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１８岁的市长

作者: 日期:2009-3-7 12:29:48
A merica's youngest mayor, Michael Sessions,is just an 18-year-old high school student, who lives with his mother. Michael Sessions is too young to drink cham- pagne1 legally,but the 18-year-old high school senior has reason to celebrate:He unofficially won a race for mayor.

　　Michael held on2 to a two-vote lead2 to become the mayor of Hillsdale, Michigan. By 670 votes to 668,Sessions beat the sitting (现任的) mayor, who is 51, and had all the advantages of incumbency(现任职权). And he won despite the fact that his name was not even on the ballot(选票).

　　Sessions was too young to stand by the spring (2005) deadline for registration (登记). So after he turned 18,he entered as a write-in4 candidate--meaning voters had to remember his name and add it to the ballot by hand in order to support him.

　　Once his victory is certified and he's sworn (宣誓)in the ceremony which is set for Nov. 21, 2005--he may be the youngest mayor in the USA.The U.S. Conference of Mayors lacks the data to determine whether he'll be the youngest mayor ever. At least two other teens have been elected as mayors in recent years, but they were a tad(微量) older and represented much smaller towns.

　　America's youngest mayor, Sessions plans to devote after-school hours to the job and use his bedroom as his office because other than5 a $250 per month salary,he re- ceives no other compensation. The mayor doesn't even have an office at city hall.

　　He says many voters told him they wanted "new energy," but he was still caught off-guard6 by the support he received. "He was a real go-getter (志在必得的人)during his campaign,”says Steven Brower, a government and economics teacher at Hillsdale High School. "He acted like he was running for(竞选) president."
　　
　　注释：
　　1． champagne n. 香槟酒
　　2. hold on to 保持，不要放弃
　　3． lead n．超前量，领先程度
　　4． write-in a． [主美]选举人在选票上写入的非原定候选人
　　5. other than 除了
　　6． off-guard a. 措手不及，未做好准备的
　　
　　美国最年轻的市长迈克尔·塞申斯还只是一个年仅18岁的高中生，和他母亲住在一起。迈克尔·塞申斯还未到允许喝香槟酒的法定年龄。但是这名18岁的高中四年级学生还是有理由庆贺一番：因为他非正式地赢得了市长竞选的胜利。

　　迈克尔以领先两票的优势成为美国密歇根州希尔斯代尔市的市长。塞申斯以670票对668票击败了51岁的现任市长，而现任市长拥有作为在职官员的所有有利条件。尽管迈克尔·塞申斯的名字甚至没有出现在选票上，但他还是赢了。

　　由于年龄太小，塞申斯在2005年春天最后期限之前，还不能进行登记以参加竞选。因此他在年满18周岁以后，以非原定候选人的身份参加竞选，也就是说，选民为了支持迈克尔·塞申斯，必须记住他的名字并亲手把它写到选票上。

　　一旦他的胜利得到确认，并在2005年11月21日的就职典礼上完成宣誓以后，他可能就是美国最年轻的市长。美国市长联合会缺乏证明他是否是美国有史以来最年轻市长的资料。在最近几年，至少还有两名十几岁的少年被选为市长。不过他们都比迈克尔·塞申斯稍微大一些，而且他们所当选的城镇都小得多。

　　美国最年轻的市长迈克尔·塞申斯计划把课余时间都投入到工作中，并把他的卧室用作办公室。因为除了每个月250美元的薪水，他领不到其他任何补助。这位市长甚至在市政厅没有办公室。

　　迈克尔·塞申斯说，许多选民告诉他，他们需要“新生力量”，不过他还是对受到的支持感到措手不及。希尔斯代尔高级中学“政府及经济学”课程老师史蒂文·布劳尔说：“在竞选中，迈克尔·塞申斯的确是一个有冲劲和进取心的人，他表现得就像是在参加总统竞选。”