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考研英語閱讀百分之八十都出自一些英美報刊雜志The Economist (《經濟學家》 ), Times(《時代周刊》等等，所以考生平時做閱讀訓練的時候可以多看看這些文章，小編也會分享一些出自這些雜志的中英文雙語閱讀，大家可以看看。下面是關于煙與火的一篇文章，大家讀讀看。

Obituary: Helmut Schmidt Smoke and fire

赫爾穆特·施密特 煙與火

Helmut Schmidt, Social Democrat chancellor of WestGermany, died on November 10th, aged 96

赫爾穆特·施密特，西德的社會民主黨總理，逝于11月10日，終年96歲

HE WAS so clever, and so rude with it, that hislisteners sometimes realised too late that they had been outwitted and insulted. Helmut Schmidtdid not just find fools tiresome. He obliterated them. The facts were clear and the logicimpeccable. So disagreement was a sign of idiocy.

他的聰明和粗暴時常會讓聽眾意識到自己上當受騙和受到羞辱的時候已經太晚了。赫爾穆特·施密特不僅發現了傻瓜令人討厭，他還消滅了他們。既然事實清楚，邏輯不可辯駁，那么，再有不同的意見就是白癡的表現。

He was impatient, too, with his own party, which failed to realise the constraints and dilemmasof power. It wanted him to spend money West Germany did not have, and to compromise withterrorists who belonged in jail. He was impatient with the anti-nuclear left, who failed to realisethat nuclear-power stations were safe, and that the Soviet empire thrived on allies' weakness.And he was impatient with post-Watergate America, which seemed to have lost its will to lead.

他還對沒能意識到權力的約束和困境的他的政黨感到不耐煩。這個政黨曾經想讓他花西德沒有的錢，同應當被關在監獄里的恐怖分子妥協。他對沒能認識到核電站是安全的、蘇聯帝國是靠著盟友的軟弱才繁榮起來的反核左派感到不耐煩。最后，他對似乎已經失去了領導意愿的后水門時代的美國感到不耐煩。

In good causes and in bad he was imperious. His addiction to nicotine trumped conventionand courtesy. He smoked whenever and wherever he felt like it, even in non-smokingcompartments of railway carriages. “Can you ask Mr Schmidt to put his cigarette out?” apassenger asked the conductor. “Would you mind telling him yourself?” came the timid reply.

不管在不在理，他都希望別人聽命于他。他的煙癮勝過了公德和禮貌。只要想抽，他就會不分時間場合地來上一根，哪怕是在火車的非吸煙車廂中。“你能讓施密特先生把煙滅了嗎?”一位乘客問乘務員。“對不起，麻煩你自己給他說好嗎?”得到卻是一個怯生生回答。

Yet his brains, eloquence and willpower were unmatched in German politics. They brought himthrough the Nazi period, thrown out of the Hitler Youth for disloyalty but with an Iron Crossfor bravery. He was one-quarter Jewish, which he concealed when he married his wife Loki andneeded to prove his Aryan background. Only late in his career did an army document emergewhich described him as ideologically sound.

然而，在德國政壇，他的頭腦、口才和毅力卻是獨一無二的。它們讓他走過了納粹時代，因為不忠誠而被開除出希特勒青年團，卻因為勇敢而得到了鐵十字勛章。他是四分之一的猶太人，他在與妻子 Loki 結婚并需要證明他的的雅利安人背景時隱瞞了這一點。直到一份描述他意識形態可靠的軍方文件出現為止。

In post-war West Germany he flourished, making a successful career in Hamburg's citygovernment. By commandeering army units to deal with the floods of 1962 he broke a taboo,and the law, but gaining a deserved reputation as a doer.

在戰后的西德，他名聲大震，在漢堡市政府走上了一條成功之路。他以征調軍隊應對1962年的洪水的行為打破了當時的一項禁忌，違反了法律，卻贏得了實干家的美譽。

He replaced Willy Brandt (the victim of an East German espionage operation) in 1974, at atime when the West was reeling from the oil-price shock, terrorism and America's humiliationin Vietnam. With his friend Valéry Giscard d'Estaing (another fluent English-speaker), helaunched the idea of summit governance to deal with the world's economic woes. G7 meetingsin those days were brief, informal affairs with real conversations and real decisions, not themicromanaged showpieces of today. Agreements made then laid the foundations for themodern European Union.

他在西方正在承受油價沖擊、恐怖主義和美國在越南失敗之苦的1974年，取代了(東德間諜行動的一位受害者)維利·勃蘭特。他同他的朋友吉斯卡爾·德斯坦德(另一位能夠流利地講英語的人)首倡了以峰會治理來應對全球經濟困境的思想。那時的G7會議，議題簡明，氣氛隨便，有著真正的對話和真正的決策的，不像今天這樣凈管些不該管的瑣事。當時簽訂的各種協議為當代歐洲聯盟打下了基礎。

Other leaders did not find him easy to deal with. He detested the weakness of Jimmy Carter'sadministration, and the two men got on badly. His foreign minister, Hans-Dietrich Genscher,recalled that “Schmidt was of the opinion that the world would be fairer if he was president ofthe United States and Carter the German chancellor.” The Israeli leader Menachem Begin calledhim “unprincipled, avaricious, heartless and lacking in human feeling” after he said thatGermans living in a divided nation should feel sympathy for Palestinian self-determination.

其他領導人沒有發現他容易相處。他曾對吉米·卡特政府的軟弱表示了極大的不滿，兩人相處的非常糟糕。他的外長漢斯-迪特里希·根舍曾經回憶道，“施密特當時的看法是，要是他是美國總統、卡特是德國總理的話，世界會更加美好。”在他發表了生活在一個分裂國家中的德國人應當對巴勒斯坦人的民族自決表示同情的言論后，以色列領導人貝京稱他“沒有原則立場、貪得無厭、沒心沒肺，而且缺乏人類感情“。

Fairness, not fads

公平而不狂熱

His toughness towards the nihilist terrorists of the Red Army Faction outraged many liberal-minded Germans, who felt that extensive snooping, interrogations and quasi-military justicehad dreadful echoes of the Nazi period. They flinched when he urged America to beef up itsnuclear presence in Europe in response to the Soviet Union's growing stockpile of medium-range missiles. But for him social democracy was based on fairness, not fads. He had notime for greenery, feminism or culture wars. Anyone with a vision should go and see a doctor,he once said. Far more important was bolstering the welfare system, building more houses andmaking Germany safe at home and abroad.

他對西德紅軍旅恐怖分子的強硬態度曾經惹惱了許多思想開明的德國人，他們認為大范圍的監聽、審訊和半軍事化審判讓人想起了納粹時代的可怕。當他敦促美國增加在歐洲的核存在以應對蘇聯日漸增加的中程導彈時，他們退縮了。但是，對他來說，社會民主的基礎是公平而不是一時的狂熱。他沒空去關注溫室效應、女權主義和文化戰爭。他曾經說過，有這種愿景的人都應該去看醫生。在當時來說，打造福利體系、建造更多的住房，讓德國人在國內和國外都有安全感才是最最重要的事情。

Unfortunately his Social Democratic party thought differently, as did, increasingly, his liberalcoalition partner, the FDP. Flexibility and charm were not Mr Schmidt's strong points. A bitmore of both might have saved him.

不幸的是，他的社會民主黨就像信奉自由主義的合作伙伴自由民主黨一樣，同他有不一樣的想法。靈活和魅力不是施密特的強項，如果兩樣東西多那么一點話，它們也許會救了他。

His nemesis was Helmut Kohl, the beefy Christian Democrat leader. Mr Schmidtunderestimated his rival, mocking his mumbled provincial diction. He himself was anaccomplished music and art critic, as elegant a wordsmith in prose as in speech. Mr Kohl'smain interest outside politics was food. But the conservative leader's willingness to listen anddo deals made Mr Schmidt look arrogant and out of touch. As his coalition disintegrated, thechancellor, in government since 1969, suddenly found himself in the political wilderness. Hisparty (like many in Europe spooked by Ronald Reagan's unabashed anti-communism) veeredleftwards.

他的死敵是基督教民主黨領導人赫爾穆特·科爾。施密特小看了這位“重量級”的對手，曾經對他混糊不清的地方口音大加嘲笑。他本人是一個頗有成就的音樂和藝術評論家，說起話來，用詞文雅。科爾在政治之外的主要興趣是美食。但是，這位保守派領導人的傾聽和合作意愿卻讓施密特看上去傲慢無禮和不可接近。當他的聯合政府解體時，這位自1969年以來就一直是政府總理的人，突然發現自己成了孤家寡人。他的政黨(就像當時許多被里根毫不畏懼的反共產主義所嚇倒的歐洲政黨一樣)倒向了左派。

Mr Schmidt, still puffing away on his beloved menthols (stockpiled in case of a ban) and playingthe piano (of which he had a near-professional mastery), varied his views hardly an iota. Aspublisher of Die Zeit, Germany's most heavyweight weekly, he became its leading commentator—more influential there in shaping opinion, perhaps, than as an embattled chancellor. Hedeplored worries about climate change: population growth was a far bigger problem.Intervention in other countries’ affairs was a mistake (though he made an exception forVladimir Putin's war in Ukraine: that was a justified response to Western meddling). Unpopularviews—but the facts and logic were clear. Anyone who disagreed was stupid.

當時仍在吞云吐霧(他抽剩下來的過濾嘴因為一項禁令都被保存了起來)、仍在彈鋼琴(他的鋼琴水平接近大師級)的施密特絲毫也沒有改變他的觀點。作為德國的重量級周刊——《時代周報》的發行人，他成了這家報紙的首席評論員——在形成輿論方面，這個位置也許要比一位苦苦掙扎的總理更有影響力。他探討了對于氣候變化的種種擔憂：人口增長是一個更大的問題。介入他國事務的干預是一個錯誤(盡管他曾經為普京在烏克蘭的戰爭破了一次例：那是對西方干預的一種合情合理的應對)。不受歡迎的觀點——但是事實和邏輯都是清晰的。誰不同意，誰就是傻子。

1.fail to 未能

例句:The various elements of the novel fail to cohere.

這部小說的各部分之間缺乏連貫性。

2.want to 想要

例句:Do ring if you want to talk about it.

你要是想談談，一定給我打電話。

3.seem to 似乎

例句:Marks in the roadway seem to indicate that he skidded taking a sharp turn.

從車道上的痕跡來看，他似乎在急轉彎時打滑了。

4.throw out of 扔出去

例句:One of the exceptions to the beauty is the litter that some people throw out of theirwindows as they are driving on the rural roads.

與這美景不太和諧的是有人驅車行駛在鄉間小路上時隨手從車窗往外扔垃圾。