但随着时间的推移，女性在社会中的角色发生了巨大的变化。从19世纪末开始，女性开始获得政治身份，她们在男性控制的国家赢得了投票权——第一个是1893年的新西兰。今天，世界上几乎每个国家的妇女都有选举权，很少有人会认真地认为妇女的唯一作用就是呆在家里照顾家庭。

The movement which became known in the US in the 1960s as “women’s liberation” can trace its origins back to the social upheaval created by the Second World War. With millions of men fighting abroad, women took over many of the jobs – such as factory jobs – which had previously been done by men. They had to. Otherwise industry, and with it the manufacture of military hardware, would have come to a standstill. Posters such as Howard Miller’s “We can do it” (showing a woman known as “Rosie the Riveter” flexing her muscles) reflected this new-found role, and the message they communicated was clear: What men can do, women can do just as well.

20世纪60年代在美国被称为“妇女解放运动”的这场运动可以追溯到第二次世界大战造成的社会动荡。随着数百万男性在海外作战，女性接手了许多以前由男性完成的工作，比如工厂的工作。他们必须。否则，工业以及军事装备制造业就会停滞不前。霍华德·米勒(Howard Miller)的《我们能做到》(We can do it)等海报反映了这种新角色，传达的信息很明确:男人能做什么，女人也能做什么。

After the war the growing feminist movement turned its attention to women’s rights, and the removal of discrimination and harassment in the workplace. It was supported by a number of theorists, such as the Australian Germaine Greer, whose 1970 book The Female Eunuch rapidly became a best-seller, and the French novelist and intellectual Simone de Beauvoir. At the same time sexual liberation – linked to new contraceptive methods such as the pill – meant that women could increasingly take control of their sexuality, adding a further dimension to the concept of liberation.

战后，日益壮大的女权运动将注意力转向了妇女权利，以及消除工作场所的歧视和骚扰。它得到了许多理论家的支持，比如澳大利亚的杰曼·格里尔(Germaine Greer)，她在1970年出版的《女太监》(the Female Eunuch)很快成为畅销书;还有法国小说家、知识分子西蒙娜·德·波伏

娃(Simone de Beauvoir)。与此同时，性解放——与避孕药等新的避孕方法有关——意味着女性可以越来越多地控制自己的性行为，从而为解放的概念增加了一个新的维度。

Today, not many people would claim that women have exactly the same chances of getting ahead in a career as men with similar qualifications. But the tide is turning, confirmed by the steady flow of women reaching the highest possible positions in society, as heads of state or government. Leaders such as Indira Gandhi (India), Margaret Thatcher (UK), Golda Meir (Israel) and Angela Merkel (Germany), have left their mark on their countries and the world; more so, perhaps, than many of their male counterparts.

如今，没有多少人会声称，在职业生涯中，女性获得成功的机会与同等资历的男性完全相同。但这一趋势正在转变，越来越多的女性成为国家元首或政府首脑，成为社会中可能的最高职位。英迪拉·甘地(印度)、玛格丽特·撒切尔(英国)、果尔达·梅厄(以色列)和安格拉·默克尔(德国)等领导人在他们的国家和世界上留下了自己的印记;或许，她们比许多男性同行更能做到这一点。

Unit 6 Active reading (1) / P113 Winston Churchill

In the summer of 1940, Britain stood alone on the brink of invasion. At that crucial time, one man, Winston Churchill, defined what it meant to be British. We like to think of ourselves as tolerant and long-suffering people. But Churchill, through his leadership and his example, reminded us that if all we hold dear – our democracy, our freedom – is threatened, we will show courage and determination like no other nation:

1940年夏天，英国独自站在入侵的边缘。在那个关键时刻，温斯顿·丘吉尔(Winston Churchill)给英国人下了定义。我们喜欢认为自己是宽容和长期受苦的人。但丘吉尔通过他的领导和榜样提醒我们，如果我们珍视的一切——我们的民主、我们的自由——受到威胁，我们将表现出其他任何国家所没有的勇气和决心:

“I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat. You ask what is our policy? I can say it is to wage war by sea, land and air, with all our might and with all our strength that God can give us; to wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime. You ask what is our aim? I can answer in one word: It is victory, victory at all costs, victory in spite of all terror, victory however long and hard the road may be.”

我所能奉献的没有其它，只有热血、辛劳、眼泪与汗水。你问我们的政策是什么?我可以这样说，就是在海上、陆地和空中，尽我们的力量，尽上帝所能给我们的一切力量，发动战争;向黑暗中空前凶残的暴政作战，向黑暗中空前凶残的暴政作战，向人类黑暗、可悲的罪恶史上空前凶残的暴政作战。你问我们的目标是什么?我可以用一个词来回答:那就是胜利，不惜一切代价的胜利，不惧一切恐怖的胜利，无论前路多么漫长、多么艰难的胜利。”

This was the moment when Britain had to be at its greatest. And in Churchill we found the greatest of Britons.

这是英国最伟大的时刻。在丘吉尔身上，我们发现了最伟大的英国人。

Winston Churchill was born in 1874 into one of Britain’s grandest families. The Churchill had been fighting for king and country for generations. Young Winston always believed he’d do the same. But self-belief was something he maintained despite rather than because of his family. His father Lord Randolph Churchill (1849-1895), and his mother, Jennie (1854-1921), were both cold and distant people. Winston was packed off to Harrow. He wasn’t good-looking or clever; he was sickly, with a lisp and a stammer. He was bound to be bullied – and he was. Far from giving support, Winston’s father predicted his child would “degenerate into a shabby, unhappy and futile existence”.

温斯顿·丘吉尔于1874年出生于英国一个最显赫的家庭。丘吉尔为国王和国家奋斗了几代人。年轻的温斯顿总是相信他也会这么做。但他一直保持着自信，而不是因为他的家庭。他的父

亲伦道夫·丘吉尔勋爵(1849-1895)和母亲珍妮(1854-1921)都是冷漠而疏远的人。温斯顿被打发到哈罗去了。他长得不好看，也不聪明;他体弱多病，口齿不清，还有些结巴。他注定要受欺负——他确实是。温斯顿的父亲非但没有支持他，反而预言他的孩子会“堕落成一个衣衫褴褛、郁郁寡欢、徒劳无功的人”。

He felt school and, after three attempts, got into the military academy at Sandhurst. After Sandhurst he went looking for military action – wherever it was. He paid for himself by doubling up as a war correspondent. He used his dispatches to promote himself as a hero of the Boer War, and returned to England in 1900 renowned and all set to become an MP.

他感觉到了学校的教育，经过三次努力，他进入了桑赫斯特军事学院。从桑赫斯特以后，他就去寻找军事行动——不管在什么地方。他以兼做战地记者的身份来养活自己。他利用自己的信件宣传自己是布尔战争的英雄，并于1900年返回英国，名声大噪，准备成为国会议员。

He was elected as Tory MP for Oldham in the same year. Then he swapped to the Liberals, then back. He was never really a Party animal. He cared about Britain. His vision was of a place with better living standards for ordinary people, but with a fierce regard for law and other. Though he wasn’t a vicious man, Churchill’s attitude to suffragettes, trade unionists or anyone who challenged the system was brutal. His weapon of first resort was the army.

同年，他被选为奥尔德姆的保守党议员。然后他转投自由党，然后又回来了。他从来不是真正的聚会狂。他关心英国。他的愿景是一个普通人生活水平更高的地方，但也要对法律和其他事物抱有强烈的尊重。尽管丘吉尔不是一个邪恶的人，但他对妇女参政权论者、工会会员或任何挑战这一制度的人的态度都是残酷的。他的首要武器是军队。

But then he’d always wanted to be a general. This ambition dated back to the days when he spent his school holidays playing with toy soldiers in the corridors of Blenheim Palace, below the tapestries of his heroic ancestors. He must have been delighted when, in 1911, he was made First Lord of the Admiralty – and even more so when the First Lord of the Admiralty – and even more so when the First World War offered him the opportunity to plan a major military offensive at Gallipoli,