“這里錯(cuò)了！”：英語(yǔ)老師糾正特朗普簽名信錯(cuò)誤

The notes were sprawled across a letter bearing President Trump’s signature.

一封有特朗普總統(tǒng)簽名的信上寫(xiě)滿(mǎn)了評(píng)語(yǔ)。

In the top left corner: “Have y’all tried grammar & style check?”

左上角寫(xiě)著：“你們都做過(guò)語(yǔ)法和格式檢查嗎?”

At the top right: “Federal is capitalized only when used as part of a proper noun.”

右上角寫(xiě)著：“Federal(聯(lián)邦)只有用在專(zhuān)有名詞中的時(shí)候才大寫(xiě)。”

And toward the bottom: “OMG this is WRONG!”

信的下方寫(xiě)著：“我的天哪，這里錯(cuò)了!”

The letter, dated May 3 and printed on White House stationery, was addressed to Yvonne Mason, 61, a former high school English teacher who retired last year but hadn’t quite left “grading-paper mode,” she said on Sunday.

這封信打印在白宮抬頭的信紙上，信上注明的日期是5月3日，是寫(xiě)給現(xiàn)年61歲的伊馮娜·梅森(Yvonne Mason)的。曾是高中英語(yǔ)老師的梅森于周日表示，她雖然已在去年退休，但還沒(méi)完全脫離“閱卷模式”。

So when she received the letter in the mail, she pulled out her go-to purple pen and started making corrections. Then she snapped a picture, posted the letter on Facebook and mailed it back to the White House.

因此在收到寄來(lái)的信后，她就拿出自己常用的紫色鋼筆開(kāi)始修改。然后，她拍了一張照片，把這封信發(fā)在了Facebook上，然后把它寄回白宮。

“It was a poorly worded missive,” she said. “Poor writing is not something I abide. If someone is capable of doing better, then they should do better.”

“它是一封措辭糟糕的信函，”她說(shuō)。“我受不了糟糕的文章。如果有人能夠?qū)懙酶茫撬麄兙蛻?yīng)該做到。”

Ms. Mason, a Democrat who lives in Atlanta, had written to Mr. Trump to ask that he visit each family of those who died in the shooting that killed 17 people at a school in Parkland, Fla., in February.

梅森是一名民主黨人，住在亞特蘭大。她曾寫(xiě)信給特朗普，要求他看望在佛羅里達(dá)州帕克蘭校園槍擊案中所有遇難者的家人，該事件發(fā)生在2月，造成17人死亡。

“I had written to them in anger, to tell you the truth,” she said. “I thought he owed it to these grieving families.”

“說(shuō)實(shí)話(huà)，我是懷著憤怒的心情給他們寫(xiě)信的，”她說(shuō)。“我覺(jué)得他應(yīng)該去看望這些傷心的家人。”

The letter she received did not address her concerns, she said. Instead, it listed a series of actions taken after the shooting, like listening sessions, meetings with lawmakers and the STOP School Violence Act, a bill that would authorize $500 million over 10 years for safety improvements at schools but had no provisions related to guns.

她說(shuō)，她收到的回信沒(méi)有提到她關(guān)切的事，只是列出了事件發(fā)生后采取的一系列行動(dòng)，如聆聽(tīng)會(huì)、與立法者召開(kāi)的會(huì)議以及《制止校園暴力法案》(STOP School Violence Act)。該法案授權(quán)在10年內(nèi)撥付五億美元(約合32億元人民幣)用于改善學(xué)校的安全，但沒(méi)有和槍支相關(guān)的條款。

Then there were the grammatical errors.

然后還有語(yǔ)法錯(cuò)誤。

“Nation” was capitalized, so was “states.” Ms. Mason circled both. “nation”(國(guó)家)大寫(xiě)了，“ states”(州)也是。

梅森把這兩個(gè)詞圈了出來(lái)。

A sentence about a “rule” banning devices that turn legal guns into illegal machine guns was unclear. “Explain ‘rule,’” she wrote.

一個(gè)句子里寫(xiě)著，某項(xiàng)“規(guī)章”禁止使用把合法槍支改造為非法機(jī)關(guān)槍的裝置，這句話(huà)表達(dá)不清楚。“解釋一下‘規(guī)章’，”她寫(xiě)道。

There was more. Much more.

還有很多很多。

“If my students turned that in they would get exactly the same marks,” she said.

“如果我的學(xué)生把這樣的作業(yè)交上來(lái)，他們會(huì)得到完全一樣的分?jǐn)?shù)。”

But she didn’t correct everything. 但她并沒(méi)有糾正所有錯(cuò)誤。

“I did not mention the dangling modifier,” she said. “I focused mainly on mechanics.”

“我沒(méi)有還提垂懸修飾語(yǔ)錯(cuò)誤，”她說(shuō)。“我主要關(guān)注結(jié)構(gòu)。”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

白宮沒(méi)有立即回復(fù)記者的置評(píng)請(qǐng)求。

The letter stood in contrast to other letters she has received from politicians, Ms. Mason said. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, sent “beautiful” letters that struck a tone that “makes me more important than him,” she said.

梅森說(shuō)，這封信與她從其他政治人物那里收到的來(lái)信形成鮮明對(duì)比。南卡羅來(lái)納州共和黨參議員林賽·格雷厄姆(Lindsey Graham)寄來(lái)的信語(yǔ)言“優(yōu)美”，信中的語(yǔ)氣“顯得我比他更重要”，她說(shuō)。

She has written to several legislators in South Carolina, where she taught Advanced Placement English language and composition.

她給南卡羅來(lái)納州的多名立法者寫(xiě)過(guò)信。退休前，她在該州教大學(xué)先修課程英語(yǔ)和寫(xiě)作。

Following up on a New Year’s resolution, she has written a postcard to the White House every day since Jan. 1, she said.

她說(shuō)，從今年1月1日開(kāi)始，她每天給白宮寫(xiě)一張明信片，這是她的新年計(jì)劃。

When she was teaching, she wanted to show her students that their voices mattered, even if they weren’t old enough to vote, she said.

她說(shuō)，當(dāng)老師的時(shí)候，她想讓學(xué)生知道，他們的聲音很重要，即使他們還不到投票的年齡。

“You’re important. You need to be a part of this, you need to pay attention to what’s going on,” she said.

“你們很重要。你們必須參與其中，必須關(guān)注正在發(fā)生的事情，”她說(shuō)。

When word spread about the corrected letter she had sent to the White House, Ms. Mason received hundreds of messages from people across the country — some positive (a lawyer in Houston wanted to know if she would be interested in looking over his appellate briefs) and others venomous (one person suggested she “must be a lonely bitter hag with a lot of cats”).

當(dāng)她把修改后的信寄回白宮的消息傳開(kāi)后，梅森收到了全美各地發(fā)來(lái)的成百上千條訊息。一些是肯定的(休斯頓的一名律師想知道她是否有興趣檢查他的上訴摘要)，另一些言語(yǔ)惡毒(有人說(shuō)她“肯定是一個(gè)養(yǎng)著很多貓，孤獨(dú)、惡毒的丑老太婆”)。

But Ms. Mason wasn’t focusing on the negativity.

但梅森并不關(guān)注負(fù)面言論。

“Let them have their day, bless their little hearts,” she said. “They aren’t changing my mind.”

“就讓他們自?shī)首詷?lè)吧，那些可憐蟲(chóng)，”她說(shuō)。“他們不會(huì)改變我的想法。”