戈尔巴乔夫去世

俄罗斯联邦总统事务局中央临床医院30日晚发布消息称，苏联最后一任领导人戈尔巴乔夫（Gorbachev）因病医治无效去世，终年91岁。

无注释原文：

Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Reformist Soviet Leader, Is Dead at 91

The New York Times

Mikhail S. Gorbachev, whose rise to power in the Soviet Union set in motion a series of revolutionary changes that transformed the map of Europe and ended the Cold War that had threatened the world with nuclear annihilation, has died in Moscow. He was 91.

His death was announced on Tuesday by Russia’s state news agencies, citing the city’s central clinical hospital. The reports said he had died after an unspecified “long and grave illness.”

Few leaders in the 20th century, indeed in any century, have had such a profound effect on their time. In little more than six tumultuous years, Mr. Gorbachev lifted the Iron Curtain, decisively altering the political climate of the world.

At home he promised and delivered greater openness as he set out to restructure his country’s society and faltering economy. It was not his intention to liquidate the Soviet empire, but within five years of coming to power he had presided over the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. He ended the Soviet debacle in Afghanistan and, in an extraordinary five months in 1989, stood by as the Communist system imploded from the Baltics to the Balkans in countries already weakened by widespread corruption and moribund economies.

For this he was hounded from office by hard-line Communist plotters and disappointed liberals alike, the first group fearing that he would destroy the old system and the other worried that he would not.

It was abroad that he was hailed as heroic. To George F. Kennan, the distinguished American diplomat and Sovietologist, Mr. Gorbachev was “a miracle,” a man who saw the world as it was, unblinkered by Soviet ideology.

But to many inside Russia, the upheaval Mr. Gorbachev had wrought was a disaster. President Vladimir V. Putin called the collapse of the Soviet Union the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” For Mr. Putin — and his fellow K.G.B. veterans who now form the inner circle of power in Russia — the end of the U.S.S.R. was a moment of shame and defeat that the invasion of Ukraine this year was meant to help undo.

“The paralysis of power and will is the first step toward complete degradation and oblivion,” Mr. Putin said on Feb. 24, when he announced the start of the invasion, referring to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Mr. Gorbachev made no public statement of his own about the war in Ukraine, though his foundation on Feb. 26 called for a “speedy cessation of hostilities.” A friend of his, the radio journalist Aleksei A. Venediktov, said in a July interview that Mr. Gorbachev was “upset” about the war, viewing it as having undermined “his life’s work.”

When he came to power, Mr. Gorbachev was a loyal son of the Communist Party, but one who had come to see things with new eyes. “We cannot live this way any longer,” he told Eduard A. Shevardnadze, who would become his trusted foreign minister, in 1984. Within five years he had overturned much that the party held inviolable.

A man of openness, vision and great vitality, he looked at the legacy of seven decades of Communist rule and saw official corruption, a labor force lacking motivation and discipline, factories that produced shoddy goods, and a distribution system that guaranteed consumers little but empty shelves — empty of just about everything but vodka.

The Soviet Union had become a major world power weighed down by a weak economy. As East-West détente permitted light into its closed society, the growing class of technological, scientific and cultural elites could no longer fail to measure their country against the West and find it wanting.

The problems were clear; the solutions, less so. Mr. Gorbachev had to feel his way toward his promised restructuring of the Soviet political and economic systems. He was caught between tremendous opposing forces: On one hand, the habits ingrained by 70 years of cradle-to-grave subsistence under Communism; on the other, the imperatives of moving quickly to change the old ways and to demonstrate that whatever dislocation resulted was temporary and worth the effort.

It was a task he was forced to hand over to others when he was removed from office, a consequence of his own ambivalence and a failed coup against him by hard-liners whom he himself had elevated to his inner circle.

The openness Mr. Gorbachev sought — what came to be known as glasnost — and his policy of perestroika, aimed at restructuring the very underpinnings of society, became a double-edged sword. In setting out to fill in the “blank spots” of Soviet history, as he put it, with frank discussion of the country’s errors, he freed his impatient allies to criticize him and the threatened Communist bureaucracy to attack him.

Still, Mr. Gorbachev’s first five years in power were marked by significant, even extraordinary, accomplishments:

■ He presided over an arms agreement with the United States that eliminated for the first time an entire class of nuclear weapons, and began the withdrawal of most Soviet tactical nuclear weapons from Eastern Europe.

■ He withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan, a tacit admission that the invasion in 1979 and the nine-year occupation had been a failure.

■ While he equivocated at first, he eventually exposed the nuclear power-plant disaster at Chernobyl to public scrutiny, a display of candor unheard-of in the Soviet Union.

■ He sanctioned multiparty elections in Soviet cities, a democratic reform that in many places drove stunned Communist leaders out of office.

■ He oversaw an attack on corruption in the upper reaches of the Communist Party, a purge that removed hundreds of bureaucrats from their posts.

■ He permitted the release of the confined dissident Andrei D. Sakharov, the physicist who had been instrumental in developing the Soviet hydrogen bomb.

■ He lifted restrictions on the media, allowing previously censored books to be published and previously banned movies to be shown.

■ In a stark departure from the Soviet history of official atheism, he established formal diplomatic contacts with the Vatican and helped promulgate a freedom-of-conscience law guaranteeing the right of the people to “satisfy their spiritual needs.”

But if Mr. Gorbachev was lionized abroad as having helped change the world — he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 — he was vilified at home as having failed to live up to the promise of economic change. It became widely said that in a free vote, Mr. Gorbachev could be elected president anywhere but the Soviet Union.

After five years of Mr. Gorbachev, store shelves remained empty while the union disintegrated. Mr. Shevardnadze, who had been his right hand in bringing a peaceful end to Soviet control in Eastern Europe, resigned in late 1990, warning that dictatorship was coming and that reactionaries in the Communist Party were about to cripple reform.

Peter Reddaway, an author and scholar of Russian history, said at the time: “We see the best side of Gorbachev. The Soviets see the other side, and hold him to blame.”

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注：中文文本为纽约时报官方译文，仅供参考

含注释全文：

Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Reformist Soviet Leader, Is Dead at 91 戈尔巴乔夫逝世：终结冷战掀开“铁幕”、任内苏联解体

The New York Times

Mikhail S. Gorbachev, whose rise to power in the Soviet Union set in motion a series of revolutionary changes that transformed the map of Europe and ended the Cold War that had threatened the world with nuclear annihilation, has died in Moscow. He was 91.

米哈伊尔·谢尔盖耶维奇·戈尔巴乔夫（Mikhail S. Gorbachev）在莫斯科（Moscow）去世，享年91岁，他在苏联的掌权引发了一系列革命性变革，改变了欧洲版图，结束了令世界面临核毁灭威胁的冷战。

Mikhail S. Gorbachev, whose rise to power in the Soviet Union set in motion a series of revolutionary changes that transformed the map of Europe and ended the Cold War that had threatened the world with nuclear annihilation, has died in Moscow.

📍主句：Mikhail S. Gorbachev, has died in Moscow.

📍从句1：whose 引导的定语从句, [whose rise to power in the Soviet Union] 作主语，动词短语 set sth in motion --> set in motion sth，其中的 sth 即 a series of revolutionary changes 后置。

📍从句2：that 引导的定语从句，修饰 a series of revolutionary changes，一系列革命性变革，什么变革？从句进一步解释，that transformed the map of Europe and ended the Cold War，改变了欧洲版图、结束了冷战的变革。

📍从句3：that 引导的定语从句，修饰 the Cold War，什么冷战？从句进一步解释，that had threatened the world with nuclear annihilation，令世界面临核毁灭威胁的冷战。

表示“使…开始运转，启动”，英文解释为“to start a machine or process”举个🌰：

Once the printing processes have been put in motion, they're not so easy to stop.

印刷工序一旦启动，就不容易停止了。

annihilation /əˌnaɪ.əˈleɪ.ʃən/ 表示“毁灭；溃败；（物理）湮灭，湮没”，英文解释为“complete destruction, so that nothing or no one is left”

His death was announced on Tuesday by Russia’s state news agencies, citing the city’s central clinical hospital. The reports said he had died after an unspecified “long and grave illness.”

俄罗斯国家新闻机构周二援引该市中央临床医院的消息宣布了他的死讯。报道称，他死于未指明的“长期严重疾病”。

表示“未说明的；不明确的”，英文解释为“If something is unspecified, you are not told what it is.”举个🌰：

The court awarded her an unspecified amount of money.

法庭判给她一笔钱，数目不详。

表示“严重的，重大的，严峻的”，英文解释为“seriously bad”，如：a grave situation 严峻的形势。

📍2017年政府工作报告「Part1」中就有这么一句：过去一年，我国发展面临国内外诸多矛盾叠加、风险隐患交汇的严峻挑战。In the past year, China's development has faced grave challenges posed by a great many problems and interwoven risks and dangers both at home and abroad.

Few leaders in the 20th century, indeed in any century, have had such a profound effect on their time. In little more than six tumultuous years, Mr. Gorbachev lifted the Iron Curtain, decisively altering the political climate of the world.

在20世纪，事实上，在任何一个世纪，很少有哪位领导人能对时代产生如此深远的影响。在短短六年多动荡的时间里，戈尔巴乔夫掀开了“铁幕”，决定性地改变了世界的政治气候。

tumultuous /tjuːˈmʌltjʊəs/ 1）表示“动荡的；狂暴的”，英文解释为“involving a lot of change and confusion and/or violence”，如：the tumultuous years 动乱年代；

2）表示“嘈杂的；喧嚣的；热烈的；欢腾的”，英文解释为“very loud; involving strong feelings, especially feelings of approval”，如：tumultuous applause 热烈的欢呼声，a tumultuous reception/welcome 热情的接待/热烈的欢迎。

表示“铁幕（指原东欧共产主义国家与欧洲其他国家之间的分界线）”，英文解释为“From 1946-1989, the Iron Curtain was the name of the border between Western Europe and the communist countries of Eastern Europe. The Iron Curtain made it very difficult to travel into or out of Eastern Europe.”

At home he promised and delivered greater openness as he set out to restructure his country’s society and faltering economy. It was not his intention to liquidate the Soviet empire, but within five years of coming to power he had presided over the dissolution of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. He ended the Soviet debacle in Afghanistan and, in an extraordinary five months in 1989, stood by as the Communist system imploded from the Baltics to the Balkans in countries already weakened by widespread corruption and moribund economies.

在国内，他承诺并实现了更大的开放，着手重组该国社会和摇摇欲坠的经济。他并不想消灭苏联帝国，但是在他上台后的五年内，他主持了苏维埃社会主义共和国联盟的解体。他结束了苏联在阿富汗的溃败；而在1989年非同寻常的五个月里，从波罗的海到巴尔干地区，在那些已被广泛腐败和停滞经济削弱的国家里，共产主义制度陆续崩溃，他也只是袖手旁观。

表示“衰弱；动摇；犹豫；畏缩”，英文解释为“to lose strength or purpose and stop, or almost stop”举个🌰：

The dinner party conversation faltered for a moment.

晚宴上的谈话出现了一会儿冷场。

liquidate /ˈlɪkwɪˌdeɪt/ 1）表示“清算，清盘”，英文解释为“to cause a business to close, so that its assets can be sold to pay its debts”举个🌰：

A unanimous vote was taken to liquidate the company.

投票一致通过对这家公司进行清算。

2）表示“清除，肃清（对政府或政治组织有威胁的人）”，英文解释为“to kill someone”；

3）表示“变卖；变现”，英文解释为“to sell sth in order to get money”，如：to liquidate assets 变卖资产。

📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述特朗普作为商人一面的文章中提到：Or he may simply retire, handing over the keys of the kingdom to his children to manage or to liquidate. 或者他可能干脆会退休，把王国的钥匙交给子女管理或变现。

preside /prɪˈzaɪd/ 表示“主持（会议或仪式）”，英文解释为“to be in charge of a formal meeting, ceremony, or trial”举个🌰：

Who would be the best person to preside at/over the public enquiry?

谁来主持公众调查最合适呢？

debacle /dɪˈbɑːkl; deɪˈbɑːkl/表示“（尤指因计划和组织不周而导致的）彻底失败，一败涂地，崩溃”，英文解释为“a complete failure, especially because of bad planning and organization”举个🌰：

The collapse of the company was described as the greatest financial debacle in US history.

那家公司的破产被称为美国历史上最大的一场金融灾难。

implode /ɪmˈpləʊd/ 表示“崩溃；垮塌”，英文解释为“to fail suddenly and completely and be unable to operate”举个🌰：

Their economy is in danger of imploding.

他们的经济有崩溃的危险。

moribund /ˈmɒr.ɪ.bʌnd/ 表示“（尤指组织或公司）无生气的，停滞不前的，失败的”，英文解释为“(especially of an organization or business) not active or successful”举个🌰：

How can the department be revived from its present moribund state?

怎样使该部门从目前的停滞状态中恢复生气？

For this he was hounded from office by hard-line Communist plotters and disappointed liberals alike, the first group fearing that he would destroy the old system and the other worried that he would not.

因此，他被强硬的共产主义密谋者和失望的自由主义者赶下了台，前者担心他会摧毁旧体制，后者则担心他不会。

hound /haʊnd/ 作动词，表示“追赶；（不停地）烦扰”，英文解释为“to chase someone or to refuse to leave someone alone, especially because you want to get something from them”举个🌰：

The reporters wouldn't stop hounding her.

记者们不停地烦扰她。

📍 hound sb out/from 表示“逼迫（某人）离开”，英文解释为“to force someone to leave a job or a place”举个🌰：

He claims he was hounded out of his job by a group of students who disapproved of his views.

他声称自己是被一群与他观点不合的学生逼迫离职的。

It was abroad that he was hailed as heroic. To George F. Kennan, the distinguished American diplomat and Sovietologist, Mr. Gorbachev was “a miracle,” a man who saw the world as it was, unblinkered by Soviet ideology.

在国外，他被誉为英雄。对于著名的美国外交官和苏联问题专家乔治·凯南（George F. Kennan）来说，戈尔巴乔夫是一个“奇迹”，他不受苏联意识形态的影响，看到了世界的本来面貌。

表示“把…称赞为，把…誉为”，英文解释为“to describe sb/sth as being very good or special, especially in newspapers, etc.”举个🌰：

The conference was hailed as a great success.

会议被称颂为一次巨大的成功。

distinguished /dɪˈstɪŋ.ɡwɪʃt/ 1）表示“杰出的，突出的，卓越的”，英文解释为“used to describe a respected and admired person, or their work”如：a distinguished writer/director/politician 杰出的作家/导演/政治家。

2）表示“（尤指长者）气度不凡的，高雅的，睿智的”，英文解释为“used to describe a person, especially an older person, who looks formal, stylish, or wise”举个🌰：

I think grey hair on a man can look very distinguished.

我觉得灰白的头发能使男人看起来很睿智。

表示“思想（体系）；思想意识；意识形态”，英文解释为“a set of ideas that an economic or political system is based on”。

But to many inside Russia, the upheaval Mr. Gorbachev had wrought was a disaster. President Vladimir V. Putin called the collapse of the Soviet Union the “greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” For Mr. Putin — and his fellow K.G.B. veterans who now form the inner circle of power in Russia — the end of the U.S.S.R. was a moment of shame and defeat that the invasion of Ukraine this year was meant to help undo.

但对俄罗斯内部的许多人来说，戈尔巴乔夫造成的剧变是一场灾难。俄罗斯总统普京（Vladimir V. Putin）称苏联的解体是“本世纪最大的地缘政治灾难”。对普京以及他那些现在构成俄罗斯权力核心圈的克格勃老战友们来说，苏联的终结是一个耻辱和失败的时刻，而今年入侵乌克兰的行动正是为了消除那种耻辱和挫败感。

表示“剧变；激变；动乱；动荡”，英文解释为“a big change that causes a lot of confusion, worry and problems”如：a period of emotional upheaval 情绪波动很大的时期。

📍2020年8月《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述卡车业文章的标题就叫：The trucking industry is in the midst of upheaval—and hype 卡车运输业正在经历剧变，以及炒作。

catastrophe /kəˈtæstrəfɪ/ 表示“灾难；灾祸；横祸”，英文解释为“a sudden event that causes many people to suffer”举个🌰：

From all points of view, war would be a catastrophe.

从各个方面来看，战争都会是一场灾难。

表示“消除，抵消（行为的效果）”，英文解释为“to remove the good or bad effects of an action or several actions”举个🌰：

It's very difficult to undo the damage that's caused by inadequate parenting in a child's early years. 孩子年幼时缺少父母关爱所造成的不良后果很难消除。

“The paralysis of power and will is the first step toward complete degradation and oblivion,” Mr. Putin said on Feb. 24, when he announced the start of the invasion, referring to the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“权力和意志的瘫痪是走向彻底堕落和遗忘的第一步，”普京在2月24日宣布开始入侵时说，他指的是苏联的解体。

表示“被遗忘，被忘却；湮没”，英文解释为“the state of being completely forgotten”举个🌰：

He was another minor poet who was consigned to oblivion.

他又是一位湮没无闻的小诗人。

Mr. Gorbachev made no public statement of his own about the war in Ukraine, though his foundation on Feb. 26 called for a “speedy cessation of hostilities.” A friend of his, the radio journalist Aleksei A. Venediktov, said in a July interview that Mr. Gorbachev was “upset” about the war, viewing it as having undermined “his life’s work.”

戈尔巴乔夫本人没有就乌克兰战争发表公开声明，不过他的基金会在2月26日呼吁“迅速停止敌对行动”。他的朋友、电台记者阿列克谢·维涅季克托夫（Aleksei A. Venediktov）在7月的一次采访中说，戈尔巴乔夫对这场战争感到“不安”，认为它破坏了“他毕生的工作”。

表示“结束，停止；中断，中止”，英文解释为“ending or stopping”举个🌰：

They have called for a total cessation of the bombing campaign.

他们呼吁彻底停止这场轰炸行动。

hostility /hɒsˈtɪl.ə.ti/ 作不可数名词，表示“敌意，不友好”，英文解释为“an occasion when someone is unfriendly or shows that they do not like something”举个🌰：

They showed open (= obvious) hostility to/towards their new neighbours.

他们对新邻居表现出了公开的敌意。

📍hostilities 复数，特指“战斗；战争行为”，英文解释为“fighting in a war”举个🌰：

Hostilities began/broke out just after midnight.

刚过午夜战斗便打响了。

When he came to power, Mr. Gorbachev was a loyal son of the Communist Party, but one who had come to see things with new eyes. “We cannot live this way any longer,” he told Eduard A. Shevardnadze, who would become his trusted foreign minister, in 1984. Within five years he had overturned much that the party held inviolable.

上台时，戈尔巴乔夫是共产党忠诚的儿子，但他对事物有了新的认识。“我们不能再这样生活下去了，”1984年，他对爱德华·谢瓦尔德纳泽（Eduard A. Shevardnadze）说，后者后来成为了他信任的外交部长。在五年内，他推翻了许多共产党认为不可侵犯的东西。

表示“（使）翻倒，（使）倾覆；打翻”，英文解释为“if you overturn something, or if it overturns, it turns upside down or falls over on its side”举个🌰：

His conviction was overturned by the Court of Appeal.

他的有罪裁决被上诉法院推翻了。

📺英剧《唐顿庄园》（Downton Abbey）第三季中的台词提到：Even then, would we have enough to overturn the verdict? 即使拿到证词，就真能推翻判决吗？

A man of openness, vision and great vitality, he looked at the legacy of seven decades of Communist rule and saw official corruption, a labor force lacking motivation and discipline, factories that produced shoddy goods, and a distribution system that guaranteed consumers little but empty shelves — empty of just about everything but vodka.

作为一个开放、有远见、充满活力的人，他审视了共产党70年统治的遗产，看到了官员的腐败、劳动力缺乏动力和纪律、工厂生产劣质商品，消费合作社体系令消费者只能面对空荡荡的货架——除了伏特加，几乎什么都没有。

表示“劣质的，粗制滥造的”，英文解释为“made or done cheaply or carelessly”举个🌰：

We’re not paying good money for shoddy goods.

我们是不会花大钱去买劣质商品的。

The Soviet Union had become a major world power weighed down by a weak economy. As East-West détente permitted light into its closed society, the growing class of technological, scientific and cultural elites could no longer fail to measure their country against the West and find it wanting.

当时的苏联已经成为一个被疲软的经济拖累的世界大国。随着东西方关系缓和，光线照进封闭的社会，越来越多的科技、科学和文化精英阶层不得不开始以西方来衡量自己的国家，并且发现它的不足。

1）表示“使(某人)感到沉重；压下，压倒”，英文解释为“if something weighs you down, it is heavy and difficult to carry”；

2）表示“使感到焦虑，使烦恼，使忧心忡忡”，英文解释为“if a problem weighs you down, it makes you feel worried and upset”，举个🌰：

He felt weighed down by his responsibilities.

他感到自己的责任重得难以承受。

détente /deɪˈtɒnt/ 表示“（国家间关系的）缓和，缓解”，英文解释为“an improvement in the relationship between two countries that in the past were not friendly and did not trust each other”举个🌰：

The talks are aimed at furthering détente between the two countries.

会谈旨在进一步缓和两国间的关系。

The problems were clear; the solutions, less so. Mr. Gorbachev had to feel his way toward his promised restructuring of the Soviet political and economic systems. He was caught between tremendous opposing forces: On one hand, the habits ingrained by 70 years of cradle-to-grave subsistence under Communism; on the other, the imperatives of moving quickly to change the old ways and to demonstrate that whatever dislocation resulted was temporary and worth the effort.

问题很明显，但解决方案就没那么简单了。戈尔巴乔夫不得不摸索着进行他所承诺的苏联政治和经济体制的重组。他被夹在巨大的对立力量之间：一方面，70年来从生到死都生活在共产主义统治下所造成的习惯根深蒂固；另一方面，必须迅速采取行动改变旧的方式，并要证明无论造成什么样的混乱都是暂时的，而是这样的努力是值得的。

表示“使…深深印在脑中；使根深蒂固”，英文解释为“to establish something such as a belief so firmly that it is not likely to change”举个🌰：

We want to ingrain good financial habits in people.

我们想让人们脑中有很强的理财好习惯。

来自短语 from (the) cradle to (the) grave，表示“从生到死，一辈子”，英文解释为“for all of a person's life”举个🌰：

She lived in the same village from the cradle to the grave.

她一辈子都住在同一个村庄里。

1）作形容词，表示“至关重要的；紧急的；迫切的”，英文解释为“If it is imperative that something be done, that thing is extremely important and must be done.”，举个🌰：

It was imperative that he act as naturally as possible.

至关重要的是他要尽可能地自然行事。

2）作名词，表示“重要紧急的事；必要的事；需要”，英文解释为“a thing that is very important and needs immediate attention or action”。

表示“负面影响，混乱，紊乱”，英文解释为“a negative effect on how something works”举个🌰：

Snow has caused serious dislocation of/to train services.

下雪严重干扰了火车的正常运营。

另一个含义，表示“骨头错位，脱臼”，英文解释为“an injury in which the ends of two connected bones separate”如：dislocation of the ankle/knee/wrist 脚踝/膝关节/手腕的脱臼。

It was a task he was forced to hand over to others when he was removed from office, a consequence of his own ambivalence and a failed coup against him by hard-liners whom he himself had elevated to his inner circle.

当他被赶下台时，这项任务被迫移交给了其他人，他的下台是他自己的矛盾心理，以及由他本人提拔到核心圈子的强硬派对他发动一场失败政变所造成的结果。

表示“举棋不定，矛盾情绪；正反感情并存”，英文解释为“the simultaneous existence of two opposed and conflicting attitudes, emotions, etc”

The openness Mr. Gorbachev sought — what came to be known as glasnost — and his policy of perestroika, aimed at restructuring the very underpinnings of society, became a double-edged sword. In setting out to fill in the “blank spots” of Soviet history, as he put it, with frank discussion of the country’s errors, he freed his impatient allies to criticize him and the threatened Communist bureaucracy to attack him.

戈尔巴乔夫所追求的开放——后来被称为“glasnost”——和他旨在重建社会基础的改革政策成了一把双刃剑。用他自己的话说，在着手填补苏联历史上的“空白”时，他坦率地讨论了这个国家的错误，让不耐烦的盟友得以批评他，受到威胁的共产党官僚机构攻击他。

perestroika /ˌper.əˈstrɔɪ.kə/ 表示“（20世纪80年代末苏联在政治、社会和经济方面所作的）改革，重建”，英文解释为“the political, social, and economic changes that happened in the Soviet Union during the late 1980s”

表示“基础，根基”，英文解释为“support, strength, or the basic structure of something”举个🌰：

After a while, we found ourselves questioning the spiritual and philosophical underpinning of the American way of life.

一段时间后，我们发现自己对美国生活方式的精神和哲学基础产生了怀疑。

Still, Mr. Gorbachev’s first five years in power were marked by significant, even extraordinary, accomplishments:

尽管如此，戈尔巴乔夫执政的前五年还是取得了重大甚至是非凡的成就：

■ He presided over an arms agreement with the United States that eliminated for the first time an entire class of nuclear weapons, and began the withdrawal of most Soviet tactical nuclear weapons from Eastern Europe.

· 在他的主持下，美苏达成了一项武器协议，首次消除了一整类核武器，并开始从东欧撤出苏联的大部分战术核武器。

■ He withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan, a tacit admission that the invasion in 1979 and the nine-year occupation had been a failure.

· 从阿富汗撤军，默认1979年的入侵和九年的占领是一场失败。

tacit /ˈtæs.ɪt/ 表示“默示的；不明言的”，英文解释为“understood without being expressed directly”如：tacit agreement/approval/support 默契/默许/暗中支持。

■ While he equivocated at first, he eventually exposed the nuclear power-plant disaster at Chernobyl to public scrutiny, a display of candor unheard-of in the Soviet Union.

· 虽然一开始含糊其辞，但他最终将切尔诺贝利核电站灾难暴露在公众面前，这种坦率的表现在苏联前所未见。

equivocate /ɪˈkwɪv.ə.keɪt/ 表示“（尤指为隐瞒真相而）说模棱两可的话，含糊其词”，英文解释为“to speak in a way that is intentionally not clear and confusing to other people, especially to hide the truth”

英式 candour /ˈkæn.dər/ 美式 candor 表示“（尤指对棘手或难堪话题的）坦白，直率，坦诚”，英文解释为“the quality of being honest and telling the truth, especially about a difficult or embarrassing subject”举个🌰：

"We really don't know what to do about it," she said with surprising candour.

“我们确实不知道该如何应付，”她以令人吃惊的坦率说道。

■ He sanctioned multiparty elections in Soviet cities, a democratic reform that in many places drove stunned Communist leaders out of office.

· 他批准在苏联城市进行多党选举，在许多地方，这种民主改革把目瞪口呆的共产党领导人赶下台。

1）常见含义表示“制裁”，英文解释为“an official order, such as the stopping of trade, that is taken against a country in order to make it obey international law”举个🌰：

Many nations have imposed sanctions on the country because of its attacks on its own people.

由于该国发生了针对本国人民的暴力行为，许多国家都对其进行制裁。

2）可以作动词也可以作名词，表示“批准；认可”，英文解释为“If someone in authority sanctions an action or practice, they officially approve of it and allow it to be done.”举个🌰：

He may now be ready to sanction the use of force.

他或许现在正准备批准使用武力。

■ He oversaw an attack on corruption in the upper reaches of the Communist Party, a purge that removed hundreds of bureaucrats from their posts.

· 在他的领导下，苏共对高层腐败进行了打击，数百名官员被免职。

1）可以作名词，也可以作动词，表示“清除，清洗，肃清（对手或反对者）”，英文解释为“to force people to leave a place or organization because the people in power do not like them”；

2）也可以指“清除（有害或不可接受之物）”，英文解释为：to remove something that is thought to be harmful or unacceptable，举个🌰：

He closed his eyes and lay still, trying to purge his mind of anxiety.

他闭上眼睛躺着不动，试图清除心里的焦虑。

📺美剧《美国恐怖故事》（American Horror Story: Asylum）第二季中的台词提到：I'll purge the demon myself. 我来净化这个邪灵。

■ He permitted the release of the confined dissident Andrei D. Sakharov, the physicist who had been instrumental in developing the Soviet hydrogen bomb.

· 他释放了异见人士安德烈·萨哈罗夫（Andrei D. Sakharov），这位物理学家曾在苏联氢弹的开发过程中发挥了重要作用。

表示“起作用的；有帮助的”，英文解释为“If someone or something is instrumental in a process, plan, or system, that person or thing is one of the most important influences in causing it to happen.”举个🌰：

He was instrumental in bringing about an end to the conflict.

他在终止冲突的过程中起了重要作用。

■ He lifted restrictions on the media, allowing previously censored books to be published and previously banned movies to be shown.

· 他取消了对媒体的限制，允许出版之前遭到审查的书籍，允许放映之前被禁的电影。

■ In a stark departure from the Soviet history of official atheism, he established formal diplomatic contacts with the Vatican and helped promulgate a freedom-of-conscience law guaranteeing the right of the people to “satisfy their spiritual needs.”

· 他背离苏联官方无神论的历史，与梵蒂冈建立了正式的外交联系，并帮助颁布了一部良心自由法，保障人民“满足其精神需求”的权利。

atheism /ˈeɪ.θi.ɪ.zəm/ 表示“无神论”，英文解释为“the belief that God does not exist”举个🌰：

Atheism as we know it did not exist until modern times.

我们所知的无神论是在现代才出现的。

promulgate /ˈprɒm.əl.ɡeɪt/ 1）表示“传播，宣扬（思想或信仰）”，英文解释为“to spread beliefs or ideas among a lot of people”

2）表示“颁布，公布（尤指新法律）”，英文解释为“to announce something publicly, especially a new law”举个🌰：

The new law was finally promulgated in the autumn of last year.

新法律最终于去年秋天颁布。

But if Mr. Gorbachev was lionized abroad as having helped change the world — he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1990 — he was vilified at home as having failed to live up to the promise of economic change. It became widely said that in a free vote, Mr. Gorbachev could be elected president anywhere but the Soviet Union.

但是，如果说戈尔巴乔夫在国外被誉为改变世界的功勋人物——他在1990年被授予诺贝尔和平奖——那么在国内，他则被指责未能兑现经济变革的承诺。人们普遍认为，如果自由投票，戈尔巴乔夫可以在苏联以外的任何地方当选总统。

lionize /ˈlaɪ.ə.naɪz/ 表示“使成名；将…视作名人”，英文解释为“to make someone famous, or to treat someone as if they were famous”

vilify /ˈvɪl.ɪ.faɪ/ 表示“诋毁，诬蔑；丑化；贬低”，英文解释为“to say or write unpleasant things about someone or something, in order to cause other people to have a bad opinion of them”举个🌰：

He was vilified by the press as a monster.

他被新闻界丑化成一个变态的怪物。

After five years of Mr. Gorbachev, store shelves remained empty while the union disintegrated. Mr. Shevardnadze, who had been his right hand in bringing a peaceful end to Soviet control in Eastern Europe, resigned in late 1990, warning that dictatorship was coming and that reactionaries in the Communist Party were about to cripple reform.

在戈尔巴乔夫执政五年之后，苏联却解体了，而商店的货架依然空空荡荡。1990年底，他的得力助手、帮助他和平结束苏联对东欧控制的谢瓦尔德纳泽辞职时发出警告，独裁统治即将到来，共产党中的反动派将会破坏改革。

表示“分解，分化，分裂”，英文解释为“to become weaker or be destroyed by breaking into small pieces”举个🌰：

The spacecraft disintegrated as it entered the earth's atmosphere.

宇宙飞船进入大气层时解体了。

表示“严重损坏；严重削弱”，英文解释为“to cause serious damage to someone or something, making him, her, or it weak and not effective”如：a country crippled by war 因战争而元气大伤的国家。

Peter Reddaway, an author and scholar of Russian history, said at the time: “We see the best side of Gorbachev. The Soviets see the other side, and hold him to blame.”

作家、俄罗斯历史学者彼得·雷德韦（Peter Reddaway）在当时说：“我们看到了戈尔巴乔夫最好的一面。苏联人看到的是另一面，并且指责他有错。”

- 今日盘点 -

put/set sth in motion

annihilation

unspecified

grave

tumultuous

the Iron Curtain

falter

liquidate

preside

debacle

implode

moribund

hound

hail

distinguished

ideology

upheaval

catastrophe

undo

oblivion

cessation

hostility

overturn

shoddy

weigh sb down

détente

ingrain

cradle-to-grave

imperative

dislocation

ambivalence

perestroika

underpinning

tacit

equivocate

candor

sanction

purge

instrumental

atheism

promulgate

lionize

vilify

disintegrate

cripple

- END -