考博英语作文背诵篇之美国（二）

嘎嘣脆

Driving 美国人的开车习惯

  Meet Mitsuaki. He recently arrived in the United States to enter university. He wants to do well in his studies and adjust to the new culture. But Mitsuaki has a problem. It's not his roommates. It's not his school fees. It's not even his English ability. Mitsuaki's problem is that he doesn't have a car. And in America, that really makes him a foreigner. Mitsuaki has already discovered a basic fact of American culture: Driving is a way of life.
介绍你认识三和木，他最近刚到美国上大学。他的目标是想把书读好并且让自己能够适应这个新的文化。但三和木却遇到了一个问题。问题不是室友，不是学费，甚至不是他的英文能力，三和木的问题是没有车。在美国，没有车真的会让他成了一个十足的外国人。三和木已经发现了美国文化中一个很基本的事实：开车是一种生活方式。

It's not that there's no public transportation in America. Many cities have taxis, buses and subways to help commuters get to and from work. Some large universities even have buses to take students to classes across campus. But most people find it much more convenient to drive, even if they do have to deal with traffic. Nowadays busy families often have more than one vehicle. Many people view their car as a status symbol. But no matter their social status, people without wheels feel tied down.
美国不是没有大众运输工具，很多都市都有出租车、公车和地下铁帮助通车族上下班。有些规模大的大学甚至有公车在校园里载送学生到各个教室上课。不过大部份的人还是觉得开车更方便，即使他们得面对交通拥挤的问题。现今忙碌的家庭通常拥有一辆以上的车。很多人把车子视为地位的象征，但是不管他们的社会地位如何，没有车的人往往觉得很受束缚。.


When Mitsuaki first arrived, he was amazed at how young many American drivers there were. Young people in America often get their driver's license around age 16 by passing a written test and a driving test. In many cases, before they can get their license, they have to take a driver education course. This course gives students hands-on practice with driving. It also helps to reduce the high cost of insurance. For teenagers, being able to drive--and in some cases, have their own car--is a big deal. It gives them a sense of power and freedom. Many young Americans consider a driver's license a right, not a privilege. It's rare to find an American teenager without one.
当三和木刚抵达美国时，他很惊讶美国许多开车的人年纪实在很轻。美国的年轻人通常在16岁左右就会通过笔试和路考，取得驾照。很多时候在他们取得驾照之前，他们必须上一个驾驶人教育课程，这个课程提供给学生们实际的驾驶练习，它也有助于降低高额的保险费。对青少年来说，能够开车，甚至拥有一辆自己的车是一件了不起的事，因为它带给他们一种权力与自由的感觉。很多美国的年轻人把驾照视为一种权利，而不是一项特权。在美国要找到一个没有驾照的青少年是很不容易的。

Mitsuaki finally decides that he needs a car. His host family helps him find a good used car to buy. But before he gets his license and starts driving, he has to understand that the American style of driving is defensive, not offensive. He also needs to learn some of the basic rules of the road that good drivers follow. 10 Commandments of Good Driving in America 1. Yield to vehicles who have the right of way. 2. Don't cut in front of other vehicles. 3. Drive within the speed limit. 4. Obey all road signs and police officers. 5. Pull over to the side of the road when you hear a siren. 6. Stop completely at red lights and stop signs. 7. Yield to pedestrians in crosswalks. 8. Park only in a designated parking space. 9. Use your turn signals when turning or changing lanes. 10. Don't drink and drive.
三和木最后终于决定他需要一辆车，他的寄宿家庭帮助他找到了一辆好的二手车。但是在他拿到驾照并且开始开车之前，他必须先了解，美国人的开车方式是属于防守型，而不是进攻型。他也需要学习一些好的驾驶人应该遵守的基本道路规则。 在美国优良驾驶的十大诫命： 1. 礼让有先行权的车子。 2. 不超车。 3. 行车不超速。 4. 遵守所有的路标和交通警察的指挥。 5. 听到警笛声时，立即靠边停车。 6. 遇到红灯和停止标志时要完全停下来。 7. 在行人穿越道上要礼让行人。 8. 只能在指定的停车地区内停车。9. 转弯或换车道时要打方向灯。 10. 不要酒后驾车。

As a car owner, Mitsuaki has the responsibility of maintaining his car. He knows that regular maintenance checkups can help to prevent many serious problems. But no matter how careful the maintenance, all vehicles need to be repaired sometimes. Many Americans take their cars to a garage for maintenance and repairs. Others like to work on their own vehicles. Not Mitsuaki. He decides that being a student is enough work for him.
身为一个车主，三和木必须负责维修他的车子，他知道定期作保养检查可以预防许多严重的问题发生。不过，不管多么小心地保养，所有的车子有时候都必须修理。很多美国人把他们的车子送到车厂保养和修理；有些人则喜欢自己动手修车。但三和木可不这么做。他觉得当一个学生已经够他忙的了。

Driving is to Americans what flying is to birds. It's almost part of their nature. For many Americans, being behind the wheel is like their natural habitat. But if they don't drive carefully, they can become an endangered species.
开车对美国人的必要性，就像鸟儿需要飞翔一样，几乎就是他们天性的一部份。对许多美国人而言，「坐在方向盘后面」就像是他们自然栖息之处。不过，如果他们不小心开车的话，他们可就会变成濒临危险的动物了。



Shrek the Ogre------The ugliest movie star ever
史上最丑的电影明星---怪物史瑞克

1. The first thing you notice about Shrek the Ogre is that he is ugly. As drawn by William Steig in his picture book Shrek!, the ogre has rotten green skin, red eyes, ears that look like miniature elephant trunks, and a big, hairy, potato nose. Steig writes, "His mother was ugly and his father was ugly, but Shrek was uglier than the two of them put together." Creatures in the swamp where Shrek lives are all afraid of him. Flowers wilt in his presence. Shrek is ugly--very ugly.
看到怪物史瑞克，你首先会注意到他的丑。威廉史泰格在童话画册《史瑞克！》中画的这只怪物，有腐败的绿皮肤、红眼睛、长得像小型象鼻子的耳朵、还有一个多毛的马铃薯大鼻子。史泰格写道：「他的老妈很丑，老爸也很丑，可是史瑞克比他们俩个加起来还要丑。」跟史瑞克住在同一个沼泽里的生物都很怕他。花儿因他的出现而凋零。史瑞克真是丑--丑毙了。

2. But Shrek's red eyes and hairy nose haven't prevented him from becoming the star of a new animated movie, a movie which is attracting lots of attention and showing signs of becoming a huge success. Shrek took his first step towards movie stardom when his book caught the fancy of the two young children of movie producer John H. Williams. The two kids loved the story of the ugly ogre who leaves his swamp and goes out into the world in search of adventure. As he read the story over and over again to his children, Williams himself started to see Shrek's potential. "He was a great movie character in search of a movie," says Williams.

但是史瑞克的红眼睛和毛鼻子，并未阻止他成为一部新动画片的主角，这部电影备受瞩目，看来会成为热门大片。史瑞克迈向明星之路的第一步，在于他的书吸引了电影制作人约翰威廉的两个小孩喜爱。这两个小孩很喜欢这只丑陋的怪物离开沼泽到世界各地冒险的故事。威廉一遍又一遍地念这个故事给他的小孩听，自己也开始看出史瑞克的潜力。「他是个极适合拍成电影的角色，」威廉说。

3. Before long, Shrek had his movie, and it has all the ingredients of a classic. Produced by the PDI/DreamWorks studio, Shrek features a fable-like story bursting with humor and fun, a first-class voice cast, and some of the most advanced animation effects ever seen on the screen. 没多久，史瑞克就有了自己的电影，而且拥有经典钜作的所有要素。《史瑞克》由PDI/梦工厂制作，是部充满幽默与乐趣的寓言式故事，拥有一流的配音人员，以及一些首度出现在银幕上的先进动画效果。

4. The movie version of Steig's story is a sort of fairy tale in reverse. "Shrek kind of looks at all the fairy tale traditions we grew up on," says producer Jeffrey Katzenberg, "and takes great fun turning all those storytelling 5)conventions upside-down and inside-out."
史泰格原著故事的电影版有点像是童话故事的颠覆版。制作人杰佛瑞卡森柏格表示：「《史瑞克》可以说是审视了所有伴随我们成长的童话故事传统，然后彻底颠覆那些样板的叙事手法，得到无穷的乐趣。」

5. In the movie, Shrek's quiet life in the swamp is interrupted by the arrival of a band of fairy-tale characters, including blind mice, three little pigs, and a big, bad wolf. They've been banished into the swamp by the evil Lord Farquaad. In order to help his new acquaintances go home, and to regain the peace and quiet of his own home, Shrek agrees to carry out a mission for Farquaad. He will rescue Princess Fiona from a dangerous, fire-breathing dragon. Fiona will become Farquaad's bride, and the exiled mice, pigs, and wolf will be allowed to return home.
影中，史瑞克在沼泽里的平静生活因为一群童话故事角色出现而起了波澜，包括瞎老鼠、三只小猪和大野狼。他们是被邪恶的法魁德大王驱逐到沼泽去。为了帮助这些新朋友回家，也为了恢复自己家园的平静，史瑞克答应替法魁德完成一项任务。他将从一只危险的喷火龙手里救出费欧娜公主。费欧娜将成为法魁德的新娘，而被放逐的老鼠、猪与狼就可以回家了。

6. Providing the voices for the characters is a cast that includes Mike Meyers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and John Lithgow--all great comedy actors. Meyers, famous for his role as the funny spy Austin Powers, plays the title role of Shrek. He says he took the role in part because Shrek's tale is "a great story about accepting yourself for who you are." Director Andrew Adamson says that Meyers was able to step into his character and stay there, even between takes. Meyers became Shrek, and provided wonderful, improvised lines. "The improv moments were gold," says Adamson. "Those are the moments that give the animators the most to go on, because at that point, it's not a written piece of dialogue, it's a character come to life."
为这些角色配音的演员包括麦克梅尔斯、艾迪墨菲、卡麦蓉狄亚以及约翰李斯高--个个都是卓越的喜剧演员。以饰演滑稽间*奥斯汀鲍尔而闻名的梅尔斯，担任主角史瑞克的配音。他说他之所以会答应演出这个角色，部分原因在于史瑞克的故事「以接受自己的本色为主题，是个精采的故事」。导演安德鲁亚当逊说梅尔斯能够融入角色，甚至在等待下场拍戏的时候都不改变。梅尔斯变成了史瑞克，并且提供了相当棒的即兴台词。亚当逊表示：「这些即兴演出的时刻相当珍贵，它让动画家能充分发挥，因为这时候已经不是事先写好的台词，而是活生生的角色在说话。」

7. Playing Shrek's 1)talkative buddy, a donkey, is veteran comedian Eddie Murphy, another great improviser. Co-director Vicky Jenson said that Murphy "could make you fall on the floor laughing with his interpretation of even a single word." Murphy explains that he likes to do animated films because, if they're done right, they last forever. And he says his kids love them. "I explained to them that Daddy is playing a jackass in Shrek, and they really got a kick out of it. They love hearing their father's voice come out of a cartoon."
老牌喜剧演员艾迪墨菲为史瑞克多话的伙伴--一只驴子--配音，他也很会即兴表演。副导维琪简生说，墨菲「即使只诠释一个字，也能让你笑得在地上打滚。」墨菲解释说他很喜欢参与动画片，因为只要做的好，动画片可以永垂不朽。而且他说他自己的小孩也都很喜欢。「我对他们解释说，老爸要在《史瑞克》里扮演驴子，他们全都乐坏了。他们很喜欢听到老爸的声音从卡通人物的嘴里发出来。」 8. To bring these characters and their world to life, the filmmakers have used the latest in animation technology. To portray human emotions, they rely on a unique facial animation system developed at PDI/DreamWorks. The complex system builds up a character's face layer by layer, from the skull up through all the individual muscles, all the way to the skin--or in some instances, the hair. It allows the character to show an astonishing range of emotions. Also available to the filmmakers was new technology for animating fluids and fire. They put it to good effect, creating the fearsome dragon's fire-breath, moats of boiling lava, and a silly scene involving a bath of mud and beer.
电影工作者使用最新的动画科技，赋予这些角色和他们的世界生命。为了表现人类的感情，他们靠的是PDI/梦工厂研发出来的一套独特的脸部动画系统。这套复杂的系统一层一层地建造出角色的面貌，从头骨往外到每根肌肉，一直到皮肤--有时是毛。角色能够表现来的感情范围大得惊人。此外电影工作者还可以使用一种最新科技来制作流体及火焰的动画。他们运用出极佳的效果，创造出恶龙喷出的火、滚烫岩浆的护城河，以及在泥浆和啤酒中洗澡的一个可笑场景。

9. "We envisioned a magical environment that you could immerse yourself in," says co-producer Aron Warner. "Every leaf on every tree moves, the dirt moves, the dust rolls ... there's a sense of atmosphere, a sense of weight to the props. You can almost smell it."
共同制作人阿伦华纳这么说：「我们想象出一个奇幻的世界，你可以沉浸在其中，」「每一棵树上的每一片叶子都会动，泥土会动，灰尘滚滚……有空气的感觉，道具彷佛有重量感。几乎闻得到。」

10. The combination of great comedy actors and advanced technology promises a memorable movie. Shrek's world and story are brought vividly to life, and the timeless moral of the story is convincingly realized. As producer Katzenberg says, "Each of our characters comes to understand that there is something wonderful-warts and all-about who they are. I think that's true for all of us: that the people who ultimately come to know and love us, see the strengths inside of us. Whether you're a princess, a donkey, or even a big, green, stinky ogre, you can find love and happiness."
伟大的谐星与先进科技的结合，保证会是一部令人难忘的电影。史瑞克的世界和他的故事生动地呈现出来，故事里的永恒寓意也表现得令人信服。就像制作人卡森伯格所说：「我们每一个角色到最后都发现，自己的本色--包括瑕疵在内--有相当美好的一面。我认为我们每一个人也都是这样：到最后能了解并爱我们的人，都是看出了我们内在的力量。不管你是公主、驴子，甚至是又大又臭的绿色妖怪，都能找到爱与幸福。」   



Government 美国政府

"Of the people, by the people, and for the people." That's how Abraham Lincoln described the American government in his Gettysburg Address. These simple phrases capture the essence of American democracy. Instead of ruling over U.S. citizens, the government is ruled by them. Elected officials are known as public servants who represent their constituents. Americans can get involved in government by voting, by writing letters to their representatives and even by organizing peaceful demonstrations to make their voices heard. Each American citizen has a vested interest in how he or she is governed. Former President Theodore Roosevelt expressed the American view of government well: "The government is us." 「民有、民治、民享」，这是亚伯拉罕．林肯在盖茨堡演说时，描绘的美国政府。这简短的几个字道出了美国民主的真谛。美国政府不是统治人民而是受人民所统治。民选的官员被认为是人民的公仆，他们代表的是他们的选民。美国人可经由投票，向他们的代表陈情、甚至于组织和平的示*活动，来发表心声，参与政事。每一个美国公民都有一份保护自身利益的权利与义务，来决定他们的政府该如何执政，前总统泰迪．罗斯福深刻地表达了美国人对政府的看法：「政府就是我们。」

At first glance, it might seem that the U.S. president, as "leader of the free world," is the "ruler" of America. On Inauguration Day, the swearing in of President Bill Clinton for his second term will reflect the pomp and circumstance of a coronation ceremony, with dignitaries from around the world in attendance. Even as far back as George Washington, who once rejected a suggestion to become "King of America," people have sought to ascribe far-reaching powers to the president. But the Constitution ensures that the president will not become an all-powerful ruler.
乍看之下，身为「自由世界领袖」的美国总统似乎是美国的「统治者」。在就职日，来自世界各地达官显要的出席，使柯林顿总统的第二任就职宣誓仪式，如同国王加冕典礼一般的华丽与隆重。即使远朔自华盛顿总统，他曾经拒绝了成为「美国国王」的建议，人们还是想要把无比的权力赋予总统。但是美国宪法确保了总统不会成为一个集权的统治者。

The U.S. government, as outlined by the Constitution, is divided into three branches: legislative, executive and judicial. The legislative branch passes the laws, the executive enforces the laws and the judicial interprets the laws. The legislative branch is comprised of the two houses of Congress, the Senate and the House of Representatives. Thanks to CN*, C/SPAN and the nightly news, many lawmakers have almost become celebrities in their own right. The executive branch is represented by the president, who is called the chief executive or chief of state. Besides that, as commander in chief of the armed forces, the president carries more than a little clout in world affairs. The judicial branch is made up of the Supreme Court and about 100 other federal courts. The nine Supreme Court justices hold office for life.
美国宪法概略的将政府分为三部份：立法部门、行政部门及司法部门。立法部门通过法律：行政部门执行法律而司法部门诠释法律。立法部门由国会的参议院及众议院所组成。承蒙CN*及C/SPAN和夜间新闻之抬爱，这些议员们都因个人的论调、举止成了名人。行政部门由总统代表，他被称为最高行政长官、或是国家元首。除此之外，身为三军司令，美国总统在世界局势所有的影响力也是不小的。司法部门是由最高法院及大约100个其它的联邦法院所组成。九位最高法院的法官是终身职。

In order to prevent any one branch of government from becoming more powerful than the other two, the Constitution has established a system of "checks and balances." For instance, when Congress passes a bill, it must have the signature of the president in order to become law. But even if the president rejects the bill, Congress can override his veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both the House and the Senate. The Supreme Court, as final arbiter of the Constitution, can overturn legislative acts or executive orders if it finds them to be unconstitutional. In this way, the powers of government are balanced, or held in check.

为避免任何一个部门的权力大过其它两个部门，宪法设立了一套「制衡」制度。例如，当国会通过一个法案，它必须由总统签署后才能成为法律。但即使总统否决了这个法案，国会可以透过参、众两院三分之二的票数同意而不顾他的否决。身为宪法最后仲裁者的最高法院，如果发现法令或是行政命令违宪，可以将其推翻。如此，政府的权力就可以被制衡了。