词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Military Terms in Civilian Use

AA: This is Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble. This week on Wordmaster ... some military terms that have come into civilian¹ slang.

RS: Sanya Aina, a listener in Lagos, Nigeria, is writing a book about the plight² of peacekeepers in Sierra Leone and is curious to know some American phrases that are associated with war and peace.

AA: Next week, we'll set our sights on the language of peace. Today we turn to a professor at the National War College here in Washington, historian Mark Clodfelter.

CUT ONE -- CLODFELTER/SKIRBLE

CLODFELTER: "Given that I was an Air Force officer if something's not going right, I present a proposal, it could be 'shot down.' Also from the navy perspective my proposal was 'torpedoed⁴.'"

RS: "So if your proposal 'blew me out of the water,' would I like it or hate it?"

CLODFELTER: "Now that's a good point. If it 'blew you out of the water,' you might have been so overcome, that you were just amazed that it was such a stunning⁵ an idea. However, on the other hand, you could have had a counter-idea and I could have 'sunk' you."

AA: Now what if someone calls your idea "over the top," slang for extreme or outlandish. Mark Clodfelter says the term was first used to describe an extreme kind of warfare⁶.

TAPE: CUT TWO -- CLODFELTER/SKIRBLE/ARDITTI

CLODFELTER: "That would refer to trench⁷ warfare in World War One where you had two lines of trenches⁸ in fairly close proximity⁹ to one another, and typically the way you would attack your enemy is you would hit them with an artillery¹⁰ barrage¹¹ and then when the barrage stopped, and hopefully the enemy force was hurt very badly, then your troops would climb out 'over the top' of the trench -- your trench -- and advance towards the enemy's trench."

RS: "So if you work 'in the trenches' of an organization, what would that mean?"

CLODFELTER: "Well, I would say you were perhaps deep, deep in the bowels¹² of that organization and your odds¹³ of seeing daylight are very remote, and to use another military term you're not going to be part of the 'top brass¹⁴.'"RS: "Can you tell us other words that have recently, or rather recently, made it from the military into everyday speech?"

CLODFELTER: "Perhaps the term 'friendly fire.' I think that was used frequently during the Gulf¹⁵ War and also during Vietnam, which means you have an idea, proposal, whatever, but it's going to be undermined, undercut, by your own organization [unintentionally]. In military terms, 'friendly fire' means that you've caused damage to your own troops. You've shot and missed the enemy and inadvertently hit your own guys."

AA: Now if a person is considered a traitor¹⁶, Americans have an expression: We might call that person a "Benedict Arnold."

RS: Mark Clodfelter offered a little history lesson. Benedict Arnold was a general in the Revolutionary War against the British. He was a hero ... who ended up turning against his own country:

TAPE: CUT THREE -- CLODFELTER

"He succumbed¹⁷ to British offers of money and was going to sell out the plans for how to attack West Point to the British, was found out about this, and then switched sides and served with the British for the rest of the war."

AA: That was in the late 1700s, yet "Benedict Arnold" -- his name -- lives on.

RS: Now on to the modern term "Catch 22", which originated as a parody¹⁸ of military rules and the conditions written into them. It's the creation of the late author Joseph Heller.

AA: His book "Catch 22" was published in 1961 and became an anti-war classic.

TAPE: CUT FOUR -- CLODFELTER

" The phrase as used was referring to pilots, air crews in World War Two and saying, well, gosh, you can't fly if you're crazy, the idea being that you would have to be crazy to fly, but if you know you're crazy, then really you're not crazy, so obviously you're cleared to go and fly, so it's a classic contradiction."

RS: In Heller's words a "Catch 22.

TAPE: CUT FOUR -- CLODFELTER (cont.)

AA: "And, finally, what's your favorite military term?"

CLODFELTER: "'Crash and burn' is a good one. Referring to somebody who's very gifted perhaps as an 'ace³.'"

AA: "Meaning a pilot who shoots down a lot of other planes."

CLODFELTER: "Yeah, but obviously it can refer to an ace corporate¹⁹ executive, ace tennis player, I mean it can refer to many things. The term was first used in a military capacity in World War One."

RS: Professor Mark Clodfelter at the National War College.

AA: If you have a question about American English, fire it off to VOA Wordmaster, Washington DC 20237, USA, or send e-mail to voanews.com. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti

1 civilian   

adj.平民的，民用的，民众的

参考例句：

• There is no reliable information about civilian casualties.关于平民的伤亡还没有确凿的信息。
• He resigned his commission to take up a civilian job.他辞去军职而从事平民工作。

2 plight   

n.困境，境况，誓约，艰难；vt.宣誓，保证，约定

参考例句：

• The leader was much concerned over the plight of the refugees.那位领袖对难民的困境很担忧。
• She was in a most helpless plight.她真不知如何是好。

3 ace   

n.A牌；发球得分；佼佼者；adj.杰出的

参考例句：

• A good negotiator always has more than one ace in the hole.谈判高手总有数张王牌在手。
• He is an ace mechanic.He can repair any cars.他是一流的机械师,什么车都会修。

4 torpedoed   

用鱼雷袭击（torpedo的过去式与过去分词形式）

参考例句：

• Her comments had torpedoed the deal. 她的一番话使得那笔交易彻底告吹。
• The battle ship was torpedoed. 该战列舰遭到了鱼雷的袭击。

5 stunning   

adj.极好的；使人晕倒的

参考例句：

• His plays are distinguished only by their stunning mediocrity.他的戏剧与众不同之处就是平凡得出奇。
• The finished effect was absolutely stunning.完工后的效果非常美。

6 warfare   

n.战争(状态)；斗争；冲突

参考例句：

• He addressed the audience on the subject of atomic warfare.他向听众演讲有关原子战争的问题。
• Their struggle consists mainly in peasant guerrilla warfare.他们的斗争主要是农民游击战。

7 trench   

n./v.(挖)沟，(挖)战壕

参考例句：

• The soldiers recaptured their trench.兵士夺回了战壕。
• The troops received orders to trench the outpost.部队接到命令在前哨周围筑壕加强防卫。

8 trenches   

深沟，地沟( trench的名词复数 )； 战壕

参考例句：

• life in the trenches 第一次世界大战期间的战壕生活
• The troops stormed the enemy's trenches and fanned out across the fields. 部队猛攻敌人的战壕，并在田野上呈扇形散开。

9 proximity   

n.接近，邻近

参考例句：

• Marriages in proximity of blood are forbidden by the law.法律规定禁止近亲结婚。
• Their house is in close proximity to ours.他们的房子很接近我们的。

10 artillery   

n.(军)火炮，大炮；炮兵(部队)

参考例句：

• This is a heavy artillery piece.这是一门重炮。
• The artillery has more firepower than the infantry.炮兵火力比步兵大。

11 barrage   

n.火力网，弹幕

参考例句：

• The attack jumped off under cover of a barrage.进攻在炮火的掩护下开始了。
• The fierce artillery barrage destroyed the most part of the city in a few minutes.猛烈的炮火几分钟内便毁灭了这座城市的大部分地区。

12 bowels   

n.肠，内脏，内部；肠( bowel的名词复数 )；内部，最深处

参考例句：

• Salts is a medicine that causes movements of the bowels. 泻盐是一种促使肠子运动的药物。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The cabins are in the bowels of the ship. 舱房设在船腹内。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

14 brass   

n.黄铜；黄铜器，铜管乐器

参考例句：

• Many of the workers play in the factory's brass band.许多工人都在工厂铜管乐队中演奏。
• Brass is formed by the fusion of copper and zinc.黄铜是通过铜和锌的熔合而成的。

15 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

16 traitor   

n.叛徒，卖国贼

参考例句：

• The traitor was finally found out and put in prison.那个卖国贼终于被人发现并被监禁了起来。
• He was sold out by a traitor and arrested.他被叛徒出卖而被捕了。

17 succumbed   

不再抵抗（诱惑、疾病、攻击等）( succumb的过去式和过去分词 )； 屈从； 被压垮； 死

参考例句：

• The town succumbed after a short siege. 该城被围困不久即告失守。
• After an artillery bombardment lasting several days the town finally succumbed. 在持续炮轰数日后，该城终于屈服了。

18 parody   

n.打油诗文，诙谐的改编诗文，拙劣的模仿；v.拙劣模仿，作模仿诗文

参考例句：

• The parody was just a form of teasing.那个拙劣的模仿只是一种揶揄。
• North Korea looks like a grotesque parody of Mao's centrally controlled China,precisely the sort of system that Beijing has left behind.朝鲜看上去像是毛时代中央集权的中国的怪诞模仿，其体制恰恰是北京方面已经抛弃的。

19 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。