高考英语一轮复习 精选阅读理解文章六十篇12 1页

荷兰女王将让位于其长子 Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands has announced she is abdicating in favour of her son, Prince Willem-Alexander. ‎ 荷兰女王贝娅特丽克丝宣布退位，推选她儿子威廉-亚历山大即位。‎ In a pre-recorded address broadcast on TV, she said she would formally stand down on 30 April. ‎ The queen, who is approaching her 75th birthday, said she had been thinking about this moment for several years and that now was "the moment to lay down my crown".‎ Queen Beatrix has been head of state since 1980, when her mother abdicated.‎ In the short televised statement, the queen said it was time for the throne to be held by "a new generation", adding that her son was ready to be king.‎ Prince Willem-Alexander, 45, is married to Maxima Zorreguieta, a former investment banker from Argentina, and has three young children. ‎ He is a trained pilot and an expert in water management.‎ He will become the Netherlands' first king since Willem III, who died in 1890.‎ Speaking on television immediately after the abdication announcement, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte paid tribute to the queen.‎ ‎"Since her coronation... she has applied herself heart and soul for Dutch society," he said.‎ Abdication 'tradition'‎ Queen Beatrix is the sixth monarch from the House of Orange-Nassau, which has ruled the Netherlands since the early 19th Century.‎ Correspondents say she is extremely popular with most Dutch people, but her abdication was widely expected and will not provoke a constitutional crisis. ‎ Under Dutch law, the monarch has few powers and the role is considered ceremonial.‎ In recent decades it has become the tradition for the monarch to abdicate. ‎ Queen Beatrix's mother Juliana resigned the throne in 1980 on her 70th birthday, and her grandmother Wilhelmina abdicated in 1948 at the age of 68.‎ Queen Beatrix will be 75 on Thursday.‎ She has remained active in recent years, but her reign has also seen traumatic（创伤的） events. ‎ In 2009 a would-be attacker killed eight people when he drove his car into crowds watching the queen and other members of the royal family in a national holiday parade. ‎ In March last year her second son, Prince Friso, was struck by an avalanche（雪崩） in Austria and remains in a coma.‎