2007年VOA标准英语-Israelis Reflect on Turbulent Year After Sharon

By Robert Berger
Jerusalem
06 January 2007

It has been a year since former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke, leaving him in a coma¹ that ended his political career.  Israelis are still lamenting² his loss and reflecting on how things might have been had he remained at the helm.  Robert Berger reports from VOA'S Jerusalem bureau.

Ariel Sharon

The question many Israelis are asking a year after Ariel Sharon's stroke is whether things would have been better if he were still in office. It has been a turbulent year, shaped in large part by Israel's inconclusive war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. Hezbollah was outnumbered and outgunned, yet it fired 4,000 rockets at Israel and survived the 34-day conflict intact.

Mr. Sharon's successor, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, has been harshly criticized for his handling of the war, and his popularity has plunged³. A recent poll showed that 77 percent of Israelis disapprove⁴ of his performance.

That has raised questions about whether the popular Mr. Sharon, a former general and war hero, would have done things differently. 

"In essence, what you had after he was incapacitated was like Murphy's Law: If anything can go wrong it will go wrong," said Ra'anan Gissin, who was Mr. Sharon's adviser⁵ for 10 years. "And the war went wrong, or at least not as we expected.  If Sharon was there today, at least there would have been a sense of direction."

But Mr. Sharon also has his critics. Many Israelis say his term went downhill after he pulled Israel out of the Gaza Strip in 2005. Yaffa Reuveni, a teacher in Jerusalem, told VOA that Sharon's expulsion of 8,000 Gaza settlers was inexcusable.

"He was very cynical⁶. He make [made it] very bad for [a] lot of people. [A] lot of people are without money, without home, without work and I don't agree with this," said Reuveni.

While Israelis debate Ariel Sharon's legacy⁷, there is little disagreement that he would have handled the war in Lebanon more prudently⁸ than Mr. Olmert, who has little military experience. Gissin says Mr. Sharon would not have gone to a war he could not win.

"If he was awake today and in his full capacity, I doubt very much that the developments that took place would have taken place," he added.  "In other words, the fact that the war in Lebanon went as it was. Maybe there wouldn't have been a war in Lebanon."

A popular joke making the rounds has Mr. Sharon waking up from his coma. When he finds out that people with no security experience are now prime minister and defense⁹ minister, he is utterly¹⁰ dismayed and decides to go back to sleep.

1 coma   

n.昏迷，昏迷状态

参考例句：

• The patient rallied from the coma.病人从昏迷中苏醒过来。
• She went into a coma after swallowing a whole bottle of sleeping pills.她吃了一整瓶安眠药后就昏迷过去了。

2 lamenting   

adj.悲伤的，悲哀的v.（为…）哀悼，痛哭，悲伤( lament的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• Katydids were lamenting fall's approach. 蝈蝈儿正为秋天临近而哀鸣。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Lamenting because the papers hadn't been destroyed and the money kept. 她正在吃后悔药呢，后悔自己没有毁了那张字条，把钱昧下来！ 来自英汉文学 - 败坏赫德莱堡

3 plunged   

v.颠簸( plunge的过去式和过去分词 )；暴跌；骤降；突降

参考例句：

• The train derailed and plunged into the river. 火车脱轨栽进了河里。
• She lost her balance and plunged 100 feet to her death. 她没有站稳，从100英尺的高处跌下摔死了。

4 disapprove   

v.不赞成，不同意，不批准

参考例句：

• I quite disapprove of his behaviour.我很不赞同他的行为。
• She wants to train for the theatre but her parents disapprove.她想训练自己做戏剧演员，但她的父母不赞成。

5 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

6 cynical   

adj.(对人性或动机)怀疑的，不信世道向善的

参考例句：

• The enormous difficulty makes him cynical about the feasibility of the idea.由于困难很大，他对这个主意是否可行持怀疑态度。
• He was cynical that any good could come of democracy.他不相信民主会带来什么好处。

7 legacy   

n.遗产，遗赠；先人(或过去)留下的东西

参考例句：

• They are the most precious cultural legacy our forefathers left.它们是我们祖先留下来的最宝贵的文化遗产。
• He thinks the legacy is a gift from the Gods.他认为这笔遗产是天赐之物。

8 prudently   

adv. 谨慎地，慎重地

参考例句：

• He prudently pursued his plan. 他谨慎地实行他那计划。
• They had prudently withdrawn as soon as the van had got fairly under way. 他们在蓬车安全上路后立即谨慎地离去了。

9 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

10 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。