公共英语五级考试阅读文章精选2

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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.

译文：

中欧国家争取进入欧盟可能为这个大陆的吉普赛人（或罗马）提供一个前所未有的机会，被认为是一个国家，虽然没有一个明确的领土。如果他们想要达到这个目的，他们甚至可能会寻求某种形式的正式地位-至少总人口超过了联盟许多现在和将来的国家。有些专家认为这个数字在4百万以上;一些吉普赛人权利的支持者高达15米。

不像犹太人，吉普赛人没有任何已知的祖先土地可以追溯到。虽然他们的语言与印地语有关，但是他们的领土起源是有薄雾的。罗马尼亚农民让他们出生在月球上。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。他们很可能是在7世纪从印度西部流浪的巡回演出的金属工人和艺人。

然而，自十年前中欧的共产主义崩溃以来，罗马尼亚人作为一个建立在吉普赛文化基础上的失地国家的概念已经站稳脚跟。国际吉卜赛联盟说，它代表了在30多个国家的1000万吉普赛人，正在培育“自我凝聚”的想法。它正在努力提高语言的标准和书面形式;当它在美国的Bations等地方游说时，它挥舞着吉普赛旗帜（带轮的绿色）并在七月份在捷克首都布拉格举行了一次大会。哈维尔总统说，在自己的国家和其他地方的吉普赛人应该有更好的交易。

在大会上，斯洛伐克出生的律师Emil Scuka当选为国际Tomany联盟主席。本月晚些时候，一群选举出来的吉普赛政客，包括议员，市长和来自欧洲各地的地方议员（OSCE），讨论如何说服更多的吉卜赛人参与政治。

国际吉卜赛联合会可能是最能代表吉普赛人服装的代表，但这并不是很多。参加大会的几百名代表中，几乎没有人民选出来;奇怪的是，没有一个来自匈牙利，吉普赛人也许是世界上最好的组织，有450个吉卜赛机构在那里为地方议会提供咨询。然而，工会却宣布要设立议会的雄心壮志，但实际上如何选举却是犹豫不决。

到目前为止，欧盟委员会对于鼓励吉普赛人作为一个国家表现出谨慎态度。可怕的是，打开一个已经包含了巴斯克人，科西嘉人和其他尴尬人民的潘多拉魔盒。此外，承认吉普赛人作为一个国家可能会事与愿违，正当几个国家，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，才有资格加入欧盟。欧盟的一个紧张的欧盟官员说：“欧盟的整个前提是克服分歧，而不是强调它们。

但是，吉普赛人应该赢得欧洲最大的少数民族和一个有着可怕的历史的一个特别的承认的想法正在迎头赶上。几个世纪以来，吉普赛人遭受了许多大屠杀。在罗马尼亚，这个仍然是最多的国家（超过100万），在19世纪，他们实际上是被奴役的。希特勒和犹太人一起试图把他们消灭。

欧洲议会的荷兰人扬·马里纳斯·维尔斯马（Jan Marinus Wiersma）说，“吉普赛人在欧洲的建筑物中应该有一些空间，他建议现任专员之一负责吉普赛事务。一些着名的吉普赛人说，他们应该更直接地代表，可能在欧洲议会有一个配额。他们认为，这可能会给他们一个提升。有一些行动正在帮助他们获得金钱，尤其是吉普赛大学。

一个巨大的障碍是，欧洲的吉普赛人实际上是非常混杂的。他们属于许多不同的，往往是对立的，宗族和部落，没有共同的语言或宗教，他们自称的领导人往往证明争吵和腐败。尽管如此，布达佩斯欧洲罗姆人权利中心负责人迪米特里娜·佩特洛娃（Dimitrina Petrova）说，吉普赛人的痛苦经历使他们有权谈论一个国家;她说，他们的潜在的团结源于“被欧洲大多数人视为次人类”。

而且他们已经开始更加务实了一点。例如在斯洛伐克和保加利亚，吉普赛政党正试图形成可以在议会中获得席位的选举组。在马其顿，一场吉普赛派对已经有一些，甚至还有一个直辖市。欧安组织的吉普赛事务专家尼古拉斯·格洛格认为，现在中欧扩散到20亿吉普斯，市长，400多名地方议员，以及越来越多的商人和知识分子。

这远非说他们有人民币或现金来建立一个国家。但是，随着中欧欧盟议程上的吉普赛问题，他们正在酝酿。

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