英语国家社会与文化(下)名词解释(中英)

The Resource Management Act 资源管理法案

The Resource Management Act reflects New Zealander’s environmental awareness. Under the Act, laws governing land,air and water resources are combined together to ensure the sustainable management of natural resources. It focuses on the effects of human activities on the whole environment as well. The Act came into force in 1991. With it , New Zealand leads the world in environmental legislation.

资源管理法案反映了新西兰人的环保意识。根据该法案，法律将土地，空气和水资源结合在一起管理，以确保自然资源的可持续管理。它侧重于人类活动对整个环境的影响。该法案于1991生效。有了它，新西兰在环境立法方面领先世界。

Maoritanga 毛利文化

Maoritanga is the Maori word for “ Maori culture. It refers to all the elements of the rich cultural heritage of the indigenous people in New Zealand, including their languages, customs and traditions.

毛利文化是毛利语中的“毛利文化。它是指在新西兰土著居民丰富的文化遗产中的所有元素，包括他们的语言，习俗和传统。

MMPR 混合成员比例代表制

MMPR stands for Mixed Member Proportional Representation. Under this new election system, each voter has two votes, the first one for a candidate in their electorate, the second for a political party. The second vote, when counted nation-wide, decides the number of seats each party will take in Parliament.

MMPR代表混合成员比例代表制。在这种新的选举制度下，每一个选民都有两张选票，第一张是投给选民的候选人，第二个是投给政党的候选人。当第二次投票在全国范围内举行时，将决定各个党派在议会中所占的席数。

The Ombudsman申述专员

The Ombudsman is appointed by Parliament. His responsibilities are to investigate people’s complaints against government departments and local authorities and to make sure that appropriate official information is freely available in accordance to the Official Information Act. There are Chief Ombudsman and specialist ombudsman in various fields.

申诉专员是由议会任命的。他的职责是调查人们对政府部门和地方当局的投诉，并确保根据官方信息法适当的提供免费的官方信息。在各个领域都有首席监察官和专家申诉专员。

Puritanism清教主义

Puritans were those who followed the doctrine of John Calvin and wanted to purify the Church of England. They believe that human beings were predestined by God before they were born. Some were God’s chosen people while others were damned to hell. No church nor good works could save people. The sign of being God’s elect was the success in his work or the prosperity in his calling. They also argued that everyone must read the Bible in order to find God’s will and establish a direct contact with God. These beliefs had great impact on American culture.

清教徒是那些遵循加尔文的学说，想净化英国教会的人。他们认为，人类的命运在出生前就被上帝决定了。有些是被上帝所选择的人，而其他人是注定要去地狱的。没有教堂也没有好的办法可以拯救人们。（一个人）被上帝选中的标志是他在工作上的成功，或是他事业的繁荣。他们还认为，每个人都必须阅读圣经，以了解上帝的意愿，并建立一个与上帝的直接联系。这些信仰对美国文化产生了巨大的影响。

The Declaration of Independence 独立宣言

The Declaration of Independence was mainly drafted by Thomas Jefferson and adopted by the Congress on July 4,1776, when the people of 13 English colonies in North America were fighting for their freedom and independence from the British colonial rule. The document declared that all men were equal and that they were entitled to have some unalienable rights such as life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It also explained the philosophy of government: the power of governments came from consent of the governed and the purpose of governments were to secure the rights mentioned above. The theory of politics and the guiding principles of the American Revolution mainly came from John Locke.

独立宣言主要由杰佛逊托马斯起草，并于1776年7月4日在国会通过。 北美13个英国殖民地的人民为了他们的自由和独立于英国的殖民统治而奋起反抗。该文件宣称所有人都是平等的，他们都有不可剥夺的权利，如生命、自由和对幸福的追求。它也解释了政府的生活信条：政府的权力由被统治者授予，政府的目的是确保上述所提到的权利。政治理论和美国独立战争的指导原理主要来自约翰洛克。

The Articles of Confederation 联邦条例

After the War of Independence was won, the new nation of the United States was organized under the agreement of the Articles of Confederation with a weak national government called the Congress. Each state had its own government, made its own laws and handled its internal affairs. The states did not cooperate with the Congress and with each other. The Congress had no power to force any state to contribute money to the national government and the Congress could not tax any citizen either. As a result, the Articles of Confederation failed.

当独立战争胜利后，新的美国是在联邦条例下由一个不中用的国民政府--国会所组织的。每个州都有它自己的政府，有它自己的法律以及自行处理各自的内部事务。各州都不和国会以及其他州合作。国会没有权利去要求任何一个州为国民政府捐款，也没有向公民征税的权利。所以，联邦条例最后失败了。

The Bill of Rights 权利法案

The Bill of Rights consists of the first 10 amendments which were added to the Constitution in 1791. The Bill of Rights was passed to guarantee freedom and individual rights such as freedom of speech , the right to assemble in public places, the right to own weapons and so on.

权利法案是由10条修正案组成的，于1791年添加进宪法中。 权利法案是为了保障人们的自由及个人权利，例如言论自由权，公开集会权，拥有武器等权利。

Corporation 公司

Is a form of business organization. Compared with the sole proprietorship and the partnership, the corporation may survive the death of its founder or founders. Because it could draw on a pool of investors, it is a much more efficient tool for raising the large amounts of capital needed by expending business. And it enjoys limited liability, so investors only risk the amount of their investment and not their entire assets.

是一种商业组织形式。与独资企业和合营企业相比，公司可以使其创始人幸免于难。因为它可以吸引众多的投资者，这是公司扩张所需要的增加大量资金的有效的工具。它享有有限的责任，所以投资者只需承担他们所投资的金额，而不是他们的整个资产。

Agribusiness农业综合企业

Because American agriculture is a big business, people coined the term “ agribusiness” to reflect the large-scale nature of agriculture enterprises in the modern US economy. The term covers the entire complex of farm-related businesses, from the individual farmer to the multinational maker of farm chemicals. It also includes farmer cooperatives, rural banks, shippers of farm products commodity dealers, firms that manufacture farm equipment , food-processing industries, grocery chains and many other businesses.

因为美国的农业是一个巨大的行业，人们创造了“农业综合企业”这个术语来反映现代美国经济中大规模的农业企业的性质。这个术语涵盖了与农场相关的复杂的企业，从个体农民到农用化学品的跨国公司。它还包括农民合作社，农村银行，农产品经销商，制造农场设备的公司，食品加工行业，食品杂货连锁店及许多其他的企业。

Religious liberty in the US 宗教自由

The Declaration of Independence guaranteed the basic right of religious freedom and this right was a political necessity. The First Amendment to the US Constitution explicitly forbade the federal government to give special favors to any religion or to hinder the free practice, or exercise, of religion. When disputes about the relationship between government and religion arise, American courts must settle them. But American institutions presuppose a Supreme Being, therefore Christianity is often , more favored than other religions.

独立宣言保证了宗教自由的基本权利，而这一权利在政治上是必要的。美国宪法第一修正案明确禁止联邦政府给予任何宗教特殊照顾或阻碍其自由运动。当政府和宗教之间的关系发生争议时，美国法院必须解决他们的问题。美国的社会风俗习惯都是以上帝的存在为前提的，因此，基督教往往比其他宗教更受青睐。

Three faiths in the US 美国三大宗教

By the 1950s, the three faiths model of American religion had developed. Americans were considered to come in three basic varieties: Protestant, Catholic and Jewish. In terms of numbers, the Protestants are the strongest, the Catholics are next to the Protestants and Jewish are the smallest among the three groups.

到20世纪50年代，美国宗教的三种信仰模式得到了发展。美国人认为有三大类：新教、天主教和犹太教。就数量上而言，信教是最大的， 第二是天主教，犹太教是最小的。

Transcendentalists先验论者

In his book Nature, Emerson claimed that by studying and responding to nature, individuals could reach a higher spiritual state without formal religion. A circle of intellectuals who were discontented with the New England establishment gathered around Emerson. They accepted Emerson’s theories about spiritual transcendence. They are known as Transcendentalists.

在他的《自然》一书中，艾默生称 通过对自然的研究和响应，没有正式宗教人们也可以达到更高的精神境界。在艾默生身边有这样一群不满于新英格兰建立的人，他们接受艾默生的“精神的超自然性”的理论，这些人被称之为 先验论者。

The naturalists 自然主义者

They were novelists who concentrated upon the grim aspects of reality and a deterministic view of life. They were linked with European naturalists such as French novelist Zola. The most representative naturalists in American literature were Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, and Jack London.

他们是全神贯注于现实的残酷面和对生活的明确目标的小说家。人们把他们和向法国小说家左拉这样的欧洲自然主义者联系在一起。美国文学上最具代表性的自然主义者是Stephen Crane, Theodore Dreiser, and Jack London.

Higher education 高级教育

In America, higher education refers to education on the college level. American higher education includes four categories of institutions. They are the university, the four-year undergraduate institution , the technical training institution and the two-year or community college. Some are supported by public funds and some by private funds. Many universities and colleges have won reputations for providing their students with a higher quality of education. The great majority are generally regarded as quite satisfactory.

在美国，高等教育是指大学水平的教育。美国高等教育包括四大类型：大学，四年制本科院校，技术培训机构和为期两年的学校或社区学院。有些事由公共基金支持的，有些是由私人基金支持。许多大学和学院为他们的学生提供更高质量的教育因此赢得了好名声。大多数学校通常被认为是相当令人满意的。

Affirmative Action programs肯定性行动计划

Affirmative Action Programs were first advocated by some colleges in the 1960. The purpose of the programs was to equalize educational opportunities for all groups and to make up for past inequality by giving special preference to members of minorities seeking jobs or admission to college. The programs effectively helped some minority students. But some critics accused the programs of reverse discrimination.

肯定性行动计划是由几所学院在1960年首次提倡的。该计划的目的是向所有群体提供平等的教育机会以及弥补过去因为对少数民族里找工作或升学的成员给予了优先权而造成的不平等。这个计划有效的帮助了一些少数民族的学生，但一些批评者指责该计划是反向歧视。

“ The melting pot”熔炉

“ The melting pot” is a metaphor that is associated with life in America. It first surfaced in the late 18th century, （but gained new currency in the 20th century when in 1905 a popular play by that name was first produced by a Jewish playwright named Israel Zangwill. ）The melting pot metaphor implied that, in the New World, all differences would be melted away to form a radically new mixture. But it was wrongly embraced by the WASPs（white Anglo-Saxon Protestants) which remained dominant until around the middle of the 20th century. After World War II, the Anglophile WASPs gradually lost their privileged position. With all these changes, the melting pot metaphor was doomed to lose its credibility because its anglophilic values no longer held for the majority of the American people.

熔炉是对美国生活的一种隐喻。它首次出现是在18世纪。熔炉的隐喻意味着在新的世界里，所有的差异都会融入在一起，形成新的混合物。但是它被直到20世纪中期前都保持着主导地位的白人新教徒错误理解了。在二战以后，亲英派的白人新教徒失去了他们的特权地位。经历这些变化后，熔炉的隐喻注定要失去它的可靠性，因为它的亲英价值已不再适用于大多数的美国人。

The Seneca Falls Declaration塞尼卡福尔斯宣言

At the Senaca Falls gathering, Elizabeth Cady Stanton drafted and read The Seneca Falls Declaration. It was passed by a narrow margin thanks to the firm support and defense by Frederick Douglass, a well-known abolitionist. The Seneca Falls Declaration is now regarded as the single most important document of the nineteenth-centuty American woman’s movement. Using The Declaration of Independence as a model, it marks the first call for systematic rights for women along the lines of those already available to white men.

在塞尼卡福尔斯集会，伊丽莎白斯坦顿 起草和阅读塞尼卡福尔斯宣言。它因Frederick Douglass-一个著名的废奴主义者的坚定拥护和支持而险胜通过。塞尼卡福尔斯宣言被认为是十九世纪美国妇女运动的一个最重要的文件。该宣言作为一个典型，标志着首次呼吁妇女应得到和那些白人男性已得到的一样的系统的权利。

Glass ceiling 玻璃天花板

Today (in 2010) almost 75% of women are reported as employed. Although women are protected in employment on an equal basis with men, once they are hired, they often some up against what is known as the “glass ceiling”--- a barrier to promotions within their chosen careers. The word ceiling means an upper limit set on anything by a regulation. Here it means a barrier to women’s career development. It is called a “glass “ ceiling because it is largely invisible --- to men. Partly as a result of this ceiling on promotions, women on average are paid significantly less at their jobs than men. In theory, a woman may hope to be promoted to the top of her profession. But in reality, most of the top positions in American society are held by men. For instance, the CEOs in 98% of American companies are male.

报告称现如今有约75%的女性被雇佣。虽然女性在工作中和男性享有同等地位的保护，一旦她们被雇佣，她们经常面临着“玻璃天花板”---她们所选职业的晋升障碍。天花板 这词原意是指在任何东西的顶上设置了限制。而在这里是指女性工作发展中的障碍。它之所以被称之为“玻璃”天花板是因为它在很大程度上是看不见的---对男性来说。这个晋升障碍导致的一部分结果是平均女性的工作收入明显比男性要低。从理论上说，一个女人可能希望被提升到她的职业的顶端。但在现实中，大多数在美国社会的最高职位是由男人举行。例如，美国98%家公司的首席执行官都是男性。女性或许会希望能达到职业的高层，但现实中，美国社会中的大多数高层职位都是男性。例如，美国98%的CEO都是男的。

“The Wizard of Menlo Park” 门罗帕克的怪才

“The Wizard of Menlo Park” refers to Thomas A.Edison was the most famous of all American inventors. Among his many important inventions are electric lamp, phonograph, motion pictures and parallel circuit. As he was so clever and talented and his workplaces were located in Menlo Park, New Jersey, he earned the fond title “the Wizard of Menlo Park”

“门罗帕克的怪才”是指全美最著名的发明家 爱迪生。他的许多重要的发明有电灯泡、留声机、电影和并联电路。因为他的聪明才干以及他工作的地点是在新泽西的门罗帕克，所以他得此称号“门罗帕克的怪才”

The Internet 因特网

The Internet emerged in the United States in 1968 during the period of the Cold War. The original idea was to connect computers housed at military strategic locations throughout the US for the purpose of saving the information in case that would be a nuclear attack. If any one of the computers was attacked, the information could still be obtained from the remaining functioning computers. Later four universities were connected to the system. After 1969 more and more computers joined to the system and increasing information was added to its database. Many educational , private and commercial networks joined in . Useful tools were invented such as the e-mail and www( World Wide Web). The Internet has changed people’s life in unimaginable ways. 因特网出现在1968年的二战时期的美国。它最初的设计意图是为了链接全美的电脑以方便军事战略位置的部署，保存信息以防核袭击的爆发。如果任何一台电脑遭受袭击，它上面的信息都依然能从另一台电脑中获得。后来有4所大学被连接到了这个系统中。 1969年以后，越来越多的电脑连入了这个系统，越来越多的信息添加到数据库中。许多教育、个人和商业网都加入了进来。像电子邮件和万维网这样的实用工具被发明了出来。因特网以无法想像的方式改变了人们的生活。

The Cold War 冷战

By the end of WWII, the United States, which had not suffered as much as other allied countries, became the strongest country in the world. As the possessor of atomic tombs and much of the world’s gold reserve and industrial production in its hand, the policy -makers of the US wanted a world order dominated by the US, a world market free and open to American goods and services. In pursuing this goal, the US encountered determined resistance from the Soviet Union. Gradually the two wartime allies fell apart and the Cold War began.

第二次世界大战结束时，美国并没有像其他盟国一样遭受了那么多，因此成为了世界上最强大的国家。作为原子弹的拥有者以及拥有世界上大多数黄金储备和工业产品，决策者希望美国能在世界占主导地位，让世界市场自由和开放的面对美国的货物和服务。因为这一追求，美国遭到了苏联的坚决抵抗。渐渐地，这两个战时盟友国决裂，冷战开始。

Unilateralism 单边主义

When George W.Bush became president in 2001, he and his top advisers pursued a strategy that has significantly changed some of the principles that have been practiced in American foreign policy for years. This strategy has two prominent elements: unilateralism and faith in military strength. The review policies and international agreements from the point of view of American national interests. If they think any international agreement is not in line with American national interests, they will not hesitate to discard it.

当小布什在2001年成为总统时，他和他的高级顾问们奉行的一个策略显著改变了多年来美国外交政策中的一些原则。这个策略有两个突出的元素：单边主义和军事实力信心。从美国的国家利益角度来看政策回顾和国际协议。如果他们认为任何一个国际协议不符合美国的国家利益，他们会毫不犹豫地丢弃它。

The Canadian identity 加拿大身份

It is sometimes very hard to define what true Canadian identity is . But in general, it refers to something which is distinctively Canadian, which is different from other countries, and which is the very reason for making Canada so special . For example, two official languages of English and French can be considered as part of the Canadian identity.

有时很难定义什么是真正的加拿大身份。但总的来说，它指的就是具有加拿大特色的，区别于其他国家的事物，而这也是加拿大如此特别的原因。例如，作为两种官方语言的英语和法语可以被视为加拿大身份的一部分。