109年 - 109 外交特種考試_三等_外交領事人員類科英文組：外國文（含新聞書信撰寫與編譯）（英文）#90957

   Europe has a rising autocratic movement that the continent’s leaders have no clear strategy for confronting. The pandemic has strengthened the most autocratic EU governments in Hungary and Poland. Other countries have put a higher priority on fighting the virus and helping the economy than trying to stop the erosion of democracy. Hungary’s governing party, led by Prime Minister Viktor Orban, has undermined democracy by changing election rules, packing the courts with allies and insisting on uncritical media coverage. Orban has used the virus as an excuse to centralize authority even further. Poland’s governing party, led by Jarosław Kaczynski, has taken a similar approach, mostly by neutralizing the judicial system. When the EU expanded to include Hungary, Poland and six other countries in 2004, the bloc’s leaders made the mistake of assuming that Eastern and Central Europe were on a one-way path to democracy and the rule of law. As a result, the EU did not create an easy process for punishing countries that move away from democracy. There are no easy answers here. Allowing autocracy to flourish may encourage its rise in other countries. But confronting it risks pulling the EU apart.

氣候變遷和全球暖化正在增加野火的可能性和強度。除了世界發達地區 的生命、房屋和動物蒙受立即損失之外，其它地區的野火規模擴大也可 能產生嚴重影響。窮人經常受到全球暖化的沉重打擊，他們往往更加依 賴自然資源，尤其是在發展中國家，許多人的生計都依賴完整的森林資源，而範圍較大的野火可能造成災難性的後果。

 野火產生的煙霧會造成空氣污染，導致湖泊酸化。當野火蔓延到城市或 其周邊地區時，它們會損壞電力線路、行動通信基地台和房屋等基礎設 施。野火除了使人們直接遭受苦難之外，也會造成不得不逃離的人們無家可歸，承受壓力和痛苦。然而人們奢華的生活方式、對自然資源的非永續性消耗、以及相關的污染，加劇了全球暖化，使得野火更加頻繁發生。

This week’s pandemic deal in Brussels foresees the EU’s first jointly issued bonds. This debt will finance what’s in effect an insurance mechanism to help the member states worst hit by the COVID-19, such as Italy and Spain, thus proving European “solidarity.” But the EU’s many skeptics have long argued that Europe always does too little, too late. Whether it’s the euro crisis or the refugee chaos of the past decade, or indeed the coronavirus recession now, the EU never quite rises to the challenge. These two competing narratives frame a central debate about the EU’s future. Bruegel, a Brussels think tank, caricatures them as 1) the bloc is being “hardened by adversity,” leading to perpetual integration, versus 2) the “sky is falling” for the EU, which causes its disintegration. 

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