2015年公共英语五级考试阅读资料（4）

　　On the 36th day after they had voted, Americans finally learned Wednesday who would be their next president: Governor George W. Bush of Texas.

　　Vice President Al Gore, his last realistic avenue for legal challenge closed by a U. S. Supreme Court decision late Tuesday, planned to end the contest formally in a televised evening speech of perhaps 10 minutes, advisers said.

　　They said that Senator Joseph Lieberman, his vice presidential running mate, would first make brief comments. The men would speak from a ceremonial chamber of the Old Executive office Building, to the west of the White House.

　　The dozens of political workers and lawyers who had helped lead Mr. Gore’s unprecedented fight to claw a come-from-behind electoral victory in the pivotal state of Florida were thanked Wednesday and asked to stand down.

　　“The vice president has directed the recount committee to suspend activities,” William Daley, the Gore campaign chairman, said in a written statement.

　　Mr. Gore authorized that statement after meeting with his wife, Tipper, and with top advisers including Mr. Daley.

　　He was expected to telephone Mr. Bush during the day. The Bush campaign kept a low profile and moved gingerly, as if to leave space for Mr. Gore to contemplate his next steps.

　　Yet, at the end of a trying and tumultuous process that had focused world attention on sleepless vote counters across Florida, and on courtrooms form Miami to Tallahassee to Atlanta to Washington the Texas governor was set to become the 43d U. S. president.

　　The news of Mr. Gore’s plans followed the longest and most rancorous dispute over a U. S. presidential election in more than a century, one certain to leave scars in a badly divided country.

　　It was a bitter ending for Mr. Gore, who had outpolled Mr. Bush nationwide by some 300000 votes, but, without Florida, fell short in the Electoral College by 271votes to 267-the narrowest Electoral College victory since the turbulent election of 1876.

　　Mr. Gore was said to be distressed by what he and many Democratic activists felt was a partisan decision from the nation’s highest court.

　　The 5-to -4 decision of the Supreme Court held, in essence, that while a vote recount in Florida could be conducted in legal and constitutional fashion, as Mr. Gore had sought, this could not be done by the Dec. 12 deadline for states to select their presidential electors.

　　James Baker 3rd, the former secretary of state who represented Mr. Bush in the Florida dispute, issued a short statement after the U. S. high court ruling, saying that the governor was “very pleased and gratified.”

　　Mr. Bush was planning a nationwide speech aimed at trying to begin to heal the country’s deep, aching and varied divisions. He then was expected to meet with congressional leaders, including Democrats. Dick Cheney, Mr. Bush’s ruing mate, was meeting with congressmen Wednesday in Washington.

　　When Mr. Bush, who is 54, is sworn into office on Jan.20, he will be only the second son of a president to follow his father to the White House, after John Adams and John Quincy Adams in the early 19th century.

　　Mr. Gore, in his speech, was expected to thank his supporters, defend his hive-week battle as an effort to ensure, as a matter of principle, that every vote be counted, and call for the nation to join behind the new president. He was described by an aide as “resolved and resigned.”

　　While some constitutional experts had said they believed states could present electors as late as Dec. 18, the U. S. high court made clear that it saw no such leeway.

　　The U.S. high court sent back “for revision” to the Florida court its order allowing recounts but made clear that for all practical purposes the election was over.

　　In its unsigned main opinion, the court declared, “The recount process, in its features here described, is inconsistent with the minimum procedures necessary to protect the fundamental right of each voter.”

　　That decision, by a court fractured along philosophical lines, left one liberal justice charging that the high court’s proceedings bore a political taint.

　　Justice John Paul Stevens wrote in an angry dissent:” Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the law.”

　　But at the end of five seemingly endless weeks, during which the physical, legal and constitutional machines of the U. S. election were pressed and sorely tested in ways unseen in more than a century, the system finally produced a result, and one most Americans appeared to be willing at lease provisionally to support.

　　The Bush team welcomed the news with an outward show of restraint and aplomb. The governor’s hopes had risen and fallen so many times since Election night, and the legal warriors of each side suffered through so many dramatic reversals, that there was little energy left for celebration.

　　抑制法：有许多学生在临考前总担心怯场，怕自己会紧张。对此，考生可用抑制法来避免怯场或走神。其原理是，当大脑中一组神经元受到刺激后，会发出兴奋去刺激大脑皮层，产生思维活动。同时，它又会发出另一种兴奋，去抑制其他神经元的活动。运用抑止法的具体方法是，当考生拿到试卷后，只需冷静地思考试卷上的题目，不需多久，这种怯场或走神的心理干扰就自然会被抑止，进而调整机体步入最佳状态来完成考试。

　　睡眠法：有些考生一接到试卷，由于昨夜不足，身体欠佳，或者因为怯场，导致发挥失常。此时不妨即卧在桌上，休息3至5分钟，以达到镇静的效果。这样做有利于中枢神经的协调，还能消除疲劳、紧张，使情绪稳定，思路敏捷。结果，使机体竞技状态从低谷走向高峰。

　　牧羊法：有一些考生拿到试卷后，便忧心忡忡，导致植物神经系统紊乱，使交感神经系统过度紧张，迷走神经过度抑制。这时，考生可让思路象牧羊一样，任其在大草原上畅游。这样，有利于植物神经协调，从而摆脱困境，顺利迎考。

　　化简法：以往，有很多优秀的考生一拿到试卷，就先把简单的试题消灭掉，再一步步地解决化简疑难的问题。因为一旦把简单的试题完成后，就能有效地稳定情绪，活跃思路，迅速提高反应能力。

　　精神致胜法：怯场既产生于精神方面的原因，就必须依靠精神的力量来解决。考生要利用机体的调节系统，通过意念、言语改变中枢神经系统的兴奋性。如可以多次做深呼吸，双眼凝视一个目标，暗暗地对自己说“要冷静，不要紧张”，“我能考得很好”，“我不会做的题别人也不会”等等，以强化意志，战胜紧张。

　　转移放松法：考生可采用转移注意力的方法，立即停止答卷。或者伏在桌上休息片刻，或者活动一下手、脚、头等部位，放松一下自己，也可请求监考老师批准出门喝口水或上厕所，通过暂时改变活动内容和环境，重新调整好情绪。如果因为遇到难题发慌，可先改做它题。