2020年经济学人 列克星顿专栏--搅乱德克萨斯州(3)

Mr Abbott’s pandemic management has followed a similar pattern. Having covered his right flank, he has ended up in a pretty reasonable place—as indicated by the fact that he is now being criticised most harshly by the crazy right. By permitting local authorities to force companies to use masks, the governor showed “who he is, a traitor¹ to liberty and our constitution,” tweeted a Republican state representative named Jonathan Stickland last week. Someone should tell Mr Stickland how that sort of nonsense is working out for Mr Trump²: the president is currently in a tie for Texas with Joe Biden, which raises a possibility of Texas’s state house going Democratic for the first time since 2001.

雅培的疫情管理也遵循了类似的模式。在掩护了他的右翼之后，他最终在一个相当合理的位置上结束了管理，正如他现在正受到疯狂右翼最严厉的谴责所表明的那样。上周，一位名叫乔纳森·斯蒂克兰的共和党州代表在推特上写道，这位州长通过允许地方当局强迫企业使用口罩，展现了“他是谁，是自由和我们宪法的叛徒”有人应该告诉斯蒂克兰，这种谬论对特朗普来说意味着什么的：总统目前与乔·拜登在德克萨斯州处于平局，这增加了德克萨斯州众议院自2001年以来首次走向民主的可能性。

Mr Abbott’s judiciously³ disguised pragmatism looks like his party’s best hope of avoiding that fate. It has made him popular in a divided state. His approval rating is 63%, 12 points higher than the president's. It has also won him the confidence of the conservative donors⁴ who may need to spend unprecedented⁵ sums in November to shore up the Republican ballot⁶ in Texas.

雅培谨慎伪装的实用主义看起来是共和党避免这种命运的最大希望。这使他在一个分歧的州很受欢迎。他的支持率为63%，比总统高出12个百分点。这也为他赢得了保守派捐赠者的信心，他们可能需要在11月花费前所未有的资金来支持德克萨斯州的共和党选票。

His qualified⁷ success also offers his party pointers for the post- Trump future that may be looming⁸ over it. In a rapidly diversifying⁹ society—nationally as well as in Texas—the Republicans will have to expand their appeal to keep winning elections. Yet it may well take a fire-breathing conservative (or ostensibly one, at least) to effect the shift. Who knows? Perhaps Mr Abbott could even be that fire-breather: defeat for Mr Trump would arguably make him the Republicans’ foremost leader. But that feels like a remote possibility at most. For now the governor has a real-life catastrophe¹⁰ to worry about

他合格的成功也为他的政党指出了特朗普时代之后即将来临的未来。在一个快速多样化的国家以及德克萨斯州中，共和党人必须扩大他们的吸引力，以继续赢得选举。然而，要实现这一转变，很可能需要一个具有攻击性的保守派（至少表面上是这样）。谁知道呢？或许雅培甚至可以成为那个呼火者：特朗普的失败可以说将使他成为共和党最重要的领导人。但这感觉最多是一个遥远的可能性。目前，州长要担心现实生活中的灾难

1 traitor   

n.叛徒，卖国贼

参考例句：

• The traitor was finally found out and put in prison.那个卖国贼终于被人发现并被监禁了起来。
• He was sold out by a traitor and arrested.他被叛徒出卖而被捕了。

2 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

3 judiciously   

adv.明断地，明智而审慎地

参考例句：

• Let's use these intelligence tests judiciously. 让我们好好利用这些智力测试题吧。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• His ideas were quaint and fantastic. She brought him judiciously to earth. 他的看法荒廖古怪，她颇有见识地劝他面对现实。 来自辞典例句

4 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

6 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

7 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

8 looming   

n.上现蜃景（光通过低层大气发生异常折射形成的一种海市蜃楼）v.隐约出现，阴森地逼近( loom的现在分词 )；隐约出现，阴森地逼近

参考例句：

• The foothills were looming ahead through the haze. 丘陵地带透过薄雾朦胧地出现在眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Then they looked up. Looming above them was Mount Proteome. 接着他们往上看，在其上隐约看到的是蛋白质组山。 来自英汉非文学 - 生命科学 - 回顾与展望

9 diversifying   

v.使多样化，多样化( diversify的现在分词 )；进入新的商业领域

参考例句：

• Some publishers are now diversifying into software. 有些出版社目前正兼营软件。 来自辞典例句
• Silverlit is diversifying into new markets, such as Russia and Eastern Europe. Silverlit正在使他们的市场变得多样化，开发新的市场如俄罗斯和东欧国家。 来自互联网

10 catastrophe   

n.大灾难，大祸

参考例句：

• I owe it to you that I survived the catastrophe.亏得你我才大难不死。
• This is a catastrophe beyond human control.这是一场人类无法控制的灾难。