VOA常速英语:25 Years After End of the USSR, Europe Sees Opportunities Missed(翻译)

The lowering of the Soviet flag for the last time symbolized the end of communist domination in a region that had two years earlier shaken off totalitarian governments made in the image of Moscow.
苏联国旗最后一次（1991年）缓缓降下，标志着共产主义结束了在该地区的统治，在那之前的两年中，苏联摆脱了莫斯科极权主义政府的形象。

A new era was born.Today’s Europe has a markedly different face.“The fall of the Wall showed us that dreams can come true.Nothing has to stay as it is.”With those dreams, there’s been disappointment in the realization that some countries were not fully ready to adopt the European Union’s Western-style democratic systems.
一个新的时代诞生了。如今，欧洲的面貌截然不同。“柏林墙的倒塌告诉我们，梦想可以成真。事情可以朝好的方向转变。”但人们在实现梦想的过程中，总会面对失望沮丧，有些国家还未做好充分的准备，采用欧盟的西式民主制度。

“A lot of those East European countries who wanted to go West to modernity, to democracy, to liberalism, and prosperity.And we rather overdid it in the sense of the pace of the extension and expansion.”
“很多东欧国家想要和西欧国家一样，实现现代化、民主、自由和繁荣。然而，从程度及范围上来说，我们的变革步伐有些过快了。”

Nations appeared to pass EU criteria on combating corruption, adopting the rule of law and respect for rights like free speech.But now some say the tests were not tough enough.And the West has lost leverage to change Soviet-style systems that were never replaced.
各国似乎通过了欧盟的一系列标准，主要包括：打击腐败、加强法制、尊重人民言论自由的权利。但有些人认为，这些考核并不十分严格。而且，在改变苏联式制度方面，西欧并不占优势，要知道，这些制度未曾被取代。

“When you are in the queue in the waiting room, you do put your laws all around, you do try to find corruption.Once you’re in, there’s not as many incentives making great efforts.So I think Western Europe has a belt of unstable, authoritarian security first-minded East European states, the remnants of the old Soviet empire.”
“当人们在等候室排队时，确实会注重遵守法律规则，警惕腐败行为。然而一旦进入到其中，人们就会缺少激励，不会再做出那么多努力。东欧局势不稳，存在独裁主义现象，又有着高度的安全意识，西欧也存在类似的问题，我认为这是老牌苏联帝国的残余。”

Russia, in the 1990s concentrated on stabilizing itself, and not on foreign policy.It was then, analysts say, that Europe had a chance to push through real reforms.“The last 25 years in Europe have been specifically a time when the European Union had a chance,without outside threats and outside pressure, to move the EU’s agenda forward.And some people would say it’s a missed opportunity because now we have immigration at the border,we have the Russians rising again, becoming more active in international politics and putting pressure on the EU.”
20世纪90年代，俄罗斯把主要精力放在稳定政局上，而没有放在制定外交政策上。分析家表示，就是在那一时期，欧洲才有机会真正推进改革。“在过去的25年中，欧盟本有机会推进其改革发展日程，因为在这一特别时期，既没有外部威胁也没有外来压力。很多人认为，欧洲错失了大好机会，如今，欧洲面临着一些问题：边境有大量移民，俄罗斯不断强大，在国际政治舞台上更加活跃，并不断向欧盟施压。”

The European Union today finds itself divided into what some call a two-speed Europe of highly developed regional founding states in the West and newer less developed members in the East,where the migrant crisis has fueled the rise of far-right nationalist movements and some fear, new opportunities for Russia to exert influence.
现如今，欧盟呈分化趋势，有些人将这种现象称作“双速欧洲”，即西欧国家多为欧盟创始成员国，普遍高度发达，而东欧国家多为欠发达的新兴国家，在那里，移民危机导致极右翼民族主义运动高涨，有些人担心，这会为俄罗斯借此发挥其影响力提供新的机会。

Luis Ramirez, VOA News, London.
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