2020年经济学人 美国最高法院大法官鲁斯·巴德·金斯伯格(1)

Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal conscience of America’s Supreme¹ Court, died on September 18th, aged² 87

美国最高法院的自由派良知鲁斯·巴德·金斯伯格于9月18日逝世，享年87岁。

On the evening of July 11th 2015, Ruth Bader Ginsburg went to the opera. There was nothing odd in that. Opera, after the law, was her great love, the only place where she could leave the legal world behind. When she worked on her opinions, often into the small hours if her husband Marty was not around to make her go to bed, she would usually have opera, or some other beautiful music, playing in the background.

2015年7月11日晚，鲁斯·巴德·金斯伯格去看歌剧。这没什么奇怪的。在法律之后，歌剧是她最大的爱好，是她唯一可以把法律世界抛在身后的地方。在为自己的观点而努力时，鲁斯经常工作到凌晨，如果她的丈夫马蒂不在旁边哄她睡觉，她通常会用歌剧或其他美妙的音乐作为背景音乐。

The talent she most coveted³ was to have a glorious voice, like Renata Tebaldi perhaps. As it was, she sang only in the shower and in her dreams. This particular opera, however, “Scalia/Ginsburg”, by Derrick Wang, was about her. It featured Antonin Scalia, then the court’s most scathing⁴ conservative, and she, its most notorious liberal, duelling musically in the styles of Mozart, Verdi and Puccini. He had to go through various trials; she helped him out, at one point soaring through a glass ceiling in the character of the Queen of the Night from “The Magic Flute”. She loved it all. She and Scalia, despite the legal zingers he tossed in her direction, had been best buddies⁵ since their days together on the dc federal appeals court in the 1980s.

她最渴望的才能是拥有一副美妙的嗓音，也许就像雷娜塔·蒂波迪那样。事实上，鲁斯只在淋浴时和梦中唱歌。然而，德里克·王的歌剧《斯卡利亚/金斯伯格》就是关于她的。它的主角是安东宁·斯卡利亚，当时最高法院最严厉的保守派，而她，这个最臭名昭著的自由主义者，在音乐上以莫扎特、威尔第和普契尼的风格奋战。他必须经历各种审判；鲁斯则帮他走出困境，在《魔笛》中，她凭借饰演“夜女王”一角曾一度冲破玻璃天花板。鲁斯都喜欢。尽管斯卡利亚对她说了一些法律上有力的反驳，但她和斯卡利亚自上世纪80年代在特区联邦上诉法院一起工作以来就是最好的朋友。

And America’s highest court could be just as dramatic, even if more sombrely arrayed. There she sat, this tiny little woman perched among the black-robed men, and there she disagreed. For all but three of her 27 years she had one or two sisterly colleagues, but her opinions still marked her out. She berated⁶ the court when, in 2014, it let employers foist⁷ their religious beliefs on their workers by not paying for cover for contraception. She was outraged⁸ when, in the Citizens United case of 2010, it refused to limit corporate⁹ funding of independent political broadcasts, as if America had all the democracy that money could buy.

而美国最高法院也可能同样引人注目，尽管其排列更为庄重。鲁斯坐在那里，这个瘦小的女人坐在一群黑袍男人中间，持反对意见。在她27年的职业生涯中，除了3年之外，她都有一两个姐妹同事，但她的观点仍然让她脱颖而出。2014年，法院允许雇主通过不覆盖避孕费用的方式，将自己的宗教信仰强加给员工，鲁斯对此大加斥责。在2010年的联合公民案中，法院拒绝限制公司对独立政治广播的资助，就好像美国拥有金钱所能买到的一切民主一样。鲁斯对此极其愤怒。

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 aged   

adj.年老的，陈年的

参考例句：

• He had put on weight and aged a little.他胖了，也老点了。
• He is aged,but his memory is still good.他已年老，然而记忆力还好。

3 coveted   

adj.令人垂涎的；垂涎的，梦寐以求的v.贪求，觊觎(covet的过去分词)；垂涎；贪图

参考例句：

• He had long coveted the chance to work with a famous musician. 他一直渴望有机会与著名音乐家一起工作。
• Ther other boys coveted his new bat. 其他的男孩都想得到他的新球棒。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 scathing   

adj.（言词、文章）严厉的，尖刻的；不留情的adv.严厉地，尖刻地v.伤害，损害（尤指使之枯萎）( scathe的现在分词)

参考例句：

• a scathing attack on the new management 针对新的管理层的猛烈抨击
• Her speech was a scathing indictment of the government's record on crime. 她的演讲强烈指责了政府在犯罪问题上的表现。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 buddies   

n.密友( buddy的名词复数 )；同伴；弟兄；（用于称呼男子，常带怒气）家伙v.（如密友、战友、伙伴、弟兄般）交往( buddy的第三人称单数 )；做朋友；亲近（…）；伴护艾滋病人

参考例句：

• We became great buddies. 我们成了非常好的朋友。 来自辞典例句
• The two of them have become great buddies. 他们俩成了要好的朋友。 来自辞典例句

6 berated   

v.严厉责备，痛斥( berate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Marion berated Joe for the noise he made. 玛丽昂严厉斥责乔吵吵闹闹。 来自辞典例句
• It berated Mussolini for selling out to Berlin. 它严厉谴责了墨索里尼背叛、投靠柏林的行径。 来自辞典例句

7 foist   

vt.把…强塞给，骗卖给

参考例句：

• He doesn't try to foist his beliefs on everyone.他不会勉强每个人接受他的信念。
• He tried to foist some inferior goods on me.他企图把一些劣质货强售给我。

8 outraged   

a.震惊的，义愤填膺的

参考例句：

• Members of Parliament were outraged by the news of the assassination. 议会议员们被这暗杀的消息激怒了。
• He was outraged by their behavior. 他们的行为使他感到愤慨。

9 corporate   

adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的

参考例句：

• This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
• His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。