出國(guó)留學(xué)網(wǎng)考研英語(yǔ)頻道為大家提供考研英語(yǔ)閱讀理解題源：Human rights(The gay divide)，大家可以閱讀一下!
考研英語(yǔ)閱讀理解題源：Human rights(The gay divide)
Human rights
The gay divide
Victories for gay rights in some parts of the world have provoked a backlash elsewhere
THERE was a teenager in Arizona in the 1970s who “could no more imagine longing to touch a woman than longing to touch a toaster”. But he convinced himself that he was not gay. Longing to be “normal”, he blamed his obsession with muscular men on envy of their good looks. It was not until he was 25 that he admitted the truth to himself—let alone other people. In 1996 he wrote a cover leader for The Economist in favour of same-sex marriage. He never thought it would happen during his lifetime. Yet now he is married to the man he loves and living in a Virginia suburb where few think this odd.
The change in attitudes to homosexuality in many countries — not just the West but also Latin America, China and other places — is one of the wonders of the world (see article). This week America’s Supreme Court gave gay marriage another big boost, by rejecting several challenges to it; most Americans already live in states where gays can wed. But five countries still execute gay people: Iran hangs them; Saudi Arabia stones them. Gay sex is illegal in 78 countries, and a few have recently passed laws that make gay life even grimmer. The gay divide is one of the world’s widest. What caused it? And will tolerance eventually spread?
The leap forward has been startlingly quick. In the 1950s gay sex was illegal nearly everywhere.In Britain, on the orders of a home secretary who vowed to “eradicate” it, undercover police were sent out to loiter in bars, entrap gay men and put them in jail. In China in the 1980s homosexuals were rounded up and sent to labour camps without trial. All around the world gay people lived furtively and in fear. Laws banning “sodomy” remained in some American states until 2003.
Today gay sex is legal in at least 113 countries. Gay marriages or civil union ?s are recognised in three dozen and parts of others. In most of the West it is no longer socially acceptable to be homophobic. Gay life in China is now both legal and, in cities, undisguised. Latin America is even more gay-friendly: 74% of Argentines and 60% of Brazilians believe that society should accept homosexuality. Thais are more relaxed about transgender people than Westerners are. South Africa’s constitution is remarkably pro-gay. The young have tended to lead the way: although only 16% of South Koreans over 50 think that homosexuality should be accepted, 71% of 18-to 29-year-olds do.
Yet there are still parts of the world where it is not safe to be homosexual. Extra-judicial beatings and murders are depressingly common in much of Africa and in some Muslim countries. African gangs subject lesbians to“corrective rape”. In some countries persecution has intensified. Chad is poised to ban gay sex. Nigeria and Uganda have passed draconian anti-gay laws (though a court recently struck Uganda’s down). Russia and a few other countries have barred the “promotion”of homosexuality.
This is partly a reaction to the spread of gay rights in the West. Thanks to globalisation, people who live in places where everyone agrees that homosexuality is an abomination can now see pictures of gay-pride parades in Sydney or men marrying men in Massachusetts. They find this shocking. Meanwhile some homophobic Western preachers have gone to fire up anti-gay audiences in Africa, and American conservatives offer advice to countries thinking of drafting anti-gay laws.
Revulsion against homosexuals is ancient, deep and, in its way, sincere, even if some of the politicians leading the backlash do so for cynical reasons. By taking up arms against an imaginary Western plot to spread perversion, Vladimir Putin and Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan doubtless hope to distract attention from the corruption and incompetence of their own regimes. But they have picked their scapegoats shrewdly: 74% of Russians and 98% of Nigerians disapprove of homosexuality. In places like Indonesia, Senegal, Uganda and Malaysia the young are no more tolerant than the old—sometimes less so.
Nonetheless, there are reasons for optimism, at least in the long term. Urbanisation helps. It is easier to find a niche in a big, anonymous city than in a village where everyone knows your business. Gay life in the Indian countryside is still awful; in Mumbai or Delhi it is much easier,despite being illegal. In rural South Africa, to be openly gay is to court death; yet half of South Africans now say that their neighbourhood is a good place to be gay. As people move to cities, old traditions lose their grip; and by 2050 mankind is expected to be 66% urban, up from 54% today.
Emerging countries in Asia and Latin America have generally grown kinder to gay people as they have grown richer, more open and more democratic. The hope is that as Africa and the Arab world catch up, they will follow suit. Although religion is a barrier to tolerance — the more pious a society, by and large, the less enthusiastic it is about gay rights — it is not an insuperable one: plenty of devout nations, such as the Philippines and the United States, are friendly to gays these days.
中文對(duì)照閱讀：
人權(quán)
關(guān)于同性戀的分歧
在世界一些地方同性戀人權(quán)的勝利招致了其他地方的不滿。
20 世紀(jì)70 年代在亞利桑那州有一個(gè)少年“對(duì)渴望觸摸女人的想象就像渴望觸摸一個(gè)烤面包機(jī)”。但那時(shí)他確信自己是不是同性戀?？释恰罢５摹?，他把這些對(duì)美貌肌肉男的癡迷歸結(jié)于嫉妒。直到25 歲，他承認(rèn)了這一真相更別說(shuō)別人。1996 年給雜志領(lǐng)袖經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)人寫了篇關(guān)于支持同性婚的文章。他從來(lái)沒(méi)有想到這會(huì)在他有生之年實(shí)現(xiàn)?，F(xiàn)在他娶了他愛(ài)的男人，生活在弗吉尼亞州郊區(qū)，這里沒(méi)有人認(rèn)為這是件奇怪的事。
在許多國(guó)家不只是西方還有拉丁美洲，中國(guó)和其他地方態(tài)度上對(duì)同性戀的改變是世界奇跡之一(另見(jiàn)文)。本周美國(guó)最高法院通過(guò)拒絕幾個(gè)挑戰(zhàn)者對(duì)同性戀婚姻認(rèn)可上有了另一個(gè)大的提升;大多數(shù)美國(guó)人生活是我州同性戀都可以結(jié)婚。但仍有五個(gè)國(guó)家對(duì)同性戀者執(zhí)刑：伊朗的絞刑;沙特阿拉伯用石頭扔他們。同性戀在78 個(gè)國(guó)家仍然是非法的，最近有一些國(guó)家通過(guò)法律使他們生活更加快樂(lè)。同性戀將是世界上最大的分歧之一。這是什么引起的呢?寬容最終會(huì)蔓延嗎?
以驚人的速度發(fā)生著變化。在20 世紀(jì)50 年代的同性戀性行為在幾乎所有的地方都是非法的。在英國(guó)，內(nèi)政大臣發(fā)誓要“消滅”它，派出去臥底警察在酒吧閑逛，使同性戀者落入陷阱，把他們關(guān)進(jìn)監(jiān)獄。在中國(guó)20 世紀(jì)80 年代的同性戀者被圍捕，不經(jīng)審判就送往勞動(dòng)營(yíng)。世界各地的同性戀生活在陰暗和恐懼中。直到2003 年美國(guó)的一些州法律仍然禁止“雞奸”。
現(xiàn)在同性戀在至少113 個(gè)國(guó)家是合法的。在30 多個(gè)國(guó)家和地區(qū)同性戀結(jié)婚或從事民事工會(huì)都是得到認(rèn)可的。在大多數(shù)西方國(guó)家社會(huì)完全接受同性戀。中國(guó)的同性戀生活不僅是合法的而且在一些城市城市中更加是光明正大的。拉丁美洲對(duì)同性戀更加友好：74% 的阿根廷人和60%的巴西人認(rèn)為社會(huì)應(yīng)該接受同性戀。泰國(guó)人對(duì)變性人比西方人更開(kāi)放。南非憲法是非常贊成同性戀的。年輕人往往是主導(dǎo)：雖然50 多歲的韓國(guó)人中只有16%認(rèn)為同性戀應(yīng)該被接受，但71%的18 至29 歲的人贊同。
然而，世界上仍有一些地方對(duì)同性戀是不安全的。司法外的毆打和謀殺在許多非洲和穆斯林國(guó)家都非常普遍。非洲集團(tuán)傾向?qū)ε詰佟奔m正強(qiáng)奸”。在一些國(guó)家迫害不斷的加劇。乍得將禁止同性戀。尼日利亞和烏干達(dá)已經(jīng)通過(guò)了嚴(yán)格的反同性戀的法律(盡管法庭最近駁回了烏干達(dá))。俄羅斯和其他一些國(guó)家已經(jīng)禁止“促銷”同性戀。
這是對(duì)同性戀權(quán)利在西方國(guó)家傳播的阻礙。由于全球化，只要是住在大家都憎惡同性戀的地方就可以看到這樣的畫面：同性戀在悉尼驕傲游行或在馬薩諸塞州男人和男人結(jié)婚。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)這是令人震驚的事。同時(shí)，一些同性戀的西方傳教士去點(diǎn)燃了非洲反同性戀觀眾的怒火，美國(guó)保守派建議國(guó)家考慮制定反同性戀的法律。
實(shí)話說(shuō)，即使一些政客以憤世嫉俗的原因提出反對(duì)，對(duì)同性戀的反感是一個(gè)古老深刻的話題。拿起武器反對(duì)假象的西方陰謀，普京和尼日利亞總統(tǒng)喬納森無(wú)疑希望從自己的政權(quán)的腐敗和無(wú)能中轉(zhuǎn)移注意力。他們精明的挑選了他們的替罪羊：74%的俄羅斯人和98%的尼日利亞人反對(duì)同性戀。在像印度尼西亞，塞內(nèi)加爾，烏干達(dá)和馬來(lái)西亞這樣地方的年輕人不像老年人那么寬容，甚至更少。
然而，至少?gòu)拈L(zhǎng)遠(yuǎn)來(lái)看還是有樂(lè)觀的理由。城市化有助于它的發(fā)展。在大的城市中匿名的生活，比在每個(gè)人都了解你的村子里更容易找到一席之地。印度農(nóng)村，同性戀者的生活仍然是可怕的;孟買或新德里會(huì)更容易，盡管也是非法的。在南非農(nóng)村，公開(kāi)的同性戀就是找死;然而，現(xiàn)在一半的南非人說(shuō)他們的鄰居是同性戀者的好地方。隨著人們遷往城市，舊的傳統(tǒng)失去控制;并到2050 城市人口預(yù)計(jì)將從今天的54%將會(huì)上升到66%。
在亞洲和拉丁美洲的新興國(guó)家隨著他們變得更富有，更加開(kāi)放和民主，已經(jīng)普遍的對(duì)同性戀者更加友好。我們期待非洲和阿拉伯他們將效仿，趕上步伐。雖然宗教是寬容的一個(gè)阻礙——但總的來(lái)說(shuō)他們是一個(gè)更加善良的群體。對(duì)于同性戀權(quán)利缺乏熱情不是不可逾越的：很多擁有宗教信仰的國(guó)家，如菲律賓和美國(guó)，現(xiàn)在對(duì)同性戀也是友好的。
推薦閱讀:
考研英語(yǔ)復(fù)習(xí)資料
2015考研英語(yǔ)閱讀題源匯總
2015考研英語(yǔ)閱讀復(fù)習(xí)資料匯總
| 考研英語(yǔ)大綱 | 考研英語(yǔ)詞匯 | 英語(yǔ)作文萬(wàn)能句子 | 考研英語(yǔ)真題 | 考研英語(yǔ)作文 | 考研復(fù)試英語(yǔ) |