英国新首相：斯塔默
Meet Keir Starmer, Britain’s Next Prime Minister
常速 | 考研 易 | 543词 | 3min30s
刘立军供稿
Part I. QUESTIONS
Listen to the interview and choose the best answer to each question you hear.
Q1. What is the main focus of this text?
A. The personal life and hobbies of Keir Starmer.
B. The political career and evolving ideology of Keir Starmer.
C. The internal conflicts within the Labour Party.
D. The future policies of the UK government.
Q2. What background does Keir Starmer often highlight about his early life?
A. His parents were politicians.
B. He grew up in a wealthy family.
C. His father was a toolmaker and his mother was a nurse.
D. He was named after a famous scientist.
Q3. What major role did Starmer take on in 2008?
A. Leader of the Labour Party.
B. Editor of “Socialist Alternatives” magazine.
C. Shadow Brexit Secretary.
D. Director of Public Prosecutions.
Q4. Which policy stance did Starmer change after becoming the leader of the Labour Party in 2020?
A. Left-wing radical policies of Jeremy Corbyn.
B. Opposition to the death penalty.
C. Support for Brexit.
D. Advocacy for human rights.
Q5. Based on the text, what seems to be Keir Starmer’s main goal for the Labour Party?
A. To maintain its status as a protest movement.
B. To transform it into a party capable of governing.
C. To align it closely with left-wing ideologies.
D. To keep its policies unchanged from previous leadership.
Part II. TRANSCRIPT
Meet Keir Starmer, Britain’s Next Prime Minister
Narrator: Who is Sir Keir Starmer, Britain’s next prime minister? He has taken the Labour Party from the wilderness and back into government in less than five years. But his own politics remain curiously undefined. To his opponents, he’s an empty suit who has ditched every political principle he’s ever held. Voters remain unsure what he stands for, and there’s the general sense that, well, he’s just a bit boring. But Starmer’s life before politics suggests that beneath the surface may lie a more radical man. If there’s one thing Starmer wants you to know about his early life, it’s this:
Keir Starmer: (Q2) My dad was a toolmaker. He was a toolmaker, yeah. My mum was a nurse in the NHS.
Narrator: (Q2)Starmer has made much of his working-class upbringing. He was named by his Labour-supporting parents after Keir Hardie, the man who founded the Labour Party. In 1982, he became the first in his family to go to university and later studied at Oxford, where he helped edit the Trotskyite Socialist Alternatives magazine.
upbringing n. 抚育；养育；教养；培养
Keir Starmer: We didn’t actually sell many copies of it.
Narrator: He went on to a high-flying career as a human-rights lawyer, taking on a landmark case against McDonald’s and defending prisoners facing the death penalty. It was long rumoured that Mark Darcy, the taciturn barrister in the Bridget Jones novels, was based on him, although the series author has since denied it. “Crikey.”
taciturn adj. 沉默寡言的；不苟言笑的
barrister n. 出庭律师；辩护律师
crikey int.（澳大利亚英语）（惊讶或恼怒时说）哎呀
Narrator: (Q3) In 2008, he became Director of Public Prosecutions, where he oversaw the conviction of terrorists and reformed the way the legal system treated rape victims. Starmer’s rise to the top of politics has been swift. He became an MP in 2015 and less than a year later, he was appointed shadow Brexit secretary by the then Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn. In that role, Starmer spearheaded the push for a second Brexit referendum.
Keir Starmer: The only way truly to settle this is to ask people, “do you want to leave on these terms, or would you rather remain?”
Narrator: And then, in 2020, he was elected leader on a promise to continue his predecessor’s left-wing vision. (Q4) But since then, Starmer has changed tack. He has ditched many of Corbyn’s most radical policies. Left-wingers say they have been purged, including Corbyn himself, who was suspended for downplaying the extent of antisemitism and then kicked out.
antisemitism n. 反犹太主义
Jeremy Corbyn: Thank you very much. Goodbye.
Keir Starmer: I don’t want the words “the Labour Party” and “antisemitism” in the same sentence again as we go forward.
Narrator: His cabinet-in-waiting is now mostly drawn from Labour’s right. So, what does this socialist-turned-centrist really stand for? It isn’t easy to summarise ‘Starmerism’ in a pithy slogan, (Q5) but Starmer has been single-minded in his mission to turn Labour from a protest movement into a party of government. That has meant scrapping anything that could turn off voters. And while he may not be an ideologue, he is an institutionalist. After years of political turmoil and constitutional chaos, he believes the key to getting Britain up and running again lies in moderate reform, political stability and competent government. If the theme tune of Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide was “things can only get better”, then Starmer’s is more “things can stop getting worse”.
pithy adj. 简练的，简洁扼要的
ideologue n. 理论家；思想家
Part III. KEY
Q1. B. 主旨题。文章主要讲述了Keir Starmer的政治生涯，包括他从人权律师到工党领袖的历程，以及他在不同阶段的政治立场和理念的变化，所以主要聚焦于他的政治生涯和不断演变的意识形态。因此答案为B。
Q2. C. 细节题。根据“Starmer has made much of his working-class upbringing.” Keir Starmer 经常强调自己工人阶级家庭出身，也就是他爸爸是个工具制造工，妈妈是国民健康服务体系的一名护士的家庭背景。因此答案为C。
Q3. D. 细节题。根据“In 2008, he became Director of Public Prosecutions...” 可知2008年，他成为了检察长。因此答案为D。
Q4. A. 细节题。根据“But since then, Starmer has changed tack. He has ditched many of Corbyn’s most radical policies.” 可知成为工党领袖后，Keir Starmer改变了策略，抛弃了Jeremy Corbyn的许多左翼激进政策。因此答案为A。
Q5. B. 推理题。根据“...Starmer has been single-minded in his mission to turn Labour from a protest movement into a party of government.” 可知他一心要把工党从一个抗议运动转变成一个执政党。因此答案为B。
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