VOA慢速英语2014 柏林墙倒塌25年后

 

AS IT IS 2014-11-09 The Fall of the Berlin Wall: 25 Years Later 柏林墙倒塌25年后

Sunday marks the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. The former East Germany built the wall in 1961 to divide East and West Berlin. For many years, it was a physical sign of the Cold War – when Western countries opposed the Soviet¹ Union and its allies, including East Germany.

But the Berlin Wall was opened on November 9th, 1989. A few years later, the Soviet Union collapsed³. 

In Germany, big street parties have been organized to mark the anniversary. But in Russia, there is little reaction to the event. The anniversary comes at a time when tensions between East and West are at their highest since the end of the Cold War. 

In a garden in the middle of Moscow lies a single piece of the Berlin Wall. A hole has been cut through the middle; out of it, metal butterflies appear - a sign of freedom, says Natalia Samover of the Sakharov Center, which owns the grounds.

“It is a representation of the exceptional beauty of freedom,” she says. “A reminder⁴ that freedom also means responsibility for the people to bear. Our understanding of this came a little later.”

On November 9th, 1989, days of protests resulted in crowds gathering⁵ on both sides of the Berlin Wall. Border guards were outnumbered, and for the first time since 1961, Berliners from East and West mixed freely.

The 25th anniversary has led people on both sides of the former 'Iron Curtain' to remember the wall. Yury Pivovarov is with the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow. He says Russians look at the fall of the Berlin Wall in two ways.

He says that: “On the one hand, there was the excitement of Perestroika and huge expectations for democratic reforms. On the other hand, another part of the population, Communist Party supporters, regretted it very much. For them it was a signal that the Soviet Union could fall, exactly what happened.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin once described the fall of the Soviet Union as the "greatest geopolitical catastrophe⁶ of the 20th century." 

Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center, says there are important differences in the thinking of modern Russians.

“The fall of the Soviet Union (was), unlike the collapse² of Communism - those are two different things. The fall of the Soviet Union was seen as a catastrophe by a lot of people. It was not so much the empire that collapsed, but the entire order, the welfare state, the way of life.”

Opinion polls show support for President Putin has risen to 85 percent since Russia took control of Crimea in March.  Western powers accuse Russia of sending troops and weapons into eastern Ukraine.

Yury Pivovarov says the 25th anniversary can help people better understand the current dispute between East and West.

At the German embassy in Moscow, a photographic exhibit explores the meaning of the Berlin Wall. Among the artists showing work there is Dmitry Vrubel. He painted one of the most famous graffiti murals on the Berlin Wall. He calls it, "My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love."

Dmitry Vrubel says, during the past 25 years, the wall has been replaced by a new wall in the minds of people, in human history and in politics. For Europe, he says, the Berlin Wall remains⁷ an important symbol; it represents a symbolic⁸ wall dividing two worlds.

Words in This Story

Cold War - n. a period of conflict between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union in which neither side was directly at war

outnumbered - adj. more than someone or something in number

geopolitical - adj. having to do with the political and economic relations between nations

graffiti - n. pictures or words drawn on public structures usually without permission

1 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

2 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

3 collapsed   

adj.倒塌的

参考例句：

• Jack collapsed in agony on the floor. 杰克十分痛苦地瘫倒在地板上。
• The roof collapsed under the weight of snow. 房顶在雪的重压下突然坍塌下来。

4 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。

5 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。

6 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。

7 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

8 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。