微博：@考虫Vivian老师

备注：加 * 的单词是考研词汇，原文中给出备注的词汇不需要掌握哦。

说明：本篇文章选自《纽约时报》(The New York Times)。关于排版，我们把重点词/难词放在了英文原文后面，辅助大家理解原文。接着才是中文翻译。避免原先有些同学在自己尝试翻译时眼睛老是瞄到中文翻译的情况~

Just as I thought I was running out of country, I arrived at tiny Schengen, tucked in among the vines on the western bank of the Moselle. With fewer than 520 residents, it’s certainly not the big-name, bright-lights destination one might expect for an agreement that would change the way people travelled in Europe. Nevertheless, it was here, on a murky morning on 14 June 1985, that representatives of Belgium, France, Luxembourg, West Germany (as was) and the Netherlands gathered to officially seal the deal on this revolutionary new border-free zone.

tuck /tʌk/ v.把…塞进狭窄的空间；把…藏入；收藏

murky /ˈmə:ki/ adj.昏暗的；阴暗的；朦胧的

seal the deal签订协议；订立协议

就在我以为自己正要跨出国界时，我来到了位于摩泽尔河西岸繁茂的葡萄园间的申根。这个人口不足520人的小村庄看起来确实不像那个改变历史的大名鼎鼎之地。不过，的确是在这个不起眼的小村庄，1985年6月14日那个灰蒙蒙的早上，来自比利时、法国、卢森堡、联邦德国（当时东西德还没有合并）和荷兰五国的代表正式签订了这个开放边境自由通行，具有革新意义的公约。

A bit of background

背景点滴

The number of European treaties, alliances, cross-alliances and counter-treaties that emerged during the second half of the 20th Century is near mind-boggling. The list screams bureaucracy, but understanding something of the various allegiances at this time goes a long way to setting the scene in Schengen, so stay with me.

mind-boggling adj.难以想像的；难以理解的；令人惊愕的

*bureaucracy/bjuəˈrɔkrəsi/ n.官僚主义；官僚作风

20世纪下半叶，欧洲的条约、联盟、跨境联盟和反条约的数量多得惊人。长长的一串名单透着刺耳的官僚制度，但是了解这段历史对看懂申根条约很有帮助，因此请听我讲下去。

As World War Two drew to a close in 1944, Belgium, Luxembourg and The Netherlands joined together to establish the Benelux. This party of three recognised the benefits that would come over the following, inevitably difficult, decades from working together, and were hoping to encourage trade through a customs agreement.

*draw /drɔ:/ v.(向某个方向)移动，行进

*inevitably /inˈevitəbli/ adv.不可避免地；必然地

1944年，随着二战接近尾声，比利时、卢森堡和荷兰三国流亡政府签署了比荷卢（Benelux）关税同盟协议。三国认识到，今后数十年三国合作能够克服财经与社会事务上不可避免的重重困难而获得发展红利，因此希望通过签署关税联盟协定来促进贸易流通。

—to be continued...