五月练习宫3

Remarks on the House Vote on Health Insurance Reform 上期 答案 八年级地理上册填图题岩土工程勘察试题省略号的作用及举例应急救援安全知识车间5s试题及答案 来啦~ [1]Good evening, everybody. Tonight, after nearly 100 years of talk and frustration, after decades of trying, and a year of sustained effort and debate, the United States Congress finally declared that America’s workers and America’s families and America’s small businesses deserve the security of knowing that here, in this country, neither illness nor accident should endanger the dreams they’ve worked a lifetime to achieve. [1]各位晚上好。今晚，经过将近100年的讨论与挫折，经过数十年的尝试，经过一年的不懈努力和不断争论，美国国会终于宣布，美国劳动者，美国家庭和美国小企业可以确信，在这个国家，疾病和意外都不会危及他们毕生奋斗所追求的梦想。 [2]Tonight, at a time when the pundits said it was no longer possible, we rose above the weight of our politics. We pushed back on the undue influence of special interests. We didn’t give in to mistrust or to cynicism or to fear. Instead, we proved that we are still a people capable of doing big things and tackling our biggest challenges. We proved that this government—a government of the people and by the people—still works for the people. [2]今晚，在权威人士声言不再可能出现的时刻，我们摆脱了政治的牵绊。我们顶住了特殊利益集团的不正当影响。我们没有向猜忌，讥讽和恐惧低头。相反，我们证明，我们美国人仍然能够成就大事，战胜最大挑战。我们证明，作为民有、民治的政府，美国政府仍然是民享的政府。 [3]I want to thank every member of Congress who stood up tonight with courage and conviction to make health care reform a reality. And I know this wasn’t an easy vote for a lot of people. But it was the right vote… [3]我要感谢今晚每一位满怀勇气和信念挺身而出、让医疗改革成为现实的议员。我知道，对许多人来说，这一票投得不容易。但是，这一票投得很正确。…… [4]Today’s vote answers the dreams of so many who have fought for this reform. To every unsung American who took the time to sit down and write a letter or type out an e-mail hoping your voice would be heard -- it has been heard tonight. To the untold numbers who knocked on doors and made phone calls, who organized and mobilized out of a firm conviction that change in this country comes not from the top down, but from the bottom up -- let me reaffirm that conviction: This moment is possible because of you. [4]多少人曾为这项改革而奋斗，今天的表决结果让他们梦想成真。所有花时间坐下来写信或者发电子邮件的无名美国人，你们希望有人听到你们的呼声——今晚有人听到了。无数上门或打电话展开宣传的人，你们之所以能组织和动员起来，是因为坚信这个国家的变革不是自上而下，而是自下而上的——让我重申这个信念：因为有你们，这一刻才成为可能。 [5]Most importantly, today’s vote answers the prayers of every American who has hoped deeply for something to be done about a health care system that works for insurance companies, but not for ordinary people. For most Americans, this debate has never been about abstractions, the fight between right and left, Republican and Democrat -- it’s always been about something far more personal. It’s about every American who knows the shock of opening an envelope to see that their premiums just shot up again when times are already tough enough. It’s about every parent who knows the desperation of trying to cover a child with a chronic illness only to be told “no” again and again and again. It’s about every small business owner forced to choose between insuring employees and staying open for business. They are why we committed ourselves to this cause. [5]最重要的是，对于每个由衷希望改革医疗体系的美国人来说，今天的表决结果让他们如愿以偿。这个体系服务于保险公司，而不是普通百姓。在大多数美国人看来，这场争论的主题从来都不是抽象概念，不是右翼和左翼之争，共和党和民主党之争，而始终关系到太多的切身感受。它关系到所有感到过惊讶的美国人：尽管时局已经够艰难了，他们打开信封却发现，保费竟然再次大幅上调。它关系到所有感到过绝望的父母：他们试图为患有慢性病的子女投保，却一再遭到拒绝。它关系到所有小企业主：他们被迫在为雇员投保和维持经营之间做出选择。正是因为他们，我们才投身于这项事业。 [6]Now, it probably goes without saying that tonight’s vote will give rise to a frenzy of instant analysis. There will be tallies of Washington winners and losers, predictions about what it means for Democrats and Republicans, for my poll numbers, for my administration. But long after the debate fades away and the prognostication fades away and the dust settles, what will remain standing is not the government-run system some feared, or the status quo that serves the interests of the insurance industry, but a health care system that incorporates ideas from both parties -- a system that works better for the American people. [6]事到如今，今晚的表决结果必定会引发猛烈的即时分析。会有人点评华盛顿的赢家和输家，预言它对民主党和共和党人、对我的民调数字、对我的政府的影响。但是，当争论平息、预言消逝、尘埃落定很久之后，长存的不是有些人担心的政府掌控的体制，或者为保险行业利益服务的现状，而是一个融合两党理念的医疗体系。这个体系能更好的服务于美国人民。 [7]If you have health insurance, this reform just gave you more control by reining in the worst excesses and abuses of the insurance industry with some of the toughest consumer protections this country has ever known -- so that you are actually getting what you pay for. [7]如果你们有保险，这项改革会给你们更大的控制权，用美国有史以来最严格的消费者保护条款遏制保险行业最恶劣的贪婪和不正当行为。这样一来，你们购买的保险才真正物有所值。 [8]If you don’t have insurance, this reform gives you a chance to be a part of a big purchasing pool that will give you choice and competition and cheaper prices for insurance. And it includes the largest health care tax cut for working families and small businesses in history -- so that if you lose your job and you change jobs, start that new business, you’ll finally be able to purchase quality, affordable care and the security and peace of mind that comes with it. [8]如果你们没有保险，这项改革会给你们一个参与大型购买集合资金的机会，让你们在购买保险时有选择、有比较、有较为低廉的价格。它包括对工薪家庭和小企业实施的有史以来最大规模的医疗减税措施。因此，当你们失业、换工作和创业的时候，你们终于能购买到质优价廉的医疗和随之而来的安全与放心。 [9]In the end, what this day represents is another stone firmly laid in the foundation of the American Dream. Tonight, we answered the call of history as so many generations of Americans have before us. When faced with crisis, we did not shrink from our challenge -- we overcame it. We did not avoid our responsibility -- we embraced it. We did not fear our future -- we shaped it. [9]最后，这一天表明美国梦的地基又砌下了一块坚固的基石。今晚，我们像历代美国先辈一样响应了历史的召唤。面临危机时，我们没有躲避挑战——我们战胜了挑战。我们没有回避责任——我们欣然承担了责任。我们没有惧怕未来——我们塑造了未来。 [10]Thank you, God bless you, and may God bless the United States of America. [10]感谢你们。上帝保佑你们。愿上帝保佑美利坚合众国。 本期练习： 练习指令：请各位同学认真阅读下列文章的每一个词和每一个句子，然后将每句话翻译成中文，并将全文读懂背熟。本文的全文翻译将在下周与新材料一起公布。 (1) “I believe too many of us editors and reporters are out of touch with our readers,” Rupert Murdoch, the boss of News Corporation, one of the world’s largest media companies, told the American Society of Newspaper Editorn last week. No wonder that people, and in particular the young, are ditching their newspapers. Today’s teens, twenty- and thirty-somethings “don’t want to rely on a god-like figure from above to tell them what’s important,” Mr Murdoch said, “and they certainly don’t want news presented as gospel2.” And yet, he went on, “as an industry, many of us have been remarkably, unaccountably, complacent.” (2) The speech—astonishing not so much for what it said as for who said it—may go down in history as the day that the stodgy newspaper business officially woke up to the new realities of the Internet age. Talking at times more like a pony-tailed, new-age technophile than a septuagenarian old-media god-like figure, Mr Murdoch said that news “providers” such as his own organisation had better get web-savvy, stop lecturing their audiences, “become places for conversation” and “destinations” where “bloggers” and “podcasters” congregate to “engage our reporters and editors in more extended discussions.” He also criticised editors and reporters who often “think their readers are stupid”. (3) Mr Murdoch’s argument begins with the fact that newspapers worldwide have been-and seem destined to keep on-losing readers, and with them advertising revenue. In 1995-2003, says the World Association of Vewspapers, circulation fell by 5% in America, 3% in Europe and 2% in Japan. In the 1960, four out of five Americans read a paper everyday; today only half do so. Philip Meyer, author of “The Vanishing Newspaper: Sluing Journalism in the Information Age” (University of Missouri Press), says that if the trend continues, the last newspaper reader will recycle his final paper copy in April 2040. Gotcha! (4) The decline of newspapers predates the internet. But the second—broadband—generation of the internet is not only accelerating it but is also changing the business in a way that the previous rivals to newspapers—radio and TV—never did. Older people, whom Mr Murdoch calls “digital immigrants”, may not have noticed, but young “digital natives” increasingly get their news from web portals such as Yahoo! or Google, and from newer web media such as blogs. Short for “web logs”, there are online journal entries of thoughts and web links that anybody can post. Whereas 56% of Americans haven’t heard of blogs, and only 3% read them daily, among the young they are standard fare, with 44% of online Americans aged 18-29 reading them often, according to a poll by CNN/USA Today/Gallup. (5) Blogs, moreover, are but one item on a growing list of new media tools that the internet makes available. Wikis are collaborative web pages that allow readers to edit and contribute. This, to digital immigrants, may sound like a recipe for anarchic chaos, until they visit, for instance, wikioedia.org, an online encyclopaedia that is growing dramatically richer by the day through exactly this spontaneous (and surprisingly orderly) collaboration among strangers. Photoblogs are becoming common; videoblogs are just starting. Podcasting (a conjunction of iPod, Apple’s iconic audio player, and broadcasting) lets both professionals and amateurs produce audio files that people can download and listen to. (6) It is tempting, but wrong, for the traditional mainstream media (which includes The Economist) to belittle this sort of thing. It is true, for instance, that the vast majority of blogs are not worth reading and, in fact, are not read (although the same is true of much in traditional newspapers). On the other hand, bloggers play an increasingly prominent part in the wider media drama—witness their role in America’s presidential election last year. The most popular bloggers now get as much traffic individually as the opinion pages of most newspapers. Many bloggers are windbags, but some are world experts in their field. Matthew Hindman, a political scientist at Arizona State University, found that the top bloggers are more likely than top newspaper columnists to have gone to a top university, and far more likely to have an advanced degree, such as a doctorate. (7) Another dangerous cliche is to consider bloggers intrinsically parasitic on (and thus, ultimately, no threat to) the traditional news business. True, many thrive on debunking, contradicting or analysing stories that originate in the old media. In this sense, the blogosphere is, so far, mostly an expanded op-ed medium. But there is nothing to suggest that bloggers cannot also do original reporting. Glenn Reynolds, whose political blog, Instapundit.com, counts 250,000 readers on a good day, often includes eyewitness accounts from people in Afghanistan or Shanghai, whom he considers “correspondents” in the original sense of the world. (8) “The basic notion is that if people have the tools to create their own content, they will do that, and that this will result in an emerging global conversation,” says Dan Gillmor, founder of Grassroots Media in San Francisco, and the author of “We the Media” (0’Reilly, 2004), a book about, well, grassroots journalism. Take, for instance, OhmyNews in South Korea. Its “main concept is that every citizen can be a reporter,” says Oh Yeon Ho, the boss and founder. Five years old, OhmyNews already has 2m readers and over 33,000 “citizen reporters”, all of them volunteers who contribute stories that are edited and fact-checked by some 50 permanent staff. (9) With so many new kinds of journalists joining the old kinds, it is also likely that new business models will arise to challenge existing ones. Some bloggers are allowing Google to place advertising links next to their postings, and thus get paid every time a reader of their blog clicks on them. Other bloggers, just like existing providers of specialist content, may ask for subscriptions to all, or part, of their content. Tip-jar systems, where readers click to make small payments to their favourite writers, are catching on. In one case last year, OhmyNews article attacking an unpopular court verdict reaped $30,000 in tips from readers, though most of the site’s revenues come from advertising. (10) The tone in these new media is radically different. For today’s digital natives, says Mr Gillmor, it is anathema" to be lectured at. Instead, they expect to be informed as part of an online dialogue. They are at once less likely to write a traditional letter to the editor, and more likely to post a response on the web—and then to carry on the discussion. A letters page pre-selected by an editor makes no sense to them; spotting the best responses using the spontaneous voting systems of the internet dose. (11) Even if established media groups—such as Mr Murdoch’s—start to respond better to these changes, that some can they profit from them? Mr Murdoch says media firms, at least, will be able to navigate the transition as advertising revenue switches from print-based to electronic media. Indeed, this is one area where news providers can use technology to their advantage, by providing more targeted audiences for advertisers, both by interest group and location. He also thinks that video clips, which his firm can conveniently provide, will be crucial ingredients of online news. (12) But it remains uncertain what mix of advertising revenue, tips and subscriptions will fund the news providers of the future, and how large a role today’s providers will have. What is clear is that the control of news—what constitutes it, how to prioritise it and what is fact—is shifting subtly from being the sole purview of the news provider to the audience itself. Newspapers, Mr Murdoch implies, must learn to understand their role as providers of news independent of the old medium of distribution, the paper. 答案请见下期