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 u
FRANKFURT—I bumped down in Frankfurt at 10:55 AM. A German landing, I thought—unsubtle and punctual. The sky was clear, an u
admin
2021-10-13
23
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 Friedrich’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 unmemorable 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.
Which of the following is true about the German election?
选项
A、People are enthusiastic about it.
B、It is hard to say who will win it.
C、People are eager for its result.
D、No one cares about it.
答案
D
解析
事实题。由第三段可知,无人在乎此次大选。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/4SIK777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
CulturalDifferencesbetweenEastandWestI.FactorsleadingtotheculturaldifferencesA.Differentculture【T1】______【T1】_
A、Reducingvehiclenumbersonhighways.B、Forbiddinghonkingthehornloudly.C、Improvingdrivers’behaviors.D、Restrictingspac
CharacteristicsqfAmericanCultureI.PunctualityA.Goingtothetheater:be【T1】______twentyminutesprior【T1】______B.
Atsometimeinyourlifeyoumayhaveastrongdesiretodosomethingstrangeorterrible.However,chancesarethatyoudon’t
(1)OnJuly7th,IwastravelinginLondon.IwashavingbreakfastatahotelverynearLiverpoolStreetStationwhenthefirste
A、Shewasengagedinanothertrafficaccident.B、Shehadtosendtheotherdrivertothehospital.C、Shehadtolookafterthet
NoEnglishmanbelievesinworkingfrombooklearning.Hesuspectseverythingnew,anddislikesit,unlesshecanbecompelledb
Self-discipline:theFoundationofProductiveLivingI.Issuestobenoticedatthethoughtofself-disciplineA.Troublesfors
A、Keepingupdatedwithcurrentinternetapplications.B、Splittingthebillwiththeirchildrenforgoingonline.C、Gettingthep
随机试题
Hersuggestion______theclassmeetingbeputoffwasturneddown.
板状根现象常见于()
下列药物除哪项外均有止呕作用
卷烟厂应该缴纳的增值税销项税额总计为( )万元。关于消费税的计算方法,下面说法不正确的是( )。
甲木业制造有限责任公司(以下简称“甲公司”)是增值税一般纳税人,从事实木地板的生产、销售,同时从事木质工艺品、筷子等的生产经营。2016年8月,甲公司发生下列业务:(1)购进油漆、修理用零配件一批,取得增值税专用发票上注明的价款为50万元、税额8.5万元
根据合同法律制度的规定,技术合同价款、报酬或者使用费的支付方式南当事人约定。当事人约定的下列支付方式中,符合规定的有()。
政治斗争是政治冲突的一种形式。它是指各政治主体之间基于自身的利益要求,为实现特定的权利而围绕着公共政治权力所产生的对抗性互动行动。依上述定义,下列不属于政治斗争的是( )。
强调学习者的主体作用,也强调学习的主动建构性、社会互动性和情境性的理论是()
数据库管理系统是( )。
小明的毕业论文分别请两位老师进行了审阅。每位老师分别通过Word的修订功能对该论文进行了修改。现在,小明需要将两份经过修订的文档合并为一份,最优的操作方法是()。
最新回复
(
0
)