问答题
Baghdad, Iraq--If, in time, the attempt to implant a
pro-Western, democratic political system in Iraq ends up buried in the desert
sands, historians will have no shortage of things that went wrong. (46){{U}}
Equally, if the problems here ultimately recede, supporters of the enterprise
will find vindication (证明…正确) in the Bush administration's decision to hold
course as others lost faith.{{/U}} (47) {{U}}Either way, any
reckoning will examine the numbers of American troops committed here: whether
they were so thinly stretched that their mission was doomed from the start, or,
as Secretary Of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said last week, American commanders were
given "exactly what they've recommended" in terms of troops.{{/U}}
Mr. Rumsfeld has long taken a "less is more" approach to combat troop
levels, and in a BBC interview Monday, he seemed to move toward those now
pressing to reduce troop levels soon. (48) {{U}}"The reason for fewer," he said,
"is because ultimately it's going to be the Iraqi people who are going to
prevail in this insurgency (起义)"--in other words, Iraqi, not
American, troops are the ones who will win the war, if it can be
won.{{/U}} The words seemed at least to nod to politics. (49)
{{U}}Last week, even as opinion polls showed continuing erosion in support for the
war, a conservative from a state heavy with military Bases who has been a
staunch(坚定的)supporter of the war, Representative Walter B. Jones of North
Carolina, joined with another Republican and two Democrats in calling on
President Bush to begin drawing down the troops in Iraq by Oct. 1,
2006.{{/U}} Earlier this year, the Pentagon offered an even
earlier date for an initial reduction. But in recent weeks, American
generals here have been telling Congressional visitors that the disappointing
performance of many Iraqi combat units has made early departures impractical.
They say it will be two years or more before Iraqis can be expected to begin
replacing American units as the main guarantors of security.
Commanders concerned for their careers have not thought it prudent to go
further, and to say publicly what many say privately: that with recent American
troop levels 139,000 now-- they have been forced to play an infernal board game,
constantly shuttling combat units from one war zone to another, leaving
insurgent buildups unmet in some places while they deal with more urgent
problems elsewhere. Generals are not famous for wanting smaller
armies. (50) {{U}}But American commanders here have been cautioned by the reality
that the Pentagon(五角大楼), in a time of all-volunteer forces and plunging
recruiting levels, has few if any extra troops to deploy(部署), and that there are
limits to what American public opinion would bear.{{/U}} So the generals have kept
quiet about troop levels.
【答案解析】[解析] 这是一个主从复合句，even as引导的分句表示时间关系，主句主语Walter B. Jones有一个复杂的同位语，其中有修饰conservative的定语从句，另外形容词短语heavy with military bases作state的定语。
[词汇难点] erosion这里的意思是“减少，削弱”；短语join with sb.in doing sth．意为“与…一道做…”，call on sb. to do sth．意为“要求…做…”，draw down...意为“减少”。