TED演讲:曝光政府腐败的战斗(2)

 　　Well, I'm the girl in that story, and the secret documents that I was interested in were located in this building, 对，我就是故事里的小女孩，而我感兴趣的秘密就藏在这栋楼里，

　　the British Parliament, and the data that I wanted to get my hands on were the expense receipts of members of Parliament. 那就是英国议会，而我想拿到手的资料就是下院议员的花费收据。

　　I thought this was a basic question to ask in a democracy. 我认为这是在民主社会最基本需要知道的东西。

　　It wasn't like I was asking for the code to a nuclear bunker, or anything like that, 我又不是在要求知道核武器堆的密码或者类似的，

　　but the amount of resistance I got from this Freedom of Information request, you would have thought I'd asked something like this. 但是，我为了知道这冠上“信息自由”的信息，可是费了不少的功夫才冲破重重阻碍，其间的困难是你不能预想到的。

　　So I fought for about five years doing this, and it was one of many hundreds of requests that I made, not 我大概用了五年的时间才有今天的结果，而这只是我所提出需要了解的几百种信息的中的一点，

　　I didn't, Hey, look, I didn't set out, honestly, to revolutionize the British Parliament. That was not my intention. 不过，我要说，我没有想要彻底改革英国议会。那根本不是我的意图。

　　I was just making these requests as part of research for my first book. 我只是在为了我出第一本书做出的一点努力。

　　But it ended up in this very long, protracted¹ legal battle 但是我确意想不到的打了这么久的官司，

　　and there I was after five years fighting against Parliament in front of three of Britain's most eminent² High Court judges 经过长达五年与英国高院三位最杰出法官的较量，

　　waiting for their ruling about whether or not Parliament had to release this data. 等待他们决定议会是否应该公开这些信息。

　　And I've got to tell you, I wasn't that hopeful, because I'd seen the establishment. 今天我必须告诉你，原本并不是那么有希望，因为我见证了议会的建立。

　　I thought, it always sticks together. I am out of luck. 我觉得议会做事一般是不透露的。我可能没有运气找到什么吧。

　　Well, guess what? I won. Hooray. 但是，你们猜猜？我胜利了。啊哈！

1 protracted   

adj.拖延的；延长的v.拖延“protract”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The war was protracted for four years. 战争拖延了四年。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We won victory through protracted struggle. 经过长期的斗争，我们取得了胜利。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 eminent   

adj.显赫的，杰出的，有名的，优良的

参考例句：

• We are expecting the arrival of an eminent scientist.我们正期待一位著名科学家的来访。
• He is an eminent citizen of China.他是一个杰出的中国公民。