美国国家公共电台 NPR Tiny Laos Readies For A Visit From Obama — And A Turn Under The Global Spotlight

Tiny Laos Readies For A Visit From Obama — And A Turn Under The Global Spotlight¹

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The tiny southeast nation of Laos will host leaders from around the world this week. There's a global summit happening there, and President Obama will be in Laos as well. It's part of his last trip to Asia as president. NPR's Elise Hu is in Laos. Elise, thanks for being with us.

ELISE HU, BYLINE³: Glad to be here.

MARTIN: Why is this tiny country hosting such a huge gathering⁴?

HU: Well, Laos is a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. Members of ASEAN, as it's called, take turns hosting, and it's Laos' turn in the spotlight. This country, as you mentioned, is tiny. It's run by a rather secretive communist government and still rather impoverished⁵. You can still see goats roaming the streets. There's no air conditioning in a lot of the shops and the restaurants.

And the economy's quite small. It's about $13 billion. We looked it up, and that's about the same size of the economy of Lubbock, Texas. But Laos has gotten increasing investment recently from nearby China, and the Obama administration has really been wanting and willing to engage with Laos, even though it's one of the few places that still flies flags with a hammer and sickle⁶ on it.

MARTIN: As we mentioned, President Obama is going to be in Laos. What is the American agenda there?

HU: Well, he's making a bit of history. He's going to be the first sitting president to visit Laos. America has a rather dark history here. It neighbors Vietnam, and much of the famous Ho Chi Minh trail ran through it, which means Americans dropped more than 2 million tons of bombs here. And so there's some reckoning with the past. But the president's also trying to look forward, making a last-ditch sell of the Trans-Pacific Partnership⁷, the TPP, and making his final push as president to rebalance Washington foreign policy to Asia. This has been a seven-year-long effort on the economic and the security fronts and widely seen as a response to the growing strength of China in its own backyard.

MARTIN: Before President Obama gets to Laos, he is wrapping up a trip to the G20 in China. And clearly, China's a big part of the U.S. pivot⁸ to Asia. What do we know about what's come out of the president's visit there?

HU: Well, President Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping both agreed and committed their countries to the Paris climate change agreement. That's kind of the big deal. They also sat down together for nearly four hours Saturday. It was the last time for Obama to spend so much time one-on-one with his Chinese counterpart. So he did broach⁹ some areas of friction¹⁰ - economic practices that the U.S. hasn't been happy about, like oversupply¹¹ of steel.

There's also the contentious¹² maritime¹³ issues, of course, in the South China Sea, where China's been building islands on what were previously¹⁴ just reefs and shoals. The rockiness of this relationship was actually on display as soon as Air Force One landed in China. Chinese officials had been trying to limit the number of press corps¹⁵ members who can follow the president despite making earlier agreements about access. And so when the American leaders protested about changing rules at the last minute, a Chinese official reportedly said, this is our country.

And that's all kind of symbolic¹⁶ of the larger struggles with a more powerful China. China's, of course, one of America's strongest economic allies, but not part of the U.S. Security Alliance. So it's seen as more of a strategic foe¹⁷, which makes this one of the thorniest¹⁸ global relationships in the world.

MARTIN: NPR's Elise Hu, who covers Asia for us. Thank you so much, Elise.

HU: You bet.

1 spotlight   

n.公众注意的中心，聚光灯，探照灯，视听，注意，醒目

参考例句：

• This week the spotlight is on the world of fashion.本周引人瞩目的是时装界。
• The spotlight followed her round the stage.聚光灯的光圈随着她在舞台上转。

2 browser   

n.浏览者

参考例句：

• View edits in a web browser.在浏览器中看编辑的效果。
• I think my browser has a list of shareware links.我想在浏览器中会有一系列的共享软件链接。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

5 impoverished   

adj.穷困的，无力的，用尽了的v.使（某人）贫穷( impoverish的过去式和过去分词 )；使（某物）贫瘠或恶化

参考例句：

• the impoverished areas of the city 这个城市的贫民区
• They were impoverished by a prolonged spell of unemployment. 他们因长期失业而一贫如洗。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 sickle   

n.镰刀

参考例句：

• The gardener was swishing off the tops of weeds with a sickle.园丁正在用镰刀嗖嗖地割掉杂草的顶端。
• There is a picture of the sickle on the flag. 旗帜上有镰刀的图案。

7 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

8 pivot   

v.在枢轴上转动；装枢轴，枢轴；adj.枢轴的

参考例句：

• She is the central pivot of creation and represents the feminine aspect in all things.她是创造的中心枢轴，表现出万物的女性面貌。
• If a spring is present,the hand wheel will pivot on the spring.如果有弹簧，手轮的枢轴会装在弹簧上。

9 broach   

v.开瓶，提出(题目)

参考例句：

• It's a good chance to broach the subject.这是开始提出那个问题的好机会。
• I thought I'd better broach the matter with my boss.我想我最好还是跟老板说一下这事。

10 friction   

n.摩擦，摩擦力

参考例句：

• When Joan returned to work,the friction between them increased.琼回来工作后，他们之间的摩擦加剧了。
• Friction acts on moving bodies and brings them to a stop.摩擦力作用于运动着的物体，并使其停止。

11 oversupply   

n.供应过量；v.过度供给

参考例句：

• The market softened because of oversupply.市场因供过于求而疲软。
• Overexpansion of tea fields has led to oversupply.茶园过度扩张，使得市场上逐渐供过于求。

12 contentious   

adj.好辩的，善争吵的

参考例句：

• She was really not of the contentious fighting sort.她委实不是好吵好闹的人。
• Since then they have tended to steer clear of contentious issues.从那时起，他们总想方设法避开有争议的问题。

13 maritime   

adj.海的，海事的，航海的，近海的，沿海的

参考例句：

• Many maritime people are fishermen.许多居于海滨的人是渔夫。
• The temperature change in winter is less in maritime areas.冬季沿海的温差较小。

14 previously   

adv.以前，先前（地）

参考例句：

• The bicycle tyre blew out at a previously damaged point.自行车胎在以前损坏过的地方又爆开了。
• Let me digress for a moment and explain what had happened previously.让我岔开一会儿，解释原先发生了什么。

15 corps   

n.(通信等兵种的)部队；(同类作的)一组

参考例句：

• The medical corps were cited for bravery in combat.医疗队由于在战场上的英勇表现而受嘉奖。
• When the war broke out,he volunteered for the Marine Corps.战争爆发时，他自愿参加了海军陆战队。

16 symbolic   

adj.象征性的，符号的，象征主义的

参考例句：

• It is symbolic of the fighting spirit of modern womanhood.它象征着现代妇女的战斗精神。
• The Christian ceremony of baptism is a symbolic act.基督教的洗礼仪式是一种象征性的做法。

17 foe   

n.敌人，仇敌

参考例句：

• He knew that Karl could be an implacable foe.他明白卡尔可能会成为他的死敌。
• A friend is a friend;a foe is a foe;one must be clearly distinguished from the other.敌是敌，友是友，必须分清界限。

18 thorniest   

adj.多刺的( thorny的最高级 )；有刺的；棘手的；多障碍的

参考例句：

• Paradoxically, the thorniest outstanding issue involves Bolivia. 而荒谬可笑的是，最棘手的国家要事却牵涉到了玻利维亚。 来自互联网