摘要：《经济学人》的文字表述方式一直为考研命题人所青睐，平时多阅读一些《经济学人》的文章也有利于扩展自己的视野。一起来看看8月5日的《经济学人》吧。
The Nordics in charge
北欧掌控
A Scandinavian wave
一次斯堪的纳维亚狂潮
How the Nordics get so many senior international positions
北欧为何拥有众多较高的国际职位
WHEN it comes to international jobs, Scandinavia does well. Sweden, Denmark and Norway have only 20m people, yet their nationals often run global organisations. Jens Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister, is taking over from a former Danish prime minister, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, as NATO’s boss. Thorbjorn Jagland, another former Norwegian prime minister, has just won a second term at the Council of Europe. Now attention is on the current Danish prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, who is a front-runner to succeed Belgium’s Herman Van Rompuy as president of the European Council.
说到国际工作，斯堪的维纳亚（在地理上是指斯堪的纳维亚半岛，包括挪威和瑞典，文化与政治上则包含丹麦）表现算是个中翘楚。尽管瑞典、丹麦和挪威仅有2千万人口，他们的公民却掌舵者全球组织。挪威前首相 Jens Stoltenberg正接棒前丹麦首相Anders Fogh Rasmussen成为北约的领袖。另一位挪威的前首相Thorbjorn Jagland则刚刚于欧洲议会选举中赢得了第二任期。现今关注的是当前丹麦首相Helle Thorning-Schmidt能否继任比利时的 Herman Van Rompuy成为欧洲理事会主席。
With the European Union’s foreign-policy chief and the head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers, this job should be filled at an EU summit on July 16th, after the European Parliament confirms Luxembourg’s Jean-Claude Juncker as European Commission president. Ms Thorning-Schmidt has disavowed any interest, saying she hopes to lead the Social Democrats to another election win next year. But Mr Fogh Rasmussen played a similarly oblique game in 2009, repeatedly denying any interest in NATO. Afterwards he claimed that “being a candidate” and “canvassing” were separate. Ms Thorning-Schmidt’s real drawback is that Denmark is not in the euro. But as a woman from the centre-left, she balances Mr Juncker. She is also married to the son of Neil Kinnock, a former British Labour leader and European commissioner.
有了欧盟的外交政策首脑和众欧洲集团财政部长领导的推动下，这件工作会在欧洲议会明确来自卢森堡的Jean-Claude Juncker接任欧洲理事会主席之后，于7月16日在欧盟峰会上宣布结果。Thorning-Schmidt显然已失去任何兴趣，她表示，她希望能够带领SD党赢得明年选举的胜利。但Fogh Rasmussen在2009年曾玩过类似的把戏，也曾一度声称对北欧不再关心。后来他表示“成为一名候选人”和“为自己拉票”这两者是相互独立的。对Thorning-Schmidt来说真正的劣势是丹麦并不属于欧元集团。但是作为一名中左派的女士，他与Juncker旗鼓相当。她也已经同前英国工党领袖和欧盟委员Neil Kinnock的儿子成婚。
Other politicians are less coy. Finland’s former centre-right prime minister, Jyrki 
Katainen, has stepped down to seek a big international job. He is now interim economics commissioner (replacing another Finn, Olli Rehn), and he might stay on or take the Eurogroup job. Sweden’s foreign minister (and another former prime minister), Carl Bildt, is a possibility for the foreign-policy post, though some find him too abrasive.
其他的政治家就没那么扭捏作态。芬兰前中右派首相Jyrki Katainen已为一份优渥的国际工作而辞职。如今他是临时的经济专员（替代了另一位芬兰人Olli Rehn），而且她很可能留任或是接手欧元集团的工作。瑞典的外交部长（也是另一位前首相）Carl Bildt，很可能上任外交政策的职位，尽管有人发现他行事并不谨慎。
What gives the Nordics a head start? One answer is that they are unthreatening to big countries . Another is that a history of parliamentary compromise gives them the ability to cross ideological divides. It has been a long time since any Nordic country had a single-party majority government. Mr Katainen’s 2011-14 cabinet was a six-party patchwork. Yet there is a limit to how many Nordics the world can absorb. No matter how perfect they are, not all will win prizes.
到底是什么给予了北欧这样的优势？一种解释是他们对大国并无威胁。另一种是议会的妥协给了他们跨越意识上分裂的可能性。距北欧国家建立一个多党合作的政府到现在已经有很长时间了。2011-14年Katainen的内阁曾由六党组合而成。然而对于这个世界能接受多少北欧人还是存有一定限制。无论他们有多完美，也不可能人人获胜。
1、come to 苏醒；达到；来到
例句：There are thousands of students absolutely gagging to come to this university.
肯定有成千上万的学生都渴望到这所大学念书。
2、take over 夺取；接管；接收
例句：Prime candidate to take over his job is Margaret Ramsay.
接替他工作的首要人选是玛格丽特·拉姆齐。
3、hope to 希望能够
例句：I hope to God they are paying you well.
我真希望他们给你一份好的酬劳。
4、step down 辞职；下台
例句：The manager had to step down on account of poor health.
那位经理由于身体不好，只能辞职不干。