美国有线新闻 CNN 卡斯特罗逝世 有人悲伤有人庆祝

 

Today's current events coverage¹ begins with the report on the death of a controversial world leader. Fidel Castro, who ruled the Caribbean island nation of Cuba for almost 50 years, died Friday at the age of 90. His brother Raul who took over the country in 2008 made the announcement.

The leader of the Cuban revolution in 1959, Fidel Castro rose, made Cuba the first communist nation in the Western Hemisphere. His admirers remembered him as a great leader. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, whose father was a friend of Castro, credited the late Cuban president with making significant improvements to the education and heath care of Cuba. Castro's critics remembered him as an enemy of human rights.

U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the first Cuban-American elected to Congress, fled Cuba with her family when she was eight. She said the only thing Castro was successful in doing was, quote, "holding on to power which is easy to do when you don't have elections."

The divisive views of Castro and his authoritarian² rule are embodied³ by these very different types of gatherings⁴ that followed the news of Castro's death.

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are outside the University of Havana where students are holding vigils and they're yelling "Fidel, Fidel." And these students, although they were born much after the revolution, are very passionate⁵ about Fidel Castro and his causes. This is, of course, a university where he studied before becoming a revolutionary.

And the students here have been telling us that they found Friday night when Raul Castro made the announcement, the surprise announcement, that the historic leader of the revolution, Fidel Castro, had died, many of them woke up on Saturday and that's when they found out the news and they've just been shocked, they said, stunned⁶ by the loss of Fidel Castro, even though he was quite ill. And a lot of people here said that even though they never met him, that they felt like he was somebody they knew that have been a presence in their lives. And that's why they've come out late on this night to light candles in front of photographs of Fidel Castro, to have speeches, to chant revolutionary slogans.

And these are the kinds of scenes we expect to unfold all over Cuba as this country undergoes a nine-day period of mourning.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The parties are just getting started here in Little Havana. We're in Calle Ocho, outside Cafe Versailles. This is the epicenter of the Cuban-American exile community here in Miami. And there are literally⁷ hundreds of people celebrating the death of Fidel Castro.

There's music playing, people banging pots and pans, hundreds of flags and lots chanting. One of the chants that we've heard over and over again is "Fidel, you tyrant⁸, take your brother with you". It's very kind of dark to think that people are celebrating someone's death, but people that I have spoken here say this has been something that they have been waiting for, for a very long time. They perceived Fidel as someone who is incredibly repressive and someone who essentially⁹ stole their homeland away.

You have to remember, Fidel Castro was in power in Cuba since 1959. So, these are very different generations of people, young and old, that have come out to show their joy and their hope that this could mean a new chapter for the island of Cuba.

1 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

2 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。

3 embodied   

v.表现( embody的过去式和过去分词 )；象征；包括；包含

参考例句：

• a politician who embodied the hopes of black youth 代表黑人青年希望的政治家
• The heroic deeds of him embodied the glorious tradition of the troops. 他的英雄事迹体现了军队的光荣传统。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 gatherings   

聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集

参考例句：

• His conduct at social gatherings created a lot of comment. 他在社交聚会上的表现引起许多闲话。
• During one of these gatherings a pupil caught stealing. 有一次，其中一名弟子偷窃被抓住。

5 passionate   

adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的

参考例句：

• He is said to be the most passionate man.据说他是最有激情的人。
• He is very passionate about the project.他对那个项目非常热心。

6 stunned   

adj. 震惊的，惊讶的 动词stun的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The fall stunned me for a moment. 那一下摔得我昏迷了片刻。
• The leaders of the Kopper Company were then stunned speechless. 科伯公司的领导们当时被惊得目瞪口呆。

7 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

8 tyrant   

n.暴君，专制的君主，残暴的人

参考例句：

• The country was ruled by a despotic tyrant.该国处在一个专制暴君的统治之下。
• The tyrant was deaf to the entreaties of the slaves.暴君听不到奴隶们的哀鸣。

9 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。