铿锵玫瑰一路行——撒切尔
It has now been five years since Margaret Thatcher resigned as Britain’s Prime Minister. In her [b][u]heyday[/u](n.[/b][b]全盛时期[/b][b]) [/b]she strode the international headlines with such [b][u]bravura[/u][/b][b]（[/b][b]n.[/b][b]大胆、勇敢的尝试[/b]） that she seemed inevitable, a natural force. The world stage seemed just the right size for her, as she [b][u]chaffed[/u](v.[/b][b]戏弄，开玩笑[/b][b])[/b] her conservative soul mate Ronald Reagan or flattered the “new man,” Mikhail Gorbachev.Now the political world has begun to focus on the immensity of her achievement. She was elected to Parliament at 32 in 1958. She [b][u]parried[/u](v.[/b][b]在高尔夫中标准杆数得分[/b][b])[/b] her way through the complacent, male-dominated councils of power—no woman had ever roiled those waters. Couldn’t the old boys see her coming? After all, there was nothing subtle about her personality or her approach.
From the start, she notes almost with [b][u]bemusement[/u](n.[/b][b]困惑[/b][b])[/b], there was a contrast between her own “executive style” and her colleagues’ “more consultive style.” Thatcher laid down the law. In her 11-year leadership, she broke the crippling power of British unions, made many thousands of her countrymen homeowners, strengthened British ties with the U.S. and the Soviet Union and gave voice to Britain’s reluctance about joining Europe, a reluctance that still [b][u]plagues[/u][/b][b]（[/b][b]v.[/b][b]使困扰）[/b]her successor, John Major.
She is known now as the Iron Lady, but as a pretty, naïve young politician who cut through [b][u]cant[/u](n.[/b][b]伪善的话[/b][b])[/b], [b][u]prevarication[/u][/b][b]（[/b][b]n.[/b][b]搪塞，推诿）[/b]and some very real problems, she must have been [b][u]exhilarating[/u][/b][b]（[/b][b]adj.[/b][b]令人愉快的）[/b]. Her rise, as she once described the star-is-born press coverage that greeted her [b][u]maiden[/u][/b][b]（[/b][b]adj.[/b][b]少女的，无经验的）[/b]speech in Commons, was “roses, roses all the way.”
[b]中文译文：[/b]
英国前首相玛格丽特·撒切尔夫人退位至今已有五个年头了。在她当政期间，她以其强势的个人作风席卷世界各个头条，她似乎是一股不可抗拒的自然力。她在世界舞台上如鱼得水，揶揄她的保守派盟友罗纳德·里根，或称赞米哈伊尔·戈尔巴乔夫为“具有新思想的人”。
现在，国际政坛开始将目光聚集到她的巨大成就上来了。1958年，32岁的她就当选为英国下议院议员。她在那些自信满满，男性掌权的议会里取得了自己的一席之位——要知道之前从未有女性来搅过这趟浑水。难道，那些老一派的人士没能察觉到她的到来吗？要知道，她的个性如此刚强，她的进发如此鲜明。
一开始，她还有诸多疑虑，她自己奉行的“管理风格”与其保守党成员的“更多协商风格”存在着些异议。不过，撒切尔还是以自己的准绳贯彻实施了法律。在其从政为相的11年期间，她瓦解了英联盟的局部不稳定力量，让千千万万的国人当家作主，还加强了英与美苏的关系纽带，英国对加入欧盟的迟疑发表了自己的看法。而英国的这一迟疑还困扰着她的继任者约翰·梅杰。
如今的她，被大家公认为铁娘子。不过，作为一个年轻貌美，生性淳朴的政坛骨干，她拒绝一切伪善之言，搪塞之言，还有一些非常真实的问题，她必然是令人愉悦的。她的升起，就像新闻报道“明星的诞生”描述她在国会下院的首次演说那样：“铿锵玫瑰，一路行。”
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