星火英语15篇文章贯通5-6级词汇 Unit9-Part2-大学英语六级考试-优易学

星火英语15篇文章贯通5-6级词汇 Unit9-Part2

来源：优易学 2010-1-13 12:22:59 【优易学：中国教育考试门户网】资料下载外语书店

　　[00:00.00]Thawing of the Cold War
　　[00:02.51]—the 1970's to 2001
　　[00:05.14]American Cold War policy ensued
　　[00:09.08]until the early 1970's,
　　[00:11.15]when some major changes
　　[00:12.58]in thinking were inaugurated.
　　[00:14.11]Communist China's entry to the United Nations
　　[00:16.95]was a setback for the United States.
　　[00:19.47]The Vietnam War was not going well.
　　[00:22.07]In the early 70s, American President Nixon,
　　[00:26.56]the archconservative and anti-communist president,
　　[00:29.40]up to that point,
　　[00:31.48]was preparing to visit China
　　[00:32.79]and the Soviet Union.
　　[00:33.88]Why would an American president visit these enemies?
　　[00:36.84]The Americans came to the realization
　　[00:39.46]that the development of good relations
　　[00:41.98]with its counterparts in the communist
　　[00:43.73]world was necessary.
　　[00:45.59]A forthcoming, more pragmatic approach to
　　[00:48.65]foreign policy with China was to be
　　[00:49.07]a departure from the adverse ideological approach.
　　[00:54.00]The United States had lost solid backing
　　[00:56.85]from traditional supporters,
　　[00:58.26]as illustrated by Communist China's
　　[01:00.46]entry into the United Nations.
　　[01:02.21]The question as to whether
　　[01:04.61]Nationalist China or the People's Republic of China
　　[01:07.24]should hold China's permanent Security Council seat,
　　[01:10.41]was a topic of much discussion
　　[01:12.82]and debate for years.
　　[01:14.35]For many countries,
　　[01:16.21]the idea of ignoring
　　[01:17.74]one third of the world's population
　　[01:19.38]at the UN was difficult to rationalize.
　　[01:21.79]This debate ensued until 1971,
　　[01:25.62]when the Peoples Republic of China
　　[01:28.02]finally displaced Nationalist China
　　[01:30.32]at the United Nations,
　　[01:31.64]including the permanent seat,
　　[01:33.16]originally held by Nationalist China
　　[01:35.35]in the Security Council.
　　[01:36.89]A baffled United States
　　[01:38.97]could no longer persuade nor
　　[01:40.93]intimidate the majority of the countries
　　[01:43.01]in the UN General Assembly to
　　[01:45.10]keep Communist China out of the UN.
　　[01:47.17]The United States had little choice
　　[01:49.69]but to eventually extend official recognition
　　[01:52.75]to the Peoples Republic of China.
　　[01:54.61]The war-weary American people
　　[01:57.35]were no longer supporting the war
　　[01:59.31]in Vietnam and no longer eagerly supporting
　　[02:01.94]traditional foreign policy.
　　[02:03.69]A major scandal(Watergate),
　　[02:06.86]that would rock the Nixon Administration
　　[02:08.94]to the resultant resignation of the president,
　　[02:11.02]was about to be disclosed.
　　[02:12.66]Practical solutions were needed
　　[02:14.74]for practical problems.
　　[02:16.27]Peaceful coexistence meant
　　[02:18.79]finding some common ground
　　[02:20.54]on which to activate
　　[02:21.63]international trust and cooperation.
　　[02:23.82]Nixon's consecutive predecessors,
　　[02:26.44]Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy,
　　[02:28.97]and Johnson would have rolled over
　　[02:31.37]in their graves if they
　　[02:32.90]could have seen these changes.
　　[02:33.43]These changes would have appeared alien,
　　[02:36.39]contradictory or even contrived,
　　[02:38.68]to them and their contemporaries.
　　[02:40.87]Presidents Ford, Reagan, Bush,
　　[02:44.48]and Clinton saw the need to keep
　　[02:46.88]communication channels open with China.
　　[02:48.96]Americans finally realized that
　　[02:51.22]they could no longer
　　[02:52.54]keep down a sleeping giant.
　　[02:54.18]No longer a Paper Tiger,
　　[02:56.04]China was a reality,
　　[02:57.57]and was entitled to an important place
　　[02:59.97]in world decisionmaking venues.
　　[03:02.16]In the 1980's following the Cultural Revolution
　　[03:06.21]and the death of Mao Tsetung,
　　[03:08.40]China's outlook on the world changed dramatically.
　　[03:11.02]Deng Xiaopeng's reforms were
　　[03:13.65]to bring China closer to being
　　[03:15.07]a major world partner in international trade
　　[03:17.48]and the development of world markets.
　　[03:19.67]This was capped with its admission
　　[03:22.18]to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in December 2001.
　　[03:26.89]China has been most willing to comply
　　[03:29.51]with all of the regulations of the WTO.
　　[03:31.92]Americans have only
　　[03:33.78]half-heartedly opposed China's entry,
　　[03:35.42]by unfairly using “human rights”
　　[03:37.72]as a distraction to perhaps disguise
　　[03:40.13]other international pressures.
　　[03:41.88]However, the United States,
　　[03:44.62]for a couple of decades,
　　[03:46.14]already had major, politically discreet,
　　[03:48.99]vested economic interests in China
　　[03:51.07]that it could not afford
　　[03:52.71]to deny or jeopardize.
　　[03:54.13]In 1998, China signed
　　[03:56.98]a Permanent Normal Trading Relations agreement
　　[03:59.71]with the United States,
　　[04:03.43]the prelude to the former's entry into the WTO.
　　[04:03.97]President Clinton, who visited China in 1998,
　　[04:08.01]had essentially paid lip service
　　[04:09.87]to Congressional pressure to push
　　[04:11.41]the human rights issues with China.
　　[04:13.15]Except for the occasional irritating crisis
　　[04:16.10]in recent years, such as
　　[04:17.86]the spy plane incident off the island
　　[04:19.61]of Hainan in April 2001,
　　[04:22.02]Sino-American relations have been cordial
　　[04:24.53]but cautious. The consensus seems to be,
　　[04:27.38]that China's destiny as a major international force
　　[04:30.77]in the 21th century, seems reasonably assured.

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