候选人加里约翰逊的“阿勒颇时刻”

AS IT IS 2016-09-30 Candidate Gary Johnson's ＂Aleppo Moment＂ 候选人加里约翰逊的“阿勒颇时刻”

This is What’s Trending Today.

Gary Johnson is the Libertarian Party candidate for president. His name will appear on ballots² in every U.S. state and territory on Nov. 8. It will be next to prominent candidates from the two main political parties, Democrat³ Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump⁴.

Johnson is the former governor of the southwestern state of New Mexico.

And his name has been on the ballot¹ before. He was the Libertarian candidate in 2012. He received about 1 million votes, but Barack Obama and Mitt⁵ Romney received many millions more.

Johnson does not have enough support in public opinion studies to be included in the televised presidential debates like the one between Clinton and Trump on Monday night.

But a television news program did give Johnson a chance to speak about himself and some political issues on Wednesday.

And it did not go well.

The host of the show asked him to name a foreign leader he admires.

Johnson had trouble coming up with a name. Later, he said he was trying to recall the name of former Mexican president Vicente Fox. Johnson worked with Fox when he was governor of New Mexico.

Johnson said he was having “an Aleppo moment” when he could not think of Fox’s name.

“Aleppo moment” is trending on Twitter.

The phrase refers to the time in early September when Johnson was asked about Aleppo, the city at the heart of the Syrian civil war.

And he replied by asking “and what is Aleppo?”

People criticized Johnson for not knowing enough about the war in Syria to identify one of the country’s major cities.

On Thursday, people reacted to Johnson’s trouble with the names of foreign leaders. They also wanted to remind the candidate that problems in Syria should not be minimized.

Many people posted news of bombings or deaths in Aleppo while mentioning Johnson and saying “This is an Aleppo moment.”

And that’s What’s Trending Today.

Words in This Story

prominent – n. important and well-known

admire – v. to feel respect or approval for (someone or something)

minimize – v. to treat or describe (something) as smaller or less important than it is

trending – adj. a comment or story popular, or often repeated on social media

1 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。

2 ballots   

n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 democrat   

n.民主主义者，民主人士；民主党党员

参考例句：

• The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
• About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后，他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。

4 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。

5 mitt   

n.棒球手套，拳击手套，无指手套；vt.铐住，握手

参考例句：

• I gave him a baseball mitt for his birthday.为祝贺他的生日，我送给他一只棒球手套。
• Tom squeezed a mitt and a glove into the bag.汤姆把棒球手套和手套都塞进袋子里。