TEXT 59

A ticket for corruption 罚单，为腐败而开（陈继龙 编译）

Aug 10th 2006 | NEW YORK From The Economist print edition

“THE UN needs a good smack in the face,” fumed one city councillor. New York has long been fed up with the United Nations and its diplomats. （1）The city has 1,700 of them, about 1,699 too many. Their meetings cause endless traffic jams and annoying multi-car motorcades[1]. As for their outstanding fines for traffic violations (more than $18m at the last count), these have so infuriated[2] Michael Bloomberg, New York's mayor, that in 2002 he vowed to tow away illegally parked consular[3] vehicles. Colin Powell, then secretary of state, had to step in to broker[4] a c_______①. 一位市议员怒气冲天地说：“该狠狠地给联合国一记耳光。”长期以来，纽约已经受够了联合国和它的那些外交官员们。对于这座城市来说，就算只有一名这样的外交官也嫌多，何况却有1700名。他们开会造成无休无止的交通堵塞，会议用车组成的长长的车队也让人烦恼不已。至于他们违反交通规则却不缴罚款一事（最新统计数字显示超过1800万美金），更是让纽约市长迈克尔?布卢姆伯格感到大为光火，以致于他在2002年就发誓要将那些违规停靠的领事馆车辆拖走。（译注：outstanding 这里是“未付清的，有待偿还的”的意思。at the last count是指“according to the latest information about a particular situation”）时任国务卿的科林?鲍威尔不得不从中斡旋，最后双方才达成妥协。

Can anything be done? In 2002 Chuck Schumer and Hillary Clinton, New York's senators, added an a_______② to a foreign-aid bill that allowed the city to recoup[5] unpaid parking tickets from foreign-aid disbursements to offending countries. But now a new weapon has been discovered: shame. （2）Two economists have found a direct correlation between the number of people who park by the city's fire hydrants and in its loading bays[6], and the level of corruption in their home countries. 难道真的一筹莫展吗？2002年，纽约两位参议员恰克?舒梅尔和希拉里?克林顿对一项外援法案提出了一个修正意见，即允许该市从援助那些违规官员所在国家的资金中抽取部分用于补偿违规停车罚款欠款。不过，纽约现在又找到了一个新的对付手段，那就是“羞辱”。两位经济学家认为，那些将车停靠在该市消防栓和码头（注：在纽约，这属于绝对禁止停车的地方，一旦违规，惩罚非常重）附近的人的数量，与他们本国的腐败程度直接相关。

A study by Raymond Fisman and Edward Miguel, economists at Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley, gives a rare picture of how people from different cultures perform under new cultural n_______③. For instance, between 1997 and 2002 diplomats from Chad averaged 124 unpaid parking violations; diplomats from Canada and the United Kingdom had none. The results from 146 countries were strikingly similar to the Transparency International corruption index, which rates countries by their level of perceived sleaze[7]. In the case of parking violations, diplomats from countries with low levels of corruption behaved well, even when they could get away with breaking the rules. （3）The culture of their home country was imported to New York, and they acted accordingly.

哥伦比亚大学和加利福尼亚大学伯克利分院的经济学家雷蒙?费斯曼和爱德华?米盖尔通过研究令人惊奇地发现，来自不同文化的人在新的文化准则下的表现都有所不同。例如，在1997年至2002年间，乍得的外交官平均每年有124次未缴罚金的停车违规，而加拿大和英国的外交官则一次也没有。对146个国家进行研究的结果与“透明国际”腐败目录惊人地相似，后者是根据各国腐败现状对其进行排名。就违规停车而言，来自腐败程度较低的国家的外交官员表现较好，即便他们可能有时会侥幸逃脱违规处罚。他们本国

的文化习惯被他们带入纽约，他们的行为也因此受到了本国文化的约束。

The same a_______④ to high-corruption countries. （4）Their diplomats became increasingly comfortable with parking where they liked; as they spent more time in New York, their number of violations increased by 8-18%. Overall, diplomats accumulated 150,000 unpaid parking tickets during the five years under review. 对那些腐败程度较为严重的国家，道理也是一样。这些国家的外交官员在停车方面越来越随心所欲，想停哪里就停哪里。随着他们在纽约生活的时日增多，违规停车的次数也增加了8％至18％。通过回顾调查，五年内外交官员未予缴付的停车罚单总计达15万张。

（5）Yet any moral superiority New Yorkers may feel should be tempered by the behaviour of the American embassy in London. Last year, embassy s_______⑤ stopped paying the congestion[8] charge—now ￡8, or over $15—for bringing cars into central London. The growing pile of unpaid charges now stands at $716,000.

不过，美国大使馆在伦敦的行为会让纽约人可能产生的任何道德优越感都荡然无存。去年，使馆人员开车到伦敦市中心不再缴纳交通堵塞费（现为8英镑或15元多的美金），目前累计欠缴达到71.6万美金。

[QUIZ]

1. 根据上下文和英文释义，补全单词： ①c_______（n. an agreement that is achieved after everyone involved accepts less than what they wanted at first, or the act of making this agreement）

②a_______（n. a small change, improvement, or addition that is made to a law or document, or the process of doing this）

③n________（n. generally accepted standards of social behaviour）

④a________（v. to have an effect on or to concern a particular person, group, or situation） ⑤s________（n. the people who work for an organization） 2. 英译汉（将划线部分英文翻译成中文）：

[NOTES](LONGMAN)

1. motorcade n. 车队

2. infuriate v. 让某人感到极度愤怒 3. consular adj. 领事的

4. broker v.从中调解，安排；斡旋

5. recoup v. 补偿；弥补；挽回损失（recover） 6. loading bay 码头（＝loading dock）

7. sleaze n. 不道德的行为（与性及谎言有关） 8. congestion n. 交通堵塞

[KEY TO QUIZ]

1. ①compromise 折衷方案；妥协

②amendment 修改，修正（modification; adjustment） ③norms 准则，行为规范 ④applied 适用于

⑤staff 全体工作人员；职员

表示“某公司、组织或国家的所有工作人员”：staff ? workforce劳动力；职工总数 ? labour劳动力 ? personnel 全体员工? manpower人力；劳动力 表示“在店里卖东西的人”：shopkeeper店主 ? proprietor 经营者? merchant零售商 ? sales assistant售货员 ? salesman/saleswoman/salesperson（男、女）售货员 ? sales staff销售人员 ? vendor卖方；卖主 表示“为某公司、个人工作”：work for ? be employed ? be on the payroll 薪资名册上? be on the staff 在职在编人员? be with somebody 为某人效力? employer老板