練習:

　　If a computer were to design the perfect U.N. Secretary-General, he or she would look sonething like this: African born; European and American educated, with decades of service in the U.N. system; married to a European; and possessing a quiet charisma and calm authority as chaos arises.

　　That the U.N. in 1996 found such a person to restore its sense of direction and purpose was a near miracle. But out of the U.N.’s failures in Bosnia, Somalia and Rwanda came Kopi Annan, the career international civil servant who had participated in these disasters yet somehow survived and learned from them.

　　Today Annan is in the middle of his second term. His task is not finished, and the U.N. is still far from what it should be. But Annan has tested the limits of the job, accumulating more authority-one cannot use the word power, given the constraints the U.N. system places on him-than any of his predecessors.

　　His complex relationship with the U.S. government is little understood. When Annan takes positions in public that are displeasing to the bush administration, it unleashes its attack dogs. Yet when administration officials found their policies in Iraq floundering, they asked the U.N. for help. Some observers told Annan that he should responsibility was to the cause of stabilizing Iraq. He began to work toward the decisive date of June 30, when the u.s. will hand over control to Iraqi authorities and an uncertain situation will prevail determined by factors way beyond his, or anyone else’s, ability to control. But it is Annan’s destiny to be handed the very worst problems after they have been unsuccessfully addressed by others. Anyone who knows him knows he wades into such problems with his usual blend of courage, self-control, modesty and optimism.

　　參考譯文:

　　如果讓電腦來設計一個完美的聯合國秘書長, 他/她應該是這樣的: 出生在非洲;在歐洲和美國接受教育;在聯合國工作十年以上;配偶是歐洲人;出現混亂局面時能保持冷靜,富有領導魅力的權威人士.

　　1996年聯合國找到了這樣一個人來恢復它的方向感和目的性, 這簡直就是個奇跡.聯合國在波斯尼亞,索馬里和盧旺達的行動失敗后, 科菲.安南卻脫穎而出.身為國際公務員的他對參與了這一系列的空難性行動, 幸存下來, 并且從中學到很多東西.

　　現在, 安南的第二任期已過一半.然而, 他的任務還沒有圓滿完成, 聯合國離其理想狀態還很遠.但安南已經體驗到了他這份工作的局限性——因為聯合國體制對他的限制, 他不能利用言語力量, 然而他卻比他的前任們積累了更多的權威性.

　　他與美國政府的復雜關系鮮為人知, 當安南在公眾面前的表現不能取悅布什政府的時候, 美國就會攻擊他.反過來, 當美國政府官員發現他們的政策在伊拉克舉步維艱的時候, 他們卻向聯合國尋求幫助.有些觀察家建議安南不要幫助美國擺脫困境, 但是安南明白, 自己最大責任是促成伊拉克局勢的穩定.他開始朝6月 30號這個決定性的日子努力, 美國將會在這天向伊拉克政府移交政權, 這將千萬動蕩局面.不管是安南瓦還是其他任何人, 在伊拉克問題上的成功與否都不會取決 于他個人的控制能力.但是, 安南注定要處理這些棘手的問題, 而這些問題是由別人的失敗造成的.所有熟悉安南的人都知道他將帶著他一貫的勇氣,自我控制能 力,謙恭和樂觀來介入這一難題.

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