【甚解小组】【TASK 2】原文抄抄炒 FROM 李同学

李瑞峰UID: 2822482

做一期埃及动乱题材的研究，蓝色单词为我不认识的（没按红包书来），完全自娱，自乐！

该文全部引用《TIME》

Prayer and Protest: Tensions Run High on Egypt's "Day of Departure"

They're calling it the Day of Departure. On Friday, hundreds of thousands of protesters filled Cairo's giant Tahrir Square for the traditional Muslim midday prayer in a show of force that many hoped would be the push that finally gets President Hosni Mubarak to resign.

As U.S. officials intensified their plans for Mubarak's quick exit, the mammoth crowd made it clear that their bottom-line demand was for the Egyptian leader to leave, after 30 years of authoritarian rule. As prayers ended, the thousands gathered on the southeastern edge of the square began chanting: "No negotiations until he leaves!" (See "Mubarak Reveals a Brutal Plan to Hold Power.")

"We have spent [decades] dreaming of this number of people coming together to speak out," Mohamed Salim Al-Awwa, an Islamic moderate, bellowed into the loudspeakers at the end of prayers. Earlier, the sheik leading the prayers in a white robe and skullcap urged the crowds not to give up until Mubarak was out. "I ask you to be strong, to stay until we get a breakthrough," he shouted to the crowds. Again, there were loud cheers.
Earlier Friday morning, Egypt's Defense Minister, Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, arrived in the square — his first visit to the heart of this revolt since racing back from a trip to Washington after the protests erupted on Jan. 25. He huddled with commanders near a cordon of military tanks outside the Egyptian Museum while about 50 men pushed against a military cordon close to him, shouting: "Tell Mubarak to leave! Tell Mubarak to leave!" (See TIME's exclusive pictures of the clashes in Cairo.)
For days there have been fears that Friday prayers would result in a violent confrontation between armed Mubarak loyalists and the anti-government protesters, who have occupied Tahrir Square for ten days. Last Friday, security police, many in civilian clothing, shot live at the crowds, killing several people. Today, there are tight cordons around the square, with four rows of protesters forming a series of human-chain barriers. Only one chokepoint is open, and there newcomers are thoroughly searched for weapons. Numerous medical stations had been set up along the outside of the square, in readiness of casualties. On the eastern edge, two gurneys stood at the ready. (See the state of paranoia on the streets of Cairo.)
Many of the protesters awoke on Friday primed for battle. Early in the morning, several young men stood near their makeshift barricade set up next to the Egyptian museum. One had constructed a huge slingshot — about ten-foot tall — overnight. In contrast to the day before, when heavy gunfire and fighting erupted outside the square, today soldiers are the only ones manning the otherwise deserted the 6th of October Bridge which spans the Nile on the front line of the battle; and where pro-Mubarak forces had been on Thursday, only a tank stands now. "Our people will not move from this square," said protester Walid Kamel, 33, a motorbike salesman. "If they try to push us out of here it will start a bloodbath."
But at least in the heart of the square, Friday was about celebration, rather than fighting. In the hours that followed the midday prayers the crowd swelled as tens of thousands more people poured into the square, entirely filling the giant space. From a balcony directly above where the sheik had conducted prayers, there was now a round of speakers and a local guitarist, who led thousands in protest songs which ended with the refrain "Down with Mubarak." That was one of four separate stages set up around the square; in otherparts of the square other speakers held forth, delivering one key message to the crowd: Not to leave, or grow fatigued, until Mubarak had quit.
As a measure of how astonishingly quickly this revolt has moved, there appeared to be little sign of opposition to the protesters from the vantage point of the square; the anti-goverment crowds were firmly in control. On Friday they also included a contingent of Muslim Brotherhood women, dressed in full body cover.
See Fareed Zakaria on how democracy can work in the Middle East.
See TIME's special report "The Middle East in Revolt."

以上简介了埃及的局势，我们会问，他们在干什么，合了个必呢？
这样大的社会动荡，这种力量一定在阿拉伯国家积攒了多年，是政府和人民的矛盾，还是独裁和民主的矛盾？又没有一天这样的事情也会出现在我们的土地上？历史总不尽相同，历史总能告诉我们很多，一番一番的演绎着兴盛和衰亡的故事。。。

authoritarian
Function:adjective
  1
Synonyms  DICTATORIAL, authoritative, dictative, doctrinaire, dogmatic, magisterial
Related Word heavy-handed, high-handed, oppressive, strict, stringent
Antonyms libertarian; anarchistic
  2
Synonyms  TOTALITARIAN 1, total, totalistic
Related Word fascistic, nazi; patriarchal
Antonyms democratic

brutal
Function:adjective
  1
Synonyms  BRUTISH, animal, beastly, bestial, brute, feral, ferine, swinish
  2
Synonyms  SEVERE 3, bitter, hard, harsh, inclement, intemperate, rigorous, rugged
swell
Function:verb
  1
Synonyms  EXPAND 3, amplify, dilate, distend, inflate
Related Word balloon, belly, bloat, blow up, bosom; pouch, pout; overblow
Contrasted Words compress, condense, constrict, contract
Antonyms shrink
  2
Synonyms  LORD, cock, peacock, pontificate, swagger, swank
Related Word puff
Idioms act the grand seigneur, swell it

李瑞峰UID: 2822482

Mubarak Reveals a Brutal Plan to Hold Power

The Berlin Wall analogy that has been a staple of Western media discussion of the struggle for power in Egypt looked off the mark on Wednesday as the regime unleashed a brutal strategy for remaining in power — which might make Prague Spring a more apposite analogy. The Berlin Wall's rupture saw East Germany's communist regime collapse, while the democratic uprising in Czechoslovakia in 1968 was crushed by Russian tanks.

The Egyptian army, which had vowed not to use force against the protesters, stood by passively as thousands of pro-government thugs who were bused in bludgeoned their way into the peaceful anti-government crowd on Cairo's Tahrir Square. Violent chaos and gunfire raged throughout Wednesday night, leaving hundreds wounded and at least four dead, according to local media reports. The events made clear that the earlier suggestions that the army was siding with the protesters were premature. And on Thursday, the military took up positions between anti-government demonstrators and supporters of President Hosni Mubarak, moving on the pro-government group. Meanwhile, Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq apologized for the attacks on protesters. "This is a fatal error, and when investigations reveal who is behind this crime and who allowed it to happen, I promise they will be held accountable and will be punished for what they did," he told al-Hayat TV. Not only was his apology rare for a leadership that rarely makes public admissions of a mistake, but his vow to investigate the instigators of the attack was issued only hours after the Interior Ministry denied that the police were involved. (Were Egypt's army and police in cahoots all this time?)

The violent backlash by regime supporters on Wednesday underscored Mubarak's determination to defy the demand of protesters — and implicitly of the Obama Administration — that he step down immediately. Instead, he says he intends to remain in charge until the next election, scheduled for September, supervising what he promises will be an "orderly" transition of power. And he and the top military men around him appear to have designed a strategy to keep the reins until then. The opposition is insisting that Mubarak leave immediately, but Wednesday's events raised the question of whether they have a winning strategy. But the pressure will have intensified on Mubarak on Thursday, after Europe's most powerful leaders — those in France, Germany, Britain, Italy and Spain — issued a joint statement condemning the violence and calling for a political transition that "must start now." And Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei and the Muslim Brotherhood have rejected the government's calls for negotiations, saying Mubarak must leave office first. (See a TIME interview with Mohamed ElBaradei.)

Tuesday's "march of millions" may have been the protest movement's crescendo, a massive show of strength of the streets that prompted Mubarak to announce that he would not seek re-election and would spend the next seven months presiding over a process of reforms and consultation in order to affect an orderly transfer of power. That was never going to be acceptable to many of the demonstrators, nor to the U.S. President Obama on Tuesday demanded that the transition begin "now," and when asked on Wednesday what "now" meant, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said "yesterday." (See pictures of clashes on the streets of Cairo.)

But the Egyptian regime was contemptuous of Obama's demand, saying if the U.S. wants an orderly transition, as it insists it does, that it can't do that with "a vacuum of power," as one Egyptian official told the New York Times. Mubarak's retirement announcement was designed for the army as well as the many millions of Egyptians caught somewhere between the protesters and hard-core supporters of the regime. His transition plan appears to have been embraced by the military — which, after all, has been the source of political power in Egypt since the 1952 coup that overturned the monarchy, and whose top echelon is unlikely to want to relinquish control of the transition process to forces unknown. The army on Wednesday issued a statement to the protesters saying their demands had been heard and that it was time for them to go home.

If the army is willing to see Mubarak make a dignified exit while keeping the political reform process in friendly hands — most important, those of Vice President and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman — the regime's hard-core support base is even more determined not to see Mubarak ejected from office. Many of the thugs who attacked the protesters turned out to be police officers or police family members, a reminder that there are tens of thousands of Egyptians who are deeply invested in a brutal regime they have served as enforcers on the ground. Many are so fearful of losing its protection that they're willing to spill Egyptian blood, as they always have been, to keep their paymasters in place.

Of greater concern to the protest movement may be the reality that there are millions of ordinary Egyptians to whom Mubarak's proposed graceful exit over seven months sounds reasonable, and who desperately want an end to the economic and security chaos that has disrupted their lives over the past week and threatens to turn even more violent. Even among those who have supported the protests, not all are convinced of the wisdom of further confrontation. The regime will be hoping to divide the opposition leaders, hoping that some can be tempted to begin negotiations with the regime even while others insist on Mubarak's departure as a precondition. (See the GOP's line on Egypt — and President Obama.)

The democracy movement is putting enough pressure on the regime that its presence on the streets and its strike actions are disrupting the regime's functioning. But such actions also disrupt the lives of many millions of ordinary people. By unleashing its thugs and creating a situation of violent chaos, the regime creates a pretext for the military to simply clear everyone off the streets. Asking soldiers to fire on peaceful demonstrators could create a crisis within the ranks, but asking them to clear rival political camps off the streets to end violent chaos (even if that chaos was deliberately instigated) may be a different prospect. The army is urging everyone to go home; sooner or later, it will become more insistent. As things stand, once the protesters are off the streets, the leverage of the opposition leaders diminishes.

So the regime appears to be calculating that time — as well as the creation of violent chaos among demonstrators on the streets — will work in its favor to maintain control. Sure, the U.S. is publicly urging Mubarak to start the political transition "yesterday," but the Egyptian President and Vice President may have little incentive to pay Washington much heed. (Comment on this story.)

The regime's strategy is premised on the idea that it can make the protesters' strategy — a show of strength through marches and a vow to stay on the streets until Mubarak goes — work in its favor by turning the army and many ordinary citizens against further street action. If Mubarak's men are right, the dilemma facing the protest leadership will be finding plausible strategies for a more sustained challenge to Mubarak if he manages to tough out the standoff on the streets.

See TIME's eyewitness account of the violence in Tahrir Square.

See Turkey's calls for change in Egypt.

有没有觉得场面和89的哪一段儿有点像？

历史就是爱这样，不知父母那辈看着心里什么滋味。。。。

crescendo
Function:noun

Synonyms  APEX 2, acme, apogee, capstone, climax, crest, culmen

embrace
Function:verb

  1 to gather into one's arms usually as a gesture of affection *embraced his wife*
Synonyms  clasp, ||clinch, ||clip, enfold, hug, press, squeeze
Related Word cling, grip, hold; encircle, entwine, envelop, enwind, fold, lock, twine, wrap; cuddle, fondle, nuzzle, snuggle; cradle, hold
Idioms ||go into a clinch
  2
Synonyms  ADOPT, espouse, take on, take up
Related Word accept, accommodate, admit, incorporate, receive, take (over), take in; seize (upon), welcome
Contrasted Words reject; abjure

overturn
Function:verb

  1 to turn from an upright or level position *the embarrassed boy backed into the table and overturned a lamp*
Synonyms  knock over, overset, overthrow, tip (over), topple, turn over, upset
Related Word capsize, keel (over or up), upend, upturn; prostrate; down; roll (over)
Contrasted Words erect, right, set up, straighten (up)
  2
Synonyms  OVERTHROW 2, overset, topple, tumble, unhorse

relinquish
Function:verb

to let out of one's possession or control completely *few leaders willingly relinquish power*
Synonyms  abandon, cede, give up, hand over, lay down, leave, resign, surrender, ||turn up, waive, yield; compare ABDICATE 1
Related Word lay aside; quit, throw up; abdicate, renounce; desert, forsake; abnegate, forbear, forgo, sacrifice; cast, discard, shed
Antonyms keep

incentive
Function:noun

Synonyms  STIMULUS, catalyst, goad, impetus, impulse, incitation, incitement, motivation, spur, stimulant