2015考研英语阅读苏格兰独立_大学英语阅读

2015考研英语阅读苏格兰独立

　　In the end the referendum will turn not on calculations of taxes and oil revenue, but on identityand power. The idea that Scots can shape their own destiny, both at the referendum andafterwards, is exhilarating. Yet Scotland already controls many of its own affairs. Moreover, asWestminster politicians of all stripes have hastily made clear, if Scotland votes No, the devolvedadministration will soon get so much clout that the practical difference between staying in theunion and leaving it will narrow. That would also lead to the distribution of power away fromWestminster and to other bits of Britain, which should have happened long ago.

　　其实公投的最终目的不在对税款和利益的斤斤计较，而是寻找身份的认同和自我的权力。无论是对公投本身，还是公投之后，苏格兰人民可以决定自己的命运的这一想法，才是最令人激动的。但现在，苏格兰人民已经可以掌握了很多自主权了。萨尔蒙德率领的民族党，及其运营下的政府口中喊着独立，但实际并没有利用自己的权力做出什么实事。此外，英国众多政治家都已经表示，如果苏格兰不分离，各地区政府将获得更多的权力，因此留在联盟内与独立出去其实并无实质差别。这就意味着权力将从中央政府下放到地区政府，这本该是很多年前就应该完成的。

　　So by staying in, Scots will not just save the union but enhance it, as they have for 300 years.For the UK, with all its triumphs and eccentricities, belongs to Scots as much as it does to theEnglisheven if increasing numbers of them seem ready to disown that glorious, hard-earnedheritage, and to simplify their identities by stripping out one of those concentric rings. Thatgoes against both the spirit of this fluid centuryin which most people have multiple identities,whether of place, ethnicity or religionand the evidence of the preceding three. For all itstensions and rivalries, and sometimes because of them, the history of the union shows that theScots, Welsh, English and Northern Irish are stronger, more tolerant and more imaginativetogether than they would be apart.