2020年大学英语四级阅读题文章精读(2)

2020

年大学英语四级阅读题文章精读

(2)

Passage Two

Europe's Gypsies, Are They a Nation?

The striving of countries in Central Europe to enter the

European Union may offer an unprecedented chance to the

continent's Gypsies

（

or Roman

）

to be recognized as a nation,

albeit one without a defined territory. And if they were to

achieve that they might even seek some kind of formal place

—

at least a total population outnumbers that of many of the

Union's present and future countries. Some experts put the

figure at 4m-plus; some proponents of Gypsy rights go as high

as 15m.

Unlike Jews, Gypsies have had no known ancestral land to

hark back to. Though their language is related to Hindi,

their territorial origins are misty. Romanian peasants held

them to be born on the moon. Other Europeans

（< /p>

wrongly

）

thought them migrant Egyptians, hence the derivative Gypsy.

Most probably they were itinerant metal workers and

entertainers who drifted west from India in the 7th century.

However, since communism in Central Europe collapsed a

decade ago, the notion of Romanestan as a landless nation

founded on Gypsy culture has gained ground. The International

Romany Union, which says it stands for 10m Gypsies in more

than 30 countries, is fostering the idea of “self

-

rallying”.

It is trying to promote a standard and written form of the

language; it waves a Gypsy flag

（

green with a wheel

）

when

it lobbies in such places as the United Bations; and in July

it held a congress in Prague, The Czech capital. Where