英语单词大师：Some Political Terms From the

 AA:    I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: more political terms.

RS:    New York Times language columnist¹ William Safire is the editor of the newly updated Safire's Political Dictionary, and a former White House speechwriter.

AA:    He spoke² with VOA's Adam Phillips in New York. And we began today with some of the phrases used by the current occupant of the White House, who moves out in January.

WILLIAM SAFIRE: "Of course, one of the most famous is the Axis³ of Evil. That refers to the three nations that George Bush felt, and I think still feels, were the most dangerous -- Iran, Iraq and North Korea. And that was based on the World War Two, and preceding World War Two, the Axis Powers of German, Italy and Japan.

"Of course, War on Terror is associated with him. And he wouldn't like it, but waterboarding is now associated with this administration -- the torture by frightening someone into thinking they are drowning by pouring water over their face. That was a technique used in the Philippines by the American liberators. And a particularly nice one -- the soft bigotry⁴ of low expectations. That was a beautiful turn of phrase, I thought.

"Now misunderestimate was a goof⁵ that he made, a blunder, because it's obviously redundant⁶. You either underestimate somebody or you don't. Every president goofs⁷, comes up with bloopers or mistakes. Every president misspeaks. There's a new word, by the way, misspeak. It means, essentially⁸, to say what you don't mean. That's what misspeaking is. It's like a typographical error in your speaking and it's used as an excuse.

"The passive construction is another excuse. You will see somebody saying 'Mistakes were made.' That's a trick. That's not saying 'I made a mistake.' That's suddenly diffusing⁹ the blame. That was done in a[n Abraham] Lincoln speech. He went though a speech he had to make at one point to the Congress, in eighteen sixty-three or four, in which he just changed all the 'I did this' to 'it was done.'

AP:     Presidents, or their speechwriters, are often creative in their use of language. William Safire says that Franklin Roosevelt, who was president from 1933 during the Great Depression until his death in 1945, just before World War Two ended, was something of an aristocrat¹⁰, but he knew how to convey a sense of warmth and approachability to everyday Americans. WILLIAM SAFIRE: "For example, when he was running for an office in New York State as a young man, he heard another candidate use the words my friends as the introduction to a speech. And he remembered that. And when the time came for what he called fireside chats -- which were his first broadcasts over radio, which was then a new medium -- and he would begin it with 'My friends.' That took the onus¹¹ of 'oh, I have to listen to a speech' off the audience and they could say 'well, this is a fireside chat.'

"Now today, if you listen to any interview with [Republican presidential candidate] John McCain, Senator McCain spices it with 'I'm saying this to you, my friends.' And he throws 'my friends' in almost every paragraph. And it's a warm way of making contact with an audience. And he got that from FDR.

AP:     And that technique could still come in handy today when candidates give what Safire's Political Dictionary calls the speech.

WILLIAM SAFIRE: "Every candidate, in the course of a campaign, has to work out in his own mind what he will say if called upon to get up and talk for ten minutes to an audience or to a crowd outside. It's like walking around with some sourdough in your saddlebag, which you can mix in with whatever dough¹² [is available] locally and you can make a bread out of it -- the speech.

AP: "Is that the same as stump¹³ speech? Where does that word come from?

WILLIAM SAFIRE: " A stump speech comes from standing¹⁴ on the stump of a tree in front of a crowd. That's two centuries old. And to go on the stump is to make these stump speeches, where you can stand up three foot taller than everybody else and harangue¹⁵ them."AP That was 'the speech' of the old days?"WILLIAM SAFIRE: "Exactly, right."AA:     New York Times language columnist, and former presidential speechwriter, William Safire is the editor of Safire's Political Dictionary, recently published in a revised and updated edition by Oxford¹⁶ University Press.

RS:     The first part of his conversation with VOA's Adam Phillips can be found on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And that's all for WORDMASTER this week. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

1 columnist   

n.专栏作家

参考例句：

• The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
• She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。

2 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

3 axis   

n.轴，轴线，中心线；坐标轴，基准线

参考例句：

• The earth's axis is the line between the North and South Poles.地轴是南北极之间的线。
• The axis of a circle is its diameter.圆的轴线是其直径。

4 bigotry   

n.偏见，偏执，持偏见的行为[态度]等

参考例句：

• She tried to dissociate herself from the bigotry in her past.她力图使自己摆脱她以前的偏见。
• At least we can proceed in this matter without bigotry.目前这件事咱们至少可以毫无偏见地进行下去。

5 goof   

v.弄糟；闲混；n.呆瓜

参考例句：

• We goofed last week at the end of our interview with singer Annie Ross.上周我们采访歌手安妮·罗斯，结果到快结束时犯了个愚蠢的错误。
• You will never be good students so long as you goof around.如果你们成天游手好闲，就永远也成不了好学生。

6 redundant   

adj.多余的，过剩的；(食物)丰富的；被解雇的

参考例句：

• There are too many redundant words in this book.这本书里多余的词太多。
• Nearly all the redundant worker have been absorbed into other departments.几乎所有冗员，都已调往其他部门任职。

7 goofs   

n.呆瓜( goof的名词复数 )v.弄糟( goof的第三人称单数 )；混；打发时间；出大错

参考例句：

• Red always goofs off, or thinks of a smart crack instead of working. 雷德不好好干，总是吊儿郎当，要不就想出些俏皮话来挖苦人。 来自辞典例句
• Other than the above ideas, I have also considered making movie goofs. 除了自创的桥段外，还可以玩电影恶搞。 来自互联网

8 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

9 diffusing   

（使光）模糊，漫射，漫散( diffuse的现在分词 )； （使）扩散； （使）弥漫； （使）传播

参考例句：

• Compounding this confusion is a diffusing definition of journalist. 新闻和娱乐的掺和扩散了“记者”定义。
• Diffusing phenomena also so, after mix cannot spontaneous separating. 扩散现象也如此，混合之后不能自发的分开。

10 aristocrat   

n.贵族，有贵族气派的人，上层人物

参考例句：

• He was the quintessential english aristocrat.他是典型的英国贵族。
• He is an aristocrat to the very marrow of his bones.他是一个道道地地的贵族。

11 onus   

n.负担；责任

参考例句：

• The onus is on government departments to show cause why information cannot bedisclosed.政府部门有责任说明不能把信息公开的理由。
• The onus of proof lies with you.你有责任提供证据。

12 dough   

n.生面团；钱，现款

参考例句：

• She formed the dough into squares.她把生面团捏成四方块。
• The baker is kneading dough.那位面包师在揉面。

13 stump   

n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走

参考例句：

• He went on the stump in his home state.他到故乡所在的州去发表演说。
• He used the stump as a table.他把树桩用作桌子。

14 standing   

n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的

参考例句：

• After the earthquake only a few houses were left standing.地震过后只有几幢房屋还立着。
• They're standing out against any change in the law.他们坚决反对对法律做任何修改。

15 harangue   

n.慷慨冗长的训话，言辞激烈的讲话

参考例句：

• We had to listen to a long harangue about our own shortcomings.我们必须去听一有关我们缺点的长篇大论。
• The minister of propaganda delivered his usual harangue.宣传部长一如既往发表了他的长篇大论。

16 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。