有关公共英语考试五级阅读材料2017

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The striving of countries in Central Europe to enter the European Union may offer an unprecedented chance to the continent’s Gypsies (or Roman) to be recognized as a nation, albeit one without a defined territory. And if they were to achieve that they might even seek some kind of formal place-at least a total population outnumbers that of many of the Union’s present and future countries. Some experts put the figure at 4m-plus; some proponents of Gypsy rights go as high as 15m.

Unlike Jews, Gypsies have had no known ancestral land to hark back to. Though their language is related to Hindi, their territorial origins are misty. Romanian peasants held them to be born on the moon. Other Europeans (wrongly) thought them migrant Egyptians, hence the derivative Gypsy. Most probably they were itinerant metal workers and entertainers who drifted west from India in the 7th century.

However, since communism in Central Europe collapsed a decade ago, the notion of Romanestan as a landless nation founded on Gypsy culture has gained ground. The International Romany Union, which says it stands for 10m Gypsies in more than 30 countries, is fostering the idea of “self-rallying”. It is trying to promote a standard and written form of the language; it waves a Gypsy flag (green with a wheel) when it lobbies in such places as the United Bations; and in July it held a congress in Prague, The Czech capital. Where President Vaclav Havel said that Gypsies in his own country and elsewhere should have a better deal.

At the congress a Slovak-born lawyer, Emil Scuka, was elected president of the International Tomany Union. Later this month a group of elected Gypsy politicians, including members of parliament, mayors and local councilors from all over Europe (OSCE), to discuss how to persuade more Gypsies to get involved in politics.

The International Romany Union is probably the most representative of the outfits that speak for Gypsies, but that is not saying a lot. Of the several hundred delegates who gathered at its congress, few were democratically elected; oddly, none came from Hungary, whose Gypsies are perhaps the world’s best organized, with some 450 Gypsy bodies advising local councils there. The union did, however, announce its ambition to set up a parliament, but how it would actually be elected was left undecided.

So far, the European Commission is wary of encouraging Gypsies to present themselves as a nation. The might, it is feared, open a Pandora’s box already containing Basques, Corsicans and other awkward peoples. Besides, acknowledging Gypsies as a nation might backfire, just when several countries, particularly Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, are beginning to treat them better, in order to qualify for EU membership. “The EU’s whole premise is to overcome differences, not to highlight them,” says a nervous Eurocrat.

But the idea that the Gypsies should win some kind of special recognition as Europe’s largest continent wide minority, and one with a terrible history of persecution, is catching on . Gypsies have suffered many pogroms over the centuries. In Romania, the country that still has the largest number of them (more than 1m), in the 19th century they were actually enslaved. Hitler tried to wipe them out, along with the Jews.

“Gypsies deserve some space within European structures,” says Jan Marinus Wiersma, a Dutchman in the European Parliament who suggests that one of the current commissioners should be responsible for Gypsy affairs. Some prominent Gypsies say they should be more directly represented, perhaps with a quota in the European Parliament. That, they argue, might give them a boost. There are moves afoot to help them to get money for, among other things, a Gypsy university.

One big snag is that Europe’s Gypsies are, in fact, extremely heterogeneous. They belong to many different, and often antagonistic, clans and tribes, with no common language or religion, Their self-proclaimed leaders have often proved quarrelsome and corrupt. Still, says, Dimitrina Petrova, head of the European Roma Rights Center in Budapest, Gypsies’ shared experience of suffering entitles them to talk of one nation; their potential unity, she says, stems from “being regarded as sub-human by most majorities in Europe.”

And they have begun to be a bit more pragmatic. In Slovakia and Bulgaria, for instance, Gypsy political parties are trying to form electoral blocks that could win seats in parliament. In Macedonia, a Gypsy party already has some-and even runs a municipality. Nicholas Gheorge, an expert on Gypsy affairs at the OSCE, reckons that, spread over Central Europe, there are now about 20 Gypsy MPS and mayors, 400-odd local councilors, and a growing number of businessmen and intellectuals.

That is far from saying that they have the people or the cash to forge a nation. But, with the Gypsy question on the EU’s agenda in Central Europe, they are making ground.

翻译参考：

中欧国家进入欧洲联盟的努力可能为非洲大陆的吉普赛人(或罗马人)被承认为一个国家提供了一个前所未有的机会，虽然没有明确的领土。如果他们要实现，他们甚至可能寻求某种正式的地位 - 至少总人口超过了欧盟许多现在和未来的国家。一些专家把数字增加到4米以上;一些支持吉普赛人权利的人高达15米。

与犹太人不同，吉普赛人没有已知的祖先土地回到。虽然他们的语言与印地语有关，但他们的领土起源是有雾的。罗马尼亚农民认为他们出生在月球上。其他欧洲人(错误地)认为他们移民埃及人，因此衍生吉普赛人。最可能的是，他们是巡回的金属工人和艺人，他们在7世纪从印度向西迁移。

然而，由于中欧共产主义在十年前崩溃，罗马帝国作为一个建立在吉普赛文化上的无地国家的概念已经取得了进展。国际罗马尼亚联盟，它说，它代表了10多万吉普赛人在30多个国家，正在促进“自我拉力”的想法。它试图推广一种标准和书面形式的语言;它在一个吉普赛旗帜(绿色的轮子)，当它游说在联合国Bations的地方;并于7月在捷克首都布拉格举行了一次大会。总统哈维尔说，吉普赛人在他自己的国家和其他地方应该有一个更好的'交易。

在大会上，一位斯洛伐克出生的律师Emil Scuka被选为国际Tomany联盟主席。本月晚些时候，一群当选的吉普赛政治家，包括议会议员，来自欧洲各国的市长和地方议员，讨论如何说服更多的吉普赛人参与政治。

国际罗马尼亚联盟可能是代表吉普赛人的最具代表性的装备，但这不是很多。在聚集其大会的几百名代表中，很少有民主选举产生;奇怪的是，没有来自匈牙利，他们的吉普赛人或许是世界上最好的组织，约450个吉普赛身体向地方议会提供咨询。然而，工会宣布它建立议会的野心，但如何实际上将被选举是未决的。

到目前为止，欧盟委员会对鼓励吉普赛人作为一个国家表示警惕。可能，恐惧，打开潘多拉的盒子已经包含巴斯克人，科西嘉人和其他尴尬的人民。此外，承认吉普赛人作为一个国家可能会反应，只是当几个国家，特别是匈牙利，斯洛伐克和捷克共和国，开始更好地对待他们，以符合欧盟成员资格。 “欧盟的整体前提是克服分歧，而不是突出他们，”一个神经质的欧盟人士说。

但吉普赛人应该赢得某种特别的认可，作为欧洲最大的大陆少数民族，有一个可怕的迫害历史的想法正在赶上。吉普赛人在过去几个世纪里遭受了许多悲剧。在罗马尼亚，仍然有最大数量的国家(超过100万)，在19世纪，他们实际上是奴役。希特勒试图和犹太人一起擦掉他们。

欧洲议会中的荷兰人Jan Marinus Wiersma说，吉普赛人应该在欧洲结构中拥有一些空间，他建议现任委员之一负责吉普赛事务。一些杰出的吉普赛人说，他们应该更直接地代表，也许在欧洲议会的配额。他们认为，这可能会给他们一个提振。有一些行动，以帮助他们赚钱，除其他外，吉普赛大学。

一个大的障碍是，欧洲的吉普赛人事实上是非常异质的。他们属于许多不同的，经常是敌对的部落和部落，没有共同的语言或宗教，他们自我宣称的领导人经常证明是吵架和腐朽。仍然，说，布达佩斯的欧洲罗姆人权利中心的负责人Dimitrina Petrova说，吉普赛人的共同经历使他们能够谈论一个国家;她说，她们的潜在团结起源于“被欧洲大多数人视为次人类”。

他们已经开始有点更务实。例如，在斯洛伐克和保加利亚，吉普赛政党正在试图建立选举区，可以赢得议会席位。在马其顿，吉普赛人已经有了一些，甚至有一个市镇。欧洲安全与合作组织吉普赛事务专家尼古拉斯·格霍斯(Nicholas Gheorge)认为，现在约有20名吉普赛人的MPS和市长，400多名地方议员，以及越来越多的商人和知识分子。

这不是说他们有人民或现金建立一个国家。但是，由于中欧欧盟议程上的吉普赛问题，它们正在发展。