[E383]Lift up your voice|经济学人
本文音频及原文摘自杂志The Economist《经济学人》2016年第12期，International版块。
Small islands
The Commonwealth offers tiny islands a rare platform for airing their worries
Mar 19th 2016
TUVALU and Nauru[1], lonely miniature outposts in the western Pacific, are just two of the minnows[2] that enjoy making a splash[3] when they swim with the big fish of the Commonwealth[4]. Once the Ellice bit of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands[5], Tuvalu is a string of coral atolls[6], pictured above, at no point higher than 5 metres above the sea, lying more than 5,000km (3,150 miles) north-east of Australia. Its population is just over 10,000. Nauru, a rock of phosphate[7] poking out of[8] the sea in roughly the same expanse of ocean, is less populous by a rugby team or two[9].
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注释
[1]图瓦卢，Tuvalu，位于南太平洋，由9个环形珊瑚岛群组成，国土面积约为26平方公里，是仅次于瑙鲁的世界第二小岛国，还是世界面积第四小的国家（仅高于梵蒂冈、摩纳哥和瑙鲁）。
瑙鲁共和国，The Republic of Nauru，位于南太平洋中西部的密克罗尼西亚群岛中，有“天堂岛”之称，面积只有24㎞²，是世界上最小的岛国。
[2]minnow 极小的鱼;微不足道的人(或物)
[注]与下文的the big fish相对应
[3]make a splash
(to become suddenly very successful or very well known)
一飞冲天,一炮打响,一举成名;引起轰动
Jodie Foster made quite a splash in the film 'Taxi Driver'.
朱迪•福斯特因电影《出租车司机》而一举成名。
[4]Commonwealth 联邦;共和国;国民整体
[5]the Gilbert and Ellice Islands 吉尔伯特和埃利斯群岛
[注]参考文末相关背景
[6]珊瑚环礁
[7]phosphate rock 磷酸盐岩
[注]瑙鲁被称为磷酸盐王国
[8]poke out (to stick out of something; to extend out of something.)
The bean sprouts were beginning to poke out of the soil of the garden.
I knew there were little birds in the birdhouse, because a little head poked out now and then.
[9]大意应该是说Nauru人口更少，TUVALU的人口just over 10000，Nauru人数可能少个一支或两支橄榄球球队人数，我查了一下橄榄球好像有7人制、10人制、15人制。百度百科显示，瑙鲁2014年人口10887。
[注]理解如果有误，请帮忙指出。
生词
▷miniature ['mɪnɪtʃə]
something which is a very of an
微型的；小型的；微小的I some miniature for my niece's ' .我为我侄女的玩具屋买了一些微型家具模型。
▷outpost ['aʊt,post]
a , a of or a , which going the or of a or that is away
前哨基地；驻外办事处；（组织的）边远分部a // outpost边远地区的警察哨所/军事前哨基地/殖民地时期的边远居民点
a of something that is
濒临绝迹的事物Free has been as the last outpost of .自由爵士乐被称作现代主义最后的表现。
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Both are acutely vulnerable to global financial shocks, natural disasters and climate change[1]. Selling its internet domain (.tv)[2] is Tuvalu’s biggest earner, along with postage stamps and remittances from abroad[3]. Nauru depends almost entirely on selling its phosphate[4], the price of which fell by three-quarters in the year following the financial crash of 2008, and on aid from Australia[5]. Both statelets sell licences to fishing companies[6].
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注释
[1]两个国家都非常容易受全球金融危机、自然灾害和气候变化的影响。
[2].tv域名
[3]来自国外的邮票和汇款?
[注]卖.tv域名值钱理解，这里邮票和汇款不知道什么意思。
[4]磷酸盐
[5]接上句的(depend) on，经济依赖于售卖硅酸盐，以及来自澳大利亚的援助。
[6]两个小国家都给渔业公司出售(捕鱼)许可证。
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Though such tiddlers are members of an array of international and regional bodies[1], it is at meetings of Commonwealth heads of government[2] every two years that many enjoy using a platform where they are listened to. No fewer than[3] 31 of the Commonwealth’s 53 members are “small states”, defined as having a population under 1.5m or—to include such countries such as Namibia, Papua New Guinea and Jamaica[4]—as having “the characteristics of small states”. Of those 31, 25 are islands, a tally that does not include Britain’s 14 “overseas territories” such as St Helena and Ascension Island in the Atlantic and the Pitcairn Islands[5] (population around 50).
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注释
[1]tiddler 小鱼;小孩儿，与上文的minnow，statelet一样都是来指代这两个小国家。
译：尽管这些小国家都是许多国际、地区组织的成员，
[2]Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 英联邦政府首脑会议;大英国协政府领袖会议
[3]不少于;不低于;多达
[4]Namibia纳米比亚,Papua New Guinea巴布亚新几内亚,Jamaica牙买加
[5]St Helena圣赫勒拿岛 Ascension Island阿森松岛 the Pitcairn Islands皮特凯恩群岛
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In the past decade or so climate change, a special worry for small islands, has moved up the Commonwealth agenda[1]. (Vanuatu, until 1980 the British-French condominium of the New Hebrides[2], was due to hold the next Commonwealth shindig, but bowed out after last year’s tropical cyclone[4].) At the Malta meeting in November[5] proposals on climate change were agreed upon with the eager backing of islanders. Presented the following month to the grand UN climate-change conference in Paris, they added bite to the eventual declaration: an example of how the Commonwealth can project small-island power.
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注释
[1]提上……议程
[2]condominium 共同统治;财产共有权;独立产权的公寓
the New Hebrides 新赫布里底群岛(瓦努阿图原名)
[注]参考文末相关背景
[3]bow out 退出,辞职
[4]tropical cyclone热带气旋
[5]2015年11月27日-29日,英联邦政府首脑会议也将在马耳他(Malta)举行。
生词
▷shindig ['ʃɪndɪg]
a or , a , , , .
喧闹的事件(或情形);(尤指)狂欢会，盛大庆祝会Are you going to that shindig at the Town Hall ?你去参加今晚在市政厅举行的狂欢会吗?
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【相关背景】
吉尔伯特和埃利斯群岛
1916年，英国英国正式宣布吉尔伯特和埃利斯群岛为直属殖民地，称为“英属吉伯特和埃利斯群岛殖民地”，归英国驻西太平洋高级专员管理。
1942－1943年吉尔伯特群岛被日本占领。吉伯特和埃利斯群岛的行政机关一度临时迁至富纳富提。埃利斯群岛成立地方政府。
1971年，埃利斯群岛提出要求，希望与吉尔伯特群岛分离。
1974年5月建立了议会取代原来的立法委员会，议会选举产生一名主席部长。在8、9月间举行的公民公决中，90%以上投票赞成埃利斯群岛与吉尔伯特分离，单独成为一个国家。
1975年10月，埃利斯群岛上同吉伯特分离，成为单独的英国属地并改用旧名图瓦卢；吉伯特和埃利斯群岛的副总督就任图瓦卢的英国专员。
1976年1月图瓦卢完全同吉尔伯特群岛分离。
瓦努阿图共和国
1906年10月法、英签署了共管公约，该地沦为英、法共管殖民地。
1963年出现了第一个政党──乡村党，要求收回土地和实现独立。由于民族运动的迅速发展，英、法同意该地区于1978年1月实行内部自治。
1980年7月30日独立，定国名为瓦努阿图共和国。
——百度百科
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以上言论不代表本人立场。
原文摘自《经济学人》，仅外语学习之用。
其中生词解释来源于Cambridge Dictionaries
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