2017考研英語(yǔ)《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人》閱讀：煙與火

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考研英語(yǔ)閱讀百分之八十都出自一些英美報(bào)刊雜志The Economist (《經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家》 ), Times(《時(shí)代周刊》等等，所以考生平時(shí)做閱讀訓(xùn)練的時(shí)候可以多看看這些文章，小編也會(huì)分享一些出自這些雜志的中英文雙語(yǔ)閱讀，大家可以看看。下面是關(guān)于煙與火的一篇文章，大家讀讀看。

Obituary: Helmut Schmidt Smoke and fire

赫爾穆特·施密特 煙與火

Helmut Schmidt, Social Democrat chancellor of WestGermany, died on November 10th, aged 96

赫爾穆特·施密特，西德的社會(huì)民主黨總理，逝于11月10日，終年96歲

HE WAS so clever, and so rude with it, that hislisteners sometimes realised too late that they had been outwitted and insulted. Helmut Schmidtdid not just find fools tiresome. He obliterated them. The facts were clear and the logicimpeccable. So disagreement was a sign of idiocy.

他的聰明和粗暴時(shí)常會(huì)讓聽(tīng)眾意識(shí)到自己上當(dāng)受騙和受到羞辱的時(shí)候已經(jīng)太晚了。赫爾穆特·施密特不僅發(fā)現(xiàn)了傻瓜令人討厭，他還消滅了他們。既然事實(shí)清楚，邏輯不可辯駁，那么，再有不同的意見(jiàn)就是白癡的表現(xiàn)。

He was impatient, too, with his own party, which failed to realise the constraints and dilemmasof power. It wanted him to spend money West Germany did not have, and to compromise withterrorists who belonged in jail. He was impatient with the anti-nuclear left, who failed to realisethat nuclear-power stations were safe, and that the Soviet empire thrived on allies' weakness.And he was impatient with post-Watergate America, which seemed to have lost its will to lead.

他還對(duì)沒(méi)能意識(shí)到權(quán)力的約束和困境的他的政黨感到不耐煩。這個(gè)政黨曾經(jīng)想讓他花西德沒(méi)有的錢(qián)，同應(yīng)當(dāng)被關(guān)在監(jiān)獄里的恐怖分子妥協(xié)。他對(duì)沒(méi)能認(rèn)識(shí)到核電站是安全的、蘇聯(lián)帝國(guó)是靠著盟友的軟弱才繁榮起來(lái)的反核左派感到不耐煩。最后，他對(duì)似乎已經(jīng)失去了領(lǐng)導(dǎo)意愿的后水門(mén)時(shí)代的美國(guó)感到不耐煩。

In good causes and in bad he was imperious. His addiction to nicotine trumped conventionand courtesy. He smoked whenever and wherever he felt like it, even in non-smokingcompartments of railway carriages. “Can you ask Mr Schmidt to put his cigarette out?” apassenger asked the conductor. “Would you mind telling him yourself?” came the timid reply.

不管在不在理，他都希望別人聽(tīng)命于他。他的煙癮勝過(guò)了公德和禮貌。只要想抽，他就會(huì)不分時(shí)間場(chǎng)合地來(lái)上一根，哪怕是在火車(chē)的非吸煙車(chē)廂中。“你能讓施密特先生把煙滅了嗎?”一位乘客問(wèn)乘務(wù)員。“對(duì)不起，麻煩你自己給他說(shuō)好嗎?”得到卻是一個(gè)怯生生回答。

Yet his brains, eloquence and willpower were unmatched in German politics. They brought himthrough the Nazi period, thrown out of the Hitler Youth for disloyalty but with an Iron Crossfor bravery. He was one-quarter Jewish, which he concealed when he married his wife Loki andneeded to prove his Aryan background. Only late in his career did an army document emergewhich described him as ideologically sound.

然而，在德國(guó)政壇，他的頭腦、口才和毅力卻是獨(dú)一無(wú)二的。它們讓他走過(guò)了納粹時(shí)代，因?yàn)椴恢艺\(chéng)而被開(kāi)除出希特勒青年團(tuán)，卻因?yàn)橛赂叶�得到了鐵十字勛章。他是四分之一的猶太人，他在與妻子 Loki 結(jié)婚并需要證明他的的雅利安人背景時(shí)隱瞞了這一點(diǎn)。直到一份描述他意識(shí)形態(tài)可靠的軍方文件出現(xiàn)為止。

In post-war West Germany he flourished, making a successful career in Hamburg's citygovernment. By commandeering army units to deal with the floods of 1962 he broke a taboo,and the law, but gaining a deserved reputation as a doer.

在戰(zhàn)后的西德，他名聲大震，在漢堡市政府走上了一條成功之路。他以征調(diào)軍隊(duì)?wèi)?yīng)對(duì)1962年的洪水的行為打破了當(dāng)時(shí)的一項(xiàng)禁忌，違反了法律，卻贏得了實(shí)干家的美譽(yù)。

He replaced Willy Brandt (the victim of an East German espionage operation) in 1974, at atime when the West was reeling from the oil-price shock, terrorism and America's humiliationin Vietnam. With his friend Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (another fluent English-speaker), helaunched the idea of summit governance to deal with the world's economic woes. G7 meetingsin those days were brief, informal affairs with real conversations and real decisions, not themicromanaged showpieces of today. Agreements made then laid the foundations for themodern European Union.

他在西方正在承受油價(jià)沖擊、恐怖主義和美國(guó)在越南失敗之苦的1974年，取代了(東德間諜行動(dòng)的一位受害者)維利·勃蘭特。他同他的朋友吉斯卡爾·德斯坦德(另一位能夠流利地講英語(yǔ)的人)首倡了以峰會(huì)治理來(lái)應(yīng)對(duì)全球經(jīng)濟(jì)困境的思想。那時(shí)的G7會(huì)議，議題簡(jiǎn)明，氣氛隨便，有著真正的對(duì)話和真正的決策的，不像今天這樣凈管些不該管的瑣事。當(dāng)時(shí)簽訂的各種協(xié)議為當(dāng)代歐洲聯(lián)盟打下了基礎(chǔ)。

Other leaders did not find him easy to deal with. He detested the weakness of Jimmy Carter'sadministration, and the two men got on badly. His foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher,recalled that “Schmidt was of the opinion that the world would be fairer if he was president ofthe United States and Carter the German chancellor.” The Israeli leader Menachem Begin calledhim “unprincipled, avaricious, heartless and lacking in human feeling” after he said thatGermans living in a divided nation should feel sympathy for Palestinian self-determination.

其他領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人沒(méi)有發(fā)現(xiàn)他容易相處。他曾對(duì)吉米·卡特政府的軟弱表示了極大的不滿，兩人相處的非常糟糕。他的外長(zhǎng)漢斯-迪特里希·根舍曾經(jīng)回憶道，“施密特當(dāng)時(shí)的看法是，要是他是美國(guó)總統(tǒng)、卡特是德國(guó)總理的話，世界會(huì)更加美好。”在他發(fā)表了生活在一個(gè)分裂國(guó)家中的德國(guó)人應(yīng)當(dāng)對(duì)巴勒斯坦人的民族自決表示同情的言論后，以色列領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人貝京稱(chēng)他“沒(méi)有原則立場(chǎng)、貪得無(wú)厭、沒(méi)心沒(méi)肺，而且缺乏人類(lèi)感情“。

Fairness, not fads

公平而不狂熱

His toughness towards the nihilist terrorists of the Red Army Faction outraged many liberal-minded Germans, who felt that extensive snooping, interrogations and quasi-military justicehad dreadful echoes of the Nazi period. They flinched when he urged America to beef up itsnuclear presence in Europe in response to the Soviet Union's growing stockpile of medium-range missiles. But for him social democracy was based on fairness, not fads. He had notime for greenery, feminism or culture wars. Anyone with a vision should go and see a doctor,he once said. Far more important was bolstering the welfare system, building more houses andmaking Germany safe at home and abroad.

他對(duì)西德紅軍旅恐怖分子的強(qiáng)硬態(tài)度曾經(jīng)惹惱了許多思想開(kāi)明的德國(guó)人，他們認(rèn)為大范圍的監(jiān)聽(tīng)、審訊和半軍事化審判讓人想起了納粹時(shí)代的可怕。當(dāng)他敦促美國(guó)增加在歐洲的核存在以應(yīng)對(duì)蘇聯(lián)日漸增加的中程導(dǎo)彈時(shí)，他們退縮了。但是，對(duì)他來(lái)說(shuō)，社會(huì)民主的基礎(chǔ)是公平而不是一時(shí)的狂熱。他沒(méi)空去關(guān)注溫室效應(yīng)、女權(quán)主義和文化戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)。他曾經(jīng)說(shuō)過(guò)，有這種愿景的人都應(yīng)該去看醫(yī)生。在當(dāng)時(shí)來(lái)說(shuō)，打造福利體系、建造更多的住房，讓德國(guó)人在國(guó)內(nèi)和國(guó)外都有安全感才是最最重要的事情。

Unfortunately his Social Democratic party thought differently, as did, increasingly, his liberalcoalition partner, the FDP. Flexibility and charm were not Mr Schmidt's strong points. A bitmore of both might have saved him.

不幸的是，他的社會(huì)民主黨就像信奉自由主義的合作伙伴自由民主黨一樣，同他有不一樣的想法。靈活和魅力不是施密特的強(qiáng)項(xiàng)，如果兩樣?xùn)|西多那么一點(diǎn)話，它們也許會(huì)救了他。

His nemesis was Helmut Kohl, the beefy Christian Democrat leader. Mr Schmidtunderestimated his rival, mocking his mumbled provincial diction. He himself was anaccomplished music and art critic, as elegant a wordsmith in prose as in speech. Mr Kohl'smain interest outside politics was food. But the conservative leader's willingness to listen anddo deals made Mr Schmidt look arrogant and out of touch. As his coalition disintegrated, thechancellor, in government since 1969, suddenly found himself in the political wilderness. Hisparty (like many in Europe spooked by Ronald Reagan's unabashed anti-communism) veeredleftwards.

他的死敵是基督教民主黨領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人赫爾穆特·科爾。施密特小看了這位“重量級(jí)”的對(duì)手，曾經(jīng)對(duì)他混糊不清的地方口音大加嘲笑。他本人是一個(gè)頗有成就的音樂(lè)和藝術(shù)評(píng)論家，說(shuō)起話來(lái)，用詞文雅。科爾在政治之外的主要興趣是美食。但是，這位保守派領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人的傾聽(tīng)和合作意愿卻讓施密特看上去傲慢無(wú)禮和不可接近。當(dāng)他的聯(lián)合政府解體時(shí)，這位自1969年以來(lái)就一直是政府總理的人，突然發(fā)現(xiàn)自己成了孤家寡人。他的政黨(就像當(dāng)時(shí)許多被里根毫不畏懼的反共產(chǎn)主義所嚇倒的歐洲政黨一樣)倒向了左派。

Mr Schmidt, still puffing away on his beloved menthols (stockpiled in case of a ban) and playingthe piano (of which he had a near-professional mastery), varied his views hardly an iota. Aspublisher of Die Zeit, Germany's most heavyweight weekly, he became its leading commentator—more influential there in shaping opinion, perhaps, than as an embattled chancellor. Hedeplored worries about climate change: population growth was a far bigger problem.Intervention in other countries’ affairs was a mistake (though he made an exception forVladimir Putin's war in Ukraine: that was a justified response to Western meddling). Unpopularviews—but the facts and logic were clear. Anyone who disagreed was stupid.

當(dāng)時(shí)仍在吞云吐霧(他抽剩下來(lái)的過(guò)濾嘴因?yàn)橐豁?xiàng)禁令都被保存了起來(lái))、仍在彈鋼琴(他的鋼琴水平接近大師級(jí))的施密特絲毫也沒(méi)有改變他的觀點(diǎn)。作為德國(guó)的重量級(jí)周刊——《時(shí)代周報(bào)》的發(fā)行人，他成了這家報(bào)紙的首席評(píng)論員——在形成輿論方面，這個(gè)位置也許要比一位苦苦掙扎的總理更有影響力。他探討了對(duì)于氣候變化的種種擔(dān)憂：人口增長(zhǎng)是一個(gè)更大的問(wèn)題。介入他國(guó)事務(wù)的干預(yù)是一個(gè)錯(cuò)誤(盡管他曾經(jīng)為普京在烏克蘭的戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)破了一次例：那是對(duì)西方干預(yù)的一種合情合理的應(yīng)對(duì))。不受歡迎的觀點(diǎn)——但是事實(shí)和邏輯都是清晰的。誰(shuí)不同意，誰(shuí)就是傻子。

1.fail to 未能

例句:The various elements of the novel fail to cohere.

這部小說(shuō)的各部分之間缺乏連貫性。

2.want to 想要

例句:Do ring if you want to talk about it.

你要是想談?wù)劊�一定給我打電話。

3.seem to 似乎

例句:Marks in the roadway seem to indicate that he skidded taking a sharp turn.

從車(chē)道上的痕跡來(lái)看，他似乎在急轉(zhuǎn)彎時(shí)打滑了。

4.throw out of 扔出去

例句:One of the exceptions to the beauty is the litter that some people throw out of theirwindows as they are driving on the rural roads.

與這美景不太和諧的是有人驅(qū)車(chē)行駛在鄉(xiāng)間小路上時(shí)隨手從車(chē)窗往外扔垃圾。