VOA标准英语2011--Turkish Elections Marred by Sex Scandal

Turkish Elections Marred¹ by Sex Scandal

The Turkish general election has become known as the campaign of Sex, Lies and Videotape. The reaction to the release on the Internet of explicit² sex videos appearing to implicate³ senior members of the National Action Party has been greeted with shock and anger.
Last month's release on the Internet by an unknown group called Farkl? ülkücülük (Different Idealism) of sex videos led to the resignation of 10 members of the party including six senior officials. National Action Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli accused the ruling AK party of political maneuvering⁴.
The media is biased⁵, Bahceli said. The judiciary is silent Bahceli added. The prosecutor⁶ works slowly and the ruling party is using this as political material, he said.
In a press conference the MHP claimed that the web page that released the videos was financially supported by an official of the ruling AK party. But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan angrily denied the charges.
We did what we could so far on this issue, Erdogan said. Bahceli is trying to blame the government for his internal problems, he added.
Authorities have now blocked the web page showing the videos. But the controversies⁷ observers have marred the MHP campaign, along with expectation that further scandals could emerge at any time. The chief beneficiary of such misfortunes is ruling the AK party, says political Columnist⁸ Nuray Mert.
"This is the general image that these tapes why these be happened because the governing party is trying push nationalist party out of parliament," said Mert. "Nationalist votes for the nationalist party is diminishing and they are going to the governing party."
According to the polls, the National Action Party is hovering⁹ just above the 10 percent threshold required to enter parliament. If the party fails, the lion's share of its votes will probably end up with the ruling AK party under Turkey's transferable vote system. With the AK party already enjoying a commanding lead, such a scenario¹⁰ would most likely give the party a two-thirds parliamentary majority, which its needs to pass a new constitution, and that's a key goal of the Prime Minister.
On the streets of Istanbul there's disgust over the scandal, but also a recognition that it might be effective.
PERSON ON STREET: "[It is] bad, of course. It is not good for the elections before the elections always this kind of situation happens, and it is a little bit suspicious always, also in France now, just before elections there are scandals. It kills confidence in the country."
This man says the scandal reflects badly on the elections. Turkish people cannot tolerate a sex scandal, especially not the voters of the MHP. It will affect the party very badly and that will mean that the ruling party will remain in power.
With still over a week to go before polling day, there's a widespread expectation of further unexpected events, especially for the country's MHP.

1 marred   

adj. 被损毁, 污损的

参考例句：

• The game was marred by the behaviour of drunken fans. 喝醉了的球迷行为不轨，把比赛给搅了。
• Bad diction marred the effectiveness of his speech. 措词不当影响了他演说的效果。

2 explicit   

adj.详述的，明确的；坦率的；显然的

参考例句：

• She was quite explicit about why she left.她对自己离去的原因直言不讳。
• He avoids the explicit answer to us.他避免给我们明确的回答。

3 implicate   

vt.使牵连其中，涉嫌

参考例句：

• He didn't find anything in the notebooks to implicate Stu.他在笔记本中没发现任何涉及斯图的东西。
• I do not want to implicate you in my problem of the job.我工作上的问题不想把你也牵扯进来。

4 maneuvering   

v.移动，用策略( maneuver的现在分词 )；操纵

参考例句：

• This Manstein did, with some brilliant maneuvering under the worse winter conditions. 曼施坦因在最恶劣的严冬条件下，出色地施展了灵活机动的战术，终于完成了任务。 来自辞典例句
• In short, large goals required farsighted policies, not tactical maneuvering. 一句话，大的目标需要有高瞻远瞩的政策，玩弄策略是不行的。 来自辞典例句

5 biased   

a.有偏见的

参考例句：

• a school biased towards music and art 一所偏重音乐和艺术的学校
• The Methods: They employed were heavily biased in the gentry's favour. 他们采用的方法严重偏袒中上阶级。

6 prosecutor   

n.起诉人；检察官，公诉人

参考例句：

• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。
• The prosecutor would tear your testimony to pieces.检查官会把你的证言驳得体无完肤。

7 controversies   

争论

参考例句：

• We offer no comment on these controversies here. 对于这些争议，我们在这里不作任何评论。 来自英汉非文学 - 历史
• The controversies surrounding population growth are unlikely to subside soon. 围绕着人口增长问题的争论看来不会很快平息。 来自辞典例句

8 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

9 hovering   

鸟( hover的现在分词 )； 靠近（某事物）； （人）徘徊； 犹豫

参考例句：

• The helicopter was hovering about 100 metres above the pad. 直升机在离发射台一百米的上空盘旋。
• I'm hovering between the concert and the play tonight. 我犹豫不决今晚是听音乐会还是看戏。

10 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。