VOA标准英语2010-Second British Prime Ministerial Debate t

The debate spurred a surge in voter registration¹, especially among young people. Some polls are showing the three parties running even.

Jennifer Glasse | London 22 April 2010

Britain's Conservative David Cameron leader (center) speaks during a first ever live televised political debate between political party leaders Labor²'s Gordon Brown (right) and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats⁴ (left) broadcast to the nation, from TV studios in Manchester, 15 Apr 2010

The leaders of Britain's three main political parties will debate for a second time Thursday.  It is the second debate of its kind in British political history and will focus on foreign policy. The debates are changing the landscape of the British election process.

 

The first debate between Britain's three main party leaders, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the Labor Party, Conservative David Cameron and Liberal Democrat³ leader Nick Clegg took place a week ago.  Stephen Coleman of the political communications department at Britain's University of Leeds says the event went better than he had hoped.

"They really did debate, there was a lot of substance, there was a very intensive 90 minutes,"  he said. "The candidates were feeling the strain and the audience felt a kind of sense of excitement that I would not have anticipated."

The May 6 general election is expected to be the closest in decades, with polls suggesting that no party will win an outright⁵ majority.  Audience members in Thursday's 90-minute live debate will get a chance to question Misters Brown, Cameron and Clegg, whose winning performance in Britain's first U.S.-styled televised debate last week gave his party an unprecedented⁶ boost in polls.

Coleman says that made for good entertainment. "The emergence⁷ of the underdog as a star, the outsider putting the big guys in their place.  It is the kind of drama one expects to see on reality TV shows, and here it is creeping into politics in a way that certainly has excited people," he said.

The debate spurred a surge in voter registration, especially among young people.  Some polls are showing the three parties running even.  Coleman says that is new, too.

"This situation in which you have got three parties with equal shares of the vote really closely tied to the performance of the third party in the debate is absolutely unprecedented in British politics, we have never seen a situation like this," he said.

Thursday's debate will focus on foreign policy.  Analysts⁸ say no one has an inherent advantage in those areas.

Tony Travers is a political scientist at the London School of Economics. "The big foreign policy issues appear to be Britain's relationship with Europe and the euro, Britain's relationship with the United States, and also questions of the future of Britain's nuclear deterrent," he said.

The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq are also expected to be included in the debate.  With the three parties running so close, each candidate will be  hoping to distinguish himself as a clear leader, in the hope of pulling ahead and avoiding a hung parliament - where no one party wins a majority of seats.

 

1 registration   

n.登记，注册，挂号

参考例句：

• Marriage without registration is not recognized by law.法律不承认未登记的婚姻。
• What's your registration number?你挂的是几号？

2 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

3 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

4 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 outright   

adv.坦率地；彻底地；立即；adj.无疑的；彻底的

参考例句：

• If you have a complaint you should tell me outright.如果你有不满意的事，你应该直率地对我说。
• You should persuade her to marry you outright.你应该彻底劝服她嫁给你。

6 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

7 emergence   

n.浮现，显现，出现，（植物）突出体

参考例句：

• The last decade saw the emergence of a dynamic economy.最近10年见证了经济增长的姿态。
• Language emerges and develops with the emergence and development of society.语言是随着社会的产生而产生，随着社会的发展而发展的。

8 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。