英语词汇实用小百科 两会two sessions

Xiaohua: Hello and welcome to Round Table’s ‘Word of the Week.’ 欢迎来到RoundTable的词汇小百科栏目。And today, we’re gonna talk about the Two Sessions 两会, since it’s on going.

John: This is, as most of you already know, the NPC and CPPCC convenes¹ their annual sessions. So NPC is the National People’s Congress. That’s kind of like the legislature. And the CPPCC is the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, more like an advisory² body with no legislative³ power.

Xiaohua: NPC, National People’s Congress是全国人民代表大会. CPPCC Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference则是全国人民政治协商会议. But when we talk about the Two Sessions, why are we using ‘sessions’ to represent ‘会’, but not ‘conference’ or ‘meetings’ which to many Chinese mean the same.

John: Right. So a session just means that people are all sitting down and doing something all together. A class can be a session. There could be a tutoring session or something like that.

Xiaohua: Also, 代表和委员的区别。因为我们说人大代表，但是却说政协委员。在英文中这两个词是怎么说的呢？

John: So, yeah, we have NPC deputy, and there is the CPPCC member. This has everything to do with the fact that NPC is a legislative body that has the power to create and approve laws; whereas CPPCC is just an advisory body. So you are a MEMBER of an advisory body, but you are a DEUTY of a legislature.

Xiaohua: That’s right. 全国人民大会是我国最高的立法机构。政协则是政治协商机构，不具有直接立法的权力的。That also leads me to my next question. That is those “提案” and “议案” that these deputies and members submit. What are their differences in English?

John: Right. So again, as the deputy of the NPC legislature, these deputies raise motions, that is how the legislative process is conducted. CPPCC members, again, because they are only part of the advisory body, they are there to reflect, you know, the opinion of the people and give suggestions. They can really raise proposals.

Xiaohua: 人大代表提出的motion，已经通过就会具有法律效力，变成law。而政协委员提交上来的议案，proposal，不管是否通过，都不具有法律的约束力。So, a lot of media reports are saying that the structure of these two sessions is not completely the same, but a little bit similar, or comparable to the US house and senate, and the two houses of Parliament in Britain.

John: Yeah. I mean really it’s just a bicameral⁴ legislature. Bicameral just means that it has two different departments. And so I think the biggest difference of course is that in the US, both the US Senate and the House of Representatives have the power to create and enact⁵ laws. The thing is they have to agree upon a law before it can actually be enacted⁶. Whereas in the UK with their Parliament, they have the House of Commons and the House of Lords. And at this point, the House of Lords is kind of similar to the CPPCC in some senses, where they really don’t have that much power to create laws. They have a little bit of power, but not that much. Really most of the laws, decisions about policies are created in the House of Commons.

Xiaohua: 其实这些国家的政体还是具有挺大的区别的。比如说美国的参议院和众议院都有立法权，并且法案必须在两院都得到通过以后才能变成法律。而英国的上院和下院，上院实际上没多少立法权，而下院，the House of Commons，反而拥有更大的立法权力。OK. That’s all we have for this edition of Word of the Week.

John: Thanks for listening!

1 convenes   

召开( convene的第三人称单数 )； 召集； （为正式会议而）聚集； 集合

参考例句：

• The Premier convenes and presides over the executive meetings and plenary meetings of the State Council. 总理召集和主持国务院常务会议和国务院全体会议。 来自汉英非文学 - 中国宪法
• Chinese woman tenth the National People Congress convenes grandly today in Beijing. 中国妇女第十次全国代表大会今天在北京隆重召开。

2 advisory   

adj.劝告的，忠告的，顾问的，提供咨询

参考例句：

• I have worked in an advisory capacity with many hospitals.我曾在多家医院做过顾问工作。
• He was appointed to the advisory committee last month.他上个月获任命为顾问委员会委员。

3 legislative   

n.立法机构，立法权；adj.立法的，有立法权的

参考例句：

• Congress is the legislative branch of the U.S. government.国会是美国政府的立法部门。
• Today's hearing was just the first step in the legislative process.今天的听证会只是展开立法程序的第一步。

4 bicameral   

adj.两院制的

参考例句：

• The United States Congress is a bicameral body.美国国会由两个议院组成。
• The Upper House is usually the smaller branch of a bicameral legislature.上议院通常是两院制议会中较小的一个。

5 enact   

vt.制定(法律)；上演，扮演

参考例句：

• The U.S. Congress has exclusive authority to enact federal legislation.美国国会是唯一有权颁布联邦法律的。
• For example,a country can enact laws and economic policies to attract foreign investment fairly quickly.例如一个国家可以很快颁布吸引外资的法令和经济政策。

6 enacted   

制定（法律），通过（法案）( enact的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• legislation enacted by parliament 由议会通过的法律
• Outside in the little lobby another scene was begin enacted. 外面的小休息室里又是另一番景象。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹