新西兰英语 692 Labour Party Leadership

 　　First check back to November 18th about the Labour Party conference.

　　During the conference last weekend, David Cunnliffe refused to say if he supported David Shearer¹ as Leader of the Opposition². This looked as if Mr Cunnliffe wanted to challenge Mr Shearer for the leadership again. For this reason, Mr Shearer called a meeting today of the caucus³ – all Labour Party MPs – to vote on his leadership. It was a unanimous vote – all 34 MPs voted to keep him as their leader. He said that the Party worked as a team and it was important that all members were part of that team.

　　Mr Cunnliffe who has now moved to the back bench because he has lost his special responsibility as Shadow Minister of Economic Development.

　　David Cunnliffe tried for the leadership in 2011 but lost to David Shearer. Listen to December 12th 2011 to hear more about this.

　　Mr Cunnliffe was elected to Parliament in 1999. He is an intelligent and experienced MP. He was part of the Labour Cabinet in 2007 as Minister of Health and Minister of Communications and Information Technology.

　　Vocabulary

　　(Note: it is a good idea to check that you know this vocabulary before you listen.)

　　?leadership – the job of leader

　　?caucus – all MPs of the same Party

　　?unanimous – everybody agrees (This word has 4 syllables⁴. Try saying it: u nan i mous)

　　?Shadow Minister – The Government has Ministers (e.g. Minister of Health) and the Opposition has Shadow Ministers (e.g. the Shadow Minister of Health). Their job is to know everything they can about this responsibility so they can challenge the Minister.

　　?Cabinet – all Ministers

1 shearer   

n.剪羊毛的人；剪切机

参考例句：

• A bad shearer never had a good sickle. 拙匠无利器。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Eventually, Shearer lost faith, dropping him to the bench. 最终，希勒不再信任他，把他换下场。 来自互联网

2 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

3 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

4 syllables   

n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a word with two syllables 双音节单词
• 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓，它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记