2007年VOA标准英语-Shimon Peres Elected Israel's President

By Jim Teeple
Jerusalem
13 June 2007

Shimon Peres has been elected Israel's ninth president in a second round of parliamentary voting for the largely ceremonial post. VOA's Jim Teeple reports from Jerusalem, Mr. Peres has held virtually all of Israel's top civilian¹ jobs, without ever having won a national election in his six-decade political career.

Shimon Peres (r) and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, 13 Jun 2007

Shimon Peres, an 83-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner, will be sworn in on July 15 for a seven-year term as Israel's president, a largely ceremonial post that has come under a cloud of scandal in recent years.

Mr. Peres, won 86 out of 120 parliamentary votes in the second round of a secret ballot², after his two opponents withdrew when it became clear that he was the sentimental³ favorite for the position. Speaking a short while later he pledged to try to serve as a unifying⁴ force for Israelis.

Mr. Peres says the office of the presidency⁵ is larger than any one man, and that he believes the vote to elect him president was one made out of friendship.

Mr. Peres lost the last race for president in 2000, when in a stunning⁶ political surprise a prominent rabbi swung votes to a virtually unknown politician from the right-wing Likud Party, Moshe Katsav.

Earlier this year, Israel's attorney general said he planned to indict⁷ Mr. Katsav on charges of rape⁸ and abuse of power, based on sworn testimony⁹ from several women who worked in the president's office. Mr. Katsav, who says he is innocent, has yet to be formally charged, but he stepped down from the presidency several months ago to fight the charges.

Mr. Katsav's predecessor¹⁰, Ezer Weizman, also left before his seven-year term ended, after he was implicated¹¹, but never charged, in a case in which he was alleged¹² to have received more than $300,000 in gifts from a wealthy French businessman.

Ephraim Ya'ar, of Tel Aviv University, says Shimon Peres is a good choice to restore credibility to a tarnished¹³ office.

"He has been able in recent years to overcome in recent years a lot of the personal animosity and also the internal cleavages [of Israeli politics], so I think in this respect he will be widely accepted by the Israeli public, and I think in this way he will restore, at least to some extent, wounds the institution of the presidency suffered in recent years," he said.

During his career, Mr. Peres has served as Minister of Defense¹⁴, Finance, and Foreign Affairs and has twice held the office of Prime Minister. But he never won a national election to the office of prime minister, serving in a caretaker capacity, most notably¹⁵ in the 1990s after Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated¹⁶ by a Jewish extremist.

He shared a Nobel Peace Prize with Mr. Rabin, and with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, for helping¹⁷ to craft the 1993 peace agreement that led to the establishment of limited Palestinian self-rule.

1 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

2 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

3 sentimental   

adj.多愁善感的，感伤的

参考例句：

• She's a sentimental woman who believes marriage comes by destiny.她是多愁善感的人，她相信姻缘命中注定。
• We were deeply touched by the sentimental movie.我们深深被那感伤的电影所感动。

4 unifying   

使联合( unify的现在分词 )； 使相同； 使一致； 统一

参考例句：

• In addition, there were certain religious bonds of a unifying kind. 此外，他们还有某种具有一种统一性质的宗教上的结合。
• There is a unifying theme, and that is the theme of information flow within biological systems. 我们可以用一个总的命题，把生物学系统内的信息流来作为这一研究主题。

5 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

6 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

7 indict   

v.起诉，控告，指控

参考例句：

• You can't indict whole people for the crudeness of a few.您不能因少数人的粗暴行为就控诉整个民族。
• I can indict you for abducting high school student.我可以告你诱拐中学生。

8 rape   

n.抢夺，掠夺，强奸；vt.掠夺，抢夺，强奸

参考例句：

• The rape of the countryside had a profound ravage on them.对乡村的掠夺给他们造成严重创伤。
• He was brought to court and charged with rape.他被带到法庭并被指控犯有强奸罪。

9 testimony   

n.证词；见证，证明

参考例句：

• The testimony given by him is dubious.他所作的证据是可疑的。
• He was called in to bear testimony to what the police officer said.他被传入为警官所说的话作证。

10 predecessor   

n.前辈，前任

参考例句：

• It will share the fate of its predecessor.它将遭受与前者同样的命运。
• The new ambassador is more mature than his predecessor.新大使比他的前任更成熟一些。

11 implicated   

adj.密切关联的；牵涉其中的

参考例句：

• These groups are very strongly implicated in the violence. 这些组织与这起暴力事件有着极大的关联。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Having the stolen goods in his possession implicated him in the robbery. 因藏有赃物使他涉有偷盗的嫌疑。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

12 alleged   

a.被指控的，嫌疑的

参考例句：

• It was alleged that he had taken bribes while in office. 他被指称在任时收受贿赂。
• alleged irregularities in the election campaign 被指称竞选运动中的不正当行为

13 tarnished   

（通常指金属）（使）失去光泽，（使）变灰暗( tarnish的过去式和过去分词 )； 玷污，败坏

参考例句：

• The mirrors had tarnished with age. 这些镜子因年深日久而照影不清楚。
• His bad behaviour has tarnished the good name of the school. 他行为不轨，败坏了学校的声誉。

14 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。

15 notably   

adv.值得注意地，显著地，尤其地，特别地

参考例句：

• Many students were absent,notably the monitor.许多学生缺席，特别是连班长也没来。
• A notably short,silver-haired man,he plays basketball with his staff several times a week.他个子明显较为矮小，一头银发，每周都会和他的员工一起打几次篮球。

16 assassinated   

v.暗杀( assassinate的过去式和过去分词 )；中伤；诋毁；破坏

参考例句：

• The prime minister was assassinated by extremists. 首相遭极端分子暗杀。
• Then, just two days later, President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. 跟着在两天以后，肯尼迪总统在达拉斯被人暗杀。 来自辞典例句

17 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。