美国国家公共电台 NPR Deathless Prose Added To Our Collective Memories In 2017

 

ROBERT SIEGEL, HOST:

As 2017 draws to an end and we try to assess it, one measure is, what deathless prose has been added to our collective memories over the past 12 months? Well, Fred Shapiro has assembled the top 10 quotations¹ of the year from interviews, speeches, tweets and more. Shapiro is the editor of "The Yale Book Of Quotations," and he joins us now. Welcome to the program.

FRED SHAPIRO: Thanks for having me.

SIEGEL: You have a whole range on your top-10 list - French President Emmanuel Macron saying make our planet great again, the owner of the Houston Texans, Robert McNair, saying we can't have the inmates² running the prison, the inmates being professional football players kneeling during the national anthem³. We can't get to all of them, but let's start with number eight from Hollywood and the Academy Awards.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

WARREN BEATTY: For Best Picture...

FAYE DUNAWAY: You're awful. Come on - "La La Land."

(CHEERING)

SIEGEL: Yeah, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway announcing the wrong film for best picture. It was actually "Moonlight," not "La La Land." Why did you choose that one?

SHAPIRO: Well, that was an unprecedented⁴ flub. It wasn't really Beatty's or Dunaway's fault I don't think, but it led to a chaotic⁵ scene and something that's not likely to ever be repeated hopefully.

SIEGEL: (Laughter) Let's hope. Sticking with Hollywood, I'm going to jump to your number four. And I want to ask you why you chose for the Harvey Weinstein story. And there has been so much fallout across many professions. But you picked this line. (Reading) With respect to any women who have made allegations on the record, Mr. Weinstein believes that all of these relationships were consensual - those words from Sallie Hofmeister, who is a spokesman for Weinstein, saying it back in October. Why that one?

SHAPIRO: I try to reflect the major themes of the year in news and culture. And clearly the sexual harassment⁶ issue was a very big theme. And I also try to pick striking lines. And this was a...

SIEGEL: Yeah.

SHAPIRO: ...Dramatic line.

SIEGEL: How do you gather these quotes, by the way, and how do you winnow⁷ them down?

SHAPIRO: Well, I follow the news during the year, looking for remarkable⁸ and important quotes. But I also have correspondents all over the world who email me with suggestions - people that have used "The Yale Book Of Quotations" and are aware of these lists and are constantly feeding me with suggestions.

SIEGEL: Finally, number one and two on your list are a pair here. They come from a discussion between White House adviser⁹ Kellyanne Conway and interviewer Chuck Todd on his show "Meet The Press" following the inauguration¹⁰. We hear Conway first.

(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MEET THE PRESS")

KELLYANNE CONWAY: Sean Spicer, our press secretary, gave alternative facts to that, but the point remains¹¹ that there is...

CHUCK TODD: Wait a minute - alternative facts? Alternative facts - 4 of the 5 facts he uttered...

CONWAY: Hey, Chuck, why - hey, Chuck...

TODD: The one thing he got right was Zeke Miller¹². Four of the 5 facts he uttered were just not true. Look; alternative facts are not facts. They're falsehoods.

SIEGEL: Alternative facts are not facts. They're falsehoods. Sean Spicer gave some alternative facts. Do you think alternative fact has entered the vocabulary?

SHAPIRO: Yes. And in some ways, the most striking quotes are the ones that introduce new words, terms, phrases into the language, into our discourse¹³. And this I think did introduce alternative facts into the English language.

SIEGEL: Were there any quotations that didn't make the top 10, something from number 11 through 20 that came close and that are remarkable to you?

SHAPIRO: Yes. I have a - kind of a runner-up list. There was Betsy DeVos talking about guns in schools to fend¹⁴ off grizzly¹⁵ bears. President Trump¹⁶ had a number of statements, such as, nobody knew health care could be so complicated. There was me too as the slogan of the movement against sexual harassment. I kind of like Rex Tillerson's line. It was not my first sword dance. There's something poetic¹⁷ about that to me.

SIEGEL: That was from Saudi Arabia, where he as an oil man had had some experience.

SHAPIRO: Yes.

SIEGEL: Fred Shapiro is the editor of "La La Land." No, he's not really. He's editor of "The Yale Book Of Quotations." Thank you very much for sharing your take on the top 10 quotes of 2017 with us.

SHAPIRO: Thank you.

1 quotations   

n.引用( quotation的名词复数 )；[商业]行情（报告）；（货物或股票的）市价；时价

参考例句：

• The insurance company requires three quotations for repairs to the car. 保险公司要修理这辆汽车的三家修理厂的报价单。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These quotations cannot readily be traced to their sources. 这些引语很难查出出自何处。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 anthem   

n.圣歌，赞美诗，颂歌

参考例句：

• All those present were standing solemnly when the national anthem was played.奏国歌时全场肃立。
• As he stood on the winner's rostrum,he sang the words of the national anthem.他站在冠军领奖台上，唱起了国歌。

4 unprecedented   

adj.无前例的，新奇的

参考例句：

• The air crash caused an unprecedented number of deaths.这次空难的死亡人数是空前的。
• A flood of this sort is really unprecedented.这样大的洪水真是十年九不遇。

5 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

6 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

7 winnow   

v．把（谷物）的杂质吹掉，扬去

参考例句：

• You should winnow out the inaccuracies of this paper this afternoon.你今天下午把这篇文章中不精确的内容删掉。
• We should winnow out the errors in logic.我们应该排除逻辑中的错误。

8 remarkable   

adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的

参考例句：

• She has made remarkable headway in her writing skills.她在写作技巧方面有了长足进步。
• These cars are remarkable for the quietness of their engines.这些汽车因发动机没有噪音而不同凡响。

9 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

10 inauguration   

n.开幕、就职典礼

参考例句：

• The inauguration of a President of the United States takes place on January 20.美国总统的就职典礼于一月二十日举行。
• Three celebrated tenors sang at the president's inauguration.3位著名的男高音歌手在总统就职仪式上演唱。

11 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

12 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

13 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。

14 fend   

v.照料（自己），（自己）谋生，挡开，避开

参考例句：

• I've had to fend for myself since I was 14.我从十四岁时起就不得不照料自己。
• He raised his arm up to fend branches from his eyes.他举手将树枝从他眼前挡开。

15 grizzly   

adj.略为灰色的，呈灰色的；n.灰色大熊

参考例句：

• This grizzly liked people.这只灰熊却喜欢人。
• Grizzly bears are not generally social creatures.一般说来，灰熊不是社交型动物。

16 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。

17 poetic   

adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的

参考例句：

• His poetic idiom is stamped with expressions describing group feeling and thought.他的诗中的措辞往往带有描写群体感情和思想的印记。
• His poetic novels have gone through three different historical stages.他的诗情小说创作经历了三个不同的历史阶段。