✸✸FOR most countries, language is as simple as ABC. Not Algeria. Its kindergartens are a linguisticmorass. The republic’s official language is standard Arabic, but few children grow up speaking it, so they oftenfeel loston their first day of school. Berber, the tongue of perhaps a quarter of Algerians, was officially recognised last year—but no one can agree on which of its six dialects to teach. Algeria’s French-speaking elite prefer their old masters’ lingo. The education minister, Nouria Benghebrit, advocates the introduction of a fourth language: Darija, which fuses the other three and is the mother tongue of most Algerians. An increasing number of Anglophiles want towipethe slate clean with English.
1） morass 英 [məˈræs] 美 [məˈræs, mɔ-] n.困境;缠作一团;<文>沼泽;陷阱
I tried to drag myself out of the morass of despair.
我试图从绝望的困境中走出来。
2） feel lost 英 [fi:l lɔ:st] 美 [fil lɔst] 怅然若失;恍然若失;不知所措
I feel lost and lonely in a strange town alone.
在陌生的城镇里只身一人，我感到不知所措、孤单寂寞。
3） wipe 英 [waɪp] 美 [waɪp] vt.擦，拭;擦去，消除;涂上;刷卡 n.擦，拭;抹布，毛巾;用力打 vi.擦，抹;打，揍
I'll just wipe the table
我就擦擦桌子
短语：wipe out 英 [waip aut] 美 [waɪp aʊt] 了结;擦掉（符号）;（把器皿里面用抹布）擦净;彻底摧毁
wipe away 英 [waip əˈwei] 美 [waɪp əˈwe] 抹掉;擦掉，清除
wipe off 英 [waip ɔf] 美 [waɪp ɔf] 擦去;揩去，擦掉;<口>勾销（债务）;揾
wipe up 英 [waip ʌp] 美 [waɪp ʌp] 擦净;擦干，擦掉
✸✸The choice goes to the heart of Algeria’s sense of identity. The French banned Arabic at primary school when the country was theirs, dismissing it as a backward language. After independence in 1962, nationalists pushed Arabisation to undo 132 years of French indoctrination. Thousands of teachers and bureaucrats from Egypt and Syria filled posts vacated by France’s fleeing civil servants. But their arrival also sparked a backlash, this time against Arab domination. The most recent language movements have been indigenous.
✸✸Islamists haverushed tothe defence of classical Arabic. Some have accused Ms Benghebrit, absurdly, of conspiring with Mossad to betray God’s language. She has added grist to their mill by ordering an investigation into a primary school teacher who filmed herself telling her class that Arabic was spoken in paradise and vowing to teach nothing else. “Arabisation was a mistake because it was motivated by this idea of revenge against French colonialism,” says one of her advisers. “We shouldn’t confuse thesavage, barbaric colonialism of France with the French language, which is a universal vehicle of science and culture.”
1） rush to 英 [rʌʃ tu:] 美 [rʌʃ tu] 奔;（使某人）急速去;奔赴
I had to rush to the loo to avoid an attack of hysterical giggles.
我不得不冲向卫生间，以免遭到别人的疯狂嘲笑。
2) savage 英 [ˈsævɪdʒ] 美 [ˈsævɪdʒ] adj.野蛮的;凶猛的;未开化的;残忍的 vt.（动物）凶狠地攻击（或伤害）;残害;猛烈批评;激烈抨击 n.未开化的人，野蛮人;野兽;<美>有拘捕狂的警察
This was a savage attack on a defenceless young girl.
这是对一个毫无自卫能力的年轻女孩的野蛮袭击。
短语：savage act 英 [ˈsævidʒ ækt] 美 [ˈsævɪdʒ ækt] 暴行
✸✸The arguments continue at universities and beyond. Algeria’s undergraduates study law, politics and religion in Arabic, but pretty much everything else in French. Court proceedings, news bulletins and Friday sermons are in Arabic. Sitcoms, increasingly, are homemade and in Darija. But cabinet sessions are mostly in French, as are business meetings and literary salons. Ministers, including Ms Benghebrit, seem unable to complete a sentence in proper Arabic. “We’re in desperate need of a linguistic peace,” says Amara Benyounès, who heads the Algerian Popular Movement, a Berber party. Islamists and secularists havelaid downtheir arms after a civil war that killed at least100,000. But12 years after a national reconciliation, they are still not speaking the same language.
1) laid down 英 [leɪd daun] 美 [led daʊn] [经] 铺设（铁路），建设（船舶）
The revolutionaries laid down their arms and its leaders went into voluntary exile.
革命者放下了武器，其领导人也自愿流亡他国了。
✸✸More isat stakethan whether Algeria pivots north, east or inward. Pedagogues argue that Algerians have become jacks of all tongues, but masters of none, and worry that themélangeis stunting development. “The young are victims of language policies which have undermined our ability to express ourselves,” says Selma Hellal, a publisher mainly of French books in Algiers. Some wonder whether frustration over language is to blame for rising violence against lecturers at universities.Peut-être.
1) at stake 英 [æt steik] 美 [æt stek] adv.危如累卵，危险 濒于险境，处于成败关头
The Chinese nation has reached a point where its very existence is at stake.
中华民族到了这生死存亡的关头。