首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
FRANKFURT—I bumped down in Frankfurt at 10:55 AM. A German landing, I thought— unsubtle and punctual. The sky was clear, an
FRANKFURT—I bumped down in Frankfurt at 10:55 AM. A German landing, I thought— unsubtle and punctual. The sky was clear, an
admin
2011-06-24
58
问题
FRANKFURT—I bumped down in Frankfurt at 10:55 AM. A German landing, I thought— unsubtle and punctual.
The sky was clear, an un-German sky, and the colors that assailed me were pink (Deutsche Telekom), yellow (Lufthansa) and gray: cool colors at some remove from Caspar David Fried-rich’s ecstatic dusks in the forests of Gothic gloom.
Friedrich’s passionate romanticism is under control these days in a Germany that has become reassuring to the point of dullness. Europe’s most powerful nation is electing its leader Sunday— and nobody really cares.
"Welcome to the most boring German election ever," former foreign minister Joschka Fischer told me by way of greeting.
That was enough to compel me to write about the miracle of German dullness. It is the cause for hope, a commodity the commodity-rich Middle East does not trade in.
The drudgery is also the cause for concern: more on that later.
Lest anyone forget, the world spent a goodly chunk of the last century agonizing over the German question, ruining the proximity of the Polish border to Berlin, digesting the crime. It’s just 20 years since this country was made whole and, with it, Europe. Now mighty Germany chooses its chancellor and, for all people seem to care, the election might be for the Wurzburg city council.
It’s not true that everything changes so that everything can remain the same. The German demon got extirpated by American tutelage, European convergence and the rule of law.
Modern Germany, the Johnny-come-lately of European powers, settled down. The German frisson faded to a yawn.
Perhaps Barbel Bohley, the former East German dissident, summed up the experience, and let-down, of unification best: "We wanted justice and we got the rule of law."
Another protest leader, Joachim Gauck, ran her close: "We dreamed of paradise and woke up in North-Rhine Westphalia."
Such is the way of adrenalin. It dissipates.
And along comes Angela Merkel, the adrenalin-free Ossi, who has been a chancellor of un-memorable steadiness, and who, barring an upset, will be re-elected as the head of her center-right Christian Democratic Union.
Merkel has been a leader in the image of a settled Germany. Everything about her screams drama over—Brandt on his knees in the Warsaw ghetto; chain-smoking Schmidt ("a politician with vision needs to see an ophthalmologist") fighting the fight for medium-range U.S. missiles; Kohl clasping Mitterrand’s hand at Verdun and later inhaling unification with unabashed appetite. Every risk-averse fiber in Merkel’s body proclaims the social-market consensus has prevailed, even through financial crisis.
The extent of discord may be measured by the fact that Merkel’s chief opponent is also her foreign minister in the governing Grand Coalition: Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Social Democrat leader. He’s a likeable technocrat who always seems to be wondering how he ever ended up as a politician.
None of the above should suggest there’s nothing at stake. There is: a little. If Merkel gets her favored option—a center-right coalition with the liberal Free Democrats—tax cuts, nuclear power and support for the Afghan mission (Germany has sent more than 4,000 troops) will get a boost. If not, well, more of the same is in order. My sense is most Germans feel market reforms of recent years have gone far enough.
Germans are hunkered down, not unhappy but uninspired. This has been a campaign of astonishing intellectual nullity. I spoke of hope and concern: The former springs from Germany’s absorption of its eastern third and passage into normality, the latter from the country’s numbness.
Nothing—not the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Wall, not the faltering direction of the European Union (once a German obsession, now a sideshow), not financial Armageddon—seems able to stir Germans from contemplation of their navels. This is bad for Europe. The world wanted a boring Germany for a while, but not to this degree, and anyway that time has passed.
Perhaps the center-right option would be a better outcome if only because the Social Democrats need time in the wilderness to resolve their relationship with the Left party. The Grand Coalition is an idea-dampening soporific. Prescription for more than four years is ill-advised.
Germany is in political transition. If the East has been economically absorbed, its political legacy, in the form of the Left party, has proved inhibiting, even paralyzing.
History moves in broad sweeps murky to its hindsight-deprived actors. We can say this: The eruption into the heart of Europe of a German nation state upended the Continent from 1871 to 1945 and a full "normalization" of Germany has taken from 1945 to the present. The long arc has been painful but hopeful.
The demon of instability, German-prodded, moved to the Middle East, where another modern nation state, Israel, in turn upended the order of things. Perhaps after 74 years (1871-1945), we will see glimmerings of a new, more peaceful regional order there. Hope is almost as stubborn as facts.
What is the author’s attitude toward Germany?
选项
A、reserved
B、neutral
C、pessimistic
D、optimistic
答案
D
解析
此题是推断题。作者认为德国是一个充满希望的国家,因此对德国持乐观态度。
转载请注明原文地址:https://www.kaotiyun.com/show/BfYO777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
A、BecauseoftheClinton’sscandal.B、BecauseoftheBallotdebacle.C、Becauseofthedemocracy.D、BecauseBushwillbethepre
Peopledonotanalyzeeveryproblemtheymeet.Sometimestheytrytorememberasolutionfromthelasttimetheyhadasimilarp
Sinceancienttimes,peoplehavedreamedofleavingtheirhomeplanetandexploringotherworlds.Inthelaterhalfofthe20th
ThebiggestproblemfacingChileasitpromotesitselfasatouristdestinationtobereckonedwith,isthatitisattheendof
NewDealwastheprogramofsocialandeconomicreformsintroducedbyPresident______.
ThomasJefferson,whodiedin1826,loomseverlargerasafigureofspecialsignificance.Americans,ofcourse,arefamiliarwi
Imagineachartthatbeginswhenmanfirstappearedontheplanetandtrackstheeconomicgrowthofsocietiesfromthenforward.
Imagineachartthatbeginswhenmanfirstappearedontheplanetandtrackstheeconomicgrowthofsocietiesfromthenforward.
Theworldisinaself-destructionmode.BythisstatementImeanthatthepeopleoftheworldarebentonmakingthisplanetin
Airpollutionexistsnotonlyoutdoor,butalsoindoor.Ithasgreateffectsonpeople,andtherearemanymeasurestakentocor
随机试题
堤身填筑采用机械施工,其分段作业面长度应()。
汉茂陵是汉武帝刘彻的陵墓,位于陕西兴平市,周围有霍去病、卫青等20余个陪葬墓。()
新入职的吴老师是个喜欢新鲜事物的老师,她上课前总要精心准备PPT,把课件做得非常花哨。不少学生反映他们上课的时候会不自觉地被PPT、上的图案吸引,因此走神。如果你是吴老师,你会()。
根据我国宪法规定,在各少数民族聚居的地方实行区域自治,设立自治机关,行使自治权。对此理解正确的是,自治机关可以()。
根据所给资料,回答下列问题。角色理论认为,社会生活就像在剧场的舞台上演戏,有它自己的场景、面具和台词。角色这个词来源于戏剧,指的是那些处于特定社会位置的人被期望表现出来的行为。当我们扮演一个新的社会角色时,起初可能觉得很虚假,但很快我们就会适应。这些社
愚人节那天,有一个人要赶往机场,走到三岔路口碰到一个老翁,老翁让他向前面两个年轻人问路,并告诉他两个人中一个人说真话、一个人说假话。这个人对那两个年轻人同时间了一句:“二加二等于五,右边这条路通往机场,对吗?”等两个年轻人回答完以后,他就毫不迟疑地走上了右
你做一项工作,只是为了谋生,对它并不喜欢,这项工作就只是你的职业。你做一项工作,只是因为喜欢,并不在乎它能否带来利益,这项工作就是你的事业。最理想的情形是,事业和职业一致,做喜欢的事并能以此谋生。这段文字主要叙述的是:
TCP/[P参考模型中,应用层协议常用的有______。
ClimateClimateisthelong-termpatternofweatherina【T1】______area.Weathercanchange【T2】______,daytoday,monthto
Theprospectsforwomenwhoarescientistsandengineersatmajorresearchuniversitieshaveimproved,althoughwomencontinuet
最新回复
(
0
)