时间:2019-02-06 作者:英语课 分类:VOA常速英语2008年(二月)


英语课
By Raymond Thibodeaux
Rawalpindi, Pakistan
16 February 2008

Pakistan's national elections are due to be held Monday.  The poll is seen as a test of the country's commitment to democracy. But many Pakistanis are expressing pessimism 1 that the political exercise will bring about real change in the country. Raymond Thibodeaux reports from Rawalpindi.


At this crowded street-side tea shop in Rawalpindi, a garrison 2 town just south of Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, the mood is as gloomy and foreboding as the drizzly 3 skies. With national elections just a day away, the few smiles on display are from candidates on the colorful campaign banners draped across the storefronts, balconies and telephone poles.


Jamil Baig, 29, a clothing merchant, says many people here are not exactly eager to go the polls. Like many Pakistanis, he believes that the elections are rigged in favor of the ruling party, led by President Pervez Musharraf. This, despite Musharraf's low popularity rating in recent surveys.


"These local governments were imposed by Musharraf," he said.  "They are already interfering 4 in the elections. They have already done a lot of pre-poll rigging. So, nobody will accept these elections. They will not be free and fair elections."


In polls that some Western countries see as a test of Pakistan's commitment to democracy, many candidates have not even bothered to hold public rallies, a staple 5 of political campaigns in Pakistan. Other candidates are boycotting 6 the elections outright 7.


Such is the pall 8 cast over much of Pakistan in the leadup to the elections. Two recent suicide bombings have left 27 people dead and at least 70 others injured. The bomb attacks came just weeks after one of the country's most promising 9 opposition 10 candidates, former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, was assassinated 11 here while on the campaign trail.


There are concerns that the rise in political violence could keep voters from the polls. Sheikh Sohail, 33, a pharmacist, says Bhutto's death leaves no one to vote for.


"We don't have any leadership," he said.  "I haven't seen out of these politicians, not a single man who could be our leader."


There are three main parties vying 12 to lead Pakistan.  For many of the country's illiterate 13 voters, the parties are identified by their symbols.  There's the bicycle for the ruling party, the Pakistan Muslim League, led by General Musharraf.  There's the arrow for the Pakistan People's Party, led by Bhutto's husband, Asif Ali Zardari.  And there is the tiger for a split off of the ruling party, led by Nawaz Sharif, a two-time prime minister who was deposed 14 by Musharraf in 1999.


The pre-election violence has ratcheted up tension in this nuclear-armed Islamic nation of 165 million people. It also has highlighted a sense of growing insecurity in a country seen as a key partner in the U.S.-led war against al-Qaida terrorists and their allied 15 Taliban fighters, who appear to be gaining a wider foothold in the tribal 16 areas of northwestern Pakistan.


But for many Pakistanis, the top election issues are closer to home.  The skyrocketing cost of food and fuel is mainly what is on the minds of most Pakistanis.  No government will last long unless they can control inflation.  That is according to Irfan Khan, who helps manage a family pet store that mainly sells parakeets, which constantly chatter 17 in the background.


"The most important issue is inflation, and after that the petrol crisis," he said.  "Whichever government will come they will not survive and there will be a breakup after six months or one year."


A team of observers from the United States and the European Union is in Pakistan to help independent Pakistani civic 18 groups monitor polling stations in the country's 272 voting districts.


Still, many Pakistanis worry that post-election clashes between the government and angry opposition supporters are almost inevitable 19.




n.悲观者,悲观主义者,厌世者
  • He displayed his usual pessimism.他流露出惯有的悲观。
  • There is the note of pessimism in his writings.他的著作带有悲观色彩。
n.卫戍部队;驻地,卫戍区;vt.派(兵)驻防
  • The troops came to the relief of the besieged garrison.军队来援救被围的守备军。
  • The German was moving to stiffen up the garrison in Sicily.德军正在加强西西里守军之力量。
a.毛毛雨的(a drizzly day)
  • This section of the country is drizzly in the winter. 该国的这一地区在冬天经常细雨蒙蒙。
  • That region is drizzly in winter. 那个地区冬天常下小雨。
n.主要产物,常用品,主要要素,原料,订书钉,钩环;adj.主要的,重要的;vt.分类
  • Tea is the staple crop here.本地产品以茶叶为大宗。
  • Potatoes are the staple of their diet.土豆是他们的主要食品。
抵制,拒绝参加( boycott的现在分词 )
  • They're boycotting the shop because the people there are on strike. 他们抵制那家商店,因为那里的店员在罢工。
  • The main opposition parties are boycotting the elections. 主要反对党都抵制此次选举。
adv.坦率地;彻底地;立即;adj.无疑的;彻底的
  • If you have a complaint you should tell me outright.如果你有不满意的事,你应该直率地对我说。
  • You should persuade her to marry you outright.你应该彻底劝服她嫁给你。
v.覆盖,使平淡无味;n.柩衣,棺罩;棺材;帷幕
  • Already the allure of meals in restaurants had begun to pall.饭店里的饭菜已经不像以前那样诱人。
  • I find his books begin to pall on me after a while.我发觉他的书读过一阵子就开始对我失去吸引力。
adj.有希望的,有前途的
  • The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
  • We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。
n.反对,敌对
  • The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
  • The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。
v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 );中伤;诋毁;破坏
  • The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
  • Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后,肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句
adj.竞争的;比赛的
  • California is vying with other states to capture a piece of the growing communications market.为了在日渐扩大的通讯市场分得一杯羹,加利福尼亚正在和其他州展开竞争。
  • Four rescue plans are vying to save the zoo.4个拯救动物园的方案正争得不可开交。
adj.文盲的;无知的;n.文盲
  • There are still many illiterate people in our country.在我国还有许多文盲。
  • I was an illiterate in the old society,but now I can read.我这个旧社会的文盲,今天也认字了。
v.罢免( depose的过去式和过去分词 );(在法庭上)宣誓作证
  • The president was deposed in a military coup. 总统在军事政变中被废黜。
  • The head of state was deposed by the army. 国家元首被军队罢免了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
adj.协约国的;同盟国的
  • Britain was allied with the United States many times in history.历史上英国曾多次与美国结盟。
  • Allied forces sustained heavy losses in the first few weeks of the campaign.同盟国在最初几周内遭受了巨大的损失。
adj.部族的,种族的
  • He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
  • The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。
vi./n.喋喋不休;短促尖叫;(牙齿)打战
  • Her continuous chatter vexes me.她的喋喋不休使我烦透了。
  • I've had enough of their continual chatter.我已厌烦了他们喋喋不休的闲谈。
adj.城市的,都市的,市民的,公民的
  • I feel it is my civic duty to vote.我认为投票选举是我作为公民的义务。
  • The civic leaders helped to forward the project.市政府领导者协助促进工程的进展。
adj.不可避免的,必然发生的
  • Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
  • The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。
学英语单词
air dynamics
airlift beet pump
arene epoxide
Banfele
beatism
Berlingen
Bourbon, Charles
Buckley's chance
catalyst cartridge
chirrhotic inflammation
corrosive atmospheres test
coupled modes
cut someone out of all feather
depletion of resources
dequeuing
despatch department
destination code base
Deutsche Normenausschuss
einstein-podolsky- rosen paradox
Enfesta
exhausted receivers
family Daubentoniidae
fancy diagonal
flat amplifier
folliculous
fore castle side plate
gangland
general parts of machine
genus Dolichonyx
going with the flow
hair salt
headmount
held covered clause
income equity fund
income redistributing account
inland harbor
input error control
isonitrosoacetone
johannes brahmss
Kaimon-dake
lienunculus
likhachev
lobi spigelii
maculae acusticae
mechanical flowsheet
metallographic test
mitofsky
multiinput
multiple experts
needle piston
nonobscene
odd-jobbings
oligotrophic brown soil
orange-juice concentrates
oxalacetics
parallel main storage
paying remuneration according to standard output
penalty-area
photocoagulative
piney buttes
pitched turbine type agitator
plate divergence
purple wire
quasi-negotiable document
rail lifter
reaction media
receiving point
rejection of a theory
rentering
RPAS
rulemakers
sagittal nuclei
sand mixer
schetical
seal wax
selenium sulfite
sesquicentennially
ship acquisition
sicad
significativeness
sirkin
small bundle
so As not to
sodium orthotitanate
solar concentrator
spam relays
Step Potential
stinkardly
stochastic decision process
stripy defect
suavis
sunburst varicosities
svdp
Tiberias, L.
to jump for joy
toliara (tulear)
trafficky
tray cloth
trench-arc
ultraviolet astronomy
watch your hand
wyntoun