其他

外刊点评“川希最终辩” | 经济学人英文精读

2016-10-25 管鑫Sam 管鑫Sam
关注公众号   管鑫Sam [guansama] 

关注本公众号,拿出少许阅读时间,精读一段《经济学人》、《时代周刊》的精致英文,涨姿势,长本事,踏踏实实一步一个脚印。总有一天,阅读原版文章如履平地!

雅文 悦读

前阵子出国一个月,走遍大英帝国。回国之后直接被雾霾放倒,咳了一周,病才好,肺部已经适应了... 康复之后就给大家码字啦!         本段选自2016年10月22日这一期的文章,叫做Final insult,选段为文章最后一部分。前文称,在全国各家民调中,川普平均落后希拉里6个点,最终辩之后,形势未变,文章还特别把民调局势作为前提,来讨论川普“大选可能会被操控、未必会接受大选结果”的言论。这是一种巧妙的立场预设,营造出了一种“意识到自己会失败的人已经在唧唧歪歪啦”的气氛。大选实际结果不久之后就会出炉,成败会有定论,此时吃瓜群众的撕逼已无意义,抛去主张不谈,文章最后说到这场辩论本身的一些facts: 川普的确在面对希拉里这样的老牌政客时,显得自控“耐力”不足,“收”不太住,尽管辩论一开局还比较淡定,很快就陷入了希拉里的情绪陷阱。


通读

首先先把文章的精华摘录进行通读,重点关注加粗的部分。

Trump does not wear his inexperience lightly, as George W. Bush did in his sparring with the professorial Al Gore in 2000. And Mrs Clinton, who put in her best debate performance, is expert at needling him. In the end, sure enough, he fell apart. Castigated by Mrs Clinton, in response to his querying of the election’s legitimacy and for his lifelong habit of crying foul when he loses, he made himself look ridiculous. Mrs Clinton gave as an example Mr Trump’s past suggestion that the Emmy awards were rigged because a television show of his had not won; “Should have gotten it,” he growled. She later mused on her plans for welfare reform. “Such a nasty woman”, Mr Trump blurted into his microphone. He did not sound threatening so much as absurd.


开读吧

怎么描写“暴露智商”?

怎么描写“搓火”?

怎么吐槽被破坏妄想的“怨妇情结”?


第一部分解析


Trump does not wear his inexperience lightly, as George W. Bush did in his sparring with the professorial Al Gore in 2000. And Mrs Clinton, who put in her best debate performance, is expert at needling him.


本段以当年政治资历尚浅的小布什与民主党的老油子戈尔之战做对比,一个有意思的角度。


先看一下第一句:


Trump does not wear his inexperience lightly, as George W. Bush did in his sparring with the professorial Al Gore in 2000.


wear his inexperience lightly


"wear... lightly"是一个常用字典不太容易查得到却是外刊的常用表达。这里的wear取义就是在表面上呈现出什么状态或表情。比如:“wear a warm smile”面带温暖的微笑、“wear an air of triumph”面露胜者的得意/呈现一派胜利的气氛(视主语是人还是国家、城市等)、“wear an innocent look”表现出一副天真无邪的样子/装出一副天真烂漫的嘴脸(视褒贬语气)等。


再说wear...lightly。总的来说lightly在这个表达中就是一个程度:一种淡化处理、轻描淡写,以防太明显的感觉。举个外刊的例句:


You don't become president without clawing your way into the Oval Office, but voters prefers pols like J.F.K., Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama who wear their ambition lightly.


要入主白宫当总统总免不了和人撕来斗去,但是选民们偏爱的是那种政治野心微露不张扬的政客,比如肯尼迪、里根和奥巴马。


我们还可以引用到网络骂战中来。最常见的一句撕逼用语时:“别暴露智商了好吗?” 


Try to wear your ignorance lightly.


当然,还可以加上点讽刺的假礼貌语气,体现碾压感:


Would you mind, if that's not too much trouble, at least trying ot wear your ignorance more lightly, please?


sparring;professorial



spar虽然读音很像“撕逼”,但是它在指争论的时候(还可以指拳击练习对打,一般是和陪练,或搏击里和同拳馆的师兄弟练打)特指“切磋”,也就是争论时双方都没有表现出敌对的恶意(这也是本届总统大选最缺乏的)。比如提到sparring partner,可以指陪练,也可以指切磋问题的对方,虽然没有明显敌对恶意,但毕竟还是看起来站在对立面的,这与partner在我们心目中“并肩”的感觉还是有一定区别的,要注意。


professorial很容易看出是professor的形容词,意为“与教授相关的”、“像教授一样的”。这里的professorial实际上是在与前面的inexperience呼应,如同这次,在执政经验方面,一边是inexperienced Trump,另一边是professorial Clinton,如果要正面掰扯政策细节的话,很容易被虐得体无完肤。



参考译文

Trump does not wear his inexperience lightly, as George W. Bush did in his sparring with the professorial Al Gore in 2000.


川普没能像2000年小布什与经验老道的戈尔辩坛论道时那样,将自己缺乏执政经验的弱点淡而化之


再来看下面这句,对比了希拉里的表现:


And Mrs Clinton, who put in her best debate performance, is expert at needling him.



is expert at needling him


needle在这里的用法还是挺符合想象的,用针扎,除非是换成锥子直奔心脑,绝大多数情况下,针扎肯定是不能要人命的(请不要引用武侠小说),但是却能起到刺激对手、激怒对方的作用。


expert在这里用的是形容词,expert作形容词既可以作定语,比如seek an expert opinion from“从某人那里寻求专业意见”;也可以作表语,be expert at/in,这里就是这样的用法。


参考译文

And Mrs Clinton, who put in her best debate performance, is expert at needling him.


希拉里则献上了目前的最佳辩论表现,高杆地地操纵攒弄着川普的怒火


连起来:


Trump does not wear his inexperience lightly, as George W. Bush did in his sparring with the professorial Al Gore in 2000. And Mrs Clinton, who put in her best debate performance, is expert at needling him.


川普没能像2000年小布什与经验老道的戈尔辩坛论道时那样,将自己缺乏执政经验的弱点淡而化之希拉里则献上了目前的最佳辩论表现,高杆地地操纵攒弄着川普的怒火


第二部分解析


In the end, sure enough, he fell apart. Castigated by Mrs Clinton, in response to his querying of the election’s legitimacy and for his lifelong habit of crying foul when he loses, he made himself look ridiculous. Mrs Clinton gave as an example Mr Trump’s past suggestion that the Emmy awards were rigged because a television show of his had not won; “Should have gotten it,” he growled. She later mused on her plans for welfare reform. “Such a nasty woman”, Mr Trump blurted into his microphone. He did not sound threatening so much as absurd.

本段写到希拉里的战术成功以后,川普绷不住自己的脾气,掉进了希拉里的情绪陷阱的种种表现。



先来看一下概括:


In the end, sure enough, he fell apart. Castigated by Mrs Clinton, in response to his querying of the election’s legitimacy and for his lifelong habit of crying foul when he loses, he made himself look ridiculous.


Castigated by;querying of the election’s legitimacy;crying foul


sure enough,果然,果真,暗指不出意料。


这句中的fall apart也该注意,译为“崩溃”,显然与事实不符,川普并没有痛哭流涕跪倒下来说,“教练,我想打篮球。”


根据下文可以看出,实际上是说川普的“情绪自控”崩溃了,用一句俗话说,就是“绷不住了”。


castigate一般指非常严厉的批评,通常是对严重不端的严肃指责。当然蕴含的语气虽是这样,用在普通场合也未尝不可。就好比说,我们都知道“批判”、”批斗“在中华人民共和国语境中有着非常残酷的意指,但是它们也经常被我们要么泛用、要么笑用了。像“吃完饭我和你妈再好好批判批判你”这样的话也经常听到。所以也不要对castigate有绝对化的理解。


query的名词就是询问、问号,但它的动词用法除了一般性的疑问、询问,还经常强调出“怀疑甚至“质疑”的意指,所以这里用动名词querying比query要更加精准。因为通过声称选举会被操纵、结果会被“偷走”,川普已经在质疑(query、question)本届选举结果(虽然还没出来呢)的合法性(legitimacy)了。




这一点观感非常不好,很多电视节目都认为川普这样的做法是已经在为自己预见到的很可能的失败找好理由的。有一个很有意思的数据,多个民调显示,川普的支持者中平均72%的人认同选举结果可能会被操纵而对他们不利。


这样的做法,有一个专门的说法,就是cry foul。简明字典一般只会给个“抱怨”、“埋冤”这样的释义,但更重要的是,它经常用来指在对自己不利的情况或失败的情况下,cry着foul、foul!联想一下,foul也指在足球篮球等体育赛事中的“犯规”。其实体育赛事中我们常常遇到这样的情况,一旦涉及到自己国家和自己省市的代表球队的时候,球迷肯定是很主观的。你几乎在每次输球的时候都能听到大量的球迷说自己的球队输的有多冤,其实在吃瓜群众看来“完全不觉得有什么问题”。这说白了不是你有多懂规则,而是下意识地选择性关注了己方球员吃亏的情况,又下意识选择性地屏蔽了对方球员吃亏的情况,三个字可以概括:


护犊子。


所以几乎所有球迷都认为自己的球队吃亏了。赢了的,是在遭受不公正待遇的前提下靠实力碾压,输了的,就是在实力优势的前提下遭遇了不公正待遇。


可在逻辑上,这句话是个悖论。


不过,国足靠几十年的战绩教育了我国球迷,在看国家队比赛时我们还是蛮“自省”的。


总之,这种做法,就是cry foul,其实是有一定的贬义在其中的,若是加上always、all the time之类的,就是纯贬义了。


而本文中出现的“his lifelong habit of crying foul when he loses”,就不是一般程度的贬义了...



参考译文

In the end, sure enough, he fell apart. Castigated by Mrs Clinton, in response to his querying of the election’s legitimacy and for his lifelong habit of crying foul when he loses, he made himself look ridiculous.


果不其然,最终川普还是绷不住了。在他质疑大选的合法性之后,希拉里就此展开反击,并借此抨击说川普这人习惯性地只要一输就抱怨不公,他的质疑最终令自己显得可笑至极。



最后一部分,以例子来说明前面的总结:


Mrs Clinton gave as an example Mr Trump’s past suggestion that the Emmy awards were rigged because a television show of his had not won; “Should have gotten it,” he growled. She later mused on her plans for welfare reform. “Such a nasty woman”, Mr Trump blurted into his microphone. He did not sound threatening so much as absurd.


rigged;growl;muse on;blurt into



rigged绝对是这场辩论的高频词,be rigged“被操控”相当于中文语境下“暗箱操作”,“有黑幕”。比如:


The game was obviouly rigged against us.

显然这场比赛有不利于我们队的黑幕。


gave as an example...实际上就是give... as an example的逻辑,举出...来作为例子,说白了还是举了个栗子🌰。


growl就是低吼,以前写过一篇文章,叫《美国青春小说常用考试却不常考的词》的文章,回复“生日快乐”即可获取(生日那天推送的),其中就有这个growl。据我十年前读的那本书统计,在那一本书里这一个词就出现了11次之多,可见它多么高频。


suggestion在这段里不是“建议”,而是“表明”、“表态”。

参考译文

Mrs Clinton gave as an example Mr Trump’s past suggestion that the Emmy awards were rigged because a television show of his had not won; “Should have gotten it,” he growled.


希拉里的论据之一,就是列举出川普曾经表示他自己的电视节目没有拿艾美奖也是因为该颁奖有黑幕所致。此时川普低喝一声:“本来该拿奖的!”


muse on;blurt into;sound threatening so much as absurd



muse on/upon指沉思、思索,有时muse也指想着想着自言自语,这里更准确地理解是,希拉里在辩论中考虑如何措辞解说她的医保改革方案来回答问题时瞬间的停顿。


blurt一般是说,因为激动、紧张、恐惧、兴奋等情绪,一时不假思索脱口而出,很多时候指直言不讳地脱口而出内心真实的想法或者泄露秘密什么的。


not so much as... 的基本逻辑就是,“与其说... 还不如说是...呢”,一这句话为例:


He did not sound threatening so much as absurd.

要说他的语气有多恐吓吧,真没有;要说是荒诞可笑吧,那倒是真有点



(老照片,川普说...)


参考译文

She later mused on her plans for welfare reform. “Such a nasty woman”, Mr Trump blurted into his microphone. He did not sound threatening so much as absurd.


她随后在辩论中有一霎那停顿考虑如何措辞解说她的医保改革方案,川普就对着话筒脱口而出:“这女人可真不是什么好东西。” 要说他的语气有多恐吓吧,真没有;要说是荒诞可笑吧,那倒是真有点


再将第二部分也连起来:



In the end, sure enough, he fell apart. Castigated by Mrs Clinton, in response to his querying of the election’s legitimacy and for his lifelong habit of crying foul when he loses, he made himself look ridiculous. Mrs Clinton gave as an example Mr Trump’s past suggestion that the Emmy awards were rigged because a television show of his had not won; “Should have gotten it,” he growled. She later mused on her plans for welfare reform. “Such a nasty woman”, Mr Trump blurted into his microphone. He did not sound threatening so much as absurd.


果不其然,最终川普还是绷不住了。在他质疑大选的合法性之后,希拉里就此展开反击,并借此抨击说川普这人习惯性地只要一输就抱怨不公,他的质疑最终令自己显得可笑至极。希拉里的论据之一,就是列举出川普曾经表示他自己的电视节目没有拿艾美奖也是因为该颁奖有黑幕所致。此时川普低喝一声:“本来该拿奖的!” 希拉里随后在辩论中有一霎那停顿考虑如何措辞解说她的医保改革方案,川普就对着话筒脱口而出:“这个女人可真不是什么好东西。” 要说他的语气有多恐吓吧,真没有;要说是荒诞可笑吧,那倒是真有点



感谢支持

您能读到这里,说明本文一定对你有所启发,您可以酌情鼓励作者继续分享个人外语学习经验。


感谢赞助的读者们!

出售知识我有尊严,

购买知识你有逼格。


-文底有同类文章推荐-


“请管大喝咖啡,常来听你聊”


“赞助博主个本,多分享哦”

“送管老师支笔,多分享哦”



任意赏


同类文章推荐



里约奥运专题

里约颜色不一样的烟火|经济学人英文精读

外刊天团吐槽里约奥运|经济学人PK时代周刊

战斗民族禁药鸡尾酒|经济学人精读


美国大选专题

 十句妙语说川普|时代周刊英文精读

希拉里之谜|时代周刊英文精读

小皇帝喜迎川普大帝|时代周刊英文精读

川普头条大赢家|时代周刊英文精读

川普思想放光芒|经济学人英文精读

Trump的噩梦:穆斯林市长|经济学人

看大选学英语|之《“净衣派”和“污衣派”》

疯狂动物城: 反TRUMP寓言|双语精读笔记

看大选学英语|之《阶级斗争美利坚》(上)

看大选学英语|之《阶级斗争美利坚》(下)

看大选学英语|之《美利坚皿煮药丸》

看大选学英语|之《铁血右派林宝宝》

看大选学英语|之《姓社还是姓资?》


时政&文化专题

用英文聊《北京折叠》|经济学人英文精读

日理万“机”希思罗|经济学人英文精读

打倒“欧医” 拯救民主|经济学人英文精读

国际援助是把杀猪刀|经济学人英文精读

美国医疗乱象的解药?|时代周刊英文精读

美利监狱众国的巨兽|经济学人精读


英国脱欧专题

脱欧独孤断肠剑|经济学人英文精读

超燃: B字仇杀队!|10星推荐|经济学人精读

公投掀翻民主的小船?|经济学人英文精读

首相卡梅伦的遗产|经济学人精读|英国政治小百科


部分精选写作指南推荐

普利策奖得主教你英文写作|妙笔评Mad Men

跟查令街84号学写作|跟作家学写作书信篇

“囧途”英文吐槽指南|游记作家教你英文写作

马云腐国基友的剁手情缘|跟传记作家学写作

英国议长教你演讲&写作 | 如何拍女王马屁

钢铁侠Musk好句妙词|跟传记作家学写作

跟国务卿学写作|克里: TIME100小李子颂词


👇点击“阅读原文

打开英语新世界!


您可能也对以下帖子感兴趣

文章有问题?点此查看未经处理的缓存