VOA标准英语2014--Ukraine's Younger Generation Seeks New Direction 乌克兰年轻一代寻找新方向

 

Ukraine's Younger Generation Seeks New Direction 乌克兰年轻一代寻找新方向

KYIV, UKRAINE — Ukraine is a very different country than it was just a week ago, following a protest movement led by young people who overthrew¹ the Russian-backed government. They now want to take the country in a new direction.

At the Ukrainian Education Ministry², where university students now are in charge, the sign reads "Students Welcome." Just show an ID card and walk right in. Everyone else is expected to stay out, for now.

Inside, students study the portraits of past education ministers, with the newly-ousted minister dubbed³ "The Destroyer of Ukrainian Education."

The students are organized. A force of mostly young men is ready to defend the building. There is a command center in an auditorium⁴ where students meet to discuss issues, or just to hang out. Strict rules forbid smoking, drinking and the destruction of anything. To help ensure that, the students have blocked off whole sections of the building.

"My name is Anton Savidi. I am a student of Lviv University," said one young man in the university.

On the grand hallway outside the minister's office, students have put makeshift seals on all the doors.

"We don't want any documents that can say something to us about corruption⁵ to disappear from here," said Savidi.

Stopping corruption

The students say they will open the doors later, with investigators⁶ and TV cameras present.  

At a news conference, their spokesmen said they want input⁷ into the selection of the new minister, and reform of the education system.  

And long-term, 23-year-old law student Mlada Kachurets said she wants much more.

"This is my real hope, really, to have changes and better life, not by changing faces, but by changing the system, to build a country where the human rights and the rule of law are the most important things," she said.

Those are ambitious goals, though Kachurets said she thinks the nation's young people are better able to achieve them than the older generation has been.

"There is a problem in all the post-Soviet⁸ countries - all those older people, they lived inside the Soviet system. This generation, that now are students, they have been growing up in the independent country, in the open world," said Kachurets. "That's why they may propose some new approaches to the system."

Kachurets said she wants her children to grow up in a country where they won't be killed in the streets just because they disagree with the government, what she calls "a normal, civilized⁹ country, without fear."

1 overthrew   

overthrow的过去式

参考例句：

• The people finally rose up and overthrew the reactionary regime. 人们终于起来把反动的政权推翻了。
• They overthrew their King. 他们推翻了国王。

2 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

3 dubbed   

v.给…起绰号( dub的过去式和过去分词 )；把…称为；配音；复制

参考例句：

• Mathematics was once dubbed the handmaiden of the sciences. 数学曾一度被视为各门科学的基础。
• Is the movie dubbed or does it have subtitles? 这部电影是配音的还是打字幕的？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 auditorium   

n.观众席，听众席；会堂，礼堂

参考例句：

• The teacher gathered all the pupils in the auditorium.老师把全体同学集合在礼堂内。
• The stage is thrust forward into the auditorium.舞台向前突出，伸入观众席。

5 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

6 investigators   

n.调查者，审查者( investigator的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• This memo could be the smoking gun that investigators have been looking for. 这份备忘录可能是调查人员一直在寻找的证据。
• The team consisted of six investigators and two secretaries. 这个团队由六个调查人员和两个秘书组成。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 input   

n.输入(物)；投入；vt.把(数据等)输入计算机

参考例句：

• I will forever be grateful for his considerable input.我将永远感激他的大量投入。
• All this information had to be input onto the computer.所有这些信息都必须输入计算机。

8 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

9 civilized   

a.有教养的，文雅的

参考例句：

• Racism is abhorrent to a civilized society. 文明社会憎恶种族主义。
• rising crime in our so-called civilized societies 在我们所谓文明社会中日益增多的犯罪行为