每日一篇:《经济学人》读译参考 Day164

英语阅读能力依靠什么？必然是词汇的积累，但，仅仅是词汇的积累是不够了，更应该了解英语句式，不同句型所表达意义。如何培养自己的阅读语感呢？那么就跟着聚英聚创考研信息网小编每天学一点英语，一起为考研筑起坚实的地基。阅读是需要积累的，就像我们需要经常和人沟通才会促进我们的表达能力一样~小伙伴跟着小编一起，每天坚持打卡，培养英语阅读能力及语感，了解文章一些经典词汇的用法。

经济学人:美国民主的固有偏向(1)

 

Voting reform

投票改革

 

American democracy's built-in bias

美国民主的固有偏向

Its elections no longer convert the popular will into control of government.

 

美国选举不再将民意转化为政府控制力。

 

Every system for converting votes into power has its flaws.Britain suffers from an over-mighty executive;Italy from chronically weak government;Israel from small, domineering factions.America, however, is plagued by the only democratic vice more troubling than the tyranny of the majority: tyranny of the minority.

译文

每个将选票转化为权力的体系都有其缺陷。英国因强权领袖而深受其害；意大利苦于长期软弱无能的政府；以色列则因小而霸道的派系而遭受困局。然而，美国却囿于比多数人暴政更令人不安的民主弊端，即少数人暴政。

 

This has come about because of a growing division between rural and urban voters.The electoral system the Founders devised, and which their successors elaborated,gives rural voters more clout than urban ones.When the parties stood for both city and country that bias affected them both.But the Republican Party has become disproportionately rural and the Democratic Party disproportionately urban.That means a red vote is worth more than a blue one.

译文

之所以发生这样的情况，是因为农村和城市选民间的分歧越来越大。开国元勋们所设计、继任者发扬的选举制度，使得农村选民的影响力更甚于城市选民。由于两党都是既代表城市又代表农村，所以此偏向会对两党都产生影响。但共和党不匀称地偏向农村，民主党不匀称地偏向城市。这就意味着代表共和党的红色选票价值高于代表民主党的蓝色选票。

 

The consequences are dramatic.Republicans hold both the houses of Congress and the White House.But in the three elections in 2012-16 their candidates got just 46% of the two-party vote for the Senate,and they won the presidential vote in 2016 with 49%.

译文

结果是戏剧性的。共和党控制着国会两院和白宫。但在2012年至2016年的三次选举中，共和党候选人仅获得参议院两党选票的46%。并在2016年以49%的比例赢得总统大选。

 

Our voting model predicts that, for Democrats to have a better than 50% chance of winning control of the House in November’s mid-term elections,they will need to win the popular vote by around seven percentage points.

译文

投票模型预测，民主党若想要11月中期选举赢得众议院控制权的可能性超过50%，就需要7个点的优势赢得普选。

 

To put that another way, we think the Republicans have a 0.01% chance of winning the popular vote for the House.But we estimate their chance of securing a majority of congressmen is about a third.In no other two-party system does the party that receives the most votes routinely find itself out of power.

译文

换句话说，我们认为共和党有0.01%的机会赢得众议院普选。但我们估计，民主党赢得众议院普选的机会有三分之一。在任何其他两党制体系中，经常获得多数票的政党都会获得权力。

 

注释

1.built-in 固有的，内在的

Built-in cameras usually don't need any extra software

内置照相机不需要额外的软件。来源于《BBC》。

 

2.convert into 改建，改造

The old barn we bought to convert into flats was practically tumbling down. 

那个旧谷仓我们买下想改建住房的,实际上已经快塌了.

 

Liquidity How easy something is to convert into cash

流动性转化成现金是多么容易。来源于《BBC》。

 

3.suffer from (因疾病等糟糕的处境而) 受苦

Men and women suffer from grandiosity in different ways

男人和女人以不同的方式受宠若惊。来源于《NEWYORKER》。

 

4.be plagued by 使困扰

Iraq has been plagued by infighting among sectarian factions

伊拉克一直被宗教派系间的内斗所困扰。来源于《VOA》

 

5.come about 产生; 发生

How soon do you hope this might come about?

你希望这事儿多久能发生？来源于《BBC》

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