2015年经济学人 希腊财政部长 心不在焉的教授

Greece's finance minister

Absent professor

The immovable Yanis Varoufakis

ALMOST every recent Greek finance minister has been an Athens university economics professor moonlighting as a politician.

Yanis Varoufakis is no exception. But unlike his predecessors¹, Mr Varoufakis has become a global celebrity², to the annoyance³ of many in Syriza,

the leftist party in power. To his critics, Mr Varoufakis's lifestyle—riding a powerful motorbike,

spending evenings in chic⁴ bars and weekends at a smart island villa⁵ belonging to his wife—is embarrassingly close to that of the rich Greeks he castigates⁶ for avoiding taxes by stashing⁷ cash abroad.

The leather-jacketed Mr Varoufakis is not much liked by his euro-zone colleagues either.

He lectures them and shows little interest in the details of reforms demanded by Greece's creditors⁸.

The pace of negotiations⁹ has picked up as Greece's cash crunch¹⁰ gets more acute.

But Mr Varoufakis continues to raise obstacles, say officials in Brussels and Frankfurt.

He is deeply reluctant to cross any of Syriza's “red lines”: no more cuts in pensions, no more labour reforms,

no increases in value-added tax and no privatisations beyond the handful that are already under way.

Divisions within Syriza's economic team do not help. Amazingly, Mr Varoufakis is often away on the international conference circuit.

In his absence Yannis Dragasakis, the deputy prime minister, who is close to Mr Tsipras but not to Mr Varoufakis, takes over.

His messages to the “institutions”, as the IMF, European Central Bank and European Commission are now known (in place of the hated “troika”),

are more conciliatory than those of Mr Varoufakis. But their senior officials are still banned by Mr Varoufakis from holding discussions in the finance ministry¹¹ inAthens.

Greeceis unlikely to reach a deal this month with its creditors. Mr Varoufakis is trying to buy more time.

The latest wheeze¹² was to get local authorities and other public agencies to transfer their cash reserves to the central bank.

But without a deal,Greece seems certain to run out of money to repay its debts to the IMF and ECB.

Some fret¹³ that Mr Varoufakis's half-hearted negotiating tactics show a lack of commitment to keeping Greece in the euro.

As a fellow economics professor puts it: “Unlike his predecessors, Yanis isn't interested in managing the economy. What he really enjoys is brinkmanship.”

1 predecessors   

n.前任( predecessor的名词复数 )；前辈；（被取代的）原有事物；前身

参考例句：

• The new government set about dismantling their predecessors' legislation. 新政府正着手废除其前任所制定的法律。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Will new plan be any more acceptable than its predecessors? 新计划比原先的计划更能令人满意吗？ 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。

3 annoyance   

n.恼怒，生气，烦恼

参考例句：

• Why do you always take your annoyance out on me?为什么你不高兴时总是对我出气？
• I felt annoyance at being teased.我恼恨别人取笑我。

4 chic   

n./adj.别致(的)，时髦(的)，讲究的

参考例句：

• She bought a chic little hat.她买了一顶别致的小帽子。
• The chic restaurant is patronized by many celebrities.这家时髦的饭店常有名人光顾。

5 villa   

n.别墅，城郊小屋

参考例句：

• We rented a villa in France for the summer holidays.我们在法国租了一幢别墅消夏。
• We are quartered in a beautiful villa.我们住在一栋漂亮的别墅里。

6 castigates   

v.严厉责骂、批评或惩罚（某人）( castigate的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The film mercilessly castigates the old society. 影片对旧社会进行了无情的鞭挞。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Actually this somewhat castigates, compares with Palestinian Sa, Realmadrid has the winning quality. 其实这有些苛责，跟巴萨比起来，皇马更有赢球的素质。 来自互联网

7 stashing   

v.贮藏( stash的现在分词 )；隐藏；藏匿；藏起

参考例句：

8 creditors   

n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They agreed to repay their creditors over a period of three years. 他们同意3年内向债主还清欠款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Creditors could obtain a writ for the arrest of their debtors. 债权人可以获得逮捕债务人的令状。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 negotiations   

协商( negotiation的名词复数 )； 谈判； 完成（难事）； 通过

参考例句：

• negotiations for a durable peace 为持久和平而进行的谈判
• Negotiations have failed to establish any middle ground. 谈判未能达成任何妥协。

10 crunch   

n.关键时刻；艰难局面；v.发出碎裂声

参考例句：

• If it comes to the crunch they'll support us.关键时刻他们是会支持我们的。
• People who crunch nuts at the movies can be very annoying.看电影时嘎吱作声地嚼干果的人会使人十分讨厌。

11 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

12 wheeze   

n.喘息声，气喘声；v.喘息着说

参考例句：

• The old man managed to wheeze out a few words.老人勉强地喘息着说出了几句话。
• He has a slight wheeze in his chest.他呼吸时胸部发出轻微的响声。

13 fret   

v.(使)烦恼；(使)焦急；(使)腐蚀，(使)磨损

参考例句：

• Don't fret.We'll get there on time.别着急，我们能准时到那里。
• She'll fret herself to death one of these days.她总有一天会愁死的.