CATTI真题答案

HIGUERA DE LA SERENA, Spain—It didn’t take long for Manuel Garcia Murillo, a bricklayer who took over as mayor here last June, to realize that his his town was in trouble. It was 800,000 euros, a little more than $1 million, in the red. There was no cash to pay for anything—and there was work that needed to be done.

伊格拉-德拉塞雷纳是位于西班牙的一座小镇。那里距离曼努埃尔加西亚穆里略的家并不太远。穆里略曾经是一个砌砖工人，在去6月接管成为伊格拉-德拉赛雷纳的市长。接管工作后，他意识到这座小镇陷入了金融危机。财政赤字800,000 英镑，这几乎相当于一百万美金。政府没钱支付任何东西—需要做大量的工作来缓解这一危机。

But then an amazing thing happened, he said. Just as the health department was about to close down the day care center because it didn’t have a proper kitchen, Bernardo Benitez, a construction worker, offered to put up the walls and the tiles free. Then , Maria Jose Carmona, an adult education teacher, stepped in to clean the place up.

然而，神奇的事情发生了。白日呵护中心缺少一个合适的厨房，因此健康部决定要关闭它。这时候博纳多本特兹，一个工人，主动提出免费帮助砌墙垒砖。然后，玛利亚乔斯卡莫纳，一位成人教育老师主动帮忙打理这里。

And somehow, the volunteers just kept coming. Every Sunday now, the residents of this town in southwest Spain—young and old—do what needs to be done, whether it is cleaning the streets, raking the leaves, uncloggingculverts or planting trees in the park.

不知怎么的，越来越多的志愿者不断涌入。如今每个周日，位于西班牙西南部的这个小镇上的居民，不论老少都来这里做他们力所能及的事情，比如，打扫街道，清理落叶，梳理下水道，还有在公园里植树等等。

“It was an initiative from them, ” said Mr Garcia. “Day to day we talked to people and we told there was no money. Of course, they could see it. The grass in between the sidewalks was up to my thigh”

“这是大家自发的一项活动，”加西亚先生说。“每天我们都和这些人聊天，告诉他们我们无力支付工资。当然，他们很清楚这一点。人行道的草高得都没过了我的大腿。”

Higuera de la Serena is in many ways a microcosm of Spain’s troubles. Just as Spain’s national and regional government are struggling with the collapse of the construction industry, overspending on huge capital projects and a pileup of unpaid bills, the same problems afflict many of its small towns.

在很多方面伊格拉-德拉塞雷纳就像是西班牙困境的一个缩影。受建筑工业下滑的影响，西班牙国家政府和地区政府正苦苦挣扎，过度花费在庞大的基建项目以及成堆的未付账单上。同样的问题也困扰着这些小城镇。

But what has brought Higuera de la Serena a measure of fame in Spain is that the residents have stepped up where their government has failed. Mr Garcia says his phone rings regularly from other town officials who want to know how to do the same thing. He is serving without pay, as are the town’s two other elected officials. They are also forgoing the cars and phones that usually come with the job.

然而为伊格拉-德拉塞雷纳赢得名声的正是其居民在政府失败的时候自食其力。加西亚先生说经常会有临镇的官员给他打电话咨询怎样做到和他一样的事情。他以及镇政府的另外两位官员一样都是无俸禄工作的。他们同时拒绝了前来提供工作的车子和电话。

“We lived beyond our means,”Mr Garcia said. “We invested in public work that weren’t sensible. We are in technical bankruptcy.” Even some money from the European Union that was supposed to be used for routine operating expenses and last until 2013 has already been spent,

he said.

“仅仅依靠我们自己的力量是不够的，”加西亚先生说。“我们在公共工作方面大量投资，但我们倒闭的却是技术。”甚至是欧盟资助金的一部分也用于日常开销，在2013年底已经用完了。他说。

Higuera de la Serena, a cluster of about 900 houses surrounded by farmland, and traditionally dependent on pig farming and olives, got swept up in the giddy days of the construction boom. It built a cultural center and invested in a small nursing home. But the projects were plagued by delays and cost overruns.

伊格拉-德拉塞雷纳约有900户人家，四周农场环绕，主要依赖传统养猪业和橄榄产业，在建筑业蓬勃期得到了长足的发展。这里修建了文化中心，并投资了一个小型的护理院。但由于费用超支被搁置下来。

The cultural center still has no bathrooms. The nursing home, a whitewashed building sits on the edge of town, still opened. Together, they account for some $470,000 of debt owed to the bank. But the rest of the debt is mostly the unpaid bills of a town that was was not keeping up with its expenses. It owes for medical supplies, for diesel fuel, for road repair, for electrical work,for musicians who played during holidays.

文化中心到目前都还没有修建盥洗室。白漆涂刷的护理院位于郊区，还在营业。这两项工程一共欠银行470,000美元债款。剩下的债款主要是这个小镇没有及时还上的未付账单，包括医疗支付，燃油费，道路护理，电力，假日雇请音乐的费用等等。

Higuera de la Serena is not completely without workers. It still has a half-time librarian, two half-time street cleaners, someone part-time for the sports complex, a secretary and an administrator, all of whom are paid through various financing streams apart from the town. But the town once had a work force twice the size. And when someone is ill, volunteers have to step in or the gym and sports complex—open for hours a day—must close.

伊格拉-德拉塞雷纳并不完全没有劳动力，仍然有一位半工半薪的图书管理员和两位街道清理工，一些体育中心的兼职人员，一位秘书和一位管理者。这些人的工资都是用镇上的其他金融收入支付的。然而，在以前这座小镇的劳动力是现在的2倍。如果有人生病了，志愿者们会前来帮忙或者体育中心每天只能开放一个小时。