点击上方“精彩英语演讲”,选择“设为星标”
英语演讲视频,第一时间观看
初学者刚开始阅读政治类英文报道,都会有一头雾水的感觉。下面的吐槽,很多人在心里重复了无数遍——
“我平时连国内政治话题都不关心,你叫我去关注别国的政治,搞清楚别国的现状,搞清楚谁下台了谁上台了,搞清楚党派候选人,左与右、新与旧……你确定你不是在逗我,哈?”
吐槽归吐槽,但是该读的文章还是要认真研读的。打开英文新闻网站首页,大部分文章都多少涉及政治。一国政局的变化,会影响到该国的各方各面,政府领导人对某些事件的态度,也往往代表该国对一事一物的立场。
道理都懂,但就是觉得很难读懂政治类英文报道,怎么办?不用担心,在接下来的一段时间里,我们将讨论如何读懂政治类英文报道。
与阅读其他题材的英文报道一样,我们在阅读政治类英文报道时,也常在词汇表达上面遇到障碍。诸如动词、形容词、短语等内容,读者需要长期积累,不能一蹴而就,这一道理我在以前的文章里面已经说过。词汇表达是任何时候都会遇到的问题,是英语基础问题,不是专属于政治类报道特有的问题,因此我们暂不讨论这类“通用词汇”。
本文来源:高翻考研
有些特色词汇也许并不是什么高深的概念,但由于媒体已经习惯使用这类名词,写作者便会默认为读者已与作者达成默契,也就不在特色词汇上多加解释。有些特色词汇是新近创造出来的,可能还会在互联网上广泛流传。下面分享一些特色词汇,以飨读者。
1. Brexit
不久前在英国脱欧大选中,出现了不少新名词,诸如Brexit、Brexiteer。除此之外,又有Leave和Remain这样常见的单词,用来指代脱欧派和留欧派。可见,很多特色词汇,有时确实是创造出来的,但有时也只是在特定场景里有了特殊含义。
模仿Brexit而发明的新名词更是繁多,比如Grexit(希腊脱欧)、Finish(芬兰脱欧)等等,前段时间在网络上流行一时。如果说Finish这类词还只是网友脑洞大开的吐槽产物,但Grexit这样的词就确有其事了。比如,《外交政策》、《经济学人》等报刊就都使用过Grexit。

《外交政策》的报道

《经济学人》的报道
虽未有严格意义上的考证,但单从在媒体报道中出现的频率来看,可以说Grexit这个单词要比Brexit更早被大范围使用。Grexit在四五年前就大范围使用了,起因是希腊的贷款未被用来救扶本国人民,反而用来还债权国了(这里有详细解析
http://t.cn/RtTRetj
)。而Brexit则是在今年英国脱欧公投中才真正“火”起来的。

此类特色词汇并不难理解,但要理解背后的原因,却不那么容易。比如,刚才的希腊脱欧是与欧债危机紧密联系在一起的,而欧洲危机的大背景又是美国次贷危机引起的全球经济危机。英国脱欧也不只是近几年才有的问题,早在19世纪晚期,英国就曾奉行光荣孤立(splendid isolation)的政策,也曾想置身于欧洲大陆事务之外。
2. wall-builder
在《经济学人》The new political divide一文中,在称呼特朗普这类政治人物时,作者使用了wall-builder。
A world of wall-builders would be poorer and more dangerous. If Europe splits into squabbling pieces and America retreats into an isolationist crouch, less benign powers will fill the vacuum.
Countering the wall-builders will require stronger rhetoric, bolder policies and smarter tactics. 
Wall-builder一词流行起来,当然与特朗普的演讲内容有关。他说要在美墨之间筑一道高墙,阻止移民进入美国境内。他的原话更加“有趣”。
I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively," Trump said, announcing his candidacy on June 16, 2015. "I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.
Wall-builder的含义远不限于美国政治话题,也可以指代欧洲国家那些鼓吹民粹主义的政治人物和选民。以前筑造实实在在的墙,是为了保障一国民众之安危;现在筑造制度上的高墙,是为了防止移民涌入。
可是,这高墙针对的移民往往多是穷困国家的民众,比如中东国家。但对于西方国家的移民,欧洲国家却会优待他们。
在一份有关移民话题的特别报道中,《经济学人》指出了欧洲国家是如何优待欧洲国家移民。
In Europe, asylum-seekers are treated generously by global standards, even if some countries have tightened their rules. In most EU countries they can work before they obtain refugee status (or some lesser protection), and certainly afterwards. They are promised housing, freedom of movement and protection from official harassment. Public services generally work well and benefits are adequate.
除了wall-builder这样的词,还有closed-world type、pro-open type这样互为反面的词,分别指代支持开放国门的政党和支持关闭国门的政党和民众。
3. Trumpian
由著名政治人物名字衍生出的词汇很多,比如奥巴马推出的医疗政策就称为Obamacare。以总统命名政策,这倒很容易理解。但是,如果用政治人物的名字表达某种情绪,就很少见了。
Trumpian乃是由Donald Trump的名字演变而来的,多读美国大选新闻,也就不难理解这类“新词”。常见搭配还有a Trumpian future/America/nightmare,表达的都是负面意思。
《时代周刊》在What Brexit Means一文中,这样描述特朗普对英国脱欧公投的反应。
Speaking before he cut the ribbon on the new course, Trump drew explicit ties between his message and those of the Leave movement. And in Trumpian fashion, he delighted in the decline of the British pound. “If the pound goes down, they are going to do more business,” he said.
这里用了in Trumpian fashion,该怎么理解呢?当然了,我们可以翻译为“特朗普式的”,或者开个玩笑套用最近的流行语,“这很特朗普”。即便如此,Trumpian背后的英文意思,还是要细究的。特朗普言辞夸张,政策排外,我们不难把Trumpian跟hyperbolic、xenophobic这样的词联系起来。不同情况下,理解角度也应不同。
4. lame duck
Lame duck不是新近才有的词,早已被各类词典收录。《美国传统词典》的解释是:
An elected officeholder or group continuing in office during the period between failure to win an election and the inauguration of a successor. 
即将去职的官员:民选官员或其集团,他们竞选失败而在获胜者尚未上任前继续留任
维基百科的解释更为详细:
A lame duck, in politics, is an elected official whose successor has already been elected. The official is often seen as having less influence with other politicians due to their limited time left in office. Conversely, a lame duck is free to make decisions that exercise their standard powers with little fear of consequence, such as issuing executive orders or other controversial edicts. Lame duck politicians result from term limits, planned retirement, or electoral losses.
简言之,在位者任期将满,权威降低。虽然如此,由于即将离职,不必承担政治后果,因此去职前又可以更加果断地做决定。与此种含义相关的搭配多是lame duck president/governor/legislature,意即“a president, governor etc with no real power because his or her period in office will soon end”,a lame duck president可以译为“即将卸任的总统”。
比如,英国公投之后,《金融时报》这样描述卡梅伦的处境:
He is set to remain as a lame duck prime minister over the summer months, contending with whatever political, financial, constitutional and diplomatic aftershocks British voters’ decisions may now cause.
Lame duck的意义又不仅限于指代即将去职的人,更宽泛的含义是“a person, business etc that is having problems and needs help”或者“an unsuccessful person or thing”。比如,a lame duck vote,也就是说,投票不会产生实际作用。
5. deep-pocketed
在题为Dollars in the wind的社评中,《经济学人》批评美国政府乱花纳税人的钱,制定乱七八糟的政策。原句是这样的:
THERE is more than one way to achieve dreadful public policies. Committees of bureaucrats have crafted real stinkers over the years. Other duff laws are the work of deep-pocketed special interests.
Deep-pocketed一词很有趣,形容词+名词+ed,构成了复合形容词。Deep本是修饰pocket,好比warm-hearted中的warm可以修饰heart,noble-minded中的noble可以修饰mind。Deep-pocketed大概让我们想到手插裤兜掏钱的场景,掏啊掏,裤兜太深,可以装很多硬币。在谷歌搜索“define:deep-pocketed”,你会看到这样的解释:

看得出来,此词本身可拆开写成deep pockets,构成名词,解为a lot of money。当然,如果看一看其他词典,我们可以找到对deep-pocketed的解释。
Cambridge Dictionary的解释是“a deep-pocketed person or organization has a lot of money to spend”。例句1:Facebook has begun to attract deep-pocketed advertisers.
Merriam-Webster的解释是“having goods, property, or money in abundance”。例句2:Thanks to a deep-pocketed benefactor, she can pursue her dream of becoming an artist without worrying about how to pay the rent.
在例句1和2中,deep-pocketed都是中性偏褒。但在新闻报道中,deep-pocketed也可用于修饰为富不仁的利益集团。比如前面《经济学人》的例句。我们再看几个例句,加深印象。
Poor Donald一文中,《经济学人》指出,特朗普之前为了区别于民主党候选人希拉里,大肆鼓吹自己不受财团影响,不需要筹款。但后来缺钱了,就换上了另一种论调,要从支持者那里筹款了。此处用到的deep-pocketed也算是中性词。
The donor drought could still break—a small army of deep-pocketed Americans would commit millions if they were sure that their money would keep Mrs Clinton out of the White House.
6. bipartisan
同样在Dollars in the wind一文中,出现了这样的一句话:
Bowing to public opinion, Congress has also shut down horse slaughterhouses in America. In 2015 a bipartisan group of members further tried to ban the export of horses for meat.
此处是说,迫于舆论压力,美国国会关闭了美国的马匹屠宰场。第二句话整句话不难理解,但是如何准确理解a bipartisan group的含义?在回答这个问题之前,我们不妨先理解什么是partisan。

看得出来,partisan偏贬义。朗文词典有个例句特别有趣,“British newspapers are highly partisan.”之前在脱欧问题上,英国报刊就各自站队,《经济学人》属于留欧阵营。那么bipartisan会是什么意思?
根据牛津词典的解释,前缀“bi-”可构成bimonthly这样的词,既可表示每月两次,也可表示每两月一次。但是biennial意为“每两年”,biannual意为“每年两次”。
前缀“bi-”也可以表示“having two”,如我们常说的bilingual,就是指一个人会说两种语言(会中原地区的方言和普通话算不算是bilingual?😌)。
这里说到的bipartisan,就是“of or involving two political parties”的意思,常见搭配有,a bipartisan resolution,两党共同支持的决议,又如a bipartisan foreign policy/solution。也有a bipartisan committee/bipartisan cooperation,这类似于前面例句中 a bipartisan group。
所以,如果我们要改写第二句话,就可以这样写:In 2015 a group of members, which involves both parties, further tried to ban the export of horses for meat。也就是说,小组中既有民主党人士,也有共和党人士,他们都试图禁止食用马肉的出口。
7. faction
Faction与partisan看起来很像,但两词着实存有差别。某甲支持共和党,支持特朗普,你可以说他partisan,因为他确实支持某一党派。但如果某乙本来就是共和党人,但却不支持共和党提名的候选人特朗普,那么这就是rival factions within the party,党内的对立派别。
在近期《经济学人》本周世界(The world this week)版块,有一段这样的短新闻:
A suicide-bomb and shooting attack killed more than 70 people at a hospital in Quetta in south-west Pakistan. The attack targeted the emergency department, where the body of a prominent lawyer shot dead earlier that day had been brought. A faction of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for both atrocities.
此处faction虽然不是表示党内的派别,但仍表示“a group of people connected by a shared belief or opinion within a larger group”,并没有跳脱出去。看得出来,faction一词多为贬义。
不少名人都谈论过faction一词,亮点自寻:
It is impossible that the whisper of a faction should prevail against the voice of a nation. Lord John Russell
There will always be, within a party, people who backed one candidate versus people who backed another, and there will be factions in the party, and there's always a little glee faction looking at the difficulty of the other faction. Mitt Romney
No faction is better or worse than any other. All come from the same mould; they are all products of capitalist influence in the working class movement. And they are a poison that destroys our Party and the working class movement in Korea. Kim Jong Il
8. pundit
每次遇到pundit这个词,我都会立刻联想到
“砖家”这一
流行词。不过,“砖家”绝不是pundit的中文“释义”,我们不能拿中文意思直接对应一个英文单词,不然一下子又退回到中学学习英语的情形了。“morning、早晨、morning、早晨”这种不动脑子记忆单词的方式,不是我所鼓励的。

接着说pundit这个词。不少时候,此词中性偏贬。比如在225m reasons for China’s leaders to worry一文中,《经济学人》又开始了老套的论调,谈经济,谈中国,而且预设好了立场。作者明显是要质疑中国模式,但在开始批驳前,先客气地放了一段中国模式支持者的观点。
Many pundits believe that China is an exception to this pattern. Plenty of Chinese cities are now as rich as South Korea and Taiwan were when they began to change.
乐观看待中国模式的人,就是本篇社论的反驳对象,就是“pundit”。虽然pundit一词本身是中性词,但在具体的文章背景里,它有可能是偏贬义的,很少偏褒义。
“A pundit or pandit, in the culture of India, is a master of traditional religious poetry and/or traditional music”,这是它本来的含义,如今大家谈到pundit,常带有戏谑味道,我们看看牛津词典怎么说的:

也有很多人调侃pundit一词:
I'm being invaded by fashion pundits. Steven Cojocaru
I never wanted to be a pundit. Robert MacNeil
I know the pundits don't agree with me. Jan Brewer
Political columnists and sports pundits are rewarded for being overconfident. Daniel Kahneman
Forget the consultants, the pundits and the pollsters; good policy is good politics. Jim DeMint
所以,不要轻易使用pundit这个词,说不定别人就理解成你是在讽刺了。
防止未来失联
请长按识别二维码关注备用号
想第一时间接收英语演讲文章&视频?把精彩英语演讲设置为星标就对了!操作办法就是:进入公众号——点击右上角的●●●——找到“设为星标”点击即可。
点击阅读原文查看更多精彩英语演讲
继续阅读
阅读原文