导读：“精读精练”可能是雅思老师最最常挂在嘴边的话语了，那什么是精读呢?即为词汇、句子、篇章、题目层面的精读。通过精读帮助大家能够提升词汇知识，包括学科核心生词，同义词替换等;掌握更多句法，学会分解读懂长难句;学习文章结构，提高雅思写作水平。本文带来《经济学人》文章：美国采取措施保护LGBT员工在工作中不受歧视。

　　原文译文

　　*注：本文摘自6月18日《经济学人》

　　LGBT rights性少数群体的权利America’s Supreme Court protects LGBT workers against discrimination美国最高法院保护LGBT员工不受歧视A momentous 6-3 ruling一个重大的6比3裁决 1. WHEN ANTHONY KENNEDY retired in 2018, gay-rights supporters fretted overthe loss of a justice who had anchored four expansions of gay and lesbian rights. With his replacement by the more conservative Brett Kavanaugh, and President Donald Trump’s appointment of Neil Gorsuch 18 months earlier, LGBT ACTivists worried the proGREss would come to a halt. On June 15th the Supreme Court allayed those fears with a momentous decision that protects gay and transgender people against discrimination in the workplace.

　　安东尼·肯尼迪曾四次支持扩大同性恋权利，他2018年退休的时候，人们担心同性恋权利得不到保障。继任安东尼·肯尼迪的是更加保守的布雷特·卡瓦诺(Brett Kavanaugh)和唐纳德·特朗普总统18个月前任命的尼尔·戈萨奇(Neil Gorsuch)， LGBT活动人士担心同性恋权利扩大的进程会停滞。6月15日，最高法院做出了一项重大决定，保护同性恋和跨性别者在工作场所不受歧视，这减轻了人们的担忧。

　　2. By a 6-3 margin, the court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights ACT of 1964—a provision that bars discrimination “because of” a number of charACTeristics including “sex”—prohibits firing or disfavouring workers on the basis of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The majority view was penned by Justice Gorsuch.

　　最高法院以6比3的票数裁定，1964年《民权法案》第七条禁止“因”包括“性别”在内的一系列特征而产生的歧视，禁止因员工的性取向或性别认同而解雇或歧视他们。戈萨奇法官起草了多数意见。 3. Roughly half of America’s states have laws of their own protecting gay and trans workers; the rest do not. So until the latest decision, known as Bostock v Clayton County, an employee in much of America could legally marry a member of the same sex over the weekend and be legally sacked for being gay when returning to work. Now some 8.1m LGBT workers across America will enjoy federal protection from discrimination when they clock in.

　　美国大约一半的州都有自己的法律保护同性恋和跨性别者;其余的州则不然。因此，直到最近波斯托克诉克莱顿县的裁决，美国大部分地区的雇员周末可以合法和自己的同性对象结婚，但是周一去上班就会被合法解雇。现在，全美约有810万LGBT员工受联邦法律保护，在工作场合不被歧视。

　　4. At the oral arguments last October, Justice Gorsuch leaned towards the LGBT plaintiffs’ view. But he feared that a win for them mightherald “massive social upheaval”. Now, as author of the majority opinion (attracting the votes of Chief Justice John Roberts and the four more liberal justices), his worries seem to have vanished. “Sex plays a necessary andundisguisable role” in an employer’s decision to fire a worker for being gay or transgender, he wrote, and that is “exactly what Title VII forbids”.

　　在去年10月的口头辩论中，戈萨奇法官倾向于支持LGBT原告。但他担心LGBT的胜利会带来“大规模的社会动荡”。现在，作为多数意见的作者(吸引了首席大法官约翰·罗伯茨和四位较为自由派法官的投票)，他的担忧似乎已经消失了。他写道，在雇主决定解雇同性恋或跨性别员工时，“性扮演着不可掩饰的角色”，而这正是《宪法第七条》所禁止的。

　　5. The matter was simple, he contended, involving “the straightforward application of legal terms with plain and settled meanings”. A host of Supreme Court precedents stand for the same principle. These include discrimination against mothers, sexual harassment against men and other types of workplace bias ConGREss may not have contemplated in 1964. No one might have imagined back then that Title VII would prohibit a boss from firing gay or trans workers because of their identity, but “major initiatives” like a civil-rights law often have “unexpected consequences”.

　　他辩称，其实很简单， “直接应用意义明确的法律术语”就行。最高法院的许多案例都支持同样的原则。其中包括对母亲的歧视、对男性的性骚扰，以及国会在1964年可能没有考虑到的其他类型的职场偏见。在当时，没有人会想到《宪法第七修正案》会禁止老板因为员工的同性恋或变性人的身份而解雇他们，但是像民权法这样的“重大举措”往往会产生“意想不到的后果”。

　　6. Justice Kavanaugh wrote a dissent admonishing the majority for legislating from the bench. “[W]e are judges,” he wrote, “not members of ConGREss.” For the more vituperative Justice Samuel Alito (joined in dissent by Justice Clarence Thomas), the “radical” result in Bostock is based on “preposterous” reasoning. Although the majority invokes the late Justice Antonin Scalia’s teaching that judges should pay heed only to the words of a statute, Justice Alito wrote, “no one should be fooled” by the ruling. Justice Gorsuch’s opinion is “like a pirate ship” sailing “under a textualist flag” but silently “updat[ing] old statutes so that they better reflect the current values of society”.

　　卡瓦诺法官写了一份异议书，呼吁法官立法。“我们都是法官，”他写道，“不是国会议员。”对于和克拉伦斯·托马斯(Clarence Thomas)法官一起反对立法的塞缪尔·阿利托(Samuel Alito)法官来说，波斯托克案的“激进”结果是基于“荒谬”的推理。尽管大多数人援引已故大法官安东宁·斯卡利亚(Antonin Scalia)的教诲，即法官应该只关注法令的文字，但阿利托法官写道，“任何人都不应该被这项裁决愚弄”。戈萨奇法官认为，此次裁决 “像一艘海盗船”在“文本主义旗帜下”默默航行，默默“更新旧法规，以便它们更好地反映当前的社会价值”。

　　7. What are the broader implications of the ruling for LGBT rights? It depends whom you ask. Justice Gorsuch left open whether employers with religious objections to the gender identity or sexuality of their workers may one day claim an exemption from anti-discrimination laws. But hiserstwhile concern about social upheaval is nowhere to be found in the majority opinion. Bostock is just about workplace rights, he wrote, not “sex-segregated bathrooms, locker rooms and dress codes”. The court does not “prejudge” these questions.

　　对LGBT权利的裁决有什么更广泛的影响?这取决于你问谁。戈萨奇法官没有明确表示，对员工性别认同或性取向持宗教异议的雇主是否有一天可以申请反歧视法的豁免。但他过去对社会动荡的担忧已不复存在。他写道，博斯托克案件涉及的是工作场所权利，而不是“性别隔离的卫生间、更衣室和着装规范”。法院不会预先判断这些问题。

　　8. Justice Alito’s 54-page jeremiad berated the majority for failing tograpple with the potential implications. Many federal laws bar sex discrimination, and the majority’s “brusque refusal” to contemplate how they will be altered by the Bostock ruling is “irresponsible”. What about transgender employees challenging health plans that “do not cover costly sex-reassignment surgery”? Or women who have suffered sexual assault, for whom viewing “the anatomy of a male in a confined and sensitive location such as a bathroom or locker room can cause serious psychological harm”? Or a transgender person’s desire to compete in a sporting “competition previously reserved for members of one biological sex”?

　　阿利托大法官在长达54页的长篇大论中指责多数派未能把握住潜在的影响。许多联邦法律禁止性别歧视，多数人“粗暴拒绝”考虑博斯托克裁决对这些法律的影响，这是“不负责任的”。跨性别员工挑战了“不包括昂贵的变性手术”的医疗计划怎么办?或者是遭受过性侵犯的女性提出“在一个狭窄敏感的场所，如卫生间或更衣室，观看一个男性的解剖，可能会造成严重的心理伤害”时要怎么办?或者一个跨性别者想要参加体育比赛的愿望如何实现?

　　9. Religious conservatives who helped elect Mr Trump and were cheered by his Supreme Court picks are shocked by Justice Gorsuch’s defection from the cause. Their dismay may do little to soften evangelicals’ support for Mr Trump in November, but the decision to stand up for gay and trans rights may undermine several of his administration’s policies targeting LGBT people. A recently announced regulatory change allowing doctors to deny health care to trans people under the Affordable Care Act is now under a cloud, as are moves to allow adoption agencies to shut out same-sex couples and let school districts discriminate against trans students.

　　曾帮助特朗普当选总统并因他的最高法院人选备受鼓舞的宗教保守派人士对戈萨奇大法官的背叛感到震惊。他们的沮丧可能不会削弱福音派在11月对特朗普的支持，但支持同性恋和变性人权利的决定可能会削弱政府针对LGBT人群的一些政策。最近宣布的一项监管改革，允许医生根据《平价医疗法案》(Affordable care Act)拒绝为跨性别人士提供医疗服务，允许收养机构将同性伴侣拒之门外、允许学区歧视跨性别学生的举措，现在都受到了质疑。

　　10. For now, Bostock seems bound to serve conservatives with an example of burnishing the image of the Supreme Court as a fair-minded tribunal. Chief Justice Roberts is particularly keen to rescue justices from the charge that they are merely politicians in robes. In 1989 Scalia joined the liberal side of the court to strike down a law banning flag-burning. That was his exhibit A of how his jurisprudence was rooted in law, not personal ideology. Justice Gorsuch, Scalia’s successor, now has a similar landmark.

　　目前而言，博斯托克案件似乎注定要成为改善最高法院作为一个公正法庭形象的例子。首席大法官罗伯茨尤其一心想将大法官们从“他们只不过是穿着长袍的政客”的指控中解救出来。1989年，斯卡利亚加入了最高法院的自由派阵营，推翻了一项禁止焚烧国旗的法律。这就是他的法理学如何植根于法律而非个人意识形态的证据。斯卡利亚的继任者戈萨奇法官如今也有了类似的名片。

　　精读解析

　　篇章结构P1：美国最高法院的一项裁决保护同性恋和跨性别者在工作场所不受歧视。P2—P3：美国起草法案反对职场歧视同性恋和跨性别者。P4—P6：戈萨奇法官支持LGBT群体的权利。P7—P9：LGBT裁决可能会带来的影响。P10：法律应该只关注法律本身而不是其他。

　　重点单词allay/ə'leɪ/vt. 减轻;使缓和;使平静【例句】The tumult of Elizabeth's mind was allayed by this converSATion.这番谈话以后，伊丽莎白的骚忧的心境平静了些。

　　fret over 担心【例句】Critics also fret over an absence of desperately needed financial expertise.评论家们也为布哈里未能任命一位亟需的懂业务的财政部长而感到深深的忧虑。

　　anchor/'æŋkə/ n. 锚;给人安全感的物(或人)vt. 抛锚;担任(电视节目等的)主持人【例句】The ship cast anchor for the night.这船抛锚过夜。

　　momentous/mə(ʊ)'mentəs/ adj. 重大的, 严重的【例句】For most, this momentous migration is their first.对于大多数来说，这次迁徙是他们的处女旅。

　　discrimination/dɪ,skrɪmɪ'neɪʃ(ə)n/ n. 歧视;辨别; 辨别力, 识别力【例句】Ethnic discrimination still exists in the U.S.种族歧视在美国仍然存在。

　　clock in打卡上班;记录上班时间【例句】What time did she clock in?她什么时间打的卡?She forgot to clock in today.她今天忘记打卡了。I got in trouble with the boss because I clocked in 20 minutes late today.我今天迟到了20分钟，老板很生气。

　　lean towards vt. 倾向(偏向)【例句】Remarks from some of the liberal justices seemed to lean towards the latter-and thus towards Aurelius.一些自由派法官的言论似乎倾向于后者—因此也倾向于Aurelius。

　　plaintiff/'pleɪntɪf/ n. 原告【例句】Hence the plaintiffs' search for less elusive accomplices.因此原告开始寻找神出鬼没的同谋者。

　　herald/'her(ə)ld/ n. 使者, 预报者vi. 预示【例句】This could herald big changes for the country.这也许预示了这个国家即将发生改变。

　　social upheaval社会动荡【例句】Then a period of conflict and social upheaval led to universal suffrage and education for all.随后，一段冲突和社会动荡时期带来了普选和全民教育。

　　undisguisable adj. 毫不掩饰的

　　precedent/'presɪd(ə)nt/n. 范例, 判例【例句】There is no precedent for such a procedure.这样的程序是没有前例的。

　　dissent/dɪ'sent/ n. 意见的分歧vi. 不同意, 持异议【短语】dissent from不赞同;与…意见不同【例句】There's growing evidence of dissent within the ranks.现在有越来越多的证据表明军队内部存在分歧。

　　admonish/əd'mɒnɪʃ/ vt. 劝告, 训诫;(温和地)责备，轻责【例句】The judge admonished us not to consider it.法官告诫我们不要考虑这些。

　　vituperative/vi'tju:pərətiv/ adj. 充满辱骂的,责骂的【同根】vituperate vt. 谩骂,辱骂vituperation n. 谩骂;辱骂;坏话vituperator n. 谩骂;辱骂;坏话【例句】If the image of quiet, contemplative debate seems anachronistic in these vituperative times, the contrast is even more poignant after the Justice's latest decision.如果说，在这个动辄谩骂的时代，安静、沉思式的辩论已经显得不合时宜，最高法院做出最新裁决后，二者的反差较之前有过之而无不及。

　　preposterous/prɪ'pɒst(ə)rəs/ adj. 反常的,荒谬的;荒谬可笑的【例句】Many scholars find this to be somewhere between insufficient, improbable and preposterous.许多学者认为依靠具有合并大优势的单一突变体的这一语言进化理论是不充分、不恰当，而且荒谬的。

　　exemption/ɪɡ'zempʃn/n. (义务等的)免除;免(税);(收入中的)免税额【同根】exempt vt. 免除;豁免 adj. 被免除的;被豁免的【例句】Japan wants an exemption from those tariffs.日本希望免除这些关税。

　　erstwhile/'ɜːstwaɪl/ adj. 过去的, 从前的【例句】Sessions believes his erstwhile colleagues have been misled.塞申斯认为，他以前的同事被误导了。

　　prejudge/priː'dʒʌdʒ/ vt. 预先判断;对…预先作出判决【例句】As for the future, I don't want to prejudge any decisions which were made by the comprehensive inquiry about what happened and about what should happen.从此以后，对于综合调查对所发生何事即将来怎样而做出的决定，我不会预先做出判断。

　　jeremiad/ˌdʒerɪ'maɪæd/ n. 悲叹;伤心的故事【例句】And stop carrying out a jeremiad against my client.别再长篇大论地打击我的当事人了。

　　berate/bɪ'reɪt/ vt. 严责;申斥【例句】No more belittling, berating, rude sarcasm.不要轻视，不要随意指责，不要挖苦讽刺。

　　grapple with v. 扭打;努力克服【例句】Meanwhile, the government is still grappling with the economic fallout.与此同时，政府仍在努力应对经济影响。

　　brusque/brʊsk/ adj. 唐突的;直率的;无礼的【例句】She began asking questions so brusquely and giving orders so decisively Pork's eyebrows went up in mystification.她一开口便突如起来提出问题，并果断发布命令。波克翻着眼睛手足无措了。

　　defection/dɪ'fekʃn/ n. (对国家、事业等的)背叛【例句】The defection came at a time of heightened tension over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.叛逃事件发生时，两国关系因朝鲜核武器计划而高度紧张。

　　evangelical/iːvæn'dʒelɪk(ə)l/ n. 信福音主义者;福音(书) adj. 新教会的【例句】Some leave for evangelical and Pentecostal churches.一些人离开天主教后到福音派和五旬节派教会。

　　undermine/ʌndə'maɪn/ vt. 在某物下挖洞或挖通道; 侵蚀…的基础;暗中破坏; 逐渐削弱【例句】My father's health was undermined by drink.我爸爸的健康逐渐为酒所损害。

　　shut out关在外面，排斥【例句】Being shut out would have the opposite effect.如被拒之门外，效果会大大相反。

　　burnish/'bɜːnɪʃ/ vt. 擦亮;使…光亮;将…打磨光亮n. 光泽;抛光;闪闪发光【例句】The craftsman burnished the brass plates until they glowed.工匠把铜板打磨得发亮。

　　fair-minded/'fεəmaindid/ adj. 公正的,公平的【例句】She is one of the most fair-minded people I know. 她是我认识的人里最公正的一个。

　　tribunal/traɪ'bjuːn(ə)l/ n. 法庭;法官席;裁决【例句】A labour union was pleased with the tribunal's announcement.一个工会组织对这一声明感到满意。

　　strike down杀死;击倒【例句】Spain's highest court struck down those laws.西班牙最高法院撤销了这些法律。

　　jurisprudence/ˌdʒʊərɪs'pruːd(ə)ns/ n. 法学;法理学【例句】Establishment-clause jurisprudence is as easy to understand as the Book of Revelation.国教条款的判例与《圣经》启示录一样难以索解。

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