Old tests (En.-It.)
Translate the following passages from English into Italian:
June 2006
Question: And now even Saddam Hussein, who tortured millions of people, is complaining that he has been tortured while in custody. So where do we go from here as far as torture is concerned? Terrorists can torture the innocent, but when they’re caught then they complain about torture.
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, first of all I think that’s one of the most preposterous things I’ve heard from Saddam Hussein recently. Saddam Hussein is being treated the exact opposite of the way his regime treated those he imprisoned and tortured, simply for expressing their opinions. And so I reject that. This has been a year of significant accomplishment abroad and at home. We have helped to support the advance of freedom around the world, which is directly connected to our own security for the generations to come. We have made important progress in the war on terrorism, but we must continue to work to advance freedom and democracy. We have moved forward on helping those who are in need.
July 2006
“If you’re interested in true peace in the Middle East, the Palestinian people must be allowed to express themselves at the ballot box, give their opinions in the public square. There must be a free press. In other words, there must be a true democracy in order for there to be peace in the Middle East. A few weeks ago the Iraqi citizens, in spite of threats and violence and beheadings and all kinds of horrible acts, went to the polls in millions. They defied the few acts of the terrorists. Every time a society becomes a free society, our children and grandchildren are better off, because free societies are peaceful societies. Democracies promote peace, and that’s what we’re interested in. So I'm enthusiastic and optimistic about what is taking place in the world, and I believe the United States has a duty and an obligation not only to future generations of Americans, but to people who live in tyranny, to promote democracy wherever tyranny exists. I believe every soul desires to be free; that’s what I believe.”
September 2006
“It is tragic that so many innocent lives, Lebanese and Israeli, have been lost over the past weeks. We must now take the steps necessary to ensure it is never repeated. The hostilities on both sides should cease immediately now that the Resolution has finally been agreed by the whole of the international community. However, there will continue to be difficulties until it is clear that the combination of Lebanese forces and the UN multi-national force can be effectively deployed in returning control of the south of Lebanon to the Lebanese Government. This should start straight away.
With this resolution now adopted, we must work to address the underlying root causes of this conflict.
I have said before I believe this to be of fundamental importance not just to Israelis and Palestinians but to the wider world. It is my intention to visit the region, in particular Israel and Palestine, over the coming period and to consult those there and of course also members of the Quartet.”
December 2006
Last week Benedict XVI pursued one of the most difficult diplomatic missions ever undertaken by a pope.
“You are not wanted! Don’t come! Don’t cause tension!” screamed a headline in Turkey’s noisiest Islamist newspaper, Vakit, on the eve of the papal visit to Turkey. In case anybody was vague about the theological differences between the world’s two largest monotheistic faiths, participants in an anti-papal protest held up a placard that spelled it out: to Muslims, Jesus Christ is not the son of God, he is a prophet of Islam. Cooler-headed Turks — the great majority — were embarrassed by the stridency of their pious compatriots, but some still resented the pope’s visit because it gave hotheads such a perfect opportunity to sound off.
Against this gloomy background, the encounters between the pope and Turkey's leaders, secular and religious, brought sighs of relief all round.
January 2007
The Babel Tower
Brussels politicians say that languages are an expression of the European Union’s unity in diversity. What they seldom admit is that languages are an expensive headache. Now, the number of the official languages of the EU has risen from 20 to 23, with the addition of Romanian, Bulgarian and Irish on January 1st 2007. Bulgaria and Romania have just joined the Union, but it is less obvious why Irish is being added to the list. Although it is an official language of Ireland, it is a minority one that the Irish government declined to use when it joined in 1973. The government admits that less than half the population can speak it and a mere 5% actually use it. But Charlie McCreevy, Ireland’s European commissioner, insists it is central to Irish cultural identity.
In 2005 the Union spent some €1.1 billion ($1.4 billion) on translation and interpretation. It was unofficially agreed some 20 years ago that English, French and German are the main working languages of the European Commission.
March 2007
Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, has declared that she will use her six-month presidency of the EU, which started on January 1st, to restart the process of having a European Union constitution approved. But we don’t know what will happen in the next elections in France and in the UK: what happens if Nicolas Sarkozy wins the French presidential election next spring? He has already said that he will campaign for a so-called “mini-treaty” (a stripped-down version of the constitution). But what happens if the Socialist candidate, Ségolène Royal, wins? Her party is split over the constitution. A similar objection applies to Britain. By the middle of 2007, Tony Blair is likely to have stepped down as prime minister to be replaced by Gordon Brown. The Germans hope that Mr Brown, like Mr Sarkozy, will be ready to push a new treaty through parliament, without a referendum. Mr Brown is just as likely to find it impossible to resist press and public pressure for a referendum — as Mr Blair did. Like Ms Royal, the last thing he will want on taking the top job is a big crisis over Europe.
June 2007
“The French people have chosen change, and it is change that I will implement.” So declared Nicolas Sarkozy in his victory speech on May 6th, soon after the Gaullist candidate was elected France's new president by a decisive 53% of the vote.
At 52, Mr Sarkozy will become the first French president born after the second world war; the first Gaullist president never to have served in government under Charles de Gaulle himself; the first Gaullist president since Pompidou not to have graduated from the elite Ecole Nationale d'Administration; and the first president whose father (a Hungarian immigrant) was not French.
The first few months of presidency will be marked by a tourbillon of activity. Mr Sarkozy is likely to go to Berlin for his first foreign trip, to revive the Franco-German alliance and consolidate his tie to Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor. He will also go to Brussels to show that, after the French rejection of the European Union constitution, France “is now back on the scene in Europe”. Foreign meetings already crowd his diary: the G8 summit in early June, in Germany; the European Council at the end of the month, in Brussels; Africa, sometime soon.
July 2007
It is surely an American oddity that, after the worst mass shooting in the country’s history, some are already saying that such horrors would be less likely if guns were easier to own and carry. Americans love arms. The second amendment in the constitution’s bill of rights, just after freedom of speech, religion, assembly and the press, is the right to bear arms. It is part of the national religion.
The International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), an activist group, counts 41 school shootings in America since 1996, which have claimed 110 lives, including those in Virginia last April. IANSA also looks at school shootings in 80 other countries. Putting aside the Beslan massacre in Russia — committed by an organised terrorist group — school shootings in all those countries claimed just 59 victims.
America has 200 millions guns, half the world’s privately-owned total. The gun-murder rate in America is more than 30 times that of England and Wales, for example. What might be done to improve matters in America?
After the shootings in Virginia on Monday April 16th, a conservative blogger was quoting a Roman military historian, suggesting that “if you want peace, prepare for war” (“si vis pacem, para bellum”). Others said: “an armed society is a polite society”.
December 2007
Last October the European Commission launched a plan to provide a “blue card” (yes, for the colour of the flag) to help would-be migrants with suitable job offers, and their families, to get into Europe faster. Once inside, the holders of the card could change jobs, come and go from the EU and, after a while, move freely between countries. Although valid, at first, for just two years, the card would also make it simpler to get long-term residency. “We are trying to make Europe a bit more competitive,” says Mr Frattini.
All good in theory, but do not expect much of a threat to America's green (in fact, pink) card. For a start, many European governments are jealous of their control of migration policies and will resist any harmonising effort by Brussels. We all expect possible German or British vetoes, and probably the most talented people (especially English-speakers) will use their wits to look for work elsewhere.
January 2008
“Voters of America, well done: you are less racist (or sexist) than Europeans think. But please, try to choose a competent president this time”. These words reflect many European reactions to the duel between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in this year's presidential election. A few Europeans retain a soft spot for John McCain.
A French newspaper, Libération, said that the arrival in the White House of “a black man, married to a black woman, with a black family” would be an act of “atonement” that would restore the image of an America “disliked in every corner of the planet”. A German newspaper, Bild, wrote about Mr Obama: “This Black American Will Become the New Kennedy!” In Spain El País wrote: “The question is whether the United States is ready for a president who is black, a woman, an evangelical minister, a Mormon or a Catholic.”
Mr Obama, unlike Mrs Clinton, has always opposed the Iraq war. Both candidates take positions on climate change and both have called for the closure of the Guantánamo detention camp.
February 2008
Ever since the fall of Romano Prodi’s centre-left government, which lost a vote of confidence in the Senate on January 24th, Italy has had a hung parliament. There is a centre-left majority in the lower house, the Chamber of Deputies. But the confidence vote that toppled Mr Prodi’s 20-month-old administration showed it to be four votes short of the necessary majority in the Senate.
The natural response in such circumstances would seem to be to hold a new election. That is certainly what Silvio Berlusconi, the main centre-right opposition leader, is demanding — loudly.
Yet after four days of political consultations, President Giorgio Napolitano announced on January 30th that he would ask the Senate speaker, Franco Marini, to try to form an interim government. His decision was a setback to Mr Berlusconi’s hopes of quickly regaining the power that he lost in April 2006.
Mr Marini admitted this week that the task was “not simple”.
March 2008
Thomas Jefferson once said, speaking of slavery, that America was holding a wolf by the ears: it could neither continue to do so, nor afford to let go. Something similar might be said about America’s role in Iraq, five years after the American-led invasion began in March 2003. Whatever the promises of the three remaining contenders to be president — John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton — the problem of Iraq will be painful and bloody.
Some 158,000 American soldiers are in Iraq now, but that is supposed to fall to 140,000 this summer. Troop levels is a big issue for all three presidential candidates. Both Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton talk of getting out of Iraq, and Mr Obama makes much of his opposition to those (such as his Democratic rival) who authorised the invasion in the first place. Many voters like his anti-war stance; his promise to end the war is popular too. He says that he would get troops out by the end of 2009.
On March 17, Mrs Clinton gave a speech on Iraq. She too calls for removing one to two brigades each month. Mr McCain visited Iraq last week, taking the chance to show off his interest in foreign affairs. The next president will take office in less than a year, and hundreds more American soldiers will die in the meantime (and thousands of Iraqis). By then, the war will be approaching its sixth anniversary.