Two Candidates Drop Out of Afghan Presidential Race
时间：2019-01-11 作者：英语课 分类：VOA2004（下）--新闻盘点
By Michael Kitchen
In a surprise move on the eve of Afghanistan's first-ever presidential election, two candidates say they are withdrawing from the race and throwing their support behind current transitional President Hamid Karzai, also a candidate.
In separate announcements on the final day of the presidential campaign Wednesday, Syed Ishaq Gilani and Abdul Hasseb Aryan said they were dropping out of the race.
Although it is now too late to strike the two men's names from the ballot 1, both publicly called on their supporters to vote instead for President Karzai.
Mr. Gilani, the more prominent of the two candidates, is known for his religious fervor 2 and his past service as a fighter against the Soviet 3 occupation of Afghanistan.
His support is believed to be strongest among conservative ethnic 4 Pashtuns in the south and east of the country, who respect his pious 5 image.
Mr. Aryan, the other candidate leaving the race, is a former policeman whose sparsely 6 attended rallies have marked him as a minor 7 candidate in the field of 18.
Mr. Aryan says in exchange for his support, he expects Mr. Karzai to redouble his efforts to stamp out illegal drug production and to disarm 8 militia 9 leaders, whom he referred to as warlords.
Mr. Aryan did not give a clear reason for his decision to drop out and Mr. Gilani said he was acting 10 for the unity 11 of Afghanistan.
With no comprehensive opinion polls published on the Afghanistan presidential election, set to take place Saturday, the importance of the new support for Mr. Karzai is difficult to judge.
But for his own part, Mr. Karzai has previously 12 said he expects not only to win, but to get more than 50 percent of the vote and avoid a second run-off election.
Michael Kitchen, VOA News, Kabul.
注释：
prominent 卓越的
conservative 保守的，保守派
Pashtuns 普什图族人
pious 虔诚的
sparsely 稀疏地, 稀少地
disarm 解除，缓和
comprehensive 全面的
opinion polls 民意测验
- The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
- The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。
- They were concerned only with their own religious fervor.他们只关心自己的宗教热诚。
- The speech aroused nationalist fervor.这个演讲喚起了民族主义热情。
- Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
- Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。
- This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
- The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。
- Alexander is a pious follower of the faith.亚历山大是个虔诚的信徒。
- Her mother was a pious Christian.她母亲是一个虔诚的基督教徒。
- Relative to the size, the city is sparsely populated. 与其面积相比，这个城市的人口是稀少的。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The ground was sparsely covered with grass. 地面上稀疏地覆盖草丛。 来自《简明英汉词典》
- The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
- I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。
- The world has waited 12 years for Iraq to disarm. 全世界等待伊拉克解除武装已有12年之久。
- He has rejected every peaceful opportunity offered to him to disarm.他已经拒绝了所有能和平缴械的机会。
- First came the PLA men,then the people's militia.人民解放军走在前面，其次是民兵。
- There's a building guarded by the local militia at the corner of the street.街道拐角处有一幢由当地民兵团守卫的大楼。
- Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
- During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。
- When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
- We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。
- The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
- Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。