万花筒 2013-02-07&02-10 荷兰女王宣布退位 王位传给儿子

 A popular female monarch¹ and an aging son. She steps aside before she has to let the next generation rule. No, this isn抰 England, this is the Netherlands.

Queen Beatrix, three-day shy of 75, told her nation she will abdicate² to her son Willem Alexander, who will become the Netherlands抯 first king since 1890. He was once known as a boozing Casanovanover, but since he married the Argentinian Maxima, he and his three little princesses have became more popular, just like Beatrix. She is known as queen B and is considered to down to the earth. Her family is always being willing to step aside.Beatrix抯 mother and grandmother both abdicated³ to their daughters. 

But don抰 expect the same thing in Britain-- mummy. Prince Charles has been herited to the throne since he was three. He has been waited longer than anyone in British history. The 64-year-old knows he's not getting any younger.  "It's a nice thought to be a father, grandfather in my old age." But he also knows his mother has no plan to step down. She considers her job God抯 mission, which means he抯 content to wait and sometimes busy himself with less important tasks. 

The potential for few flurries about Balmoral, who the hell wrote this script?

Now the women in prince Charles抯 family has pretty good genes⁴. The prince is in good health at 86, her mum lived to 101, so Charles has a while to wait, but Prince Willem Alexander will assume the throne at just 45 years old in two-month time.

Nick Schifrin, ABC News, London

1 monarch   

n.帝王，君主，最高统治者

参考例句：

• The monarch's role is purely ceremonial.君主纯粹是个礼仪职位。
• I think myself happier now than the greatest monarch upon earth.我觉得这个时候比世界上什么帝王都快乐。

2 abdicate   

v.让位，辞职，放弃

参考例句：

• The reason I wnat to abdicate is to try something different.我辞职是因为我想尝试些不一样的东西。
• Yuan Shikai forced emperor to abdicate and hand over power to him.袁世凯逼迫皇帝逊位，把政权交给了他。

3 abdicated   

放弃（职责、权力等）( abdicate的过去式和过去分词 )； 退位，逊位

参考例句：

• He abdicated in favour of his son. 他把王位让给了儿子。
• King Edward Ⅷ abdicated in 1936 to marry a commoner. 国王爱德华八世于1936年退位与一个平民结婚。

4 genes   

n.基因( gene的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• You have good genes from your parents, so you should live a long time. 你从父母那儿获得优良的基因，所以能够活得很长。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Differences will help to reveal the functions of the genes. 它们间的差异将会帮助我们揭开基因多种功能。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 生物技术的世纪