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This is 6 Minute English from BBC Learning English dot com.
這裡是bbclearningenglish.com英語六分鐘節目。
Rob: Welcome to 6 Minute English with me, Rob.
歡迎和我一起來到BBC6分鐘英語，我是羅伯。
Finn: And me, Finn. Hello.
我是費恩，大家好。
Rob: In today’s programme, we’re talking about freedom. It’s a big subject and it’s something the BBC has been exploring in its Freedom 2014 season.
今天我們要談論的話題是自由。這個話題很大，又到了2014年BBC的自由專題季了。
Finn: That’s right. There’s been a season of programmes about what freedom means to different people.
是的。每年都有一段時間的節目是講自由對於人們的意義的。
Rob: Well, we’re going to try and summarise what freedom really is and look at some related vocabulary.But first a definition – what does freedom mean?
我們接下來將試著概括什麼是真正的自由，同時也學一些相關的詞彙。但首先自由的定義是什麼呢？
Finn: According to the Oxford English Dictionary, freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.
根據牛津英語詞典的釋義，自由是指一個人有權利去做他想做的事，比如行動、說話、思考。
Rob: Yes, it’s something many people expect to have – we consider it our right - but certain people in some of the world do not get to experience the feeling of freedom.
是的，這是很多人夢寐以求的——我們認為這是我們的權利——但世界上仍有一部分人沒有機會體驗到自由。
Finn: You mean some people are restricted and controlled in what they can and can’t do.
你是說有些人被限制或被控制他們可以做什麼，不能做什麼。
Rob: Some organisations try to rank countries – or give them a score – based on how free its people are. It’s calculated according to certain factors - and my question for you today Finn is, according to the World Freedom Index 2013 by the Canadian Fraser Institute, the people of which country came out as number one, in terms of having the most freedom? Was it: a) the USA b) Sweden or c) New Zealand
一些組織試著把國家分成不同的等級——或者給他們打分——基於他們國家的人民自由的程度。根據一些特定的因素將其計算出來，今天的問題是，費恩，根據加拿大菲沙研究機構提供的2013世界自由指數，世界上哪個國家的自由指數是排在第一位的，也就是說是最自由的？選項有：a）美國b）瑞典c）紐西蘭
Finn: I’m going to say c) New Zealand.
我選擇C)紐西蘭
Rob: We』ll see if you’re right later on. So let’s talk more about freedom – a word that means many things to many people. We sometimes hear about political freedom – where people are able to vote in elections to choose who runs their country – and where people are able to challenge what their leaders do. We often refer to this system as a democracy
稍後我們會公布你的答案是否正確。現在讓我們進一步來談談自由——這個詞對很多人來說意味著很多東西。我們有時候會聽到政治自由——人們有權利來選擇讓誰來掌權這個國家——人們可以質疑他們的領導人的做法。我們常稱之為民主。
Finn: Many people would say that any system of democracy should automatically include the right to free speech – that’s the right to say what you want about anything you want. We also hear about freedom for women – when they have the same rights as men. This is one form of equality. We also hear about equality for people of different colour, religion or sexual orientation. People usually don’t feel free or equal if they are treated differently because of something like their race, colour, gender or disability. One example of this is the system of apartheid, which passed laws to restrict the freedom and rights of black people in South Africa.
很多人會說任何民主國家都會自動包括言論自由——你有權利想說什麼就說什麼的。我們也經常聽說女性自由--男女享有同等權利。這是男女平等的一種形式。我們也聽說不同膚色、不同地區、不同性別的人平等。如果因為種族、膚色、性別或殘疾而被不同對待，人們會經常感到不自由或不平等。其中的一個例子就是黑人的種族隔離，南非通過立法來限制黑人的自由和權利。
Rob: Many of those laws are no longer in existence – but freedom is still an issue around the world today. The BBC Freedom 2014 season looked at examples of modern-day slavery in the Thai fishing industry. There is forced labour, where people are made to work in terrible conditions for little or no money.
很多那樣的法律都不存在了——但自由在世界各地依然是一個問題。BBC 2014自由季看了現代奴隸制在泰國捕魚業的例子。那裡有人被強迫在糟糕的條件下工作，而且拿到的工資少得可憐，甚至有的還拿不到酬勞。
Finn: There’s also secrecy and surveillance – when you’re being watched by the government; these can also be seen as ways of controlling someone’s freedom. And some say that blocking the public’s access to certain information limits freedom.
還有被監聽隱私的問題——你被政府監視著；這些也可以被看做是控制他人自由的方式。也有人說阻止公眾對某些信息的自由訪問限制了他們的自由。
Rob: Yes, the American computer expert Edward Snowden famously disclosed thousands of confidential – or secret – documents held by America’s National Security Agency so people could see what information was being kept about them.
是的，著名的美國計算機專家愛德華·斯諾登披露了成千上萬的美國國家安全機構的機密文檔，因此人們可以看到有什麼信息是被保密的。
Finn: But possibly the most personal example of having your freedom restricted is when you are held unfairly against your will – in prison or as a hostage, which is what happened to Norman Kember, a British man who was taken hostage in Iraq in 2005.
但也許個人言論自由受到限制的極端例子是，你被不公平地對待，在監獄或作為人質，這種事發生在英國人諾曼·凱波的身上，2005年，他在伊拉克做了人質。
Rob: He says the only thing that kept him free was his mind. He would picture something good in his head. So, although as a hostage his body wasn’t free, he could still feel free by thinking about his garden - the flowers and trees and the sound of birdsong. Simple pleasures.
他說唯一能讓他自由的事情就是讓他的思想是自由的。他可以在腦海裡描繪一些美好的事情。儘管作為一個人質他的身體是不自由的，但他通過幻想鳥語花香的花園，來感受到自由。簡單的快樂。
Finn: Freedom really came for him when he was eventually rescued during a military operation on 23 March 2006, and the first thing he did when he returned to England was… walk in his garden. It must have been a great feeling.
他終於獲得了自由，在2006年3月23日的軍事行動中，他最終獲救。他回到英格蘭後做的第一件事就是...走進他的花園。那肯定是一件美妙的事情。
Rob: In different situations, people around the world have fought to win their freedom in many different ways. They have held protests and marches, and campaigned for a change in laws and attitudes – changing the way people think.
在不同情況下，世界各地的人民以不同的方式來追求自由。他們舉行抗議集會和遊行，並為了改變法律和態度舉行活動——改變人們的思考方式。
Finn: And when people living under a regime want to make a change for the better they sometimes take to the streets to chant, shout and sing. Lots of songs have been written about freedom. But if you can’t sing, there’s another, newer way to make your voice heard: people use social media to spread their message and hopefully get support for their cause. It’s what happened in a number of uprisings in the Middle East, such as the Arab Spring.
當人們想把現有制度下的生活變得更好時，他們有時到街頭朗誦、吶喊和唱歌。很多的歌曲都跟自由相關。但如果你不能唱，這有另一種方法可以讓外界聽到你的聲音；人們使用社交媒體來傳播信息,希望得到別人的支持。這種情況發生在中東的暴動中，比如阿拉伯之春起義。
Rob: Let’s get back to the question I asked you earlier about which country came first in the World Freedom Index 2013, according to the Canadian Fraser Institute?
讓我們回到我之前問你的那個問題上，根據加拿大 Fraser機構報告，2013年哪個國家的世界自由指數最高？
Finn: I said c) New Zealand. Was I right?
我說的是c）紐西蘭。我答對了嗎？
Rob: Yes, well done, the answer is New Zealand. The freedom index was based on a number of measures such as freedom of speech, religion, economic choice and women’s rights. You can find more detail about the BBC Freedom Season on the BBC website. We』ll be back with more 6 Minute English very soon. Please join us then.
是的，你很棒，答案就是紐西蘭。自由指數是基於一系列的參數比如言論自由、種族、經濟選擇和女權。你可以在BBC網站上觀看更多關於BBC自由季的細節。請記得收聽我們下期的節目。
Both: Bye.
再見