英国新闻听力 欧盟一体化新建议:给18岁公民免费火车通票

It sounds too good to be true. Convince young people to embrace the European Union by giving all 18 year-olds a free pass to travel around the continent by train, a pass worth up to 500 dollars. The idea has been gaining currency after a speech last week by a German MEP who made the suggestion in what seemed to be a throwaway comment. Italy's Prime MinisterMatteo Renzi supports it. However, it's not brand new. James spoke¹ to writer and activist² Vincent who says he originally came up with the idea two years ago.

We were on an interrail trip ourselves. We traveled 14 European countries, interviewing about200 young people about their perspectives on the EU. And we weren't noticing which we thinkfirst of all that we didn't really know Europe before this trip. The diversity, all the friendships we made, the spontaneous meetings were just fascinating and amazing. Second, we also noticed that a lot of young people don't have that access, that they can not really experience Europe and all this diversity. So for them, Europe is just a theory. So we came up with the idea, wouldn't it be great for all of Europe, or for the EU to provide EU youth with free access to Interrail Passes so that they can actually experience Europe and bepart of it and not just hear about it in school.

Is the problem then that many young people just simply don't have the money for this for of pass? Is that why it needs to be free?

I really think so. I think that's a big thing. I mean, when the global one-month interrailpass costs 479 euro, so it's a lot of money, for Germans, this is one thing, but let's take for example for Bulgarians, it's a totally different thing, right? So it's also there are big national differences. What I see in my generation is there's a lot of young people who travel, who have friends overseas are just very well versed³ in this international community. And there's a lot of young people who don't do that at all. And there is a huge disconnect and I think this disconnect threatens to divide all of Europe in the long term ifjust some people are part of Europe but others are not.

There is a question of course which will be on everyone's mind, which is, you know, does the Europe Union have the sort of money to do this? Is it money well spent? I mean we are talking about potentially, you know millions and millions of Euros, aren't we?

Actually, it will be more. If all young people would actually use this voucher⁵ for this interrail pass, we are talking about more than two billion Euros a year, however, our point is that this investment is probably the best investment the Europe Union can make right now.So if you wanna kind of continue on a good European integration⁶ path and really strengthen the unity⁴ of the continent, I don't think you can make any better investment.

这听起好得令人难以置信——以给所有18岁年轻人价值500美元的免费欧洲大陆火车通票的方式说服年轻人拥抱欧盟。一名德国籍欧洲议会译员在上周的一次演讲中似乎随口一评的建议竟广泛传播开来。意大利总理马泰奥·伦齐对此表示支持。然而，这并不是什么新鲜主意。詹姆斯对话作家兼活动家文森特，他说两年前自己就产生了这个想法。

我们自己组织过欧洲通票之旅，去了14个欧洲国家，采访了大约两百多名年轻人对于欧盟的看法。我们当时没注意到，首先，我们在此行之前并非真正了解欧洲。那种多样性、我们构建的所有友好关系以及自然的碰面都很好、很令人惊喜。其次，我们也注意到许多年轻人没有这种渠道，他们无法真正体验欧洲和这种多样性。所以对他们来说，欧洲只是一个理论。因此，我们萌生了这样的想法，让所有欧洲国家或者说让欧盟给欧盟年轻人提供免费欧洲通票，让他们可以真正感受欧洲，成为欧洲的一部分，而不是仅仅在学校里听到欧洲，这难道不好吗？

当时的问题是许多年轻人没钱买通票，是吗？这是通票需要免费的原因吗？

我确实这样认为。我觉得这个很重要。一张欧洲全球月票价值479欧元，这不少钱呢，对德国人来说是一回事，但我们举个例子，对保加利亚人来说就是完全不同的概念了。也就是说国家之间的差异很大。我的同龄人中有很多人经常旅行，在国外有朋友，这样的人就很通晓国际社会。而还有很多人就完全不出游，这是一种巨大的脱节。我认为长远看来，如果有些人属于欧洲，有些人不属于，那么这种脱节以后很有可能分割整个欧洲。

当然大家心里都有一个疑问，那就是，欧盟有钱这么做吗？花这钱值吗？这个钱可能会达到数百万欧元，对吧？

实际上会更多，如果所有年轻人愿意用这种欧洲通票凭证，可能会达到20亿欧元，但是我们想强调的是，这个投资很有可能是欧盟目前可以做出的最好的投资了。如果你想继续好好走欧盟一体化道路，并切实增强欧洲大陆的凝聚力，我认为你找不到更好的投资方式了。

1 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

2 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。

3 versed   

adj. 精通，熟练

参考例句：

• He is well versed in history.他精通历史。
• He versed himself in European literature. 他精通欧洲文学。

4 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。

5 voucher   

n.收据；传票；凭单，凭证

参考例句：

• The government should run a voucher system.政府应该施行凭证制度。
• Whenever cash is paid out,a voucher or receipt should be obtained.无论何时只要支付现金，就必须要有一张凭据或者收据。

6 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。