2010/09/30

This Day in History September 29 歷史上的今天 9月29日

The world had to deal with a lot of turmoil during World War II. Before the bulk of the fighting began, European leaders tried to appease Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler since no one actually wanted another war. Because of this, the Munich Agreement was signed on this date in 1938. It stated that a part of Czechoslovakia, called Sudetenland, would be turned over to Germany. Hitler wanted it because the people there were ethnically German. The leaders from several European countries met to make the agreement. Oddly enough, Czechoslovakia’s leader was not one of them.
二次大戰期間,全世界得處理許多混亂的事情。在主要戰役爆發之前,歐洲領袖試圖安撫德國納粹和希特勒,因為沒有人真的希望再掀起另一場大戰。正因如此,慕尼黑協定遂於1938年的今天簽署,它明令捷克斯洛伐克的蘇台德地區必須割讓給德國。希特勒要此區的原因是該區的人民在種族上屬日耳曼人。許多歐洲國家的領袖會晤並制定此協定。但奇怪的是,捷克斯洛伐克的領袖卻未出席該會議。

單字片語

˙turmoil n. 騷動,混亂
例:The business has been in turmoil since the CEO stepped down unexpectedly.(執行長突然宣布下台後,該企業便陷入一片混亂。)
˙bulk n. 主體;大部分
例:The bulk of the country’s population is concentrated in the two largest cities.(該國的人口大部分集中在兩個最大的城市裡。)
˙appease vt. 平息,安撫
˙agreement n. 協定;協議
˙ethnically adv. 種族上
˙Oddly enough, S + V 奇怪的是,……
例:Oddly enough, Leo wasn’t tired after only getting three hours of sleep last night.(奇怪的是,里歐昨晚只睡了3小時卻不覺得疲倦。)

知識大補帖

慕尼黑協定是英國、法國、德國、義大利 4 國的領袖──張伯倫(Neville Chamberlain)(左起,圖為簽約前合影,翻攝網路)、達拉第(Edouard Daladier)、希特勒以及墨索里尼(Benito Mussolini)在德國慕尼黑召開的會議。英法為避免歐洲再度爆發戰爭,於是決定犧牲捷克斯洛伐克的權益與德國簽署慕尼黑協定,此乃一項綏靖政策(appeasement)。捷克斯洛伐克政府原先拒絕承認該項協定,但英法政府施壓,表示捷克斯洛伐克政府若不同意,那麼英法就沒有義務幫助協防。最終,捷克斯洛伐克只得妥協,同意割讓領土。

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