英伦广角 2014-09-06 苏格兰独立公投临近 民调支持率大增

 This poll will send shock waves through the NO campaign and give the NO campaigners a severe bout¹ of the jitters². It's by U curve. It's in the Sun and Times and it shows the gap is closing. The NO campaign's lead is shrinking. Asked should Scotland be an independent country, with the DON'T KNOWS stripped out, it was YES 47%, NO 53%; with the DON'T KNOWS included, it's YES 42%, NO 48%, DON'T KNOWS 8%, so just a lead of 6%. Now compare that with some of the big leads in the recent months. At one point, the lead for the NO was 14 points. At one point it was even 22 points. Now opinion polls are just a snap shot. The important thing to look forward is the trend, and the trend is the shrinking of the lead of the NO campaign and also a shrinking of the numbers who say they don't know how they are going to vote as the polling day approaches on September 18th. Now earlier there was perhaps another setback³ for the NO campaign. Alistair Darling launched a campaign, a poster campaign billboards⁴, a call for the love of our families. The slogan say, I love my family. I'm saying, no, thanks. Well, Alex Salmond said that that was a major gaff because he said everybody loves their family regardless of politics.

1 bout   

n.侵袭，发作；一次(阵，回)；拳击等比赛

参考例句：

• I was suffering with a bout of nerves.我感到一阵紧张。
• That bout of pneumonia enfeebled her.那次肺炎的发作使她虚弱了。

2 jitters   

n.pl.紧张(通常前面要有the)

参考例句：

• I always get the jitters before exams. 我考试前总是很紧张。
• The whole city had the jitters from the bombing. 全城居民都为轰炸而心神不宁。

3 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。

4 billboards   

n.广告牌( billboard的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Large billboards have disfigured the scenery. 大型告示板已破坏了景色。 来自辞典例句
• Then, put the logo in magazines and on billboards without telling anyone what it means. 接着我们把这个商标刊在杂志和广告看板上，却不跟任何人透漏它的涵意。 来自常春藤生活英语杂志-2006年4月号