凯特王妃到底怎么了
近日，英国凯特王妃近三个月没有公开露面的“失踪之谜”持续发酵，相关“阴谋论”引发热议。
🤔️小作业：
1. What was the primary reason behind William and Harry's reluctance to engage with the press?
A) Their desire to modernize the royal family's image.
B) The tragic death of their mother, Diana, and its aftermath.
C) A strategic decision advised by their public relations team.
D) The influence of social media trends.
A) It simplifies their relationship with the public and media.
B) It effectively shields them from online harassment.
C) It can lead to unintended consequences and further speculation.
D) It ensures complete privacy and control over personal narratives.
无注释原文：
The Royals Tried to Control Their Image Online. The Internet Had Other Ideas.
From: The New York Times
Trace back the digitally altered photograph of Catherine, Princess of Wales, and its roots lie in a tragedy of another Princess of Wales, Diana, whose death in 1997 predated the creation of Facebook by nearly seven years.
Diana’s fatal car accident, after a high-speed pursuit by photographers in Paris, left a lasting imprint on her sons, William and Harry. They grew up vowing not to take part in what they viewed as a pathological relationship between the royal family and the press, one in which they were the abused partners.
The rise of social media gave this younger generation of royals a way to bypass the tabloids they reviled, with popular platforms like Instagram and Twitter, where they could post carefully curated news and images of themselves, unmediated by the London papers or the lurking paparazzi.
But now they are experiencing the darker side of public life in the wild west of the web. Catherine’s photo, posted on social media and picked up by newspapers and broadcasters worldwide, has been swept into the maelstrom of rumors and conspiracy theories that have haunted her since she underwent abdominal surgery and receded from the public eye two months ago.
While William and Harry have struggled with these forces, the pressure has perhaps been most acute on their wives, Catherine and Meghan, who have taken turns being in the eye of an online storm. Meghan spoke recently about the “hateful” treatment she experienced while pregnant with her children.
“It must be so hard to deal with this,” said Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, the director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University. “It is often women who are subjected to the worst bullying and harassment.”
Catherine, of course, inadvertently contributed to the hothouse atmosphere by altering the Mother’s Day photo of herself and her three children. That unleashed a fresh storm of online speculation, with people sharing pet theories about how the image had been manipulated, whether by transposing Catherine’s head from a 2016 cover photo in Vogue magazine or recycling a shot of the family taken last November.
Visual investigators debunked both suggestions, but that didn’t stop the original posts from going viral, with one post promoting the Vogue theory racking up more than 45 million views.
Having set out to control her image, Catherine now finds herself in a predicament not unlike some of her royal forebears, dogged by an online pack no less feral than the photographers who chased Diana in Paris.
“Anyone in the royal family or their staffs who thinks that social media allows people to circumvent gatekeepers or control the narrative has not been paying attention to Meghan Markle’s experience,” Professor Nielsen said.
“These are deeply ambiguous spaces,” he said, “in which things that people want are inextricably linked with things that are deeply troubling.”
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注：完整题目见本文开头；中文文本为纽约时报官方译文，仅供参考
含注释全文：
The Royals Tried to Control Their Image Online. The Internet Had Other Ideas.
From: The New York Times
Trace back the digitally altered photograph of Catherine, Princess of Wales, and its roots lie in a tragedy of another Princess of Wales, Diana, whose death in 1997 predated the creation of Facebook by nearly seven years.
威尔士王妃凯瑟琳数码修改照片的根源可以追溯到另一位威尔士王妃戴安娜的悲剧，她于1997年去世，比Facebook的诞生早了近七年。
alter
alter /ˈɒl.tər/ 表示“（使）改变，更改，改动”，英文解释为“to become different; to make sb/sth different”举个🌰：We've had to alter some of our plans. 我们不得不对一些计划作了改动。
🎬电影《大侦探福尔摩斯》（Sherlock Holmes）中的台词提到：that will alter the very course of the world. 足以改变世界的力量。
predate
predate /ˌpriːˈdeɪt/ 1）表示“早于…存在（或发生）”，英文解释为“to have existed or happened before another thing”举个🌰：These cave paintings predate any others which are known. 这些洞穴绘画早于其他任何已知的同类绘画。
2）表示“（动物）掠食，捕食”，英文解释为“to kill and eat another animal”举个🌰：Some species of bat predate small mammals. 某些种类的蝙蝠捕食小型哺乳动物。
Diana’s fatal car accident, after a high-speed pursuit by photographers in Paris, left a lasting imprint on her sons, William and Harry. They grew up vowing not to take part in what they viewed as a pathological relationship between the royal family and the press, one in which they were the abused partners.
戴安娜在巴黎被摄影师高速追逐后发生致命车祸，给她的儿子威廉和哈里留下了永久的印记。在他们看来，王室和媒体之间存在病态的关系，他们是这种关系中受虐待的一方，他们从小就发誓绝不参与其中。
imprint
imprint /ɪmˈprɪnt/ 1）表示“压痕，痕迹”，英文解释为“an occasion when an object presses on something and leaves a mark”举个🌰：The button had left an imprint on my arm. 这只纽扣在我的手臂上留下了一个印痕。
2）表示“深刻印象；持久影响”，英文解释为“an occasion when an event or experience becomes fixed in someone's memory or leaves its mark in some way on their appearance”举个🌰：War has left its imprint on the strained faces of these people. 战争在这些人饱经沧桑的脸上留下了痕迹。
vow
vow /vaʊ/ 可以作名词，表示“发誓；誓言；许愿”；也可以作动词，表示“起誓；立誓；发誓”，英文解释为“If you vow to do something, you make a serious promise or decision that you will do it.”举个🌰：While many models vow to go back to college, few do. 很多模特儿发誓要重返大学，但几乎无人做到。
🎬电影《诸神之战》（Clash of the Titans）中的台词提到：You vowed to your wife you'd never let Helius wield a sword. 你曾对你的妻子发誓 你永远不会让赫利俄斯使用武器。
pathological
pathological /ˌpæθ.əˈlɒdʒ.ɪ.kəl/ 1）表示“病理学的；病理的”，英文解释为“Pathological means relating to pathology or illness.”如：pathological conditions in animals 动物的病理状况。
2）表示“（行为）无法控制的，病态的，非理智的”，英文解释为“(of a person) unable to control part of their behaviour; unreasonable”举个🌰：I've got a pathological fear of heights. 我有恐高症。
The rise of social media gave this younger generation of royals a way to bypass the tabloids they reviled, with popular platforms like Instagram and Twitter, where they could post carefully curated news and images of themselves, unmediated by the London papers or the lurking paparazzi.
社交媒体的兴起为年轻一代的王室成员提供了途径，可以绕过他们所唾弃的小报，他们可以在Instagram和Twitter等流行平台上发布自己精心策划的新闻和照片，同时不受伦敦报纸或潜伏狗仔队的干扰。
bypass
bypass /ˈbaɪ.pɑːs/ 1）表示“绕过；绕…走;避开”，英文解释为“to avoid something by going around it”举个🌰：We took the road that bypasses the town. 我们选择了绕过城镇的道路。
2）表示“忽视；置…于不顾；越过”，英文解释为“to ignore a rule or official authority”
tabloid
tabloid /ˈtæblɔɪd/ 表示“通俗小报”，英文解释为“(sometimes disapproving) a newspaper of this size with short articles and a lot of pictures and stories about famous people, often thought of as less serious than other newspapers”举个🌰：The story made the front page in all the tabloids. 这件事成了所有小报的头版新闻。
revile
revile /rɪˈvaɪl/ 表示“谩骂；辱骂；痛斥”，英文解释为“to criticize someone strongly, or say unpleasant things to or about someone”举个🌰：The judge was reviled in the newspapers for his opinions on rape. 这位法官因其对强奸的观点被报纸骂了个狗血喷头。
curate
curate /ˈkjʊə.rət/ 表示“操持（收藏品或展品的）展出；组织（音乐节的）演出；策划（展览等）”，英文解释为“to be in charge of selecting and caring for objects to be shown in a museum or to form part of a collection of art, an exhibition, etc.”举个🌰：She curated a recent exhibition of Indian artwork. 她最近策划了一个印度艺术展。
mediate
mediate /ˈmiː.di.eɪt/ 意思是“调停，调解，斡旋”，英文解释“to try to end a quarrel between two people, groups, countries etc.”举个🌰：My mom was the one who mediated between Jane and her mom. 我妈妈是那个调解简和她妈妈的人。
此外，mediate还可以表示“影响；减轻”，英文解释为“to change the effect or influence of something, especially to make the effect less bad”举个🌰：Exercise may mediate the effects of a bad diet. 运动可以减轻不良饮食造成的影响。
lurking
lurking /ˈlɜː.kɪŋ/ 表示“潜在的，隐藏着的；持续的，难消除的”，英文解释为“a lurking feeling exists, although it may not be very strong, and will not go away”举个🌰：She said she had a lurking suspicion that he wasn't telling the truth. 她说她总有那么一丝怀疑，认为他没有说实话。
paparazzi
单数 paparazzo /ˌpæpəˈrætsəʊ/，通常用复数 paparazzi /ˌpæpəˈrætsɪ/ 表示“追逐名人的摄影记者，狗仔队”，英文解释为“photographers who follow famous people in order to take photographs they can sell to newspapers”。
But now they are experiencing the darker side of public life in the wild west of the web. Catherine’s photo, posted on social media and picked up by newspapers and broadcasters worldwide, has been swept into the maelstrom of rumors and conspiracy theories that have haunted her since she underwent abdominal surgery and receded from the public eye two months ago.
但现在，他们正在网络的荒蛮世界体验公共生活的阴暗面。凯瑟琳的照片发布在社交媒体上，被世界各地的报纸和广播公司转载，这张照片被卷入了谣言和阴谋论的漩涡，自她接受腹部手术并在两个月前从公众视线中消失以来，这些谣言和阴谋论一直困扰着她。
maelstrom
maelstrom /ˈmeɪl.strɒm/ 表示“骚乱；极度混乱”，英文解释为“a situation in which there is great confusion, violence, and destruction”
conspiracy
conspiracy /kənˈspɪr.ə.si/ 表示“合谋；密谋策划；阴谋”，英文解释为“Conspiracy is secret planning by a group of people to do something illegal.”举个🌰：Seven men, all from France, admitted conspiracy to commit arson. 全都来自于法国的七名男子承认了合谋纵火。
📍conspiracy theories 阴谋论。
haunt
haunt /hɔːnt/ 表示“使经常苦恼，不断困扰”，英文解释为“to cause repeated suffering or anxiety”举个🌰：30 years after the fire he is still haunted by images of death and destruction. 那场火灾过去30年之后，死亡和毁灭的场景仍在他脑海中挥之不去。
undergo
undergo /ˌʌn.dəˈɡəʊ/ 表示“经历，经受（令人不快的事或变化） ”，英文解释为“to experience something that is unpleasant or something that involves a change”举个🌰：Playing board games is undergoing a revival in popularity. 棋盘游戏正经历着一场复兴。
🎬电影《白日梦想家》（The Secret Life of Walter Mitty）中的台词提到：But as we undergo this transition to LIFE online... we wanted to be candid with you... 但由于我们处于"生活"杂志网络化的过渡期...所以我们想明白告诉你们...
abdominal
abdominal /æbˈdɒmɪnəl/ 表示“腹部的”，英文解释为“Abdominal is used to describe something that is situated in the abdomen or forms part of it.”
While William and Harry have struggled with these forces, the pressure has perhaps been most acute on their wives, Catherine and Meghan, who have taken turns being in the eye of an online storm. Meghan spoke recently about the “hateful” treatment she experienced while pregnant with her children.
虽然威廉和哈里一直在与这些力量作斗争，但他们的妻子凯瑟琳和梅根承受的压力可能是最大的，她们轮流处于网络风暴的中心。梅根最近谈到她在怀孕期间经历的“仇恨”对待。
acute
acute /əˈkjuːt/ 1）表示“严峻的”，英文解释为“You can use acute to indicate that an undesirable situation or feeling is very severe or intense.”举个🌰：There is an acute shortage of water. 水严重短缺。
2）表示“（疾病）急性的”，英文解释为“an acute illness is one that has quickly become severe and dangerous”如：acute appendicitis 急性阑尾炎。
📍2024年政府工作报告Part 2提到：地缘政治冲突加剧，Geopolitical conflicts became more acute,
📍-cute来自拉丁语“acutus”，意味着“尖锐，敏锐”。想象宫殿中的一把剑，其刃口非常锋利，能够精准快速地切割任何物体，象征着“acute”的敏锐和迅速。近义词：sharp（锐利的），同根词：acuteness（敏锐），常用短语：acute awareness（敏锐的意识）
take turns
take turns = take it in turn(s)) 表示“轮流，依次”，英文解释为“When a number of people take turns, they do the same thing one after the other.”举个🌰：We take turns answering the phone. 我们轮流接电话。
“It must be so hard to deal with this,” said Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, the director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University. “It is often women who are subjected to the worst bullying and harassment.”
“处理这种事肯定很难，”牛津大学路透新闻研究所主任拉斯穆斯·克莱因斯·尼尔森说。“遭受最严重霸凌和骚扰的往往是女性。”
bullying
bullying /ˈbʊl.i.ɪŋ/ 表示“伤害；胁迫；欺负，欺凌”，英文解释为“the behaviour of a person who hurts or frightens someone smaller or less powerful, often forcing that person to do something they do not want to do”举个🌰：Bullying is a problem in many schools. 霸凌在许多学校都是一个问题。
bully /ˈbʊl.i/ 作名词，表示“恃强凌弱者，以大欺小者”，英文解释为“someone who hurts or frightens someone who is smaller or less powerful, often forcing them to do something that they do not want to do”举个🌰：You're just a big bully! 你欺负人！
bully作动词，表示“伤害；胁迫；欺负，欺凌”，英文解释为“to hurt or frighten someone who is smaller or less powerful than you, often forcing that person to do something they do not want to do”举个🌰：Our survey indicates that one in four children is bullied at school. 我们的调查表明，有四分之一的孩子在学校受人欺负。
harassment
harassment /ˈhəræsmənt, ˈhærəs-/ 表示“骚扰；烦恼”，英文解释为“Harassment is behaviour which is intended to trouble or annoy someone, for example repeated attacks on them or attempts to cause them problems.”举个🌰：Another survey found that 51 percent of women had experienced some form of sexual harassment in their working lives. 另一份调查显示有51%的女性在其职业生涯中曾遭遇过某种形式的性骚扰。
Catherine, of course, inadvertently contributed to the hothouse atmosphere by altering the Mother’s Day photo of herself and her three children. That unleashed a fresh storm of online speculation, with people sharing pet theories about how the image had been manipulated, whether by transposing Catherine’s head from a 2016 cover photo in Vogue magazine or recycling a shot of the family taken last November.
当然，凯瑟琳修改她和三个孩子的母亲节照片无意中加剧了这种气氛。这在网上引发了一场新的猜测风暴，人们分享自己最中意的理论，猜测这张照片是如何被修改的，究竟是从2016年《Vogue》杂志的封面照片上拿来了凯瑟琳的头部，还是回收利用了去年11月拍摄的一张家庭照片。
inadvertently
inadvertently /ˌɪn.ədˈvɜː.tənt.li/ 表示“无意地”，英文解释为“in a way that is not intentional”举个🌰：He inadvertently deleted the file. 他无意中删除了文件。
hothouse
hothouse /ˈhɒt.haʊs/ 1）表示“温室，暖房”，英文解释为“a heated glass building in which plants are grown”如：hothouse tomatoes 温室西红柿。
2）表示“（使受教育者，尤指儿童，迅速获取技能和知识的）优越环境，温室环境”，英文解释为“a place or environment in which people, especially children, are taught to develop skills and knowledge more quickly than usual”举个🌰：He was attracted by the hothouse atmosphere of Britain's top schools. 英国精英中学的优越环境吸引了他。
3）表示“（某活动比较集中的）地方，场所”，英文解释为“a place where there is a lot of a particular activity”如：a literary/political hothouse 文学/政治的温室。
unleash
表示“解放、释放；发泄；爆发”，英文解释为“If you say that someone or something unleashes a powerful force, feeling, activity, or group, you mean that they suddenly start it or send it somewhere”。
speculation
speculation /ˌspek.jəˈleɪ.ʃən/ 1）表示“推测；猜测；推断”，英文解释为“the act of forming opinions about what has happened or what might happen without knowing all the facts”举个🌰：There was widespread speculation that she was going to resign. 人们纷纷推测她将辞职。
2）表示“投机，投机买卖”，英文解释为“the act of speculating in order to make a profit”
pet theory
pet theory, subject, hate, etc.表示“特别喜爱的理论/话题/特别讨厌的事物（等等）”，英文解释为“a theory, subject, hate, etc. that is special and important to you”举个🌰：pet peeve US My pet peeve (= pet hate) is cleaning the bathroom. 我最讨厌的事情就是打扫浴室。
manipulate
manipulate /məˈnɪp.jə.leɪt/ 1）表示“操纵，控制”，英文解释为“to control something or someone to your advantage, often unfairly or dishonestly”举个🌰：Throughout her career she has very successfully manipulated the media. 她在整个职业生涯中非常成功地控制了媒体。
2）表示“（用手）操纵，控制”，英文解释为“to control something using the hands”举个🌰：The wheelchair is designed so that it is easy to manipulate. 轮椅设计得很容易用手控制。
类似的还有一个词rig.
📍rig表示“（采取不正当的手段）操纵；对…做手脚”，英文解释为“to arrange dishonestly for the result of something, for example an election, to be changed”举个🌰：He said the election had been rigged. 他说选举被人操纵了。
📍此前，在故意改低女生成绩 东京医科大学被曝操控男女录取比例一文中，纽约时报的标题就用了rig这个词：Japanese Medical School Accused of Rigging Admissions to Keep Women Out. 操纵录取结果 rig admissions.
transpose
transpose /trænˈspəʊz/ 1）表示“使换位置；使互换位置”，英文解释为“to change something from one position to another, or to exchange the positions of two things”
2）表示“使变调；使移调”，英文解释为“to play or write a piece of music in a different key (= set of musical notes based on a particular note) from the one used originally”举个🌰：The pianist transposed the song into C. 钢琴家把这首歌改成了C调。
Visual investigators debunked both suggestions, but that didn’t stop the original posts from going viral, with one post promoting the Vogue theory racking up more than 45 million views.
视觉调查人员驳斥了这两种说法，但这并没有阻止最初的帖子的病毒式传播，其中一篇宣称使用了《Vogue》照片的帖子获得了超过4500万的点击量。
debunk
debunk /ˌdiːˈbʌŋk/ 表示“驳斥；揭穿，揭露…的真相”，英文解释为“to show that something is less important, less good, or less true than it has been made to appear”举个🌰：The writer's aim was to debunk the myth that had grown up around the actress. 作者的目的是为了揭穿围绕这位女演员的种种传闻。
📍《经济学人》（The Economist）2020年关于《拆穿胡扯》（Calling Bullshit: The Art of Scepticism in a Data-Driven World）一书的书评文章标题就用的：How to debunk dodgy data 如何看穿骗人的数据。
viral
viral /ˈvaɪ.rəl/ 表示“（通过网络在个体之间迅速）病毒式的（传播）”，英文解释为“used to describe something that quickly becomes very popular or well known by being published on the internet or sent from person to person by email, phone, etc.”举个🌰：Here's a list of the top ten viral videos this week. 以下是本周十大病毒式传播的视频。
📍常用短语 go viral，字面意思就是“像病毒一样传播、扩散”，引申为“走红，十分流行，疯狂传播”，比如朋友圈xxx刷屏了，也可以说go viral.
rack sth up
rack /ræk/ sth up 1）表示“累计（得分或获利）；累积；聚集”，英文解释为“to gradually get more points, profits, etc.”举个🌰：He has racked up 450 points in three months. 3个月内，他已经累积了450分。
2）表示“（尤指过分地）增加，提高（房租、价格等）”，英文解释为“to increase something such as a rent or price, especially by an amount that is considered to be too much”举个🌰：Our landlord racked up the rent by 15 percent this year. 我们的房东今年把房租猛涨了15%。
对比：
📍amass 表示“（尤指大量）积累，积聚”，英文解释为“to collect sth, especially in large quantities”举个🌰：He amassed a fortune from delivering newspapers.他靠送报纸积累了一笔财富。
📍accumulate 表示“积累；积聚；积攒”，英文解释为“to collect a large number of things over a long period of time”举个🌰：As people accumulate more wealth, they tend to spend a greater proportion of their incomes. 人们积累了更多财富后，他们的花费占收入的比重也往往会增加。
📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述疫情期间房价上涨的文章中提到：Professionals who have carried on working from home but cut back on their spending have accumulated cash to splash. 那些改换成在家中继续工作但减少了开支的专业人士则积攒了可大笔支出的现金。
Having set out to control her image, Catherine now finds herself in a predicament not unlike some of her royal forebears, dogged by an online pack no less feral than the photographers who chased Diana in Paris.
凯瑟琳努力控制自己的形象，但却陷入了一种和她的一些王室前辈别无二致的困境，网上追逐的狂热程度丝毫不亚于在巴黎追逐戴安娜的摄影师，令她深受其扰。
predicament
predicament /prɪˈdɪkəmənt/ 表示“尴尬的处境；困境；窘境”，英文解释为“If you are in a predicament, you are in an unpleasant situation that is difficult to get out of.”举个🌰：I'm in a terrible predicament. 我的处境十分尴尬。
forebear
forebear /ˈfɔː.beər/ 表示“祖先，祖宗”，英文解释为“a relative who lived in the past”
dog
熟词僻义，作动词，1）表示“（长期）困扰，折磨，纠缠”，英文解释为“to cause you trouble for a long time”举个🌰：He had been dogged by bad health all his life. 他一生多病，备受折磨。
2）表示“跟随；跟踪”，英文解释为“to follow someone closely and continuously”举个🌰：Reporters dogged him for answers. 记者们跟着他让他回答问题。
feral
feral /ˈfer.əl/ 表示“野生的（尤指原为家养的动物）”，英文解释为“existing in a wild state, especially describing an animal that was previously kept by people”如：feral dogs/cats 野狗/猫，也可以指“野兽般的，野蛮的，凶残的”。
“Anyone in the royal family or their staffs who thinks that social media allows people to circumvent gatekeepers or control the narrative has not been paying attention to Meghan Markle’s experience,” Professor Nielsen said.
“如果王室成员和他们的工作人员以为社交媒体可以让人绕过把关者，或者控制叙事，那他们肯定没有注意到梅根·马克尔经历了什么，”尼尔森说。
circumvent
circumvent /ˌsɜːkəmˈvɛnt/ 表示“设法回避；规避”，英文解释为“to find a way of avoiding a difficulty or a rule”举个🌰：They found a way of circumventing the law. 他们找到了规避法律的途径。
📍《经济学人》（The Economist）一篇讲述疫情重塑全球化的文章中提到：America circumvented and then sabotaged the WTO, stopping the nomination of judges to its appeal board and thus its ability to adjudicate trade disputes. 美国先是绕开了世贸组织，然后再从中作梗，阻止其上诉委员会法官的提名，导致它无法裁决贸易争端。
narrative
narrative /ˈnær.ə.tɪv/ 1）表示“故事；叙事”，英文解释为“A narrative is a story or an account of a series of events.”如：a fast-moving narrative 一个快节奏的叙事。
2）表示“（对事件的特定的）陈述”，英文解释为“a particular way of explaining or understanding events”。
“These are deeply ambiguous spaces,” he said, “in which things that people want are inextricably linked with things that are deeply troubling.”
“这些空间非常模糊，”他说，“在这里，人们想要的东西与令人深感不安的东西密不可分。”
ambiguous
ambiguous /æmˈbɪɡ.ju.əs/ 表示“含糊不清的；引起歧义的，模棱两可的；不明确的”，英文解释为“having or expressing more than one possible meaning, sometimes intentionally”举个🌰：Her reply to my question was somewhat ambiguous. 她对我的提问回答得有些含糊不清。
inextricably
inextricably /ˌɪn.ɪkˈstrɪk.ə.bli/ 表示“密不可分地”，英文解释为“in a way that is unable to be separated, released, or escaped from”举个🌰：His name was inextricably linked with the environmental movement. 他的名字与环保运动紧密联系在一起。
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