美国有线新闻 CNN 美国总统大选首战爱荷华州党团会议拉开大幕

We are exactly one week away from the Iowa Caucuses². They're the first formal contest in the U.S. presidential nomination³ process. Caucuses and primaries are state held events that help narrow down a field of candidates so that each major party has only one name that appears on the presidential ballot⁴. For Republicans there are two people challenging incumbent⁵ President Donald Trump⁶ for the party's nomination. One additional candidate has dropped out of the race but election analysts⁷ expect the U.S. leader will easily win his party's contest.

现在距离爱荷华州党团会议还有整整一周时间。这是美国总统提名程序中的首次正式角逐。党团会议和初选是州政府举行的活动，目的是缩小候选人范围，确保每个主要政党只有一名选举人出现在总统选票上。共和党有两名成员挑战现任总统唐纳德·特朗普，竞争党内提名。另外一名候选人已经退出竞选，但选举分析人士预计，特朗普总统将轻松地赢得党内竞争。

For Democrats⁸, it's more complicated. There are currently 12 of them still in the running and 16 other Democrats have dropped out of the race. For those still in it, all eyes are on Iowa. When voters there caucus¹ on February 3rd, they could give a big lift to the candidate to make a strong showing.

民主党的情况要更复杂一些。目前有12名候选人参加竞选，另外16名民主党人则已经退出。继续参选者都将注意力集中在爱荷华州。当爱荷华州选民在2月3日举行党团会议时，他们可能会令候选人备受鼓舞，使其有不俗表现。

According to the Des Moines Register, more than half of Democrats and Republicans who won the Iowa Caucuses have eventually won their party's nomination for president at least since 1972. But only three of those Iowa Caucus winner actually went on to become president. So why do the matter so much right now? Momentum⁹.

据《得梅因纪事报》报道，至少从1972年开始，在爱荷华州党团会议中获胜的民主党和共和党候选人中，有一半以上最终赢得了党内总统提名。但只有三名爱荷华州党团会议的获胜者当选了总统。那为什么现在如此重要？因为动力。

Doing well in the first contest gives candidates a boost. It gets their names out there. It helps them with fundraising. And for those who don't do well in Iowa, the results can have the opposite effect.

在首场角逐中表现出色会使候选人获得动力。这使他们的名字印记在那里。而且有助于他们筹集资金。而对在爱荷州表现不佳者来说，结果可能会产生相反的影响。

They may struggle to gain ground on the winners. They may struggle to get campaign donations. Some candidates usually drop out after Iowa.

他们可能很难压制领先者。他们可能难以获得竞选捐款。一些候选人通常会在爱荷华州党团会议结束后退出竞选。

1 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

2 caucuses   

n.（政党决定政策或推举竞选人的）核心成员( caucus的名词复数 )；决策干部；决策委员会；秘密会议

参考例句：

• Republican caucuses will happen in about 410 towns across Maine. 共和党团会议选举将在缅因州的约410个城镇进行。 来自互联网

3 nomination   

n.提名，任命，提名权

参考例句：

• John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
• Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。

4 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。

5 incumbent   

adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的

参考例句：

• He defeated the incumbent governor by a large plurality.他以压倒多数票击败了现任州长。
• It is incumbent upon you to warn them.你有责任警告他们。

6 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。

7 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

8 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 momentum   

n.动力，冲力，势头；动量

参考例句：

• We exploit the energy and momentum conservation laws in this way.我们就是这样利用能量和动量守恒定律的。
• The law of momentum conservation could supplant Newton's third law.动量守恒定律可以取代牛顿第三定律。