英语听力精选进阶版 6220
时间：2019-02-21 作者：英语课 分类：英语听力精选进阶版
Conservative David Cameron Wins 保守党的戴维·卡梅伦获胜
After days of political horse-trading the UK finally has a new government and a new Prime Minister, following the resignation of Labour's Gordon Brown on Tuesday evening.
Since last Thursday's general election resulted in a hung parliament, a situation in which none of the political parties has an overall majority, British politicians have been attempting to form a coalition 1 government.
Such a government is comparatively rare in the UK. Indeed this is the first coalition since the Second World War.
So how did it happen?
Last week's general election saw the public vote split amongst the political parties in such a way that no party achieved the 326 seats required to gain a majority and therefore form a government.
This situation is known as a hung parliament, and means that two or more of the opposing parties have to unite in order to have more than 326 seats between them.
The Conservative party won 306 seats while Labour and the Liberal Democrats 2 got 258 and 57 seats respectively.
This meant that the Liberal Democrats effectively became 'kingmakers', with the power to choose which rival to form a coalition with.
Both Labour and the Conservatives attempted to woo the Lib Dems with various offers over the last few days, but in the end Gordon Brown resigned both as Prime Minster and as Labour leader, paving the way for the new government.
Many have seen the Lib Dems as the real winners in this situation, given the fact that their leader Nick Clegg has been appointed Deputy Prime Minister and four others have received ministerial appointments.
However, it remains 3 to be seen how effectively David Cameron's Conservatives can work with their new partners.
Glossary 词汇表
political horse-trading 政治交易、讨价还价
resignation 辞职
Labour 工党
general election 大选
hung parliament 无党派占绝对多数的议会/悬空议会
political parties 政党
overall majority 占绝大多数
coalition government 联合执政政府
comparatively rare 相对少见的
public vote 公众投票
seats 议席
unite 联合
Liberal Democrats 自由民主党
respectively 分别地
kingmakers 拥立国王的人
rival 对手
woo 求得赞同、讨好
paving the way 铺平道路
Deputy Prime Minister 副首相
ministerial appointments 部长级的任命
- The several parties formed a coalition.这几个政党组成了政治联盟。
- Coalition forces take great care to avoid civilian casualties.联盟军队竭尽全力避免造成平民伤亡。
- The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
- The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》