看美國大選辯論學英語系列（二）

趕在美國大選電視辯論第三場之前，我們來說一說第二場辯論中值得關注和學習的一些英語表達。倆人的黑料我們就不在這里重復了，畢竟都不是什么光彩的事情，我們還是要多多傳播正能量。

1. Town hall debate

如果大家還有印象的話，第一場辯論，兩人一直站在各自的講臺(podium)后面，回答主持人的提問，然后展開辯論，基本沒有離開自己的位置。

到了第二場，辯論的形式靈活了一些，兩人可以在場內自由走動，提問的主角是現(xiàn)場觀眾，這些觀眾都是在圣路易斯地區(qū)選出來明確表示對任何一位候選人都沒有傾向性的普通選民(undecided voters)。觀眾提問，兩位候選人回答，主持人會適時跟進一些問題(ask follow-up questions)。因為這種形式很像某個小鎮(zhèn)開會議事，居民提問，鎮(zhèn)長回答，所以被稱為town hall debate，現(xiàn)場觀眾就被稱為town hall participants。

原話摘錄：

“Tonight's debate is a town hall format which gives voters the chance to directly ask the candidates questions. Martha and I will ask follow-up questions but the night really belongs to the people in this room and to people across the country who committed questions online. The people you see on this stage were chosen by the Gallup organization, are all from the St. Louis area and told Gallup they have not committed to a candidate. Each of them came here with questions they wanted to ask and we saw the questions for the first time this morning.

(主持人Anderson Cooper)今晚的辯論采用市政廳會議的形式，選民有機會直接向兩位候選人提問。Martha和我會跟進一些問題，但提問權屬于今天在場的觀眾以及在線提交問題的全國民眾。今天在場的觀眾是有蓋樂普公司在圣路易斯地區(qū)挑選出來的，他們都表明對任何一位候選人沒有傾向性。每一位觀眾都帶來了自己想問的問題，我們也是今天早晨才看到這些問題。”

2. Mimic and mock

從修辭手法的角度來看，字母m開頭的兩個詞連用屬于押頭韻(alliteration)，即若干相鄰詞的開頭或重讀音節(jié)中對相同字母、輔音或不同元音的重復。這種修辭方式在詩歌中很常見，使得句子讀起來押韻合轍，悅耳動聽，有時也能增加句子的氣勢。再舉幾個例子：I dreamt of a drip-dropping drain in my dream/Your friends will flip-flop fast when facing trouble/Grass grows greener in the graveyard。

Mimic指“戲仿某人”，也就是說，通過模仿別人來取笑別人;mock比mimic更甚，指“嘲弄別人”，有時也是通過模仿來表現(xiàn)對別人的嘲弄和嘲笑。

這段話是在辯論一開始，難免要提到特朗普玩弄女性的錄音，特朗普說那都是過去的“更衣室談話”(locker room talk)，即言語粗俗的私人談話，他說他很尊重女性。希拉里則表示，他不光不尊重女性，他曾經(jīng)冒犯過很多人，但是他從來沒有向任何人道過歉。

原話摘錄：

“He never apologized to Mr. And Mrs. Khan, the gold star family whose son, Captain Khan died in the line of duty in Iraq and Donald insulted and attacked them for weeks over their religion. He never apologized to the distinguished federal judge who was born in Indiana, but Donald said he couldn't be trusted to be a judge because his parents were "Mexican." He never apologized to the reporter that he mimicked and mocked on national television and our children were watching. And he never apologized for the racist lie that President Obama was not born in the United States of America. He owes the president an apology and he owes our country an apology and he needs to take responsibility for his actions and his words.

他從來沒有向卡恩夫婦道過歉，他們家是金星家庭(金星家庭指在戰(zhàn)斗或者軍事行動中犧牲的美軍士兵的直系親屬)，他們的兒子是在伊拉克戰(zhàn)爭中犧牲的卡恩上尉，而特朗普連續(xù)幾周侮辱他們、攻擊他們的宗教信仰。他從來沒有向出生在印第安納州的一位出色的聯(lián)邦法官道歉，特朗普說這位法官不值得信任，因為他的父母是墨西哥人。他從來沒有向那位被他公開在電視上嘲笑和模仿的記者道歉，我們國家的孩子們可都在看電視呢。他也從來沒有向奧巴馬總統(tǒng)就種族主義謊言道歉，他說奧巴馬總統(tǒng)不是在美國出生的。他欠總統(tǒng)一個道歉，欠我們國家一個道歉，他要為他的言行負起責任。”

3. Tarnish

希拉里提到俄羅斯網(wǎng)絡入侵美國，并稱俄羅斯想通過這些行動對美國大選攪局，然后幫助特朗普當選。特朗普表示，他不認識普京，但是美國的確應該跟俄羅斯搞好關系，那樣兩國可以聯(lián)合起來對付ISIS。特朗普有點委屈地說：“他們總是用俄羅斯的事兒來詆毀我。”

Tarnish算是個常用詞，動詞名詞皆可，指“污點/瑕疵，金屬失去光澤，玷污或敗壞(某人的名聲)”，常見的搭配是tarnish somebody/something with something。與其意思相近的另外一個同級別詞是blemish，也是動名詞皆可用，表示“污點，玷污”等意，比如：He wasn't about to blemish that pristine record.

原話摘錄：

“I don't know Putin. I think it would be great if we got along with Russia because we could fight ISIS together, as an example, but I don't know Putin. But I notice, any time anything wrong happens, they like to say the Russians, well she doesn't know if it's the Russians doing the hacking. Maybe there is no hacking, but there is - now Russia - and the reason they blame Russia is they think they’re trying to tarnish me with Russia. I know nothing about Russia - I know about Russia, but I know nothing about the inner workings of Russia. I don’t deal there, I have no businesses there, I have no loans from Russia.

我不認識普京。我覺得要是能跟俄羅斯搞好關系應該挺好的，因為我們可以一起對付ISIS。但我真的不認識普京。不過，我發(fā)現(xiàn)，每次有問題出現(xiàn)，他們很喜歡拿俄羅斯說事兒，其實她也不知道那些網(wǎng)絡入侵是不是俄羅斯人干的?；蛘撸緵]有入侵，但是俄羅斯是存在的，他們譴責俄羅斯是因為他們想用俄羅斯來詆毀我。我完全不了解俄羅斯——我知道俄羅斯，但我不了解俄羅斯內部的運作情況。我不和他們做生意，在那里沒有買賣，也沒跟俄羅斯借錢。”

4. Xenophobic

希拉里曾經(jīng)評價特朗普的支持者中有一半應該受到譴責，稱他們是種族主義者、性別歧視主義者、恐同分子、懼外分子、恐伊斯蘭分子。被現(xiàn)場觀眾問及此事時，希拉里回應稱，她很抱歉說過這樣的話，不過她針對的是特朗普，而不是他的支持者。

Xenophobic，讀音\?ze-n?-?fōbik\， unduly fearful of what is foreign and especially of people of foreign origin，無端畏懼外國人(或事物)的。這里的xeno-是個前綴，表示alien，strange;phobic是phobia(恐懼癥)的形容詞形式，如果想表達患有某種恐懼癥的人則用后綴phobe。列出一些常見的恐懼癥：amaxophobia(乘車恐懼癥)、kathisophobia(靜坐恐懼癥)、claustrophobia(密閉空間恐懼癥)，以及近幾年才出現(xiàn)的nomophobia(無手機恐懼癥)。

原話摘錄：

“Cooper: I want to follow on with something Donald Trump said to you. A comment you made last month. You said half of Donald Trump supporters are quote deplorables. Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, islamophobic. You later said you regretted saying half. You didn't express regret for using the term deplorables. To Mr. Carter’s question, how can you unite a country if you've written off tens of millions of Americans?

主持人Cooper：我想就特朗普對你的言論跟進一下。上月你評論稱，特朗普的支持者中有一半人應該受到譴責，稱他們是種族主義者、性別歧視主義者、恐同分子、懼外分子、恐伊斯蘭分子。后來，你說后悔說了‘一半’那個詞。但你并沒有對使用deplorables這個詞表示后悔?；氐娇ㄌ叵壬奶釂?，如果你都把這上千萬的美國人給排除在外了，你怎么團結整個國家呢?”

Clinton: Well within hours I said I was sorry about the way I talked about that because my argument is not with his supporters, it's with him and the divisive campaign he has run and the inciting of violence at his rallies and the very brutal kinds of comments about not just women, but all Americans.

克林頓：我說完那番話幾個小時以后我就對此表示了歉意，我的言論并不是針對他的支持者，而是針對特朗普本人以及他這種分裂的競選方式、他的競選活動激起的暴力行為以及針對女性和全體美國人的殘酷言論。”

5. Compliment

在辯論的最后，有位觀眾提了一個很好的問題：拋開場上的唇槍舌戰(zhàn)，你們二位能不能互相說出對方身上值得看重的一點?希拉里表示，特朗普的孩子們都很棒，由此也反應了他的部分為人。特朗普接話稱，希拉里夸我孩子，我很受用，希拉里一直在戰(zhàn)斗，沒有退出，她是個斗士，這是他看重的。

Compliment通常都用來表示“恭維、致意、贊美”，常用的搭配為pay/give someone a compliment，表示“贊美或恭維某人”。比如，有人看到你后說：“你走過來的時候，我還以為碰見范冰冰了呢!”這個時候你可以回答說“I’ll take that as a compliment. (我就當你是在夸我吧)”

英語里還有一個詞跟這個詞發(fā)音一樣，拼寫方式也很接近，很容易搞錯，需要大家多留心，這個詞就是complement，指“補充，補足，補充劑”，比如，we complement each other(我們互補)，Rice makes an excellent complement to a curry dish(咖喱菜式配米飯最棒)。

原話摘錄：

“Clinton: Well, I respect his children. His children are incredibly able and devoted and I think that says a lot about Donald. I don't agree with nearly anything else he says or does, but I do respect that and think that is something that as a mother and a grandmother is very important to me.

克林頓：我覺得他的孩子們挺好的。他們都很有能力而且專注，這也反應了特朗普的為人。他的言行我差不多都不贊同，但我的確欣賞他的孩子們，這對我一個當了母親和祖母的人來說很重要。

Trump: Well, I consider her statement about my children to be a very nice compliment. I don't know if it was meant to be a compliment, but it is a great... I'm proud of my children. They have done a wonderful job and they have been wonderful, wonderful kids. So I consider that a compliment. I will say this about Hillary. She doesn't quit and she doesn't give up. I respect that. I tell it like it is. She is a fighter. I disagree with much of what she is fighting for, I do disagree with her judgment in many cases, but she does fights hard and doesn't quit and she doesn’t give up, and I consider that a very good trait.

特朗普：她對于我家孩子的這番表達對我來說是很好的恭維。我不知道她說這些是不是算稱贊我，不過的確受用，我以我的孩子們?yōu)闃s。他們表現(xiàn)都很棒，是很好的孩子。所以，我覺得這是一種贊美。對于希拉里，我想說的是，她沒有退出，沒有放棄。我很尊重這一點。的確如此。她是個斗士。她為之戰(zhàn)斗的很多事情我都不贊同，她做的很多決策我都反對，但是，她的確一直在戰(zhàn)斗，沒有退出，沒有放棄，我覺得這是一個很好的品質。”

這個問題問得真好，一場火藥味十足的辯論好歹在友好的氣氛中結束了。

這辯論看著，感覺比美劇還精彩呢!

我們一起期待第三期吧。