VOA常速英语2016--美国总统竞选状况复杂曲折

Twists and Turns Aplenty in US Presidential Race 美国总统竞选状况复杂曲折分享到:

Even as Americans pause for this week’s Memorial Day holiday, much attention is focused on the presidential contest, where almost-daily twists and turns are confounding conventional wisdom in what has become an unusually turbulent end of the primary campaign season.

In January, New York businessman Donald Trump¹ was one of more than a dozen Republican presidential contenders in a field with no clear favorite. By contrast, Hillary Clinton stood as the front-runner over just two Democratic rivals.

一月时，唐纳德·特朗普还是共和党众多总统竞选人中的一个，共和党成员还没有表现出明显的偏好，而希拉里·克林顿已经遥遥领先于另外两名民主党竞争者了。

Last week, Trump officially clinched² the Republican nomination³.“We’ve won the nomination – big – by numbers that you can’t believe.”

上周，特朗普正式宣布赢得共和党提名。“我们已经赢得了党内提名，并且得票数高的难以置信。”

While Clinton has to campaign hard to avoid embarrassing defeats closing out the primaries.“Thank you, San Francisco!”

而克林顿需要在竞选活动上更加努力才能避免初选中的尴尬失败。“谢谢你们，谢谢圣弗朗西斯科！”

Making matters worse, last week’s inspector⁴ general report that her email usage as secretary of state violated agency policies,putting Clinton on the defensive⁵.“The use of personal email was a practice by other secretaries of state, and the rules were not clarified until after I had left.And, as I’ve said many times, if I could do it over again, I would have done it differently.”

更糟糕的是，上周，监察长的总结报告称克林顿担任国务卿期间使用私人邮箱违反了机构政策，这使她陷入了被动。“其他国务卿也使用过私人邮箱，直到我离职后才明确规定不可以使用私人邮箱。并且，我已经说了很多次，如果重来的话我将采取不同的做法。”

“When I watch Hillary Clinton, as I say ‘Crooked⁶ Hillary’, she is crooked.But she lies – Hillary is a disaster, folks, she has bad judgment⁷.”Trump meanwhile agreed to and then turned down a proposed debate with Clinton challenger Bernie Sanders.

“当我看到希拉里·克林顿的时候，我会说‘狡猾的希拉里’，她这个人不老实。她还会撒谎！伙计们，希拉里就是个灾难！她的判断力也很糟糕。”与此同时，特朗普曾答应了克林顿的挑战者伯尼·桑德斯提议的论辩，但是后来又拒绝了。

“What I hope will happen is that, in fact, I will run against him as the Democratic nominee⁸ for president of the United States.And if I do, we’re going to beat him and beat him bad.”Beating Trump is one idea Sanders and Clinton agree on.

“实际上我希望我会作为民主党候选人竞选美国总统，与特朗普展开较量。这样的话我们将会打败他，狠狠地打败他。”打败特朗普是桑德斯和克林顿的共识。

“The stakes could not be higher; there is absolutely no way that we can let Donald Trump get anywhere near the White House.”But with Clinton and Sanders still battling each other, the Democratic Party is not unifying⁹ behind either.

“我们不能接受更高的风险了；无论如何我们绝不能让唐纳德·特朗普接近白宫！”但是克林顿和桑德斯仍然互为对手，共和党内部并不是完全团结一致的。

Rank-and-file Republicans, meanwhile, are showing some signs of rallying behind their nominee-to-be,leading to the first ever polls showing Trump tied or slightly above Clinton.“And I’m leading in the polls, we’re leading in almost every poll now.Do you believe this? It’s so great.”

同时，普通共和党议员们也重整旗鼓支持他们的候选人，导致第一轮投票显示特朗普的得票数几乎与克林顿相当、甚至是略高于克林顿了。“我的得票数领先，我们现在几乎领先了所有的投票。你们相信吗？这简直太棒了！”

Primary season ends next Tuesday, when America’s biggest state, California, and several others get their say.

首轮竞选将在下周二结束，届时美国最大的州——加利福尼亚——和其他几个州将给出结果。

1 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。

2 clinched   

v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的过去式和过去分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议）

参考例句：

• The two businessmen clinched the deal quickly. 两位生意人很快达成了协议。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Evidently this information clinched the matter. 显然，这一消息使问题得以最终解决。 来自辞典例句

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 inspector   

n.检查员，监察员，视察员

参考例句：

• The inspector was interested in everything pertaining to the school.视察员对有关学校的一切都感兴趣。
• The inspector was shining a flashlight onto the tickets.查票员打着手电筒查看车票。

5 defensive   

adj.防御的；防卫的；防守的

参考例句：

• Their questions about the money put her on the defensive.他们问到钱的问题，使她警觉起来。
• The Government hastily organized defensive measures against the raids.政府急忙布置了防卫措施抵御空袭。

6 crooked   

adj.弯曲的；不诚实的，狡猾的，不正当的

参考例句：

• He crooked a finger to tell us to go over to him.他弯了弯手指，示意我们到他那儿去。
• You have to drive slowly on these crooked country roads.在这些弯弯曲曲的乡间小路上你得慢慢开车。

7 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

8 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

9 unifying   

使联合( unify的现在分词 )； 使相同； 使一致； 统一

参考例句：

• In addition, there were certain religious bonds of a unifying kind. 此外，他们还有某种具有一种统一性质的宗教上的结合。
• There is a unifying theme, and that is the theme of information flow within biological systems. 我们可以用一个总的命题，把生物学系统内的信息流来作为这一研究主题。