The big, blue "I Love NY" signs lined up in groups of five along highways and roads from Long Island to Buffalo1, New York are hard to miss.
“我爱纽约”的蓝色大路标,5个一组竖立在纽约州从长岛到水牛城的高速路和公路两旁,令人很难忽视。
The 500-plus tourism signs are at the center of a years-long standoff between the Federal Highway Administration and Democratic Gov Andrew Cuomo.
这500多个旅游路标一直是纽约州长、民主党人安德鲁·科莫与联邦高速公路管理局多年僵持的焦点。
The agency says the signs don't meet regulations and pose a potential distraction2 to drivers traveling at high speeds, and it has demanded that the state remove them by Sept 30 or lose $14 million in federal highway funding.
公路局称,这些路标不符合规定,可能令驾驶员在高速行驶时分心,要求纽约州在今年9月30日前拆除路标,否则将失去1400万美元的联邦高速公路资金。
New York's transportation3 department, however, has said there's no evidence the signs have directly contributed to any accidents.
然而,纽约州交通局称,没有证据证明这些路标直接导致了任何事故。
Despite Cuomo's assurances that the tourism campaign had run its course and the signs would be dismantled4 by the start of the summer vacation season, no signs have been removed. And the ongoing5 saga6 has provided plenty of fuel for the governor's critics.
尽管科莫保证旅游宣传活动已经结束,路标将在暑假开始前拆卸,但目前并没有任何一块路标被拆除。
"If the governor had put his ego7 aside, adhered to federal highway rules and found some way to compromise before he disregarded the law, we could have avoided this embarrassing debacle," said state Assemblyman Joseph Errigo.
州议员约瑟夫·埃里戈表示:“如果州长把他的自尊放在一边,遵守联邦高速公路法规,在他无视法律之前找到妥协的方法,我们就可以避免这一尴尬的困境。”
Cuomo has defended the signs, once calling them "a great, great success for this state." He considers them a key component8 in spurring the state's tourism industry.
科莫一直维护这些路标,曾称之为“纽约州的一大成就”。他认为这些路标是刺激纽约州旅游业的关键因素之一。
1 buffalo [ˈbʌfələʊ] 第7级 | |
n.(北美)野牛;(亚洲)水牛 | |
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2 distraction [dɪˈstrækʃn] 第8级 | |
n.精神涣散,精神不集中,消遣,娱乐 | |
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3 transportation [ˌtrænspɔ:ˈteɪʃn] 第8级 | |
n.运输,运输系统,运输工具 | |
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4 dismantled [disˈmæntld] 第10级 | |
拆开( dismantle的过去式和过去分词 ); 拆卸; 废除; 取消 | |
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5 ongoing [ˈɒngəʊɪŋ] 第8级 | |
adj.进行中的,前进的 | |
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6 saga [ˈsɑ:gə] 第9级 | |
n.(尤指中世纪北欧海盗的)故事,英雄传奇 | |
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