总结：snarl, ingredient, perk, oddity, evoke

Even for strike-prone France, this has been a busy week. On Tuesday, teachers, postal workers and fire fighters poured in the streets protesting for better salaries and working conditions. On Wednesday, the tobacconists went on strike against a new anti-smoking law. Meanwhile, students have blocked roughly 40 universities nationwide to express their discontent about government plans to grant higher education institutes greater autonomy.

对于热衷于罢工的法国人来说，这周是非常忙碌的一周。星期二，教师、邮政工人及消防员涌入各街道要求改善收入及工作条件。周三，烟草商为反对一部新禁烟令而进行了罢工。同时，还有很多学生封锁了全国约40所大学，表达了他们对政府给高校更多自主权的决定的不满。

But it is a massive transportation strike, now in its second week, that has caused the most damage. Although unions and government officials have begun negotiating reforms to special pensions - and more trains are running - the strike continues to (snarl) traffic, particularly in the Paris area.

但规模更多大的是运输行业的罢工，目前它已持续了2周，并带来了非常严重的损害。尽管各工会与政府官员已经开始了有关“特殊养老金”改革的谈判，想让更多列车运行起来，但罢工使得法国的交通继续陷入混乱，特别是巴黎地区。

The unrest carries all the classic French (ingredients). The government proposes reforms. The French protest. The government backs down. But this time around, the country's chief executive is Nicolas (Sarkozy).

动荡的局面使得法国所有长久的（不良）成分浮出了水面，政府打算改革，法国人民抗议，政府妥协。但这次，他们面临的总统是尼古拉·萨科齐。

Surveys show a stunning majority of French support (their) hard-charging new president as he tries to end special pension perks benefiting a small (slice) of the population, most of them (rail and) utility workers.

调查显示，令人吃惊的是目前绝大部分法国人都支持这个很难控制的新总统，因为他努力终止只让一小部分人受益的特殊养老金计划，其中大部分都是铁路及公用事业的工人。

On Sunday, several-thousand protesters even demonstrated against the strikes - an (oddity) in a country where walkouts usually (evoke) sentiments of "solidarity" against the authorities.

周日，有好几千名抗议者甚至示威游行反对罢工，这对一个国家来说是极其奇怪的现象，因为罢工通常会激起人们团结一致对抗权威。