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  3. On the RER Line from Paris that serves the banlieue of Sartrouville, an adve

On the RER Line from Paris that serves the banlieue of Sartrouville, an adve

游客2025-01-12  7
问题     On the RER Line from Paris that serves the banlieue of Sartrouville, an advertising hoarding shows the three leading candidates for the French presidential election: the Socialists’ Segolene Royal, the centre-right’s Nicolas Sarkozy and the centrist Francois Bayrou. The picture of Mr. Sarkozy has been sprayed out and a graffiti caption added: "dictator".
    Mr. Sarkozy inspires dread or admiration, but seldom indifference. In the banlieues, with their young, jobless ethnic minorities, these feelings are intensified. To some, Mr. Sarkozy is a straight talker, ready to take on gangs, welfare fraudsters and illegal immigrants. To others, he is an authoritarian who favours heavy-handed policing and panders to anti-immigrant prejudice. "Voters are very divided about him," concedes Pierre Fond, Sartrouville’s mayor, who is from Mr. Sarkozy’s party. "His image is strong, so he provokes strong reactions." Mr. Sarkozy has not been to the banlieues during his campaign.
    With only two weeks left before the first round, fears of trouble in the banlieues have erupted again. Six hours of fighting and vandalism last week at the Gare du Nord, the station that serves many Parisian suburbs, after a passenger jumped the barrier and resisted a ticket check, stirred memories, and gave candidates a chance to air their differences over law and order.
    Mr. Sarkozy swiftly accused Ms. Royal of "moral bankruptcy" for deploring the breakdown of trust between the police and ordinary citizens before denouncing the barrier-hopping passenger. In turn, Ms. Royal charged Mr. Sarkozy with failing to do anything for the banlieues and of using repressive policing methods. "Fire is smouldering in the ashes," she said. "The slightest spark could set it off again."
    Five years ago, popular anxieties about insecurity, crime and the banlieues helped the far-right Jean-Marie Le Pen to edge out the Socialist candidate, Lionel Jospin, in the first round. Who stands to benefit from similar concerns this time? The Socialists have in Ms. Royal a candidate who has sounded tough on crime, arguing on one occasion that young offenders should be put under military supervision. Mr. Sarkozy has a mixed record in office. Overall crime has dropped since 2002 by 9%; but violent attacks have risen by 14%.
    Yet Mr. Sarkozy escaped mostly undamaged from the 2005 riots in the banlieues, and has retained his tough-cop image. A new poll by Ifop, a pollster, suggested that 43% of respondents find him the most credible candidate on security, next to just 15% for Ms Royal, and a surprisingly low 8% for Mr. Le Pen. It is not natural territory for Ms. Royal. This week she tried to steer the debate back to jobs and wages, by visiting striking workers at a car factory.
    In the banlieues themselves, the political picture is more mixed. Sartrouville, with 53,000 residents, is home both to the housing project of Les Indes, one of France’s 23 "most sensitive" zones, and to neat rows of detached houses with shutters and net curtains. It was badly scarred by riots in 1991, but only lightly touched in 2005. Today Sartrouville’s main square has been scrubbed up, pedestrianised and decorated with giant potted plants and a fountain. A Muslim prayer hall has opened in a disused industrial building. Three tower-blocks are to be demolished.
    After a pilot project that included more video-surveillance and outdoor lighting, crime has dropped. Older residents like Mr. Sarkozy’s tough line. But young hooded men complain of police harassment, and blame him for it. Others fear that he is pitting the French against one another, a factor that could work against him in a second-round run-off.
    In the town hall, just up from the Afro-Beaute Salon, the mayor bets on Mr. Sarkozy coming top in the first round. But he also says Mr. Le Pen’s support of 14% in the polls is underestimated. "I think he’ll get closer to 20%," he says. "The same preoccupations from 2002 are still there today." [br] The phrase "take on" (Para.2) is closest in meaning to______.
选项 A、confront
B、attack
C、yield to
D、eliminate
答案 A
解析
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