英文杂志-Magazine：Revolution

Revolutionby John KutiThe other day I was watching a debate on TV on the subject “Should it be compulsory¹ to learn English?” The speaker chosen to oppose the idea was Vladimir Zhirinovskiy - a politician who many people in Europe think is a dangerous extremist. He said that one of the causes of the problems in Russia’s sad history in the 20th century was the use of imported words which people didn’t fully² understand. “Revolution” (or the Russian word “revolyutsia”) was one of these. He also mentioned “communism” and “privatisation”. If you use other words like “revolt”, “rebellion” or “coup³ d’état” the idea of changing the government by force seems a lot less attractive. Calling some important change “a revolution” can make people think it is good, or maybe that it’s something that no one can stop, as the Marxists used to say.

Going forwardsSince the 19th century there has been an idea that certain changes in society must happen. Are you optimistic about the human race? I guess most people still are. I think most people believe in Progress…you know: “Scientists get closer to the truth. Societies improve. We’ve never had it so good. A Pentium 4 is better than a Pentium 3”.

I think it is dangerous when someone says that all our problems will be solved by new technology, or by choosing a government with a more modern ideology⁴. Revolutions seem to depend on the hope of a beautiful future, maybe that’s why they end in disappointment. Some people are so optimistic that they can forget about reality altogether. They can make logic⁵ work backwards…I remember, back in my days as a student political activist⁶, having arguments about Chinese history with the young members of The Socialist⁷ Workers’ Party – enthusiasts⁸ for revolution. They used to say that there had been no revolution in China. This was because the results had not been the happy ones that they expected.

What’s another word for it?If you look on the website http://www.visualthesaurus.com/online/ you can find words with similar meanings to the one you type in. Starting with “revolution” the visual thesaurus gives:

coup coup d’état insurgency⁹
insurrection mutiny putsch
revolt takeover uprising

 

Which word to choose?

When you want to choose a word really carefully it’s a good idea to see how other people use it. In my experiment I used the Times newspaper from March 1995, and the website at

http://www.edict.com.hk/concordance/WWWConcappE.htm

This site is called a “concordancer” and it lets you look at how words are used. You can choose different materials instead of The Times, but I thought a newspaper would have more about politics. It mentions one revolution the socialist workers might agree really happened “Cuba’s Marxist revolution” but also one change of style by a Marxist government “China’s cultural revolution,” and two changes of government where the Marxists lost power: “Czechoslovakia’s velvet¹⁰ revolution” and “Estonia’s singing revolution”.

However, more often than any of these, “revolution” is just used to talk about a general change in the way people live or work. The most common of these is the “industrial revolution” which happened more than 200 years ago in Britain when they started making steam engines and factories. The newspaper thinks these other revolutions might be happening now…

Educational revolution, Sexual¹¹ revolution, Information revolution, Telemarketing revolution,Training revolution,

When something not so big or important happens you can still call it a “minor¹² revolution”. The Times reports one minor revolution in Edinburgh – people starting to live in some old buildings that had been used as offices for a long time.

Of the other words in my list “coup” is used most often. This is a short way of saying “coup d’état” and it usually refers to a revolution organised by people who are already quite close to the top of the government. A revolution organised by people a long way from power might be better called an “uprising”.

In The Times, “a revolt” or “a mutiny” usually happens inside a British political party when ordinary Members of Parliament disagree with the leaders of their party. But the newspaper also mentions a revolt by shareholders¹³ who did not agree with the managers of the company they had invested in.

“Takeover” belongs especially to the field of business. In March 1995 there was a big story about the “hostile takeover bid” by Glaxo for another pharmaceutical¹⁴ company – Wellcome.

I think Zhirinovskiy was right – “revolution” is a word that makes you want to believe in it. It means “this is better than what there was before”. Of course, The Times is not a revolutionary newspaper, but in this case it chooses words just like those “socialist worker” students optimistically waiting for the revolution which will automatically¹⁵ make everything better.
 

1 compulsory   

n.强制的，必修的；规定的，义务的

参考例句：

• Is English a compulsory subject?英语是必修课吗？
• Compulsory schooling ends at sixteen.义务教育至16岁为止。

2 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

3 coup   

n.政变；突然而成功的行动

参考例句：

• The monarch was ousted by a military coup.那君主被军事政变者废黜了。
• That government was overthrown in a military coup three years ago.那个政府在3年前的军事政变中被推翻。

4 ideology   

n.意识形态，(政治或社会的)思想意识

参考例句：

• The ideology has great influence in the world.这种思想体系在世界上有很大的影响。
• The ideal is to strike a medium between ideology and inspiration.我的理想是在意识思想和灵感鼓动之间找到一个折衷。

5 logic   

n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性

参考例句：

• What sort of logic is that?这是什么逻辑？
• I don't follow the logic of your argument.我不明白你的论点逻辑性何在。

6 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

7 socialist   

n.社会主义者；adj.社会主义的

参考例句：

• China is a socialist country,and a developing country as well.中国是一个社会主义国家，也是一个发展中国家。
• His father was an ardent socialist.他父亲是一个热情的社会主义者。

8 enthusiasts   

n.热心人，热衷者( enthusiast的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A group of enthusiasts have undertaken the reconstruction of a steam locomotive. 一群火车迷已担负起重造蒸汽机车的任务。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Now a group of enthusiasts are going to have the plane restored. 一群热心人计划修复这架飞机。 来自新概念英语第二册

9 insurgency   

n.起义；暴动；叛变

参考例句：

• And as in China, unrest and even insurgency are widespread. 而在中国，动乱甚至暴乱都普遍存在。 来自互联网
• Dr Zyphur is part an insurgency against this idea. 塞弗博士是这一观点逆流的一部分。 来自互联网

10 velvet   

n.丝绒，天鹅绒；adj.丝绒制的，柔软的

参考例句：

• This material feels like velvet.这料子摸起来像丝绒。
• The new settlers wore the finest silk and velvet clothing.新来的移民穿着最华丽的丝绸和天鹅绒衣服。

11 sexual   

adj.性的，两性的，性别的

参考例句：

• He was a person of gross sexual appetites.他是个性欲旺盛的人。
• It is socially irresponsible to refuse young people advice on sexual matters.拒绝向年轻人提供性方面的建议是对社会不负责任。

12 minor   

adj.较小(少)的，较次要的；n.辅修学科；vi.辅修

参考例句：

• The young actor was given a minor part in the new play.年轻的男演员在这出新戏里被分派担任一个小角色。
• I gave him a minor share of my wealth.我把小部分财产给了他。

13 shareholders   

n.股东( shareholder的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The meeting was attended by 90% of shareholders. 90%的股东出席了会议。
• the company's fiduciary duty to its shareholders 公司对股东负有的受托责任

14 pharmaceutical   

adj.药学的，药物的；药用的，药剂师的

参考例句：

• She has donated money to establish a pharmaceutical laboratory.她捐款成立了一个药剂实验室。
• We are engaged in a legal tussle with a large pharmaceutical company.我们正同一家大制药公司闹法律纠纷。

15 automatically   

adv.不加思索地，无意识地，自动地

参考例句：

• The machine cycles automatically.这台机器自动循环运转。
• She had automatically labelled the boys as troublemakers.她不假思索地认定这些男孩子是捣蛋鬼。