10 IS THIS A JOKE

----AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION2000

Who Are They?  

     Al Gore 1 and Reorge W.Bush bothe continue political traditions set down by their families.

     Al Gore was born just outside Carthage in Smith County, Tennessee, but split his time growing up between there and Washington, DC where 6)his father was a Senator.  Gore attended Harvard and later 7)Vanderbilt where he studied Religion, then Law. After finishing school he enrolled 2 in the Army and served in Vietnam, even though his father was one of the Vietnam War's harshest critics. Gore was elected to Congress in 1976 at the age of 28. In 1992, he was named Bill Clinton's running mate. This August he became the Democratic Party's candidate for President.

      George W. grew up in West Texas in a town called Midland, the eldest 3 of 6 children of George and Barbara Bush. George W. Bush's grandfather 8)Prescott Bush was a Senator in Connecticut. Then his father George Bush Sr. made it all the way to President in 1988. George W. studied at Yale, then Harvard before serving with the 9)Air National Guard in Texas, a move that helped him avoid the draft during the Vietnam War. In 1988 George W. Bush served as an advisor 4 for his fathers successful presidential bid.

Bush: My plan balances the budget. It funds needed priorities including defense 5 and education. It reduces the 10)national debt...

Gore: ...and I'll devote the largest share of our 11)surplus to 12)paying down the national debt every year until it is completely eliminated by the year 2012.

Bush: There's $2.3 trillion of surplus that we can use to make sure that younger workers have a 13)Social Security plan in the future.

Gore: Here's my plan. I will keep Social Security in a 14)locked box...

     When it comes to technology issues, Bush and Gore both favor a 15)tax credit for company research and development. Both favor e-Government that is using the web to make government more accessible to everyone, and both want Internet user privacy protected. The differences are minor 6.

Gore(in St. Louis, MO): You have the decision right here in the 16)Show Me State. You have the ability to show him what you want in the way of America's future. I want you to use your head to persuade the undecided voters. Tell them how strongly you feel about this.

Gore(in Michigan): Gore-Lieberman win! Michigan wins! 17)UAW wins! The people win! God bless you! Let's do it tomorrow...

It was an upbeat George W. Bush who returned home to Austin at the end of a 18)grueling campaign.

Bush: You're looking at the next President of the United States.

Bush had earlier swung through Iowa, Wisconsin, and Tennessee, Al Gore's home state.

Bush(in Tennessee): He may win Washington, DC, but he's not going to win Tennessee...

It's Just the Beginning  

     Good Evening. Voting has begun along the U.S. East Coast in the tightest presidential election for decades. 19)The first results came from two tiny hamlets in New Hampshire. In Dixville Notch 8, Texas Governor George W. Bush got 21 votes to Vice 9 Presidents Al Gore's 5 and 1 for the 20)Green Party's 21)Ralph Nader. In Hart's Location, it was Bush 17, Gore 13 and Nader 1. Nationwide the race remains 10 too close to call, but some late opinion polls are showing a swing towards Al Gore. It's equally tight in the race for the 22)all-important Electoral College votes, decided 7 according to the winner in each state. 270 votes are needed for the presidency 11.

     And MTV Chose or Lose Poll found that 25% of young adults between the ages of 18 to 24 cannot name the presidential candidates without prompting. And 70% can't identify the vice presidential candidates

Interviewer: Who are the 2 vice presidential candidates?

Interviewee 1: Lieberman and I don't know who the other one is.

Interviewee 2: McCain and ... God, what's the...

Interviewee 3: Lieberman for Gore and Cheney for Bush.

Interviewer: You're great with that.

Interviewee 3: All right !

Tom Brokow of NBC NEWS: An important win for Vice President Al Gore, NBC News projects that he wins the 25 electoral votes in the state of Florida ...

Peter Jennings of ABC News: We are now able to make a projection 12 in the state of Florida. Al Gore wins the state of Florida ...

Tom Brokow of NBC NEWS: NBC News is now taking Florida out of Vice President Gore's column ...

Peter Jennings of ABC News: ABC News is now going to project that Florida goes to Mr. Bush.

Bush Campaign Chairman: George Bush, governor of Texas, will become the 43 president of the United States.

     In Nashville, there is now 23)unanimity 13 among his aids: he has lost. Gore calls Bush. He offers congratulations, and heads to the War Memorial to publicly 24)concede. Now, a night of high drama becomes positively 14 25)excruciating. Again, there is unanimity. This time that the race is not over.

Dan Rather of CBS: Bulletin: A senior Gore aid confirms, Gore withdraws concession 15.

     Gore calls Bush for a second time. Bush is 26)incredulous, disbelieving. He tells Gore, "do what you have to do". Gore at some point tells Bush, he doesn't have to be "27)snippy." A 28)contentious call ends. In the middle of the night, the Washington Post stops the presses. Supporters are informed.

Gore Campaign Manager William Daley: Our campaign continues.

Bush Campaign Manager Don Evans: When it's all said and one, we will 29)prevail.

     The crowds begin to thin out. The candidates go to sleep, still not knowing which one of them is the president elect.

November 8 

     And there is another complication. Some who voted in Florida yesterday are crying foul 16, saying the voting process was a mess, in places like, Palm Beach County, where the ballot 17 was confusing, might have resulted in a lot of mistaken votes for 30)Pat Buchanan.

Who Is To Blame?

     But we cannot get to the end of this broadcast without looking at what role we, in the media, played last night, though we are not certain what effect, if any, our mistaken projections 18 in Florida had. The background is this: since 1980, 31)the television networks have made election projections based on voters telling exit pollsters how they voted, and some actual voting returns. It is almost always accurate. Last night, in an uncertain political environment we saw the result of two rare mistakes.

     When the first returns came in, from certain 32)precincts, it looked like Al Gore's exit poll lead neatly 19 matched his lead in those early key precincts, so the programmers said, you know, we can give the state to Gore because the lead, it's real. So 33)the expert vote counters, that worked for all the networks in New York, sent this message at 34)7:52 Eastern: In Florida, the presidential, Gore wins. The problem was they went too fast, and the networks competing to call states as quickly as possible, went along. Because it now appears that the first precincts that reported in were not typical. The match in fact was 35)flawed, and pretty quickly, Gore's lead began to disappear.

     The second error came later. Around 2 am, George Bush was ahead, but then, he got a sudden and unexpected boost from, of all places, Broward County. That's a Gore county. Suddenly, Bush was 50,000 votes ahead, with 80% of the state in. First the Fox Network figured Al Gore can't catch up now, so they called the state, and very quickly, perhaps for competitive reasons, so did everybody else. But again, it turned out they moved too fast. Those first pro-Bush votes from Broward were quickly followed by thousands of pro-Gore votes. So Bush's 50,000 vote-lead was reduced very quickly to a lead of 224 votes. Time to 36)eat crow, again.

     Well, I said we didn't know what effect, if any, we'd had. In fact we had some, in the form of premature 20 congratulations from several capitals overseas. The leaders immediately issued statements congratulating George Bush. They, like us, took it back a little later on.

You Want To Gamble?

     After one of the most 37)tumultuous elections in recent history, the campaign to win the White House continues into another week, sowing the seeds of 38)discord and uncertainty 21 in Washington and in the markets along the way. The stock market, already nervous because of the slowing economy and warnings of about the 39)decelerating pace of future growth, took the political developments hard this week. At 1:30 on 40)Thursday afternoon, the Dow went into a 41)free fall when the Gore campaign announced that it would support legal actions in Florida.

     While the result is still too close to call, the sometimes rocky relationship between China and the U.S. will remain important to the new administration. Republicans in Hong Kong say Sino-US ties are strategically crucial and that won't change, even if George W. Bush becomes president.

American in HK: You are gonna see a $1.3 Trillion 42)tax rebate 22, 43% of which will go to the top 1% of Americans. You'd see a breaking of 43)the balanced budget agreement...

     Ahead of China's entry into the World Trade Organization, business groups say a Bush presidency would be better for free trade.

Not A Big Deal 

     There have been more 44)allegations of election 45)irregularities in the United States, the latest being in Wisconsin, where Gore led Bush by just more than 6,000 votes.

     Dozens of students at 46)Marquette University in 47)Milwaukee are now openly 48)boasting: They voted more than once in last week's election.

Student: I realized that it wouldn't be impossible for me to vote again, and so that's what I did. I ended up voting four times that day, for myself.

It's not known who got the extra votes, but students say officials at the polling place did little to prevent it.

Student Editor: Their IDs weren't being checked. Their 49)proof of address wasn't being checked.

     Michael McGraw, an editor of the campus newspaper, The Marquette Tribune, says a 50)canvass by his reporters found 141 students who admitted to voting more than once, which is a 51)felony offence.

Student editor: It kind of struck them like. "Felony offence? What are you talking about? I just voted twice, that's not that big a deal."

52)Dave Letterman: All kidding aside, here's my fear. Here's what I'm concerned about. If they keep demanding these recounts, if we don't put an end to these recounting, if the recounts don't stop, here's my fear, sooner or later, there's gonna be a winner. That's what I'm scared of... It can't go on like this...

Lesson One: Know Thy Country

     Across the country, many students are following the 53)twists and turns of this presidential race as never before.

Student A: I don't think that the election is worth anything if it doesn't represent the will of the majority of people.

Student B: I'm just concerned about what a 54)laughing stock we are to the rest of the world.

     So they ask, What's wrong with the system?

Teacher: If we lose faith in the voting process, we have a problem in this country.

     Some kids have trouble understanding the Electoral College, or the fact that the candidate can win the popular vote, and still lose the race. But in this once in a life time election, these are lessons they are unlikely to forget.

Student C: When Jefferson and all those people decided on the electoral college system, they never ever dreamed it would ever get this close, and now that it has, it's really an incredible happening.

At the Packer 55)Collegiate Institute, in Brooklyn, this model Congress debated, then voted to abolish the Electoral College today, 11 to 3.

There's more to com

     November 19 

     Here briefly 23 is where we stand tonight. Lawyers for both sides have filed their arguments for tomorrow's Supreme 24 Court hearing. The manual recounts continue in two Florida counties. They'll begin in another third tomorrow. A growing dispute over the rejection 25 of some of those absentee ballots 26, absentee ballots which increased George W. Bush's slim lead to 930 votes in what remains an uncertified statewide account. Nothing now is more important than tomorrow's Supreme Court hearing and that's where we begin. ABC's Erin Hayes is in 56)Tallahassee tonight.

     Both camps 57)scrambled to get their briefs in by deadline today. Hundreds of pages of argument and evidence that all 58)boiled down essentially 27 to this, whether Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, abused her 59)discretion, by holding 60)hard and fast to last weeks deadline for accepting manually counted votes. It all goes before the seven-member Florida Supreme Court tomorrow. Almost all the justices are Democrats 28, but even many Republicans who know them say, Politics is not likely to 61)sway them.

                                             这仅仅是一个笑话吗

                                                    -----看美国总统大选

他们是谁？

    艾尔·戈尔攻小布什都继承了各自家庭从政的传统

    艾尔·戈尔出生在美国田纳西州史密斯郡的卡尔撒奇。不过，因为他的父亲是美国的参议员，他本人在卡尔撒奇和华盛顿两地长大。戈尔先在哈佛大学上学，后来又在范德比尔特大学先后学习宗教和法律。完成学业后，戈尔报名参军并赴越南服役，而戈尔的父亲则是美国国内对越战最严厉的反对者之一。在一九七六年，二十八岁的戈尔被选入国会。在一九九二年，他成了比尔·克林顿的竞选伙伴。今年(二零零零年)八月，戈尔成为美国民主党的总统候选人。

     小布什是乔治·布什和芭芭拉·布什六个孩子中的老大，在西得克萨斯州一个叫米德兰的小镇长大的。小布什的爷爷普雷斯科特·布什是来自康涅狄格州的参议员。他的父亲老乔治·布什的从政之路一直走到一九八八年当选为美国总统。小布什先就读于耶鲁大学，然后又在哈佛大学上学。之后，他加入了美国的国民警卫队空军，这一举动使他避免了应征入伍而被派到越南去打仗的命运。在一九八八年，小布什成了他父亲成功问鼎白宫竞选活动中的一名顾问。

布什：我的计划将能使平衡政府财政预算。我的计划为急需的项目提供资金，这些方面包括国防、教育。我的计划还将减少国债......

戈尔：......另外，我还将用政府预算盈余最大的那一部分用来每年分期偿还国债，一直到二零一二年彻底消除国债为止。

布什：有二点三兆美元的政府预算盈余可以用来确保年青人在未来能真正有一个社会保险计划。

戈尔：我的计划是这样的：我会把社会保险放在一个安全的地方......

在科技方面，布什和戈尔都赞成为企业的研究与开发扣除课税。两人都支持电子政府的实现，让每人都能更方便地使用政府的服务；两人都支持互联网上的隐私权得到保护。在这方面，两人的主张几乎没有什么不同。

戈尔(在密苏里州的圣路易市)：在这个不轻信之州，主动权就在你们的手上。你可以告诉布什对于美国的未来，你们是怎么样想的。我要你们动动脑子，去说服那些还没有下定决心的选民，告诉他们你们坚决的主张。

戈尔(在密歇根州)：戈尔-利伯曼必胜！密歇根州必胜！联合汽车工会必胜！人民必胜！上帝保佑你们！让我们明天一起行动吧！

在紧张的竞选活动之后，依然是精神饱满的乔治·W.布什回到他在得克萨斯州首府奥斯丁的家。

布什：在你们面前的是美国下任总统。

在你在此之前，布什已经去过衣阿华州、威斯康星州和戈尔的家乡田纳西州。

布什（在田纳西州）：戈尔也许能赢得华盛顿特区，但他可赢不了田纳西州......

好戏才刚刚开始

     晚上好。在这次数十年来最接近的总统选举中，投票在美国的东岸已经开始了。最初的结果来自新罕布什州的两个小村子，在迪西维尔峡，得克萨斯州州长小布什得了二十一票，副总统艾尔·戈尔得了五票，而绿党的拉尔夫·纳德只获得一票。在哈兹区，他们三人的得票分别是十七票、十三票和一票。从全国来看，双方胜负还很难决定，不过从一些最新的投票结果表明，艾尔·戈尔稍胜一筹。在至关重要的选举人投票中，双方也是旗鼓相当。双方在各个州的胜者将决定他们最终获得的选举人的票数。要成功当选总统，候选人必须获得二百七十张选举人票。

     MTV的"选择还是错过"民意测验表明，在十八岁到二十四岁的年青人当中，在没有提示的情况下，有百分之二十五的人不能说出谁是总统候选人，有百分之七十的人说不出谁是副总统候选人。

提问人：两个副总统候选人是谁？

答者甲：利伯曼和......我不知道另一个是谁。

答者乙：麦凯恩和......天哪，是谁......

答者丙：戈尔的副总统候选人是利伯曼，布什的是切尼。

提问人：你在这方面还不错嘛。

答者丙：哗，真棒！

全国广播公司的汤姆·布罗克：副总统戈尔赢了重要的一仗。我们全国广播公司预测他赢得了佛罗里达州的二十五张选举人票......

 美国广播公司的彼得·詹宁斯：现在，我们可以对佛罗里达州的选情做一个预测。艾尔·戈尔在这个州赢了。

全国广播公司的汤姆·布罗克：我们全国广播公司现在正把佛罗里达州从副总统戈尔所得的票数中减去。

美国广播公司的彼得·詹宁斯：美国广播公司现在预测佛罗里达州成了布什的囊中之物。

布什竞选主席：得克萨斯州州长乔治·布什将成为第四十三任美国总统。

     在纳什维尔，戈尔的助手们达成一致：他输了。戈尔致电布什，向他表示祝贺。接着，戈尔往市内的战争纪念碑出发，准备在那里公开承认失败。就在这时，这一晚的戏剧性高潮毫无疑问到了令人难以忍受的顶点。戈尔的助手们再次达成一致，这一次的意见与上一次截然相反：竞选还没有结束。

哥伦比亚广播公司的丹·拉瑟：公布栏：戈尔的一名高级顾问确认，戈尔撤回他的承认。

     戈尔又一次致电小布什。小布什几乎不敢相信这种事情。他告诉戈尔去"做你认为应该做的事"。期间，戈尔对布什说他没有必要如此"目中无人"。一次充满火药味的对话结束了。深夜，《华盛顿邮报》的印刷机停了下来。双方的支持者也得到了消息。

戈尔竞选主任威廉·达利：我们的竞选活动将继续下去。

布什竞选主任当·艾凡斯：等所有的这一切结束时，我们一定会胜利的。

     人群慢慢散去了。带着未知数，两位候选人也去睡觉了

十一月八日

     更加复杂的事情还在后头。昨天，一些佛罗里达州的选民声称被愚弄了。他们说投票过程简直是一团糟，在一些地方，像棕榈滩郡，那里的选票非常混乱，可能导致帕特·布坎南误得不少选票

谁之过？

     在这次节目结束之前，我们得看看我们媒体在昨晚的事件中究竟扮演了一个怎么样的角色，虽说我们不敢肯定对佛罗里达州的错误预测是否造成了什么后果，或者说造成了怎么样的后果。这件事的背景是这样的：从一九八零年开始，电视广播公司一直依靠选民给民意测验者的资料和一些真实的选举结果来进行投票预测。靠这种做法得到的结果一直都很准确。但在昨天晚上，在一个难以预料的政治环境下，我们目睹了两个罕见的错误。

     从第一批统计结果来看，艾尔·戈尔领先情况与早些时候一些关键选区的情况相吻合，这时，程序员觉得戈尔的领先地位是确实无疑的，我们应该可以把佛罗里达州的选举人票给戈尔了。于是，为纽约所有的电视广播公司服务的经验丰富的投票统计人员在东岸时间七点五十二分发出了这样一条信息：佛罗里达州，总统选举，戈尔取胜。问题是他们太急了。急于公布各州选举结果的电视广播公司也跟着错了。因为接着发现报告中反映的第一批选区的情况并不够典型，与实际相吻合的形势是有缺陷的，很快地，戈尔的领先消失了。

     晚些时候又发现了第二个错误。在次日(十一月八日)的凌晨两点，乔治·布什不仅领先，而且突然间从布劳沃德郡得到意想不到的收获。那可是戈尔的地盘。在已经统计的百分之八十选票里，布什一下子领先了五万票。首先是福克斯电视网络算出戈尔已经不可能追上来了，所以他们宣布了对这个州的预测。也许是相互竞争的缘故，其它电视台很快地也跟了上来。可是，他们这次还是太急躁了。数以千计的戈尔支持者的选票很快追上了第一批布劳沃德郡的布什支持者的选票。布什的领先票数很快从五万张降到二百二十四张。

     我说了，我不知道我们昨晚的做法造成了什么影响。其实，影响还是有的。这就是从一些国家的首都发来的仓促贺电。像我们一样，这些国家的元首在晚些时候收回了他们的话。

敢赌一把吗？

     在经历了历史上最混乱的一次大选后，赢得白宫的争斗还继续。这不仅仅在华府埋下了不协调的伏笔，也给市场带来不稳定的因素。股市本来就因为增长减慢的经济和关于未来经济增长缓慢的警告而提心吊胆的，而大选政治更让股市这一周受到重创。在戈尔宣布会支持在佛罗里达州采取法律行动后，星期四下午一点半，道琼斯工业指数急速下跌。

     美国的大选结果还没有最后的结果，而摇摆不定的中美关系对新政府来说仍然是很重要的。在香港的美国共和党人说，中美关系有着至关重要的战略性地位，即使是乔治·W.布什当选也不会改变的。

在香港的美国人：(如果布什上台的话) 报税回扣将达一点三兆美元，美国最富裕的百分之一的人中将获得其中的百分之四十三。早先达成的政府财政预算平衡的协议也将失效......

     在中国进入国际贸易组织的前夕，商界认为布什当选会对自由贸易更为有利。

没有什么大不了的

     在美国，又有更多关于大选投票违规行为的指控。最新的事件来自威斯康星州。在那里，戈尔比布什领先六千多票。

     有十几个密尔沃基的马凯特大学学生公开夸耀，说自己在上星期的投票中投了不止一票。

学生：我想，不知有没有可能再去投一票，所以我就又去投了一票。那天，我自己结果投了四票。

     无人知道究竟是那位候选人得到这些多投的票，但学生说投票站的官员并没有采取什么有效措施来防止类似情况的发生。

学生编辑：没人检查学生的身份证，也没有人查他们的居住地证明。

     米高·麦格劳是学生报纸《马凯特论坛》的编辑，他说他的手下做了一个调查，发现有一百四十一个学生承认那天投票不止一次。这种行为是一项重罪。

学生编辑：他们觉得很愕然。“重罪？这叫什么话？我只不过是投了两次票而已，这有什么大不了的。"

戴夫·莱特曼：先把玩笑放到一边，我怕的是这个。我真正关心的这个：如果他们不停地要求重点选票，如果我们不结束没完没了的选票重点，如果重新点票不结束的话，我担心的是早晚一定会有一个赢家。这就是让我真正感到害怕的。这件事不能再这样继续下去......

第一课：了解你的国家

     在全国，许多学生也前所未有的关注着这场总统大选。

学生甲：我觉得要是选举不代表大多数人的意愿的话就没有意思。

学生乙：我关心的是我们已成了世界上遭耻笑的对象。

     因此，学生问道：我们的制度出了什么问题？

老师：如果我们对投票程序失去了信心，这个国家就很成问题了。

     有些学生搞不懂选举人制度，也不明白为什么候选人在普选中落败但却能最后胜出。不过，这次千载难逢的选举给他们上了难忘的一课。

学生丙：杰弗逊和其他人在设立选举人制度的时候，他们从来没有想过会出现这种情况。而现在这种事情发生了，真是不可思议。

     在布鲁克林的帕克大学院，学生今天模仿国会进行辩论，他们最终投票取消选举人制度，十一比三。

精彩的还在后头......

     十一月十九日

     现在的情况简单来说是这样。双方的律师就明天佛罗里达州最高法院的听证提出诉讼。同时，手工计票在佛罗里达的两个郡继续进行。明天，会有第三个郡开始手工票。双方为是否应该拒绝其中的一些缺席选票而吵得不可开交，缺席选票已把乔治·W.布什的微弱领先优势增加到九百三十票。而佛罗里达州的选票数目还没有被官方公开证实。现在最重要的是明天佛罗里达州的听证会。我们也从这里开始。请听美国广播公司艾琳·海斯在塔拉哈西的报道。

     双方今天匆匆忙忙地赶在期限前提交各自的诉讼要点。数百页诉讼文件的要点都围绕一个问题：佛罗里达州州务卿凯瑟琳·哈里斯上星期在坚持接受人工计票的最后期限时究竟有没有滥用权利。明天，这些都将由有七个成员组成的佛罗里达州最高法院决定。几乎所有的法官都是民主党人，但很多认识他们的共和党人也说，他们是不会轻易被政治左右的。

1) fuel  vt.支持，刺激 

2) dramatic a.激动人心的，惹人注目的

3) billow   vi. 波涛汹涌，如波浪一般飘动

4)  stockrider   n. 骑马的牧羊人或牧牛人，牛仔注释

5)  G'Day: Good day, 即”你好” 注释

6)  这首歌由澳大利亚小姑娘妮琦·韦伯斯特（Nikki Webster）演唱

7)  breed  n. （遗传）品种；种族，品种；种，族注释

8)  compatriot  n. 同胞，同国人         9) springboard  n. 跳板

10) synchronize  vt. 使在时间上一致，使同步

11) lag  vi. 落后，延迟