我为什么不担心“特金会” 「华盛顿邮报」
I am not worried about the Trump-Kim summit, and you shouldn't be either
By Alexandra Petri
There is no reason to worry about Tuesday's Donald Trump-Kim Jong Un summit.
First off, we know that President Trump has not prepared, because he did not feel that he needed to prepare. Preparation is for hemorrhoid[0] sufferers. “It's about the attitude,” Trump has said publicly.
[0]hemorrhoid [ˈhɛməˌrɔɪd]
1）<医>痔疮;
2）<俚>很难相处的人，招怨的人
Trump is known for his attitude, primarily the confidence that allows him to feel that he has a firm grasp of the facts all the time, regardless of what the facts are or whether what he has in his grip is in fact a dead rat wrapped in damp paper towels and not a fact at all. Nothing compares to the boundless, unruffled[1] confidence of someone who knows so little about a subject that he cannot even tell that what he is saying is wrong. This is why Trump has always been so successful on the international stage, or if he has not, he has not noticed.
[1]ruffled: Something that is ruffled is no longer smooth or neat. 弄皱了的; 弄乱了的
Her short hair was oddly ruffled and then flattened around her head.
她的短发被怪怪地弄乱然后压平在头上。
unruffled: calm and not upset by a difficult situation – use this to show approval 平静的；沉着的〔含褒义〕
Emily remained completely unruffled by the chaos.
埃米莉面对这混乱的局面毫不慌张。
Why prepare for this summit? Why break the habit of a lifetime? Any information he learned would just push out other tidbits[花边新闻；珍馐], like the lyrics to that snake poem-song he likes to recite at rallies or Tiffany’s name. It is fine to treat this summit with North Korea, a hostile regime in possession of nuclear weapons, the way you usually treat a group PowerPoint presentation about the water cycle.
Another reason to feel confident about this meeting is that Trump possesses a rare superpower. That superpower is not the United States, which erodes in status each day so much that it has to bumble[2] ham-fistedly[笨拙的] around the international stage under the guidance of an ergonomic[人类工程学的] inflatable chair-ball that has gotten loose and is rampaging[3] through the office destroying everything in its path, but a magical gift that transcends the laws of biology: Trump will touch Leader Kim’s hand and instantly understand how the summit will go.
[2]bumble: to speak in a confused way, so that no one can understand you
含糊不清地说话
What was Karl bumbling on about?
卡尔嘀嘀咕咕地在说什么呀？
也可以表示“笨拙地行动”：to move in an unsteady way
[3]rampage: to rush about in groups, acting in a wild or violent way
横冲直撞
[+ through ]
Drunken football fans rampaged through the streets.
喝醉酒的足球迷在街上横冲直撞。
“Within the first minute, I’ll know. My touch, my feel — that’s what I do,” said Trump. Yes, Trump can feel how people are by touching them. That is why he is always gripping European leaders so firmly. Trump literally possesses this ability, which is a real thing that people can have, not a half-baked[4] concept for a superpower that is sitting deep in the slush pile at Vertigo. He will reach out and touch Kim and he will suddenly understand everything, almost like Professor X, but without any of the time wasted in mentoring teens.
[4]half-baked: a half-baked idea, suggestion, plan etc has not been properly planned 〔想法、建议、计划等〕不成熟的，考虑不周全的
He’s always coming out with these half-baked ideas which will never work.
他总是想出这些半半拉拉、永远行不通的点子。
Does Trump know what the objectives of this meeting are? Probably, right? I would say probably. But that’s good enough.
And look, so what if I cannot convincingly state that there will not be a point during this summit where the conversation devolves into Trump retelling the story of his electoral college victory to a confused North Korean leader? Remember when Trump went to a meeting with FEMA about hurricane preparedness and spent a large chunk of the meeting talking about his approval rating, using steam and magnets to launch planes off of aircraft carriers, and suggesting that in Texas, people had gone out in boats to watch the hurricane come in? Or when he asked Justin Trudeau if Canada had burned the White House down in the 19th century and suggested that if it had that was probably a good reason for our current policy, and we decided it was a joke because the alternative was too terrifying to contemplate?
As Trump so perfectly put it, “It’s an interesting journey. It’s called the land of the unknown — who knows? We’ll maybe make a deal. Maybe not. As I say to everybody, are you going to make a deal? Maybe and maybe not. Who knows?” Exactly. It is possible that after this display Kim will observe that our lives are in the hands of this ill-informed wind tunnel full of scraps of old copies of Fortune and decide we are more to be pitied than threatened. That could happen! Anything can happen.
Another reason to feel good about the North Korean summit is that, after all, we have lived a long, full life. The world holds few further delights for us. We have seen all that it has to offer: brass fixtures and leopard carpets and long-haired women. We have seen large private planes and small private planes. We have eaten well-cooked steak everywhere around the earth. We have risen early to watch “Fox & Friends” while the sun rose behind us all over the globe. There is nothing here for us. So even if the summit backfires[5], we will be fine.
[5]backfire:
1) if a plan or action backfires, it has the opposite effect to the one you intended〔计划或行动〕发生意外，产生事与愿违的结果
The company's new policy backfired when a number of employees threatened to quit.
公司的新政策事与愿违，有好几名员工威胁说要辞职。
2) When a motor vehicle or its engine backfires, it produces an explosion in the exhaust pipe. (机动车或引擎) 回火
The car backfired.
这辆车回火了。
It is possible I am confusing us with someone else.
来源：The Washington Post