首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge said that watching Edmund Kean, the great tragedian of the London stage 200 years ago,
The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge said that watching Edmund Kean, the great tragedian of the London stage 200 years ago,
admin
2017-03-15
45
问题
The English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge said that watching Edmund Kean, the great tragedian of the London stage 200 years ago, was like "reading Shakespeare by flashes of lightning". That’s how we like our great moments in history to be, surrounded by drama, attended by heroes. By those standards, the process that led to the signing of the Treaty of Rome 50 years ago was almost ineffably mundane—a series of long meetings of forgotten bureaucrats in rooms foul with tobacco smoke. No blood was shed, few memorable speeches made; the heroes were those who could cajole a compromise into being over a hurried coffee, or draft a clause with exactly the right kind of nice phrase that would win broad support.
Yet the founding of the European Economic Community in 1957 was a momentous event. Today’s Europe is the largest expanse of peace and widely shared prosperity in the world. It is perfectly true that the EEC—as it was called in 1957, the European Union as it is now—is not solely responsible for that happy outcome. After the carnage of World War II, it was as much American minds and muscle as European ones that determined that Europe needed new institutions binding nations together if it was to avoid the catastrophes of war. Indeed, NATO and the Marshall Plan, both hatched in Washington, predated the EEC’s precursor, the European Coal and Steel Community.
Yet for all that, the decision in 1957 by six nations to pool sovereignty in multinational institutions marked a decisive break with the past. As it became apparent that the EEC worked—that common markets provided the sort of stability in which economies can grow—so its appeal spread. Soon, everyone with a claim to be European wanted to join. With the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the time was ripe for a dramatic expansion of the EU to the east, and gradually, that happened. The EU now has 27 members, including three former Soviet republics.
The EU has spawned admirers—how could it not?—but not imitators. No other multinational grouping—not Mercosur in Latin America, not ASEAN in Southeast Asia—has anything like the powerful institutions of the Union. Europe’s history and geography, it turns out, are unique. Its nations are small enough and close enough to understand each other and have shared values; but at the same time, all of Europe lived through such horrors in the 20th century that its nations’ postwar leaders needed little convincing of the virtues of cooperation. In Europe, nationalism has a bad name; in much of the rest of the world, where the memory of colonialism is still fresh, it is a source of pride and identity. Though Americans were midwives to the EU’s birth—Dean Acheson, the postwar US Secretary of State, thought that Britain had made a historic error by failing to join the coal and steel community—they have often since been bemused by Europe’s lack of nationalistic assertiveness. As Roger Cohen wrote in the International Herald Tribune recently, "The quiet glory of the postnational, postmodern entity is not the glory of the young, vigorous, flag-waving America."
True, that judgment would have been harder to make in the early 1990s. Then, Jacques Delors was the President of the European Commission, the single currency was being planned, and Francois Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl were shaping European policy. It seemed certain that political union would follow the economic variety and the EU become a second democratic Atlantic superpower. But that dream was curdled by European dithering in the Balkan wars and by the concomitant realization that European electorates had no stomach for displays of superpowerdom as they have been conventionally measured: that is to say, in killing capability. In 2005, voters in France and the Netherlands—two founding members—rejected a draft European constitution, without which political union is impossible. Javier Solana, the EU’s estimable foreign affairs czar, may bustle around the Middle East as he has been doing of late, but nobody pretends that when he does so he carries the weight of the US Secretary of State.
But perhaps the old measures of power and influence are not adequate to our time. After all, the horrors of Iraq are loud testimony to the limitations of hard power, applied by men bearing arms. The nations and people of the EU are generous when it comes to aiding the poor and disadvantaged; sensible in forming policies that address pressing environmental challenges. And perhaps above all—as the next four pages show—the institutions that give shape to Europe’s growing unity have made life better for those who live there. That seems a timid, small success. But for anyone old enough to remember the European misery out of which the Treaty of Rome took shape, it is a stunning miracle.
What is the function of the sentence "True, that judgement would have been harder to make in the early 1990s." (Para. 5)?
选项
A、To state the thesis of the passage.
B、To serve as a summary of the passage.
C、To play the role of transition.
D、To lead to a counter-argument in the following paragraphs.
答案
C
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/LECYFFFM
本试题收录于:
NAETI高级口译笔试题库外语翻译证书(NAETI)分类
0
NAETI高级口译笔试
外语翻译证书(NAETI)
相关试题推荐
OneworddescribeswhatmakesSingaporework:discipline.
Sincethedawnofcivilization,peoplehavebeencuriousabouttheageofEarth.Inaddition,wehavenotbeensatisfiedinbein
Socialcontrolreferstosocialprocesses,plannedorunplanned,bywhichpeoplearetaught,persuaded,orforcedtoconformto
Theschoolisgoingthe________miletocreatethenextgenerationofsportingstarsthankstoitsuniquedevelopmentprogram.
Theelectionof2017sawthemincreasingtheirnumberofparliamentaryseatsinScotlandfromoneto13andmadeimpressivegain
Whenchangestakeplaceinthemarketstheyareinvolvedin,itcanencouragenewentrantsandbattlesforturf,whichleadingt
Thankyouall.Mr.VicePresident;SecretaryGates;MadamSpeaker;JusticesoftheSupremeCourt;membersofmyCabinetandadmi
尊敬的各位嘉宾,女士们,先生们,朋友们:我代表中国政府,对莅临会议的东盟国家领导人和各位嘉宾表示热烈的欢迎!中国与东盟各国政府高度重视发展友好关系和互利合作。自2004年首次举办中国—东盟博览会和商务与投资峰会以来,双方积极推进中国—东盟自由贸易
下面你将听到的是一段有关儿童发展的讲话。儿童的生存、保护和发展是提高人口素质的基础,直接关系到一个国家和民族的前途与命运。中华民族素有“携幼”、“爱幼”的传统美德,中国古语“幼吾幼以及人之幼”流传至今。中国政府一向以认真和负责的态度,高
TheUniversityintransformation,editedbyAustralianfuturistsSohailInayatullahandJenniferGidley,presentssome20highly
随机试题
提供康复服务的机构包括_______和_______。
下列有关结核性腹膜炎的说法,正确的是
第二心音产生的机理主要是()
引起雀目的原因为
该患者没有出现的症状是该患者最可能的诊断是
()是一种非电起爆器材,不能直接起爆炸药,只能传递爆轰波起爆雷管,由雷管引爆炸药。
资料一C国青亚公司成立于1986年,主营业务是向国内外主要知名钢琴厂家提供钢琴的各种零部件。钢琴的核心部件是码克,做工要求极为精细,2002年青亚公司开始自行研发码克,公司创始人投入多年积蓄,并向亲朋好友借款,累计筹资4000万元,引进了世
具有B类神经症剖面图的患者在临床上所表现的症状特点是()。
某教师对喜欢打小报告的学生采取故意不理会的方式,这是一种()
张三有一价值2万元的家传古画。张三与李四签订了买卖该古画的合同,古画价格为2万元。由于李四因单位有急事要出差,遂约定李四五天后回来时,张三拿古画至李四家一手交钱一手交货。第二天,酷爱收藏的王五知晓张三家有古画后,遂出价2.5万元购买古画,张三同意并当场将古
最新回复
(
0
)