“我们正处于一个前所未知的境地。” 6月24日，当英国公投结果确定为脱欧后，英国首相大卫•卡梅伦办公室的一位助手这样告诉记者。
The UK’s historic vote to exit the EU has left people in shock and stirred anxiety across the globe. Even if the proceedings won’t be finalized for another two years, the impacts have already begun to show.
这一历史性的脱欧公投结果震惊全球，也让人倍感焦虑。尽管英国真正退出欧盟至少还需两年的时间，但其影响已经开始显现。
For starters, if not for “Brexit”, the English soccer team’s defeat in the Euro Cup on June 28 might not have been so bitter. But soccer fans mocked the fact that England was being dumped by Europe twice in one week – in the process, losing both its prime minister and national soccer team manager. That England met defeat at the hands of Iceland was also a source of humor.
首先，如果没有“脱欧”，6月28日英格兰足球队出局欧洲杯也未必显得如此苦涩。球迷们嘲讽英格兰在一周内被欧洲“抛弃”了两次——这期间英国失去了首相，而英格兰足球队失去了主帅。英格兰对战冰岛惨遭淘汰更是成为人们的笑柄。
“The beautiful irony. #England knocked out of #Euro2016 by country not even in the EU! Maybe that’s why they pressed the #Brexit button,” joked one Twitter user.
“真是绝佳的讽刺。2016欧洲杯上英格兰被踢出局，击败他们的球队竟然不是来自欧盟成员国的。或许这就是为什么他们按下了脱欧键。” 一位推特用户调侃道。
The British economy faces more serious effects. The vote created the biggest global financial shock since the 2008 economic crisis. The pound suffered its most dramatic one-day fall in history, plunging more than 10 percent against the dollar to hit levels last seen in 1985. London might lose its status as a global financial capital.
此外，英国经济面临更加严峻的影响。此次公投引发了自2008年金融危机以来，全球金融市场最大的震荡。英镑单日跌幅创历史记录，英镑兑美元汇率暴跌超10，触及1985年以来最低点。伦敦甚至可能失去作为全球金融中心的地位。
Quitting the EU could also cost the UK access to the EU’s trade barrier-free single market and means that it must seek new trade accords with countries around the world, Reuters reports. US President Barack Obama says the UK would be at the “back of a queue” for a US pact.
据路透社报道，退出欧盟后英国将无缘进入欧盟无贸易壁垒的单一市场，这意味着英国须设法与其他国家建立新的贸易关系。美国总统奥巴马称，脱欧后的英国在与美国达成贸易协议方面将会“排在队末”。
The referendum’s surprising results show a division in British society between the older generation – who backed “Brexit” because they believed they saw no benefits from UK’s ethnic diversity and free-market economy – and the younger generation, who favor globalization and the border-free policy.
公投的意外结果也让人看清了英国社会两派人的分歧——一方是看不到种族多元化和自由市场能带来任何益处的老年脱欧派，另一方则是赞成全球化和边境开放政策的年轻人。
China Daily’s UK editor Jon Lowe argues that a second, equally fundamental split was revealed in the voting results. He says there’s a gap between what Britons thought they were and what they really are.
《中国日报》英国编辑乔恩•劳则认为，投票结果揭示了另一个同样根本性的矛盾。他表示英国人想象中的自己和真实的自己是有差距的。
“Far from being a nation of modern, sophisticated, multicultural go-getters, it turns out we are still a country of beer-swilling bumpkins with a distaste for foreigners and a deep mistrust of European powers,” Lowe wrote.
乔恩•劳写道：“英国人还远远算不上具备现代思想、老成练达又深谙多元文化的能人，与之相比，我们的国家中尽是一些厌恶外来者、对欧洲强国充满极度不信任的贪杯乡巴佬。”
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