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 un
FRANKFURT—I bumped down in Frankfurt at 10:55 AM. A German landing, I thought—unsubtle and punctual. The sky was clear, an un
admin
2020-05-01
51
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 Baerbel 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 Stein-meier, 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.
The following are the author’s impressions of Germany EXCEPT______.
选项
A、punctual
B、hopeless
C、dull
D、stable
答案
B
解析
全文主题是德国是一个充满希望的国家,故选项B不是作者对德国的印象。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/hMbK777K
0
专业英语八级
相关试题推荐
A、Bygettinginvolvedincharities.B、Byparticipatingtheirparties.C、Bylookingforcommoninterests.D、Bybeingavolunteer
ThePurposesofLiteraryAnalysisI.IntroductionLiteraryanalysisisinitselfauniversalnecessity.—reason1:enablesrea
A、Itinvolves$1.5billioninvestmenttoupgradebridges.B、Itinvolvesplansoftransportingthestaffeasilytotheairports.
AskingQuestionsEffectivelyI.ReasonAskingtherightquestionshelpsimprovecommunicationskills:—collectingbetter【T1】__
PASSAGETHREEWhatmaybethebesttitleofthepassage?
A、Highlevelofsomekindofhormone.B、Poorphysicalhealth.C、Agrumpylifestyle.D、Afamilyhistoryofbreastcancer.A本题设题点在
PASSAGEFOURWhatdoesthedescriptionofthecurrentU.K.inflationimply?
StressManagementI.Thegoalofstressmanagement—takingchargeofthoughts,emotions,【T1】______andenvironmentetc.【T1】___
StressManagementI.Thegoalofstressmanagement—takingchargeofthoughts,emotions,【T1】______andenvironmentetc.【T1】___
Itisaknownfactthatphysicalactivityimprovesoverallhealth.Notonlydoesitimprovecirculation,increasebloodflowto
随机试题
患儿,男,12岁,1个月前无明显诱因出现全程血尿,尿色呈茶水样,但尿色不均匀,有时有小黑血块,病初曾有尿频、尿急症状。尿蛋白(+),RBC0~5/HP,WBC2~8/HP,近1周眼睑水肿。查体:血压120/80mmHg,双眼睑轻度水肿,双肾区无叩痛。
______是指在终端或者网络中间结点,计算机设备每秒向网络中发送多少比特数据,其反映的主要是网络设备的性能。
社会主义初级阶段社会基本矛盾的表现形式是
男性,25岁,车祸伤1h。查体:脉搏130/min,血压86/60mmHg。烦躁不安,发绀,严重呼吸困难,皮肤湿冷,左颈胸部皮下捻发感,气管右移,左胸饱满,左肺呼吸音消失。胸片示左肺完全萎陷。最可能的诊断为
2型糖尿病,轻度肥胖,单用饮食治疗不满意时可
中枢神经系统内,兴奋性化学传递的下述特征中,哪一项是错误的
地理、历史、思想与品德都属于自然科学。()
青年张某,晚饭后去一理发店理发,被警察李某以涉嫌嫖娼为由带至公安派出所,原因是有卖淫女指认张某为嫖客。其间警察李某多次对张某实施暴力,致使张某被迫承认自己有嫖娼行为。警察李某及其所在的派出所在未做任何调查取证的基础上,将张某行政拘留。后在有关部门督促、调查
一棵二叉树的前序遍历结果是ABCEDF,中序遍历结果是CBAEDF,则其后序遍历的结果是()。
在考生文件夹下,打开文档WORD2.DOCX,按照要求完成下列操作并以该文件名(WORD2.DOCX)保存文档。【文档开始】【文档结束】在表格右侧增加一列,输入列标题“平均成绩”;并在新增列相应单元格内填入左侧三门功课的平均成绩;
最新回复
(
0
)