英国新闻听力 古巴新闻自由

对于大多说驻外通讯记者而言，结束报导意味着他可以需要收拾行李，打道回府了。但斯蒂芬·吉布斯发现自己不用操心这一点，在四年半的异国生活后，他非常急切的就离开了古巴。

单词注释： 

bereavement¹ n. 亲人丧亡 

mundane² adj. 世俗的，平凡的 

accreditation³ n. 信赖，委派 

expat n. 移居国外者 

intimidate⁴ v. 胁迫 

censor⁵ n. 检查员 

undermine n. 破坏 

allude⁶ to 提到，暗指 

yearn⁷ n. 渴望，向往 

status quo 现状

ANNOUNCER: For most foreign correspondence, the end of a posting means packing and shipping⁸ belongings⁹ home. But Stephen Gibbs found that wasn’t something he had to worry about when he after four and half years rather hastily left Cuba.

播音员：对于大多说驻外通讯记者而言，结束报导意味着他可以需要收拾行李，打道回府了。但斯蒂芬?吉布斯发现自己不用操心这一点，在四年半的异国生活后，他非常急切的就离开了古巴。

STEPHEN GIBBS: Moving home they say is one of life’s five most stressful experiences, it comes in the number three, ranked a bit below bereavement and a bit above divorce. But in Cuba it’s different; packing up a home in Cuba is easy. The reason is that you don’t have to go through that agonizing¹⁰ problem of wondering about what to do with your junk. You can sell it or give it away, all of it, in a matter of hours. Cuba is a place where almost all consumer items are prohibitively expensive or more likely not available. And scarcity¹¹ breeds desire. Most Cubans and plenty of foreigners living on the island, spend the majority of their time not thinking about the country’s future or transitional government or the health of Fidel Castro but on rather more mundane things, like how to find a square meal, a fridge that works or an electric fan. I had a first hand glimpse of this when I returned to my home in Otavana just days after hearing the disappointing news that I was one of the three foreign correspondents to be stripped of their press accreditation by the Cuban Government. Our reporting was deemed negative by a nameless committee. As I entered my apartment, the phone was ringing. It was an expat friend from whom I haven’t heard from for some time. The conversation went along these lines. “I m so sorry to hear you are being thrown out” he said. “What a disgrace for an attempt to intimidate the foreign press” and then, after a brief pose, the real point of the call. “That sofa in your living room, are you selling it? How about the microwave?” As the news spread that I was on my way out, my Cuban neighbours congratulated me on what they saw as a promotion¹². Sadly and often inaccurately¹³, many Cubans assume that anyone who is leaving the Island is going on to better things. Then came the not so subtle requests for a farewell present. I soon realized that anything would do; a broken watch and 2005 calendar; all were received with embarrassing gratitude¹⁴. I had little time to decide which memories of my life in Cuba I would keep for myself. The one I did manage to save was a copy of the first story I filed after just days after arriving in Havana. I had gone to meet some members of the Hemingway’s family at the elegant hilltop villa¹⁵ where Ernest had lived until 1960. We all gathered in the garden to hear about the project archive the author’s papers, and then something completely unexpected happened. Fidel Castro showed up. In his military uniform, he walked slightly or quickly around the side of the swimming pool where Eva Mendes has once swam naked. He apologized for interrupting and then, with his arm around one of the female Hemingway’s, gave a lengthy¹⁶ speech. He ended it by saying how much he regretted not getting to know Ernest Hemingway better, “when you are young, you think everyone is going to live for ever” he said. Back in my apartment, I put the copy of the story on my keep file together with something else which put back another memory. It was a DVD film of the film Hotel Rwanda. One Saturday night a couple of years ago, the Oscar nominated film was put on Cuban State television. I was at home watching it when a few minute after the opening titles, I noticed that some plots have been clumsily repeated. It had been edited. I happened to have the DVD of the original version. I put it on to compare the two. It became obvious that the Cuban censors¹⁷ had gone to the trouble of cutting out a 30 second portion of the film. The banned images contained a couple of harmless jokes about Cuban cigars. One of enduring questions that has crossed my mind while working in Cuba is whether the Government really needs to go to the lengths it does in managing the flow of information to his people. Cuban officials are surprisingly unapologetic on the issue. Their justification¹⁸ is that Cuba is in a midst of undeclared war with the shameless US administration which is determined¹⁹ to undermine the Cuban revolution. But sometimes it allude to what they seems to be regard as the British Government distinguished²⁰ censorship of the press during the Second World War. But still I wonder whether all the control is necessary. One of the side effects of 48 years with the same leader is an extraordinary degree of resignation among the people. It works both ways, those that supports the revolution; believe that their future is in good hands. Those that yearn for change, feel that things are out of their hands. Given that, would really threaten the status quo, if you could buy a foreign paper in the street of Havana or if the foreign press in Cuba, were able to act a little more freely. I doubt it, but clearly someone right at the top feels that such an experiment is not worth the risk. 

斯蒂芬?吉布斯：很多人说，搬家是人生最难熬的五大经历之一，并且排在第三位，仅次于丧亲，排在离婚的前面。但在古巴，情况却不一样，整理搬家变成一件非常轻松的事情。原因是你不需要经历那段绞尽脑汁想办法处理旧物品的痛苦过程。你可以将它们全部卖掉或送人，几小时内就可以全部解决。在古巴，基本上所有的消费品价格都高的惊人，差不多让人没办法买，而且种类也奇缺。但对于大多数古巴人以及生活在这个岛国上的外国人而言，他们花大部分时间思考的问题并不是国家的将来，政府的变更或菲德尔?卡斯特罗的健康问题，而是更多世俗琐事，例如怎样吃上一段大餐，怎样搞到一个好冰箱或电扇。对此我有第一手的见证：当我听说自己被古巴政府列入剥夺新闻报导许可权的三位驻外通讯记者之一这个令人失望的消息后，没几天就搬回了Otavana家中。而我们被剥夺新闻报道许可权，是因为一个不知名的委员会认为我们的报导有负面的影响。当我一回到自己公寓，电话铃就响了。是一位很久没有联系的移居国外的朋友打来的。我们的对话是这样的。“听说你被赶出来了，真的很遗憾。”他说。“用这种方式威胁外国媒体真的很卑鄙，”然后又装模作样了一会儿，电话那头才说出了真正的意图。“你起居室的那个沙发要不要卖呢？微波炉呢？”我要回国的消息一传出，我的古巴邻居就争先恐后的来祝贺我，仿佛他们把这当成一种晋升。不幸且通常是错误的是，很多古巴人认为所有要离开这个国家的人都是会有更好的生活。于是现在这种告别方式就显得非常必要了。我很快意识到什么旧物都可以处理掉；包括一块破表和2005年的旧日历；所有这些都可以换来一些令人尴尬的感谢。那时我也没时间去考虑应该珍藏古巴生活的哪些记忆。唯一珍藏的是一份我刚来哈瓦那不久发表的第一篇新闻报导的影印本。那时我采访了住在优雅山顶别墅的几位海明威家族成员，那是欧内斯特?海明威在1960年以前一直居住的地方。我们聚集在花园里听他们讲海明威著作存档项目，然后意想不到的事情发生了。菲德尔?卡斯特罗出现了。他穿着军装，迈着轻快的步伐从伊娃?门德斯曾经裸泳过的游泳池旁边走过来。菲德尔他搂着一位海明威家族女孩并为造成采访的中断而道歉，同时给我们做了一番长篇演讲。结束的时候他说他非常后悔没有更多的去了解欧内斯特?海明威。他说，“当你年轻的时候，你总是认为所有人都会永远活下去。”回到公寓，我将这篇报导的影印本放进了我的收藏夹里，里面还有一件可以勾起我另一份回忆的东西。那是一张电影《卢旺达饭店》的DVD碟。几年前的一个周六晚上，古巴国家电视台播出了这部奥斯卡提名电影。我在家看电视的时候发现电影开头演职名单放完没多久，有的情节就出现笨拙的重复。影片被剪辑过了。我刚好有这部电影的原版DVD碟。于是我把它放出来和电视上播的作对比。很显然古巴监察员不惜费力将影片中一段30秒长的部分剪辑掉了。被减掉的一段画面包含几个关于古巴雪茄的无伤大雅的玩笑。在古巴工作期间，我一直想弄清楚的一个问题，那就是是古巴政府真的有必要通过剪辑影片长度这种方式来阻止古巴人民获得外界信息吗？令人惊讶的是，古巴官员并没有就此事做出道歉。他们为自己辩护的理由是，古巴正处于和美国政府进行未公开战争中，因为美国政府意图破坏古巴改革。但有时他们会顺便提到二战中，他们所谓的英国政府著名新闻审查制度。不过我还是怀疑所有这些控制是否必要。48年没有换过领导人会对一个国家产生很多副作用，其中一个就是造成非常高的辞职率。它在两方面都会起作用。那些支持改革的人相信未来在他们的掌控中。而那些渴望变革的人则觉得事情已经脱离了他们的掌控。在这种情况下，如果你在哈瓦那街头买到一份外国报纸，或者驻古巴的外国报社拥有更多点自由，这样真的会威胁到古巴的现状吗？我对此持怀疑态度，但是显然现在古巴有些高层人士认为不值得冒这个险。

ANNOUNCER: Stephen Gibbs, now back in London… 

播音员：以上是斯蒂芬?吉布斯为我们带来的报导，现在让我们回来关注一下伦敦的……

1 bereavement   

n.亲人丧亡，丧失亲人，丧亲之痛

参考例句：

• the pain of an emotional crisis such as divorce or bereavement 诸如离婚或痛失亲人等情感危机的痛苦
• I sympathize with you in your bereavement. 我对你痛失亲人表示同情。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 mundane   

adj.平凡的；尘世的；宇宙的

参考例句：

• I hope I can get an interesting job and not something mundane.我希望我可以得到的是一份有趣的工作，而不是一份平凡无奇的。
• I find it humorous sometimes that even the most mundane occurrences can have an impact on our awareness.我发现生活有时挺诙谐的，即使是最平凡的事情也能影响我们的感知。

3 accreditation   

n.委派，信赖，鉴定合格

参考例句：

• a letter of accreditation 一份合格证明书
• This paper gives an overview of the Verification, Validation and Accreditation (VV&A) in High Level Architecture(HLA). 对基于高层体系结构(High Level Architecture,简称HLA)的仿真系统的校核、验证与确认(Verification, Validation and Accreditation,简称VV&A)问题进行了详细的介绍及分析。 来自互联网

4 intimidate   

vt.恐吓，威胁

参考例句：

• You think you can intimidate people into doing what you want?你以为你可以威胁别人做任何事？
• The first strike capacity is intended mainly to intimidate adversary.第一次攻击的武力主要是用来吓阻敌方的。

5 censor   

n./vt.审查，审查员；删改

参考例句：

• The film has not been viewed by the censor.这部影片还未经审查人员审查。
• The play was banned by the censor.该剧本被查禁了。

6 allude   

v.提及，暗指

参考例句：

• Many passages in Scripture allude to this concept.圣经中有许多经文间接地提到这样的概念。
• She also alluded to her rival's past marital troubles.她还影射了对手过去的婚姻问题。

7 yearn   

v.想念；怀念；渴望

参考例句：

• We yearn to surrender our entire being.我们渴望着放纵我们整个的生命。
• Many people living in big cities yearn for an idyllic country life.现在的很多都市人向往那种田园化的生活。

8 shipping   

n.船运（发货，运输，乘船）

参考例句：

• We struck a bargain with an American shipping firm.我们和一家美国船运公司谈成了一笔生意。
• There's a shipping charge of ￡5 added to the price.价格之外另加五英镑运输费。

9 belongings   

n.私人物品，私人财物

参考例句：

• I put a few personal belongings in a bag.我把几件私人物品装进包中。
• Your personal belongings are not dutiable.个人物品不用纳税。

10 agonizing   

adj.痛苦难忍的；使人苦恼的v.使极度痛苦；折磨(agonize的ing形式)

参考例句：

• I spent days agonizing over whether to take the job or not. 我用了好些天苦苦思考是否接受这个工作。
• his father's agonizing death 他父亲极度痛苦的死

11 scarcity   

n.缺乏，不足，萧条

参考例句：

• The scarcity of skilled workers is worrying the government.熟练工人的缺乏困扰着政府。
• The scarcity of fruit was caused by the drought.水果供不应求是由于干旱造成的。

12 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

13 inaccurately   

不精密地，不准确地

参考例句：

• The money mechanism began to work stiffly and inaccurately. 贷币机构开始周转不灵和不准确了。
• Court records reveal every day how inaccurately "eyewitnesses'see. 法庭记录每天都显露出“见证人”看得多不准确。

14 gratitude   

adj.感激，感谢

参考例句：

• I have expressed the depth of my gratitude to him.我向他表示了深切的谢意。
• She could not help her tears of gratitude rolling down her face.她感激的泪珠禁不住沿着面颊流了下来。

15 villa   

n.别墅，城郊小屋

参考例句：

• We rented a villa in France for the summer holidays.我们在法国租了一幢别墅消夏。
• We are quartered in a beautiful villa.我们住在一栋漂亮的别墅里。

16 lengthy   

adj.漫长的，冗长的

参考例句：

• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。
• The professor wrote a lengthy book on Napoleon.教授写了一部有关拿破仑的巨著。

17 censors   

删剪（书籍、电影等中被认为犯忌、违反道德或政治上危险的内容）( censor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The censors eviscerated the book to make it inoffensive to the President. 审查员删去了该书的精华以取悦于总统。
• The censors let out not a word. 检察官一字也不发。

18 justification   

n.正当的理由；辩解的理由

参考例句：

• There's no justification for dividing the company into smaller units. 没有理由把公司划分成小单位。
• In the young there is a justification for this feeling. 在年轻人中有这种感觉是有理由的。

19 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

20 distinguished   

adj.卓越的，杰出的，著名的

参考例句：

• Elephants are distinguished from other animals by their long noses.大象以其长长的鼻子显示出与其他动物的不同。
• A banquet was given in honor of the distinguished guests.宴会是为了向贵宾们致敬而举行的。