雅思阅读材料大集合：中美第一夫人同游北京

2019-07-12 09:35

来源：新东方在线

作者：

　　Obama is on her first-ever trip to China, alongside her mother and two daughters, and will spend four days in Beijing before heading to a string of popular tourist sites in the interior cities of Xi'an and Chengdu.

　　美国第一夫人米歇尔·奥巴马踏上了其首次访华之行。在北京为期四天的停留后，米歇尔会继而启程访问中国内陆的西安和成都。

　　Back during the Ming dynasty, some four centuries ago, the Hall of Earthly Tranquility in Beijing’s Forbidden City was the redoubt of China’s empress. On Friday, under rare unpolluted skies, the first ladies of the world’s two biggest economies, Michelle Obama and her Chinese counterpart Peng Liyuan, embarked on a lightning tour of the imperial residence. They strode through the Hall of Supreme Harmony, checked out the Hall of Preserving Harmony and admired a golden throne off-limits to most tourists. Obama and Peng glided past by a large stone carving that was labeled “Large Stone Carving.” Alas, time was running tight so they had to skip a tea ceremony in the Lodge of Fresh Fragrance.

　　早在400年前，在古老的明朝，京城的紫禁城中，坤宁宫便是中国皇后的居所。本周五(3月21日)，在北京罕见的碧空下，米歇尔·奥巴马和，世界最大的两个经济体的第一夫人一起以闪电般的速度游览了这座皇家宫殿。两位夫人快步穿过太和殿，参观了禁止对普通游客开放的黄金龙椅，经过了一块标着“大石雕”的巨大石雕。哎，时间紧迫，两位女士不得不放弃了在故宫饮茶的计划。

　　Perhaps next time.

　　只好等下次了。

　　A day before, Obama had arrived on her first trip ever to China with her mother Marian Robinson and children Malia and Sasha in tow. She is set to spend four days in Beijing before heading to the interior cities of Xi’an and Chengdu, where she will take in some of China’s most famous tourist sights: the terra-cotta warriors and the giant pandas. Obama is even blogging about her China experience, a process that will likely require her handlers to use a virtual private network to evade Chinese Internet censorship. In a month, President Barack Obama is also due in Asia. But his four-nation tour, somewhat controversially, will not include a China stop. Instead, it was left to his wife to help smooth ties and develop a relationship—however brief and somewhat stiff—with Peng.

　　一天前，米歇尔携母亲和两个女儿抵达中国。按计划，她将在北京停留四天，然后前往西安和成都两座内陆城市，一览中国最为著名的旅游景观：秦兵马俑和大熊猫。米歇尔甚至还在博客上直播她的访华行程——不过可能得使用翻墙网络。一个月后，美国总统巴拉克·奥巴马也将访问亚洲。不过他的四国访问计划并不包括中国，这颇引发了一些争议。现在，与中国的外交重担落在了他夫人身上，和中国第一夫人疏通关系、发展感情，尽管二人鲜有交集，并不熟识。

　　“The relationships between the United States and China couldn’t be more important,” Obama said on Friday morning, “and having the opportunity to travel here, to listen, to learn, to hear more about the education initiatives here in this country and to share my travels with students throughout the United States is a very unique experience, and it’s one that I will never forget.”

　　周五早上，米歇尔表示：“美中关系是重中之重。得此机会，游览中国，倾听、学习、了解这里的教育，和全美的学生分享我的中国之行，是很特殊的经历，我将铭记一生。”

　　Obama began her day at Beijing Normal School, an elite high school whose students enjoy a leafy campus and state-of-the-art equipment. The walls are decorated with murals glorifying both Euclid and Karl Marx. She and Peng visited a robotics class, where students were learning about various robots, including a hexagonal snowflake robot that one student described to Obama as “very amazing and adorable.” The first ladies also took in a calligraphy class, where Peng wrote a four-character aphorism that describes how individuals with high morality can accomplish major tasks. She presented the calligraphy to Obama as a present.

　　米歇尔北京之行的第一站是师大二附，北京的一所重点高中。校园树木林立，拥有先进的教学设备，学校墙壁上同时装饰着欧几里得和卡尔·马克思的壁画。米歇尔与参观了机器人课堂，课堂上学生们学习制造各式各样的机器人，甚至还包括一个六角雪花型的机器人，让米歇尔大为称赞。第一夫人还参加了书法课，题写了成语“厚德载物”，寓意具有高尚的道德境界方可肩负重任，并赠予米歇尔。

　　Finally, the two wrapped up their school tour by visiting a ping-pong class where students spend 40 minutes slamming plastic balls onto green tables with metronomic precision. Table tennis is a serious sport in China, with deep political significance. After enduring decades of international isolation during which the world chose the government in Taiwan as China’s rightful representative, Beijing began to integrate into the global community. Ping-pong led the way.

　　最后，两位女士参与了学校的乒乓球课。40分钟的课堂里，学生们在带有刻度的绿色球台上反复练习着抽球。乒乓在中国并非平凡运动，它曾起到重要的政治作用。长达数十年，国际社会只承认台湾是中国的合法政府，新中国政府一直被孤立，后来才开始逐渐得到国际承认。正是乒乓球打破了坚冰。

　　After a speech in which each ping-pong teacher was introduced with great solemnity, Obama slipped out of her vest-coat and tried her hand at ping-pong. The students stayed silent as she whiffed her first few attempts. But as she began to make contact with the table, the kids broke out into gasps and claps. Afterward, Obama, who has made physical fitness one of her signature campaigns, joked about her husband’s ping-pong prowess. “My husband plays,” she said. “He thinks he’s better than he really is.” The students laughed nervously.

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