词汇大师-- Knowing the Lingo as Americans

　　AA:    I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: dictionary editor Ben Zimmer explains terms from the U.S. presidential campaign.
RS:    We start with "battleground state" and "swing state."

　　BEN ZIMMER: "Well, they're usually used pretty interchangeably. They are states where we don't whether they will go for the Republican ticket or the Democratic ticket, and that's where the election will be decided¹."
RS: "So the swing states or the battleground states would be Michigan. Ohio ... "
AA: "Ohio. Pennsylvania, we hear a lot."
RS: "Florida."
BEN ZIMMER: "That's right, and those are the states that have been really crucial in the past few presidential elections. One way that people have been talking about it in the past few elections is in terms of color. There are red states, which are assumed to go for the Republicans, blue states for the Democrats², and the ones that we're not sure of, people call purple states.
"The television networks actually set up a system of color-coding so that there would be no favoritism. They would actually switch the colors blue and red based on the incumbent³ party. So, for instance, in two thousand the incumbent party was Democratic and that color was blue.
"In two thousand four the incumbent party was Republican and they switched the color-coding so that the incumbents⁴ had red. But that meant that the Democrats were blue again.
"The system was supposed to switch over again this year, but it looks like they're just going to hold on to that. Otherwise it would just be very confusing for people, because that's the association everybody has now."
RS: "And it's good that it's not on the ballot⁵."
BEN ZIMMER: "That's true. I'm color blind, so I would have a real problem with that if they started using colors on the ballot."
RS: "Speaking of ballots⁶, what's an absentee ballot? We're hearing a lot about that too."
BEN ZIMMER: "This is actually becoming a very widespread phenomenon now. A lot of states are encouraging people to vote ahead of time. They don't ask you why anymore. They just say go ahead, do it by mail. And this is seen as a way to increase voter participation⁷ for people who might have a problem getting out to the polls on Election Day.
"But it's also changing things quite a lot because large numbers of people are voting by mail well before Election Day. And so the whole dynamics⁸ of the kind of endgame of the election could be very different because people are voting much earlier now."
AA: "And in fact even the campaigns are offering to send people absentee ballot applications."
BEN ZIMMER: "That's right. I mean, this is really crucial also with older voters who might have trouble getting to the polling stations. And so we've seen a big push in states like Florida to have elderly voters vote absentee."
RS: "One of the expressions we've been seeing in the news lately because we've had two political conventions is post-convention bump."
BEN ZIMMER: "That refers to the spike⁹ in the polls for a candidate immediately after a political convention. So the Democrats had their convention first this year and we saw a rise in the polls that favored Obama.
"And then the Republicans had their convention the next week and they got an even bigger bump because of all the attention mostly surrounding the vice¹⁰ presidential candidate, Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska."
AA: "And another term we're hearing in connection with Sarah Palin is 'Hail Mary pass.'"
BEN ZIMMER: "Well, that's an interesting term that made the transition from religion to sports to politics. So a 'Hail Mary' is a devotional prayer that's said by Catholics, and then it made the transition to sports. Roger Staubach, who was a famous football player in the nineteen seventies, referred to a forward pass that he made at the end of an important football game as a 'Hail Mary pass,' which means he just threw it and said a prayer, hoping that it would be caught.
"And sure enough, the ball was caught and his team won that important game. And so that then became a metaphor¹¹ for any kind of desperate move made to try to obtain a victory. So when Sarah Palin was announced, some people said 'Oh, this is just a Hail Mary pass. He's just trying to get ahead of Obama by making this unexpected move.'"
RS:    Ben Zimmer is executive producer of the Visual Thesaurus, an online thesaurus and dictionary. More terms from the campaign trail next week.
AA:    As for those post-convention bumps, we should note that as of Tuesday, the RealClearPolitics.com average of national polls had Barack Obama ahead by three points.
RS:    And that's WORDMASTER for this week. With Avi Arditti, I'm Rosanne Skirble.

1 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

2 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 incumbent   

adj.成为责任的，有义务的；现任的，在职的

参考例句：

• He defeated the incumbent governor by a large plurality.他以压倒多数票击败了现任州长。
• It is incumbent upon you to warn them.你有责任警告他们。

4 incumbents   

教区牧师( incumbent的名词复数 )； 教会中的任职者

参考例句：

• In general, incumbents have a 94 percent chance of being reelected. 通常现任官员有94%的几率会再次当选。
• This arangement yields a wonderful gain to incumbents. 这种安排为在职人员提供了意外的得益。

5 ballot   

n.（不记名）投票，投票总数，投票权；vi.投票

参考例句：

• The members have demanded a ballot.会员们要求投票表决。
• The union said they will ballot members on whether to strike.工会称他们将要求会员投票表决是否罢工。

6 ballots   

n.投票表决( ballot的名词复数 )；选举；选票；投票总数v.（使）投票表决( ballot的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• They're counting the ballots. 他们正在计算选票。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The news of rigged ballots has rubbed off much of the shine of their election victory. 他们操纵选票的消息使他们在选举中获得的胜利大为减色。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

8 dynamics   

n.力学，动力学，动力，原动力；动态

参考例句：

• In order to succeed,you must master complicated knowledge of dynamics.要取得胜利，你必须掌握很复杂的动力学知识。
• Dynamics is a discipline that cannot be mastered without extensive practice.动力学是一门不做大量习题就不能掌握的学科。

9 spike   

n.长钉，钉鞋；v.以大钉钉牢，使...失效

参考例句：

• The spike pierced the receipts and held them in order.那个钉子穿过那些收据并使之按顺序排列。
• They'll do anything to spike the guns of the opposition.他们会使出各种手段来挫败对手。

10 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

11 metaphor   

n.隐喻，暗喻

参考例句：

• Using metaphor,we say that computers have senses and a memory.打个比方，我们可以说计算机有感觉和记忆力。
• In poetry the rose is often a metaphor for love.玫瑰在诗中通常作为爱的象征。