Midlife Crisis1.docVIP

Midlife Crisis1 The United Nations is broke and demoralized;2 but the world still needs it. By Carrol Bogert 1． No one loves the United Nations. Not its stern but neglectful parent, the United States, which gave birth to the U. N. 50 years ago but has fallen about 10 years behind in child-sup-port payments.3 Not the other member-states, which have their own motley complaints (the U.S. controls the U. N. too much; the U. S. doesn’t control the U. N. enough; the U. N. should spend more money on our pet projects4 and less on yours?) Not U. N. staffers; despite their generous, tax-free salaries, morale is awful.5 Certainly not journalists, who are subjected to an Orwellian flow of “public information”,6 Even the U. N. boosters7 are skeptical these days. 1. Midlife Crisis 中年危机(指联合国50周年时面临的危机) 2. The United Nations is broke and demoralized. 联合国已是财库亏空，士气低落。 3. Not its stern but neglectful parent, the United States, which gave birth to the U. N. 50 years ago but has fallen about 10 years behind in child-support payments. 美国50年 前创建了联合国。然而，这位严厉但又责任心不强的创始国也不喜欢联合国。迄 今美国已拖欠了将近10年的会费。(parent原意是“单亲”，转意为“创始国”。关于联合国的创建，可参见背景参考材料1。) 4. pet project 小项目 5. morale is awful 士气不振 6. Certainly not journalists, who are subjected to an Orwellian flow of “public information”. 记者们当然也不喜欢联合国，因为他们必须服从严格控制“公众信息”的规定。 (Orwellian 的词源是英国小说家George Orwell。 该小说家著名作品有Animal Farm 和1984等，都是影射前苏联的政治讽刺小说。Orwellian一词可以释义为 “受严格统治而失去人性之社会的”，转意为“严格控制的”。) 7. booster 热情支持者 2． With friends like that, who wants to throw a birthday party? The U. N. decided to call it a “commemoration” instead. The 200 world leaders converging on New York this week are visiting the U.N. at an unprecedentedly awkward time. The peacekeeping mission in Bosnia, which began in 1992 and is just winding up, can only be described as a horrendous failure.8 The budget for peacekeeping has ballooned from $230 million in 1988 to ＄3.1 billion today, draining U.N. coffers.9 And while budget crunches come and go, this time th