雅思口语Part2：名人 A famous person you know in your country

A famous person you know in your country.

You should say:

Who the person is

Why he is famous

What makes you mention specifically him/ her

and describe what positive changes this person has brought to your country

Ooh, I thought at first the cue card meant someone I know personally, or had actually met! That would be really hard, I’m not very well connected. Erm, there are so many famous people in my country – England, part of the United Kingdom. I could pick the Queen, I think she is one of the most recognized people the world over, but I think that’s too easy and predictable. I’m going to pick instead a famous person from English history, you may never even have heard of her, but she is really important in terms of contributing to political change in my country, and although perhaps not everyone knows her name, most people would know about what she did.

哦，一开始我以为提示卡指的是我认识的人，或者是我见过的人!那真的很难，我的人际关系不是很好。嗯，我的国家有很多名人——英国的一部分——英格兰。我可以选择女王，我认为她是世界上最知名的人之一，但我认为这太容易和可预测了。我将从英国历史中选出一位名人，你们可能从未听说过她，但她在推动我国政治变革方面非常重要，尽管也许不是每个人都知道她的名字，但大多数人都会知道她做了什么。

I’ll tell you who the person is, why she is famous and what makes me choose her. Finally, I’ll try and explain how she has contributed to positive change in the UK.

我会告诉你这个人是谁，她为什么出名，是什么让我选择她。最后，我会试着解释她是如何为英国的积极变化做出贡献的。

This person is Emily Wilding Davison, she was born in the 1870s and died, famously, in June 1913. She is famous, or even infamous, because she was a militant activist who fought for women’s suffrage – that is for women to have the same rights to vote as men – in Britain. She was one of a number of women who protested in different ways about the inequality that existed. At that time, only men were allowed to vote in elections, something that seems incredible today. Some of the protestors took direct action, leading to them being arrested and imprisoned for their views. Once imprisoned, some took it further and went on hunger strike, leading to them being force fed – Emily herself was jailed on numerous occasion – nine I think, and force fed nearly fifty times. The reason though, that she is particularly remembered amongst the many women who campaigned so vociferously, is that it was her who apparently died for the cause. On 4th June 1913, she stepped out in front of the King’s own horse when it was racing as part of the famous race the Epsom Derby (this horse race still takes place each year today). She suffered fatal injuries and died a few days later. There was a huge public funeral, and thousands of suffragettes accompanied the coffin and tens of thousands of people lined the streets of London.

这个人是艾米丽·威尔丁·戴维森，她生于19世纪70年代，于1913年6月去世。她是著名的，甚至是臭名昭著的，因为她是一名激进的活动家，在英国为争取妇女投票权而奋斗——即妇女享有与男子同样的投票权。她是众多以不同方式*存在不平等的女性之一。当时，只有男性才能在选举中投票，这在今天看来是难以置信的。一些*者直接采取行动，导致他们因为自己的观点而被捕入狱。一旦入狱，一些人就进一步绝食，导致他们被强迫喂食——艾米丽自己也曾多次入狱——我想是9次，强迫喂食近50次。尽管如此，她在众多大肆竞选的女性中尤其被人铭记的原因是，显然是她为这一事业而死。1913年6月4日，她走在国王的马前面，当时国王的马正在参加著名的埃普索姆德比(埃普索姆德比每年都举行)比赛。她受了致命伤，几天后死亡。有一场盛大的公开葬礼，成千上万的妇女参政权论者伴随着棺材，成千上万的人站在伦敦的街道两旁。

People have different opinions about whether she actually intended to kill herself, or just to disrupt the race to bring attention to her cause. Personally, I think she would have wanted to live on to continue her protests and contribute to the debate, but her life was cut short aged only 40 years old, by accident. I have chosen her because I think she was a brave and principled woman. I might not approve of all her actions, but without her efforts, and people like her, women would not have ultimately gained the vote in this country, which I consider to be a basic right. Women fought hard for that equality, so I think it’s very important that all people (men and women) exercise their democratic right to vote. It was a right that was hard won but potentially easily lost. Democracy is an imperfect system, but it the political one we have in the UK, and I believe women and men should have equal influence in how it is executed. It takes courage sometimes, to stand up for what you believe in, and her courage cannot be disputed.

人们对于她到底是想自杀，还是只是为了扰乱比赛，让人们关注她的事业，有不同的看法。就我个人而言，我认为她会想继续活下去，继续她的*，并为这场辩论做出贡献，但她的生命在40岁的时候被意外地缩短了。我选择她是因为我认为她是一个勇敢而有原则的女人。我可能不会赞同她的所有行动，但如果没有她的努力，没有像她这样的人，女性就不会最终在这个我认为是基本权利的国家获得选举权。妇女为平等而奋斗，所以我认为所有人(男人和女人)行使他们的*投票权是非常重要的。这一权利来之不易，但可能很容易丧失。*是一个不完美的体系，但它是我们英国的政治体系，我认为女性和男性应该在如何执行*方面拥有同等的影响力。有时候，坚持自己的信念需要勇气，而她的勇气是无可争议的。

It is hard to say that any one action or person brought about the enfranchisement of women, but certainly her actions on that day brought the debate about women’s equality to center stage. It led to more men supporting the campaign, widening the voices of arguing for equal rights and over time. Some women got the vote in 1918, after the first world war, but only those who were householders over the age of 30 (6 million women); women over 21 did not get the vote until 1928, so perhaps it’s only then you can say there was equality. She, therefore, contributed to the positive change of bringing about equal rights in voting for men and women in the UK.

很难说任何一项行动或个人给妇女带来了公民权，但她在那一天的行动无疑把有关妇女平等的辩论推向了舞台的中心。这导致了更多的男性支持这项运动，扩大了争取平等权利的呼声。1918年，第一次世界大战后，一些妇女获得了选举权，但只有那些年龄在3000岁以上的户主(600万妇女);21岁以上的妇女直到1928年才获得选举权，所以也许只有到那时你才可以说平等。因此，她促成了英国男女投票权平等的积极变化。

Over time in this country, people have come to take the right to vote for granted, I think the contribution of the suffragettes in general and Emily Wilding Davison, in particular, might come to be forgotten over time. I was pleased therefore to hear that a new film is coming out on exactly this period of history, it’s (unsurprisingly) called ‘Suffragette’! I haven’t seen it yet – I wonder how close it will be to the truth of those times – perhaps we’ll never know!

随着时间的推移，在这个国家，人们开始认为选举权是理所当然的，我认为妇女参政论者的贡献，尤其是艾米丽·威尔丁·戴维森，可能会逐渐被遗忘。因此，我很高兴听到一部新电影即将在这段历史时期上映，它被(毫不意外地)称为“妇女参政论者”!我还没见过它——我想知道它离那个时代的真相有多近——也许我们永远也不会知道!