托福阅读材料(139)：一份永久的遗产?

　　托福阅读背景材料/知识之一份永久的遗产A lasting Legacy，新东方在线托福考试频道助力大家托福冲刺备考！

　　A lasting Legacy?

　　Senator Timothy Rogerson was obsessed with the keen desire of leaving behind a lasting legacy in the United States legislature. He was the sponsor of more legislation than any other senator in the entire history of the United States of America. Exerting almost limitless effort to ensure the Senate would legislate on this or that pet project of his, his zeal was legendary. No wonder, people used to joke about him, like:” Old Tim wants to become a legend in his own lifetime.” Indeed, Senator Rogerson knew little about leisure, his only leisure activity being to grow tiny crops of various types of legumes on the ledge of his office window (a weird pastime, if ever there was one). Thus it went for more than a quarter of a century. Then one day a bombshell dropped. In his zeal to lengthen his tenure as a senator, Old Tim had used any means, fair or foul. He had, for example, at one time written lengthy testimony against his strongest potential opponent, accusing him of having an amorous liaison with a pretty young intern. Regrettably, for Senator Richardson, many of these statements turned out to be nothing but libel. Sure enough, the time came when enough was enough, and a sufficient number of his political enemies in his own party were shaken out of their lethargy and began to speak out. “He’s been fooling the electorate for a long time now, and he’s nothing but a liability for our party. Let’s start impeachment proceedings, because the leopard won’t change his spots!” This was too much for Old Tim. He grew lethargic. His speech became slurred. His handwriting was no longer legible. In the end,all that criticism proved lethal, and he took an overdose.

　　一份永久的遗产?

　　蒂莫西罗杰森参议员要给美国的立法机关留下一份永久的遗产，他被这个热切的愿望所困扰。他是美利坚合众国有史以来的参议员中提出立法议案最多的人。为了保证参议院给他重视的项目立法，他几乎付出了无限的努力，他的热情是传奇性的。难怪人们经常这样开他的玩笑:“老蒂姆想成为他那个时代的传奇人物。”

　　的确,罗杰森参议员对闲暇知之甚少，他惟一的闲暇活动是在他办公室的窗台上种植各种微型豆类作物(如果曾经有过这样的消遣方式,那也是很怪异的一种)。

　　这样过去了四分之一世纪多的时间。然后，有一天，突然发生了惊人的事情。老蒂姆热切期望延长他的参议员任期，用尽了各种办法，无论正当与否。例如，他曾经写了冗长的证词，控告他最强大的潜在竞争对手与年轻漂亮的实习生有暧昧的私通关系。遗憾的是，对于理查森参议员来说，诸如此类的声明只不过是诽谤而已。

　　不出所料，到了适可而止的时候，他自己党派中足够数量的政敌从昏睡中醒来，开始发表自己的意见。“长期以来，他一直在愚弄选民，他只不过是我们当的累赘。让我们启动弹劾程序，因为豹改变不了他的斑点。

　　这些让老蒂姆受不了。他变得萎靡不振，说话变得含糊不清，字迹不再清楚。最后，那些批评证明是致命的，他服用了过量药物。

　　看过上面的翻译大家应该都能看出词汇的重要性，而如果利用已经掌握的词汇去理解短文的意思，就是我们需要重点突破的技能了。