森2003年至2007年在世界新闻报任职，2007年在古德曼和穆尔凯尔被判有罪后辞职，尽管他坚称自己对于这一穷凶极恶的手段毫不知情.随着电话窃听丑闻的升级，今年一月库尔森辞去了卡梅伦的首席信息官一职。在库尔森的小报越轨行为发生之后，卡梅伦雇佣库尔森的决定如今看来越发糟糕。

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