疯狂英语阅读：ISTHISAJOKE

文章作者 100test 发表时间 2007:05:24 11:35:43
来源 100Test.Com百考试题网

----AMERICAN PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION2000

Who Are They?

Al Gore and Reorge W.Bush bothe continue political traditions set down by their families.

Al Gore was born just outside Carthage in Smith County, Tennessee, but split his time growing up between there and Washington, DC where 6)his father was a Senator. Gore attended Harvard and later 7)Vanderbilt where he studied Religion, then Law. After finishing school he enrolled in the Army and served in Vietnam, even though his father was one of the Vietnam Wars harshest critics. Gore was elected to Congress in 1976 at the age of 28. In 1992, he was named Bill Clintons running mate. This August he became the Democratic Partys candidate for President.

George W. grew up in West Texas in a town called Midland, the eldest of 6 children of George and Barbara Bush. George W. Bushs grandfather 8)Prescott Bush was a Senator in Connecticut. Then his father George Bush Sr. made it all the way to President in 1988. George W. studied at Yale, then Harvard before serving with the 9)Air National Guard in Texas, a move that helped him avoid the draft during the Vietnam War. In 1988 George W. Bush served as an advisor for his fathers successful presidential bid.

Bush: My plan balances the budget. It funds needed priorities including defense and education. It reduces the 10)national debt...

Gore: ...and Ill devote the largest share of our 11)surplus to 12)paying down the national debt every year until it is completely eliminated by the year 2012.

Bush: Theres $2.3 trillion of surplus that we can use to make sure that younger workers have a 13)Social Security plan in the future.

Gore: Heres my plan. I will keep Social Security in a 14)locked box...

When it comes to technology issues, Bush and Gore both favor a 15)tax credit for company research and development. Both favor e-Government that is using the web to make government more accessible to everyone, and both want Internet user privacy protected. The differences are minor.

Gore(in St. Louis, MO): You have the decision right here in the 16)Show Me State. You have the ability to show him what you want in the way of Americas future. I want you to use your head to persuade the undecided voters. Tell them how strongly you feel about this.

Gore(in Michigan): Gore-Lieberman win! Michigan wins! 17)UAW wins! The people win! God bless you! Lets do it tomorrow...

It was an upbeat George W. Bush who returned home to Austin at the end of a 18)grueling campaign.

Bush: Youre looking at the next President of the United States.

Bush had earlier swung through Iowa, Wisconsin, and Tennessee, Al Gores home state.

Bush(in Tennessee): He may win Washington, DC, but hes not going to win Tennessee...

Its Just the Beginning

Good Evening. Voting has begun along the U.S. East Coast in the tightest presidential election for decades. 19)The first results came from two tiny hamlets in New Hampshire. In Dixville Notch, Texas Governor George W. Bush got 21 votes to Vice Presidents Al Gores 5 and 1 for the 20)Green Partys 21)Ralph Nader. In Harts Location, it was Bush 17, Gore 13 and Nader 1. Nationwide the race remains too close to call, but some late opinion polls are showing a swing towards Al Gore. Its equally tight in the race for the 22)all-important Electoral College votes, decided according to the winner in each state. 270 votes are needed for the presidency.

And MTV Chose or Lose Poll found that 25% of young adults between the ages of 18 to 24 cannot name the presidential candidates without prompting. And 70% cant identify the vice presidential candidates

Interviewer: Who are the 2 vice presidential candidates?

Interviewee 1: Lieberman and I dont know who the other one is.

Interviewee 2: McCain and ... God, whats the...

Interviewee 3: Lieberman for Gore and Cheney for Bush.

Interviewer: Youre great with that.

Interviewee 3: All right !

Tom Brokow of NBC NEWS: An important win for Vice President Al Gore, NBC News projects that he wins the 25 electoral votes in the state of Florida ...

Peter Jennings of ABC News: We are now able to make a projection in the state of Florida. Al Gore wins the state of Florida ...

Tom Brokow of NBC NEWS: NBC News is now taking Florida out of Vice President Gores column ...

Peter Jennings of ABC News: ABC News is now going to project that Florida goes to Mr. Bush.

Bush Campaign Chairman: George Bush, governor of Texas, will become the 43 president of the United States.

In Nashville, there is now 23)unanimity among his aids: he has lost. Gore calls Bush. He offers congratulations, and heads to the War Memorial to publicly 24)concede. Now, a night of high drama becomes positively 25)excruciating. Again, there is unanimity. This time that the race is not over.

Dan Rather of CBS: Bulletin: A senior Gore aid confirms, Gore withdraws concession.

Gore calls Bush for a second time. Bush is 26)incredulous, disbelieving. He tells Gore, "do what you have to do". Gore at some point tells Bush, he doesnt have to be "27)snippy." A 28)contentious call ends. In the middle of the night, the Washington Post stops the presses. Supporters are informed.

Gore Campaign Manager William Daley: Our campaign continues.

Bush Campaign Manager Don Evans: When its all said and one, we will 29)prevail.

The crowds begin to thin out. The candidates go to sleep, still not knowing which one of them is the president elect.

November 8

And there is another complication. Some who voted in Florida yesterday are crying foul, saying the voting process was a mess, in places like, Palm Beach County, where the ballot was confusing, might have resulted in a lot of mistaken votes for 30)Pat Buchanan.

Who Is To Blame?

But we cannot get to the end of this broadcast without looking at what role we, in the media, played last night, though we are not certain what effect, if any, our mistaken projections in Florida had. The background is this: since 1980, 31)the television networks have made election projections based on voters telling exit pollsters how they voted, and some actual voting returns. It is almost always accurate. Last night, in an uncertain political environment we saw the result of two rare mistakes.

When the first returns came in, from certain 32)precincts, it looked like Al Gores exit poll lead neatly matched his lead in those early key precincts, so the programmers said, you know, we can give the state to Gore because the lead, its real. So 33)the expert vote counters, that worked for all the networks in New York, sent this message at 34)7:52 Eastern: In Florida, the presidential, Gore wins. The problem was they went too fast, and the networks competing to call states as quickly as possible, went along. Because it now appears that the first precincts that reported in were not typical. The match in fact was 35)flawed, and pretty quickly, Gores lead began to disappear.

The second error came later. Around 2 am, George Bush was ahead, but then, he got a sudden and unexpected boost from, of all places, Broward County. Thats a Gore county. Suddenly, Bush was 50,000 votes ahead, with 80% of the state in. First the Fox Network figured Al Gore cant catch up now, so they called the state, and very quickly, perhaps for competitive reasons, so did everybody else. But again, it turned out they moved too fast. Those first pro-Bush votes from Broward were quickly followed by thousands of pro-Gore votes. So Bushs 50,000 vote-lead was reduced very quickly to a lead of 224 votes. Time to 36)eat crow, again.

Well, I said we didnt know what effect, if any, wed had. In fact we had some, in the form of premature congratulations from several capitals overseas. The leaders immediately issued statements congratulating George Bush. They, like us, took it back a little later on.

You Want To Gamble?

After one of the most 37)tumultuous elections in recent history, the campaign to win the White House continues into another week, sowing the seeds of 38)discord and uncertainty in Washington and in the markets along the way. The stock market, already nervous because of the slowing economy and warnings of about the 39)decelerating pace of future growth, took the political developments hard this week. At 1:30 on 40)Thursday afternoon, the Dow went into a 41)free fall when the Gore campaign announced that it would support legal actions in Florida.

While the result is still too close to call, the sometimes rocky relationship between China and the U.S. will remain important to the new administration. Republicans in Hong Kong say Sino-US ties are strategically crucial and that wont change, even if George W. Bush becomes president.

American in HK: You are gonna see a $1.3 Trillion 42)tax rebate, 43% of which will go to the top 1% of Americans. Youd see a breaking of 43)the balanced budget agreement...

Ahead of Chinas entry into the World Trade Organization, business groups say a Bush presidency would be better for free trade.

Not A Big Deal

There have been more 44)allegations of election 45)irregularities in the United States, the latest being in Wisconsin, where Gore led Bush by just more than 6,000 votes.

Dozens of students at 46)Marquette University in 47)Milwaukee are now openly 48)boasting: They voted more than once in last weeks election.

Student: I realized that it wouldnt be impossible for me to vote again, and so thats what I did. I ended up voting four times that day, for myself.

Its not known who got the extra votes, but students say officials at the polling place did little to prevent it.

Student Editor: Their IDs werent being checked. Their 49)proof of address wasnt being checked.

Michael McGraw, an editor of the campus newspaper, The Marquette Tribune, says a 50)canvass by his reporters found 141 students who admitted to voting more than once, which is a 51)felony offence.

Student editor: It kind of struck them like. "Felony offence? What are you talking about? I just voted twice, thats not that big a deal."

52)Dave Letterman: All kidding aside, heres my fear. Heres what Im concerned about. If they keep demanding these recounts, if we dont put an end to these recounting, if the recounts dont stop, heres my fear, sooner or later, theres gonna be a winner. Thats what Im scared of... It cant go on like this...

Lesson One: Know Thy Country

Across the country, many students are following the 53)twists and turns of this presidential race as never before.

Student A: I dont think that the election is worth anything if it doesnt represent the will of the majority of people.

Student B: Im just concerned about what a 54)laughing stock we are to the rest of the world.

So they ask, Whats wrong with the system?

Teacher: If we lose faith in the voting process, we have a problem in this country.

Some kids have trouble understanding the Electoral College, or the fact that the candidate can win the popular vote, and still lose the race. But in this once in a life time election, these are lessons they are unlikely to forget.

Student C: When Jefferson and all those people decided on the electoral college system, they never ever dreamed it would ever get this close, and now that it has, its really an incredible happening.

At the Packer 55)Collegiate Institute, in Brooklyn, this model Congress debated, then voted to abolish the Electoral College today, 11 to 3.

Theres more to com

November 19

Here briefly is where we stand tonight. Lawyers for both sides have filed their arguments for tomorrows Supreme Court hearing. The manual recounts continue in two Florida counties. Theyll begin in another third tomorrow. A growing dispute over the rejection of some of those absentee ballots, absentee ballots which increased George W. Bushs slim lead to 930 votes in what remains an uncertified statewide account. Nothing now is more important than tomorrows Supreme Court hearing and thats where we begin. ABCs Erin Hayes is in 56)Tallahassee tonight.

Both camps 57)scrambled to get their briefs in by deadline today. Hundreds of pages of argument and evidence that all 58)boiled down essentially to this, whether Secretary of State, Katherine Harris, abused her 59)discretion, by holding 60)hard and fast to last weeks deadline for accepting manually counted votes. It all goes before the seven-member Florida Supreme Court tomorrow. Almost all the justices are Democrats, but even many Republicans who know them say, Politics is not likely to 61)sway them.