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2018考研英语双语阅读:论英国民主

2017-06-15 16:41:57来源:新东方在线

  2018考研复习进行时,考研英语阅读真题中的文章,多摘自英美主流外刊,有时候你认识所有单词、搞清全部语法还不够,还需要了解英美文化,掌握他们的表达方式,这就是阅读的潜台词。下面新东方在线考研整理《2018考研英语双语阅读精选》,速来学习吧!

  Has British democracy let its people down?

  论英国民主——什么才是真正的民主?

  Parliamentary democracy is one of the British values that English schools are now required, by statute, to promote during lessons - not debate, not discuss, promote.

  议会民主是英国学校现在法规要求在授课中宣扬的英国价值观之一——不是辩论,也不是讨论,是促进。

  If some teachers interpret their new role as propagandists for this kingdom’s existing system of governance, that would be a shame, because right now our democracy is not serving this country particularly well.

  如果一些老师把他们的新角色诠释为这个王国现有统治体制的宣传者,那将是一种耻辱,因为如今我们的民主并不是很好地服务于这个国家。

  Far from providing the stability and legitimacy it promises, our peculiar democratic system has served to expose and deepen social divides.

  我们特有的民主体制远未提供它所承诺的稳定和合法性,而是致力于暴露和加深社会分化。

  It has contrived to leave our country vulnerable at a critical moment in its history.

  在历史的关键时刻,它置我们的国家与危机四伏中。

  No-one voted for a country led by a wounded prime minister, without a clear negotiating position on Brexit with days to go before the talks on our country’s fate begin, having to do humiliating backroom deals to get even the most routine domestic legislation through Parliament.

  没有人会投票支持一个由受伤的总理所率领的国家,在对我们国家命运的谈判开始之前,几天内他对脱欧公投都没有明确的谈判立场,他不得不做耻辱的幕后交易以便通过议会获得最常规的国内立法。

  The rest of the world looks on bewildered at Britain’s capacity to turn a huge political challenge into a potential catastrophe.

  世界其他国家对英国把巨大的政治挑战转变为潜在灾难的能力都是一脸困惑。

  Yes, turnout was the highest since 1997, and there are signs that young people may have participated in larger numbers than in previous elections.

  是的,自1997年以来,公投投票率是最高的,有迹象表明,年轻人参与人数比之前选举大幅提高。

  These must be encouraging signs for the democratic process.

  对民主进程而言,这是令人振奋的迹象。

  But almost a third of the electorate still didn’t bother to exercise their democratic right.

  但是,近三分之一的选民仍然没有打算行使民主权利。

  The overall result may have been unexpected and even "extraordinary", but for the vast majority of voters, the local outcome could be construed as suggesting people were quite happy with the status quo.

  总体结果可能是意想不到的,甚至是“离奇的”,但对绝大多数选民来说,地方结果可以被解读为人们对现状感到相当满意。

  "No-one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise," Winston Churchill told the House of Commons in 1947.

  1947年,丘吉尔告诉下议院:“没人声称民主是完美的或者完全明智的。”

  "Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time."

  “事实上,除了那些被反复尝试的其他形式外,民主被称作最糟糕的政府形式。”

  Most people would probably agree with that, and David Cameron was surely right to argue that democracy is a keystone in the curtain wall that defines our nation’s character, a feature of British life that must be defended.

  大多数人可能会同意这一点,戴维·卡梅伦肯定会立马辩解,民主是界定我们国家特征的幕墙中的一块基石,是英国生活的特点,它必须得到捍卫。

  But a democracy’s strength is not measured only in its ability to withstand external attack. It must be loved and cherished by those within.

  但是民主的力量不能仅仅通过它承受外部袭击的能力来衡量。他必须被身在其中的人所热爱和珍视。

  Talk to people the length and breadth of the United Kingdom, and you will hear the argument that the system ignores ordinary people, that their voice is not being heard by the distant elites.

  与人们纵论英国这个国度,你会听到这样一个说法,英国体制忽视普通百姓,他们的声音没有被遥远的精英所听到。

  At a time in world history when power is shifting further away from the ordinary citizen to international institutions and global corporations, this sense of democratic deficit is felt even more keenly.

  在世界历史上,当权力从普通公民转移到国际机构和跨国公司时,这种民主赤字的感觉更加强烈。

  National and local democratic structures need to be more responsive, but in Britain people feel they are increasingly remote.

  国家和地方的民主结构需要更加灵敏地反应人民的意志,但在英国,人们觉得它们越来越遥远。

  This snap election will have done little to restore people’s faith in the democratic process.

  这次仓促的选举对于恢复人民对民主程序的信念没有任何作用。

  If people felt their voice was irrelevant before, they are unlikely to think the system is any better now.

  如果人们以前觉得自己的声音是无关紧要的,那么现在他们也不太可能会认为这个体制比从前的体制好多少。

  Our two main political parties were founded and evolved to deal with the social and economic challenges of the industrial revolution.

  我们两大主要政党的建立和演变是为了应对工业革命的社会和经济挑战。

  Conservative and Labour, left and right, capitalism and socialism - these ideological movements were a response to the economic and cultural challenges of power moving from the field to the factory.

  保守派和劳动派,左翼和右翼,资本主义和社会主义,这些意识形态的运动是对从土地迁移到工厂的权利所面临的经济和文化挑战的回应。

  The defining feature of our democracy, this cornerstone of British values, is that citizens have a participatory role in political and civic life. The people have a voice.

  我们民主的本质特征,英国价值观的基石,就是公民在政治和公民生活中拥有参与的权利。人们的可以发出自己的声音。

  The debate we must have now is how to convince the populace that the United Kingdom does have a democracy that allows that voice to be listened to, understood and acted upon.

  我们现在必须进行的辩论是如何说服民众,让他们认为英国确有民主,这种民主允许他们的声音被听到,被理解,并据此做出行动。

  来源:BBC

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本文关键字: 考研英语阅读 2018考研

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