2007年VOA标准英语-Cubans Caught Between Communist Past, Uncertain

By VOA News
Havana, Cuba
15 February 2007
 
watch Inside Cuba: pt 3

Now to the third and final report in our special series, "Inside Cuba - Reporter's Notebook."  It is an in-depth look at life on the island as President Fidel Castro remains¹ out of the public eye -- sidelined with an unspecified stomach illness.

For ten days, a video crew -- working on behalf of VOA -- made an unofficial visit to Cuba. The journalists found the country caught between its ideologically-driven past, and a future whose outlook is uncertain.

To protect the identities of those who spoke³ to the reporters, we will not show their faces nor provide any images that could endanger them.  We also are withholding⁴ the names of the crew, in a further effort to protect those who expressed their opinions.

As you walk the streets of Havana, you could be forgiven for thinking that you have stepped back in time. This city is steeped in history, and in some sense, stuck in the past.

 
Part of a mural that conveys the glory days of the Cuban revolution and defeat of anti-Castro forces
There are museums everywhere dedicated⁵ to Fidel Castro's 1959 Revolution. Everything is on display, from old photographs and weapons to American planes shot down by the Cuban military in 1961 during the unsuccessful Bay of Pigs invasion.

On a street corner in the old part of the capital, Cubans sell books and magazines. Many of them cannot be found anywhere else: biographies of leaders of the Cuban revolution; books celebrating long-discredited Soviet⁶ leaders; even yellowing copies of western magazines dating back 60 years.

All reflect a past that some Cubans still find more comforting than the present.

One woman expresses nostalgia⁷ for a time before the collapse⁸ of the Soviet Union, when Moscow and Havana were close allies. "We are sorry, we are very sorry, because we have plenty of friendship, and we are very grateful for the help to us when we made the revolution."

 
Before the Soviet collapse, Cuba heavily depended on Moscow for economic and political support. The removal of Moscow's lifeline, combined with the United States' economic embargo⁹, sent the Cuban economy into a downward spiral.

But unlike in Moscow in the Soviet era, Havana residents are friendly and open. Despite the overwhelming poverty -- or maybe because of it -- windows and doors are rarely closed, and ordinary Cubans are warm and inviting¹⁰, even to strangers.

But once you stop to talk to local people in Havana, it is very likely that your interest in them is being noted¹¹. In every residential¹² block of the city, there is an office of the "Committee for the Defense¹³ of the Revolution" -- an ideological² watchdog, responsible for finding and monitoring those whose loyalty¹⁴ to the regime is in doubt. Some Cubans believe that every third citizen is a state informer.

And the state works hard to block outside voices from being heard.

Cuban authorities put up 138 flag poles in front of the building that hosts the American Interests Section in Havana -- the closest thing the U.S. has to an embassy here since Washington has no formal diplomatic relations with Havana.

The flagpoles are meant to block the view of a scrolling¹⁵ electronic billboard¹⁶ on which the Americans place the latest world headlines. The ticker's intended audience of car drivers along a seaside highway never get a chance to catch up on some uncensored news.

Still, American influence is everywhere in Havana. "Mission Impossible," starring Tom Cruise, was playing at one local movie theater. Cubans drink "Tropi-Cola,"  a locally-manufactured beverage¹⁷ sold in cans colored by a hauntingly-familiar shade of red.

 
Display old American cars
And, of course, there are the vintage American cars. The Cuban capital is filled with Chevrolets, Buicks, Fords, Chryslers and Cadillacs from the 1950s.  Before the revolution, Cuba was the largest importer of American cars in the Caribbean.  And even today, these relics¹⁸ are regarded as the most valuable luxury item in the country.

So, despite the long-standing U.S. economic embargo, car-loving Cubans have become highly adept¹⁹ at keeping their aging vehicles running. For instance, an old washing machine engine is now used to manufacture spare parts for the American relics. Cubans also replace original American components²⁰ with similar ones from Russian cars that flooded the island during the Cold War years. But the Russian vehicles have not lasted nearly as long as the American originals.

While there are strict government controls on purchasing new cars for ordinary Cubans, these American classics are the main source of revenue for many. Used as a taxicab for tourists - they can make their owners some 50 U.S. dollars a day -- a huge sum in a country where an average monthly wage is $10 U.S.

Many of those cars -- fixed²¹ up for a local car show -- could sell for tens of thousands of dollars as collectors' items in the United States. But that is unlikely to happen until the frozen U.S.-Cuban relationship thaws²². 

That may happen in the future -- for now, Cubans watch and wait for change to come. 

1 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。

2 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

3 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。

4 withholding   

扣缴税款

参考例句：

• She was accused of withholding information from the police. 她被指控对警方知情不报。
• The judge suspected the witness was withholding information. 法官怀疑见证人在隐瞒情况。

5 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

6 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。

7 nostalgia   

n.怀乡病，留恋过去，怀旧

参考例句：

• He might be influenced by nostalgia for his happy youth.也许是对年轻时幸福时光的怀恋影响了他。
• I was filled with nostalgia by hearing my favourite old song.我听到这首喜爱的旧歌，心中充满了怀旧之情。

8 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。

9 embargo   

n.禁运（令）；vt.对...实行禁运，禁止（通商）

参考例句：

• This country put an oil embargo on an enemy country.该国对敌国实行石油禁运。
• During the war,they laid an embargo on commerce with enemy countries.在战争期间，他们禁止与敌国通商。

10 inviting   

adj.诱人的，引人注目的

参考例句：

• An inviting smell of coffee wafted into the room.一股诱人的咖啡香味飘进了房间。
• The kitchen smelled warm and inviting and blessedly familiar.这间厨房的味道温暖诱人，使人感到亲切温馨。

11 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

12 residential   

adj.提供住宿的；居住的；住宅的

参考例句：

• The mayor inspected the residential section of the city.市长视察了该市的住宅区。
• The residential blocks were integrated with the rest of the college.住宿区与学院其他部分结合在了一起。

13 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。

14 loyalty   

n.忠诚，忠心

参考例句：

• She told him the truth from a sense of loyalty.她告诉他真相是出于忠诚。
• His loyalty to his friends was never in doubt.他对朋友的一片忠心从来没受到怀疑。

15 scrolling   

n.卷[滚]动法，上下换行v.（电脑屏幕上）从上到下移动（资料等），卷页( scroll的现在分词 )；（似卷轴般）卷起；（像展开卷轴般地）将文字显示于屏幕

参考例句：

• Another important detail required by auto-scrolling is a time delay. 自动滚屏需要的另一个重要细节是时间延迟。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• In 2D visualization and drawing applications, vertical and horizontal scrolling are common. 在二维的可视化及绘图应用中，垂直和水平滚动非常普遍。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

16 billboard   

n.布告板，揭示栏，广告牌

参考例句：

• He ploughed his energies into his father's billboard business.他把精力投入到父亲的广告牌业务中。
• Billboard spreads will be simpler and more eye-catching.广告牌广告会比较简单且更引人注目。

17 beverage   

n.(水，酒等之外的)饮料

参考例句：

• The beverage is often colored with caramel.这种饮料常用焦糖染色。
• Beer is a beverage of the remotest time.啤酒是一种最古老的饮料。

18 relics   

[pl.］n.遗物，遗迹，遗产；遗体，尸骸

参考例句：

• The area is a treasure house of archaeological relics. 这个地区是古文物遗迹的宝库。
• Xi'an is an ancient city full of treasures and saintly relics. 西安是一个有很多宝藏和神圣的遗物的古老城市。

19 adept   

adj.老练的，精通的

参考例句：

• When it comes to photography,I'm not an adept.要说照相，我不是内行。
• He was highly adept at avoiding trouble.他十分善于避开麻烦。

20 components   

（机器、设备等的）构成要素，零件，成分； 成分( component的名词复数 )； [物理化学]组分； [数学]分量； （混合物的）组成部分

参考例句：

• the components of a machine 机器部件
• Our chemistry teacher often reduces a compound to its components in lab. 在实验室中化学老师常把化合物分解为各种成分。

21 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

22 thaws   

n.（足以解冻的）暖和天气( thaw的名词复数 )；（敌对国家之间）关系缓和v.（气候）解冻( thaw的第三人称单数 )；（态度、感情等）缓和；（冰、雪及冷冻食物）溶化；软化

参考例句：

• The sun at noon thaws the ice on the road. 中午的阳光很快把路上的冰融化了。 来自辞典例句
• It thaws in March here. 在此地化雪的季节是三月。 来自辞典例句