VOA慢速英语2012 IN THE NEWS - Anti-Putin Punk Rockers Await Judge's Verdict

 

IN THE NEWS - Anti-Putin Punk Rockers Await Judge's Verdict

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.

Next Friday, a judge in Moscow plans to announce her decision in the trial of three young women in a feminist¹ punk rock band. The musicians are accused of hooliganism and religious hatred².

The women burst into Moscow's main Orthodox church in February. They were dressed in short skirts and wore brightly colored balaclavas over their heads. They performed a one-minute "punk prayer" calling on the Virgin³ Mary to drive away Vladimir Putin. Two weeks later Russians returned Mr. Putin to the presidency⁴, electing him to a third term.

The band members are Nadezhda Tolokonnilkova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich. They could spend up to seven years in prison if found guilty of the charges. But government prosecutors⁵ have asked the court for a three-year sentence.

Church leaders have demanded harsh punishment. Only seventeen percent of Russians who were asked in a Levada Center opinion poll said they supported that idea. Last week President Putin criticized what the women did, but asked that they not be judged "too harshly."

Defense⁶ lawyer Mark Feigin, during closing arguments this week, said the women's act should not even be judged in a criminal court. He says it was a political act -- a protest against a totalitarian state, Vladimir Putin and a discriminatory system that denies justice.

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The band members pleaded not guilty to the charges, but they apologized to Orthodox Christian⁷ believers. The women said they did not mean to offend anyone -- a claim rejected by the government.

Nadezhda Tolokonnilkova told the court that they are good people and should be allowed to say what they want.

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Maria Alyokhina, in a statement read by her lawyer, spoke⁸ of a generation gap opening between young people and Russia's political and religious leaders.

Musicians around the world are protesting the trial. Madonna expressed support for the band -- and even wore a balaclava -- while performing this week in Moscow.

MADONNA: " Obviously, I believe in freedom of speech and I am against censorship, so I hope that the judge is lenient⁹ with them and they are freed soon. That would be great."

The women have been in jail since March. Two of them are mothers of young children.

As president again, Vladimir Putin has signed a series of new laws restricting freedom of speech and assembly. Fines for unapproved protests have been sharply increased. In some cases they amount to more than an average Russian earns in a year. 

Alexander Lebedev is a Russian billionaire active in democratic politics. He linked the punk rocker case to the expected prosecution¹⁰ of blogger and opposition¹¹ leader Alexei Navalny.

ALEXANDER LEBEDEV: "I suddenly understood from actually the Navalny case, which is fully¹² fabricated -- same as with these girls -- there is only politics nothing else. It's just a kind of copy of the sixties."

At a recent protest demonstration¹³ in downtown Moscow, the loudest chants were for the freedom of the punk group.

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And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

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Contributing: James Brooke and Jessica Golloher

1 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

2 hatred   

n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨

参考例句：

• He looked at me with hatred in his eyes.他以憎恨的眼光望着我。
• The old man was seized with burning hatred for the fascists.老人对法西斯主义者充满了仇恨。

3 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

4 presidency   

n.总统(校长，总经理)的职位(任期)

参考例句：

• Roosevelt was elected four times to the presidency of the United States.罗斯福连续当选四届美国总统。
• Two candidates are emerging as contestants for the presidency.两位候选人最终成为总统职位竞争者。

5 prosecutors   

检举人( prosecutor的名词复数 )； 告发人； 起诉人； 公诉人

参考例句：

• In some places,public prosecutors are elected rather than appointed. 在有些地方，检察官是经选举而非任命产生的。 来自口语例句
• You've been summoned to the Prosecutors' Office, 2 days later. 你在两天以后被宣到了检察官的办公室。

6 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

7 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 lenient   

adj.宽大的，仁慈的

参考例句：

• The judge was lenient with him.法官对他很宽大。
• It's a question of finding the means between too lenient treatment and too severe punishment.问题是要找出处理过宽和处罚过严的折中办法。

10 prosecution   

n.起诉，告发，检举，执行，经营

参考例句：

• The Smiths brought a prosecution against the organizers.史密斯家对组织者们提出起诉。
• He attempts to rebut the assertion made by the prosecution witness.他试图反驳原告方证人所作的断言。

11 opposition   

n.反对，敌对

参考例句：

• The party leader is facing opposition in his own backyard.该党领袖在自己的党內遇到了反对。
• The police tried to break down the prisoner's opposition.警察设法制住了那个囚犯的反抗。

12 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

13 demonstration   

n.表明，示范，论证，示威

参考例句：

• His new book is a demonstration of his patriotism.他写的新书是他的爱国精神的证明。
• He gave a demonstration of the new technique then and there.他当场表演了这种新的操作方法。