时间:2019-02-05 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2010年(五)月


英语课

A merchant locking his shop to avoid getting caught violating the Maoist's strike, in Kathmandu, 3 May 2010


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See more pictures of the strike here


A power struggle in Nepal between the government of Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal and the Maoists, who hold the most legislative 1 seats, is seeing the local folk and foreign tourists caught in the middle. Since May Day, most of the country has ground to a halt with a Maoist-initiated strike intended to force the collapse 2 of the year-old government.


 


 In the middle of an intersection 3 in Kathmandu, villagers from the remote northwest mountainous Karnali zone -- one of the poorest in Nepal -- sing and dance in a circle around a traffic control post.


While riot policemen sit nearby, paying little attention to thousands of Maoist supporters and spectators milling in the avenues deserted 4 of vehicles, the Karnali villagers sing a Maoist-inspired ditty calling for the prime minister to resign.


This is part of what one Maoist leader calls a "peaceful war" to install a people's government in Nepal.


Markets here are only permitted by the Maoists to open two hours per day in the evening for people to buy food and other necessary supplies.


Only a few shops, restaurants or hotels in the capital are willing to defy the ban on commerce.


Some merchants in the Thamel tourist district signal furtively 5 to passing foreigners that they are potentially open for business.


A row of shuttered shops


 


The shutters 6 go up to allow the customers to enter and then are quickly brought down again.


 


Stick-wielding Maoist cadres can be seen patrolling for violators. Merchants say those who defy the ban and do not pay extortion money to the Maoists are often being threatened with violence.


At the front desk of the Hotel Mandap, manager Binaya Thapa Magar was asked by VOA News how long his establishment could hold out before suffering a financial disaster.


"Five more days or six days. It's difficult but somehow we'll survive, I hope. If this political situation would not be solved, the situation would be the worst. This must be solved," Magar said.


The Maoists say the strike will continue until the prime minister quits. But they have also issued a long list of other demands in recent days.


Chinese tourist Vianne Cai sits in a bicycle rickshaw, one of the few means of transport around the capital. She's visiting with two girlfriends from Beijing. Cai says they've never experienced anything like this.  Cai says because it's such an unusual situation it is a bit exciting, but there is confusion and the inconvenience of not being able to easily move around the city or visit any shops.


Richard Gardner and his wife, Samanthi Selva, from Sydney Australia, walk on a nearly deserted lane usually bustling 7 with tourists and hawkers. They just returned from a trek 8 to the Mount Everest base camp and had planned to spend five days in the capital.


"There's really nothing we can do," he said. "We can't really do any sightseeing, it's a bit of a hassle to try and plan to go to Pokhara (200 km west of Kathmandu) or anywhere else in the country at the moment."


"You can see nothing is open, so, yeah, all our plans at the moment are kind of hindered in the fact that there's a strike on," Selva stated. "Unfortunately, not much to do. And we're not very happy, but what can we do?"   


The Maoists have ordered all motorized forms of transport off the roads -- except for ambulances, water delivery and garbage removal trucks and diplomatic and media vehicles, as well as special airport buses for the stranded 9 tourists.


Some visitors say they are giving up, unsure how long the strike will continue.


Tourism officials confirm thousands of foreigners are trying to fly out of Nepal early, taking with them spending money this poor Himalayan nation's struggling economy, so dependent on tourism, desperately 10 needs.



n.立法机构,立法权;adj.立法的,有立法权的
  • Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
  • Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。
vi.累倒;昏倒;倒塌;塌陷
  • The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
  • The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。
n.交集,十字路口,交叉点;[计算机] 交集
  • There is a stop sign at an intersection.在交叉路口处有停车标志。
  • Bridges are used to avoid the intersection of a railway and a highway.桥用来避免铁路和公路直接交叉。
adj.荒芜的,荒废的,无人的,被遗弃的
  • The deserted village was filled with a deathly silence.这个荒废的村庄死一般的寂静。
  • The enemy chieftain was opposed and deserted by his followers.敌人头目众叛亲离。
adv. 偷偷地, 暗中地
  • At this some of the others furtively exchanged significant glances. 听他这样说,有几个人心照不宣地彼此对望了一眼。
  • Remembering my presence, he furtively dropped it under his chair. 后来想起我在,他便偷偷地把书丢在椅子下。
百叶窗( shutter的名词复数 ); (照相机的)快门
  • The shop-front is fitted with rolling shutters. 那商店的店门装有卷门。
  • The shutters thumped the wall in the wind. 在风中百叶窗砰砰地碰在墙上。
adj.喧闹的
  • The market was bustling with life. 市场上生机勃勃。
  • This district is getting more and more prosperous and bustling. 这一带越来越繁华了。
vi.作长途艰辛的旅行;n.长途艰苦的旅行
  • We often go pony-trek in the summer.夏季我们经常骑马旅行。
  • It took us the whole day to trek across the rocky terrain.我们花了一整天的时间艰难地穿过那片遍布岩石的地带。
a.搁浅的,进退两难的
  • He was stranded in a strange city without money. 他流落在一个陌生的城市里, 身无分文,一筹莫展。
  • I was stranded in the strange town without money or friends. 我困在那陌生的城市,既没有钱,又没有朋友。
adv.极度渴望地,绝望地,孤注一掷地
  • He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
  • He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。
学英语单词
allochthonous fossil
aureatest
autodeletion
baalbeck
Babau
blogaholics
borosulfate
branch-multiple arrangement
break joint
brontotheriids
buildout
bulk effect
bureaucratic politician
calcium aminosalicylate
cam shaft grinder
cane press
Chalette
color dynamic
common stock equivalents
congenital ring constriction
coulomb staircase
creons
culdocope
decollement zone
degree of stocking
dehuman
depth temperature meter winch
distribution charge
double slag
escape react test
event location occurred address
exchangeability
fatty oil
force-protection
garnetted stock
gayana
glucosans
grab bucket capacity
Guiseppe Guarneri
half-glass door
hipworts
humanise
iciba
instrumentalness
internal clock source
Kobayashi Masaki
Kowa-u
kryoscope
Lebesgue
license a mark
light instrument
littas
machine malfunction
make an investigation of
malison
metamorphic ore deposit
nanohydrogels
neck-breaking
Nephelium topengii
non-operative vehicle-days
non-tropical
oblique central impact
off center arrangement
one-way volume
onus of proof of claim
overmast
P-10
Pady
Passive heat sink
phratriac
postposes
Pteracanthus urophyllus
Quievrain
reregistered base
rolling resistance of wheel
saranno
servation
service execution
sew-knit fabric
shear apparatus
shellfish poisoning
sleeve collar
Spc3p
strawtrusser
streamline tube
sugarcane syrup
suspension systems
synchronous sights
target user system
temperature-compensated oscillator
top coupling
tumbling down
tumo(u)r biochemistry
undervoting
vacuum fuel feed
variable mutube
venistasis
Violetin
Vittangi
well-selected
Whigs
wonks