必克BBC新闻：与美国建交能否令古巴走向自由？

 

必克BBC新闻，每日一听，聆听世界，提升自我。

小编与您共进步！

Good morning. As we heard on this programme yesterday Cuba still arouses strong feelings. On the one hand there are severe restrictions on personal freedoms, with political opponents of the regime still in jail.

On the other hand Cuba’s outstanding medical service is put at the service of the rest of the world. Since the revolution in 1959 30,000 health professionals have been deployed in 103 countries.

More than 250 Cuban are now fighting Ebola in West Africa, more than any other country.

What we have in Cuba is just one example of an issue which dominated the 20th century and which is still present with us in one form or another.

It is what happens when a self-selected elite obtains power and seeks to rule in the name of a greater justice-that justice might be ideological as in Cuba, political as in Putin’s Russia or religious.

The key point is that those in power decide what this justice is. What they forget is that all our human motives are mixed, that however sincere we think we are there will almost certainly be an element of self-interest, and we will try to hang on to power if we feel our self-interest is threatened.

It is an example of what the Christian Church means by that very unfashionable word “Original sin”-though as someone once said it is in fact the one Christian doctrine we should have no problem at all in believing.

That’s why no elite, however seemingly wise or good, should be trusted with absolute power. Liberty, said Thomas Hobbes, is power cut up into little pieces.

But if it is all cut up into little pieces, with everyone out for themselves, what happens to justice for the weak?

One of my intellectual heroes is the American thinker Reinhold Niebuhr. He once wrote: Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible; but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.

There is a strain of decency in every human being, a desire for justice-and that is the positive argument for democracy. But the inclination to injustice also has to be taken into account.

Because no elite can be totally trusted there must be checks and balances on governments and in the end a way of getting rid of them peacefully.

Cuba may not have got it right yet. Nevertheless is there something other societies, including our own, can learn from them?- In how we can best hold together those two crucial values of liberty and justice?

词汇解析

survey

难度：5星基本词汇，属常用1000词

英汉解释

n.问卷；测量；调查；纵览；视察

v.调查；审视；研究；测量；勘定；环视

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

A recent survey of public opinions shows that most people are worried about the increasing crime.

一份最近的民意调查表明,大多数人对不断增长的犯罪率表示忧虑。

用作动词 (v.)

They surveyed the damage inflicted by the storm.

他们调查了暴风雨造成的损失。

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switch

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

n.转换；开关；鞭子

v.改变；交换；转换；鞭打

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

In his hand he held a switch which was as supple as a vine-shoot and as heavy as iron.

他手里拿着一条鞭子，象葡萄藤那样软，又象铁那么重。

用作动词 (v.)

No, hold it a second, switch that to roast chicken.

不，等一等，把那个换成烤子鸡。

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rely

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

vi.依靠；信任

参考例句

用作不及物动词 (vi.)

We are relying on your decision.

我们相信你的判断。

I rely on getting my money back in due time.

我相信到期时可以收回我的钱。

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strategic

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

adj.战略的；重要的；基本的

参考例句

用作形容词 (adj.)

We made a strategic withdrawal, so that we could build up our forces for a renewed attack.

我们作了一次战略性退却，以便我们能积蓄力量再次进攻。

At this meeting we grappled with the most important, strategic issues in our economic relationship.

在本次会议期间，我们重点讨论了两国经济关系中最重要的战略问题。

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employer

英汉解释

n.雇主

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

He sued his employer for wrongful dismissal.

他控告雇主非法解雇他。

He was in his employer's good graces.

他深得雇主的赏识。

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Soviet

难度：3星常用词汇，属常用6000词

英汉解释

adj.苏联的；苏维埃的

n.苏维埃

参考例句

用作形容词 (adj.)

Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.

朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。

用作名词 (n.)

The Soviet base would not soon collapse.

苏维埃的基础不会马上崩溃的。

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satellite

难度：4星核心词汇，属常用3000词

英汉解释

n.卫星；人造卫星

参考例句

用作名词 (n.)

The bbc is hooked up with Australian television by satellite.

英国广播公司通过卫星与澳大利亚电视实行联播。

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