2015考研英语阅读香港的抗议

　　Protest in Hong Kong

　　香港的抗议

　　ON JULY 1st 2003 half a million people took to the streets of Hong Kong, forced thegovernment to give up on a reviled law and ended the career of the territorys chief executive,Tung Chee-hwa. This is not a Tung Chee-hwa moment, but the kettle is boiling again. On July1st throngs of angry Hong Kong people rallied between Victoria Park and the governmentbuildings in Centralmore than 200,000, according to organisersshouting, singing, whistlingand waving banners demanding democratic rights, great and small. It was the largestpopular demonstration on Chinese territory in several years. The people of Hong Kong, sooften quiescent, are angry again: at their local government and at meddling by the nationalauthorities in faraway Beijing.

　　2003年7月1日，五十万民众走上香港街头，迫使政府放弃备受诟病的法律和结束特区行政长官董建华的职业生涯。此时已不是董建华的重要时刻，但是壶水再一次沸腾了。据组织者说，7月1日超过20万愤怒的香港民众集结在维多利亚公园和中环的政府大楼，大声呼喊，放声歌唱，吹着哨子，举着横幅要求各阶层人民的民主权利。这是这几年中国辖区内范围最大的示威游行。通常沉寂的香港民众再一次对地方政府和远在北京的国家当局的干预愤怒了。

　　On the next business day, July 4th, the government blinked, postponing a controversialrevision to Hong Kongs electoral law, which would have banned by-elections for vacated seatsin the Legislative Council . The government had wanted to do this to prevent itsopponents from repeating a stunt from last year, when they engineered by-elections toimprovise a kind of straw poll on democracy itself.

　　下一个工作日，7月4日，政府推迟了有争议的香港选举法修正法案，这个修正法案禁止立法委员会空缺职位的递补选举。政府想通过这防止反对者重复去年的伎俩，当时反对者们炮制了递补选举，做了一个临时的关于民主本身的民意测验投票。

　　Never mind that those by-elections drew only 17% of registered voters to the polls. Thegovernment is hell-bent on keeping voters away from anything that looks like a referendum. Itthinks its very legitimacy is at stake.

　　那些递补选举无关紧要，他们仅仅吸引了17%的注册选民参与民意测验投票。政府竭力使选民远离类似公投性质的投票。政府认为其合法性是有问题的。

　　Before the July 1st protest, it had argued that the proposed change was urgently neededbefore Legcos next session could begin. Now there will be a public consultation, meaning atwo-month pause in which the government must hope the protesters lose interest or go onholiday.

　　7月1日抗议之前，政府已经对在立法委员会下届会议之前改动提议的迫切性进行了争论。现在将会有一个民意征询，即暂停两个月，这两个月内政府最好希望抗议者对此失去兴趣或外出度假。

　　The delay may cool passions, but not for long. Theunderlying issue of suffrage in Hong Kong isbecoming more divisive as the tenure of DonaldTsang Yam-kuen, the current chief executive,draws to a close. This July marks the start of MrTsangs last year in office. In 2012 a carefullyselected committee of 1,200 members0.017% ofthe populationwill choose his replacement.

　　延期也许会使激情消退，但是时间不会长久。由于现任行政长官曾荫权的任期接近尾声，香港选举权的根本问题变得更加分化。今年七月，标志着曾荫权执政最后一年的开始。2012年，一个精挑细选的拥有1200个成员的特别委员会将会选出曾荫权的继任者。

　　To most Hong Kongers it is a rigged contest. Of the desultory crew of candidates beingmooted, the three most likely share a salient characteristic: they are dependably pro-Beijing. One of them, Rita Fan Hsu Lai-tai, a former president of Legco with a schoolmarmishmanner, enjoys a measure of popularity. Another, Leung Chun-ying, is a force in theproperty world. He is rumoured to have some ideas up his sleeve, which would be a welcomechange. But in opinion polls he draws lower numbers than any other candidate underconsiderationperhaps because of his close ties to Chinas Communists. The emergingfavourite, with only marginally better ratings, is Henry Tang Ying-yen, the current chiefsecretary, whose most memorable recent public pronouncement has been his defence of thedespised property tycoons who get blamed for the territorys extortionate housing prices.

　　对于大部分的香港民众来说，这是一个操纵选举的较量。这些背景参差不齐的候选人中，三个希望最大候选人都具有一个显著特征：他们是忠实的亲北京派。其中之一，带有女校长举止的立法委员会前任主席范徐丽泰，很受欢迎。另外一个，梁振英，他是房地产领域的重量级人物。据说他有些锦囊妙计，这将会是一个可喜的变化。然而民意调查显示，他的支持者数量在所有候选人中最低，这也许是因为他和中国共产党的密切关系。最近出现的民意调查中稍占优势的是现任政务司司长唐英年，他最近的引人瞩目的公开声明，为受到歧视的房地产大亨作了辩护，此房地产大亨因香港过高的房价而受指责。

　　July 1st has been a day of protest since 1998, when it marked the first anniversary of HongKongs handover from Britain to China. But it was only after the huge anti-Tung protest of2003 that the full power of the annual march was realised. The day is always a long, hot slog.Some years the marchers have been few, and their tempers mild. But other years, the protestignites. The 2003 explosion owed its intensity to the fearsome combination of SARS, aserious form of pneumonia that appeared that year, a housing bust, knock-on effects in thelocal economy and a sense that Mr Tung was too incompetent to cope with it all. After MrTsang succeeded him in 2005, confidence in the government was partially restored.

　　自从1998年，7月 1日成了抗议的日子，当时是英国移交香港给中国的第一个周年纪念日。但是2003年反董建华抗议大游行后不久，每年的大规模示威游行实现了。这一天总是漫长而炎热的。一些年份游行者少了，他们的脾气也温和了。但是其他年份，抗议被点燃了。2003年的强烈爆发，基于多个原因：那一年出现了一种严重肺病 SARS，房地产泡沫破灭并对当地经济产生连锁效应，以及人们觉得董建华太无能而无法应对这一切。2005年曾荫权从他手中接任之后，民众对政府的信心才得以部分恢复。

　　This summer housing prices are near their record highs, making the unpropertied classesmiserable in a new way. Recent polls by the University of Hong Kong find Mr Tsangs approvalratings have fallen to their lowest level since he took office. Only 20% of citizens said they weresatisfied with his government, down from a high of 57% when he took the job. As Mr Tsangsstock has fallen, so has Hong Kongs view of China. Each of the past 14 years the same pollingunit has used the handover anniversary to ask Hong Kongers whether or not they feel proud tohave become citizens of China. The figures fluctuated only slightly between 2007 to 2010, witheach sides numbers hovering between 48% and 50%. But this year saw a seven-point drop:only 41% felt proud to be part of China.

　　今年夏天房价已接近历史高点，这使无产阶层以一种新的方式遭受痛苦。香港大学的民意调查显示，曾荫权的支持率已经跌到了他就职以来的最低水平。只有20%的民众对政府满意，从他就职时的57%下降了。随着曾荫权股价的下跌，中国对香港的看法也是如此。在过去的14 年，每年的香港回归周年纪念日，同一个投票站单位向香港人征询，他们是否为已经成为中国公民感到自豪。投票数字只在2007到2010年之间变动不大，双方数字徘徊在48%到50%之间。

　　At the moment, most resentment is local, focused on the chief executive, a few of his officers,and the near future. But if the 1,200-member election committee cannot find a more popularleader, next years July 1st rally might dwarf this one.

　　眼下，人们的不满主要是针对地方政府，对象集中于行政长官，不久的将来，一些政府职员也将加入。如果拥有1200个成员的特别选举委员会不能选出一个更受欢迎的领导，下年7月的集会游行也许会比今年的更大。