经济学人:喀麦隆 严厉打击互联网和英语使用者(1)

 　　Middle East & Africa 中东与非洲

　　Cameroon: Lingua fracas¹ 喀麦隆：通用语言

　　Clampping down on the web and English. 喀麦隆严厉打击互联网和英语使用者

　　The images beaming from the screens of Cameroon's state television channel, CRTV, show a country riding on a wave of glory. 喀麦隆国际电视频道CRTV播放屏幕显示这个国家正沐浴在荣耀当中。

　　In February the national football team, “The Indomitable Lions”, beat Egypt to win the Africa Cup of Nations trophy² for the first time in 15 years. 2月喀麦隆国家足球队“不败雄狮”战胜埃及，十五年来第一次赢得非洲国家奖杯。

　　In January a Cameroonian teenager became the first ever African winner of the Google coding challenge, an international programming competition. 1月一位喀麦隆少年成为谷歌编码挑战赛（国际编程比赛）的首位非洲获胜者。

　　But turn away from the goggle³ box and the country is troubled. 但是如果我们把目光从电视里移开，可以发现这个国家正问题缠身。

　　When the footballing trophy was brought to Bamenda, Cameroon's third-biggest city, placard-carrying protesters joined the crowds of onlookers⁴. 当喀麦隆第三大城市巴门达捧回足球奖杯时，手持标语牌的示威者加入了围观人群。

　　And for almost two months the country's young Google prodigy⁵, along with hundreds of thousands of others, has been unable to surf the web  近两个月的时间里，年轻的谷歌奇才和其他几十万人都无法上网。

　　because the government has shut it down in two English-speaking regions. 原因是政府将两个英语区的网络关闭了。

　　The plug was pulled as part of a clampdown on Anglophone activists⁶ in which more than a hundred people have been arrested and pressure groups have been outlawed⁷. 在这场压制活动中，有一百多人被逮捕，压力团体也被取缔。

　　At least six people have been killed and scores more injured since December by policemen and soldiers who have opened fire on demonstrators. 自从去年12月份以来，警察和士兵向示威者开火，至少有六人被其打死，还有更多人受伤。

　　The protests initially⁸ began as a series of strikes by the country's English-speaking lawyers,  抗议最初起始于该国英语律师的一系列罢工活动，

　　who took to the streets in their wigs⁹ and gowns in October 2016 demanding English translations of the country's key legal texts and better treatment by the authorities. 在2016年10月，他们戴假发穿长袍走上街头，要求国家的关键法律文件翻译成英语，还要求得到政府更好的待遇。

　　Since then many others have joined in, including teachers. 从那时起，包括教师在内的其他许多人也加入进来。

　　The conflict between the government and the Anglophone minority is escalating¹⁰. 政府和英语少数群体的冲突正在不断激化。

　　The roots of Cameroon's linguistic¹¹ rift¹² date back to 1919, when Britain and France divided the country between them, having taken it from Germany after the first world war. 喀麦隆语言分裂的根源可以追溯到1919年，当时一战后英法两国从德国手里接管此地，并将它一分为二。

　　After both parts gained their independence in 1960 and 1961, they reunited to form a bilingual, federal republic. 两党1960年、1961年分别独立之后，为了组建一个双语的联邦共和国又重新联合起来了。

　　But English speakers, who are less than fifth of the population, feel hard done by. 但说英语的人占总人口不到五分之一，因此觉得受到了不公对待。

　　They say that their regions get less than their share of public money and that it is too hard to interact with the state in English. 他们说，和对公共资金的贡献相比，他们地区得到的不足一提，而且很难用英语和其他人互动。

1 fracas   

n.打架；吵闹

参考例句：

• A couple of mobsters were rubbed out in a fracas with the law.几个暴徒在与警方喧闹的斗争中丧命。
• The police were called in to stop the fracas.警察奉命去制止骚乱。

2 trophy   

n.优胜旗，奖品，奖杯，战胜品，纪念品

参考例句：

• The cup is a cherished trophy of the company.那只奖杯是该公司很珍惜的奖品。
• He hung the lion's head as a trophy.他把那狮子头挂起来作为狩猎纪念品。

3 goggle   

n.瞪眼，转动眼珠，护目镜；v.瞪眼看，转眼珠

参考例句：

• His insincerity is revealed by the quick goggle of his eyes.他眼睛的快速转动泄露了他的不诚实。
• His eyes seemed to goggle larger than usual behind the heavy lenses.在厚厚的镜片后面，眼睛瞪得比平时大得多。

4 onlookers   

n.旁观者，观看者( onlooker的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A crowd of onlookers gathered at the scene of the crash. 在撞车地点聚集了一大群围观者。
• The onlookers stood at a respectful distance. 旁观者站在一定的距离之外，以示尊敬。

5 prodigy   

n.惊人的事物，奇迹，神童，天才，预兆

参考例句：

• She was a child prodigy on the violin.她是神童小提琴手。
• He was always a Negro prodigy who played barbarously and wonderfully.他始终是一个黑人的奇才，这种奇才弹奏起来粗野而惊人。

6 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 outlawed   

宣布…为不合法（outlaw的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Most states have outlawed the use of marijuana. 大多数州都宣布使用大麻为非法行为。
• I hope the sale of tobacco will be outlawed someday. 我希望有朝一日烟草制品会禁止销售。

8 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

9 wigs   

n.假发，法官帽( wig的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They say that wigs will be coming in again this year. 据说今年又要流行戴假发了。 来自辞典例句
• Frank, we needed more wigs than we thought, and we have to do some advertising. 弗兰克，因为我们需要更多的假发，而且我们还要做点广告。 来自电影对白

10 escalating   

v.（使）逐步升级( escalate的现在分词 )；（使）逐步扩大；（使）更高；（使）更大

参考例句：

• The cost of living is escalating. 生活费用在迅速上涨。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The cost of living is escalating in the country. 这个国家的生活费用在上涨。 来自辞典例句

11 linguistic   

adj.语言的，语言学的

参考例句：

• She is pursuing her linguistic researches.她在从事语言学的研究。
• The ability to write is a supreme test of linguistic competence.写作能力是对语言能力的最高形式的测试。

12 rift   

n.裂口，隙缝，切口；v.裂开，割开，渗入

参考例句：

• He was anxious to mend the rift between the two men.他急于弥合这两个人之间的裂痕。
• The sun appeared through a rift in the clouds.太阳从云层间隙中冒出来。