第二章

语言

报刊内容涵盖美英国内外大事及各行各业，真是上至天文下至地理，无所不包，是一部活的百科全书，其词汇量和词义面也必然广阔无边。此章不可能像综合词典一样，对上百万个词汇一一讲解。读报要入门，必须掌握一定数量当今报刊常用的政治、社会、经济、法律、科技、宗教和间谍等基本词汇和新词语，编者尽可能重点讲解，针对学生初读报的困惑，指出词义从泛指到特指、从抽象到具体发生的词义变化。人们对时政文章最感兴趣，报刊上这方面的报道和评论文章也最多，不言而喻是详解重点。为使读者进一步了解报刊语言的多变及语法的变化，专门写了一章“跟踪语言的变化和发展”。为掌握报刊语言的一些规则，编者还尝试总结“报刊语言主要特点”，帮助读者看报时，对报刊语言的特点更敏锐，从而易吃透文章内容。

“语言”与“读报知识”不能分开，读报知识介绍也不能面面俱到，所以在语言解说中尽可能两者结合。

学习任何知识都必须打好基础，读外刊也不例外。我们认为，学生在中学和大学低年级的阶段首先要夯实语言基础。到了大学高年级阶段，读报必须在报刊语言及其特点和读报知识这两项基本功上下工夫。编者采取的不是一开头就解说那些学生较陌生的词语，而是有针对性地从扩大他们所熟悉的常用词的词义面着手，增强读外刊的信心，消除“恐惧”感。

如一开始就领初入门者看下面这段短文，或许会吓退他们。此文是2004年美国大选期间共和和民主两党候选人George W.Bush和John Kerry竞选团队，相互诋毁，针对读者来函谈专题报道读后感，Newsweek作出回复，文字很短，初入门者不熟悉的词语和背景知识却不少。

MAIL CALL 1

Mudslinging 2 and the Race for the White House

Readers responding to our cover story 3 on the viciousness of the presidential campaign urged the candidates to tone it down．One said John Kerry and George W．Bush should“learn to behave with a little more pride, dignity and honor.”But some said equating the attacks on Bush with those on Kerry is unfair.“Severely criticizing Bush's policies is not the same as lying about Kerry's record in Vietnam 4 ,”said one reader．Others thought we were wrong in proclaiming all 527 organizations 5 suspect.“Legitimate 527s level the playing field 6 , providing a way for regular folks like me to put our wallets where our mouths are 7 , just like the big contributors,”a reader wrote．Others think the mudslinging only obscures the bigger picture：“I want to know how we are going to deal with the health-care crisis, educating our children and creating and keeping American jobs．It's not what happened in Vietnam, stupid 8 .”

（2004/10/4, Newsweek）

1．reply to mail

2．slime slinging or negative campaigning

3．见第一节“ 扩大若干常见词的词义面 ”“story”

4．见“ 读报知识 ”“总统选举”

5．ditto（同上）

6．be equal or fair

7．take action to support our statement or opinion（即不能光说而不做）如不知wallet即money会抓瞎。put one's money where one's mouth is 本来就是informal, 改为wallet则更是用俗了。

8．见“跟踪语言的变化和发展”

与其如此，不妨有针对性引导他们先见一篇文章中的两段，有的是熟词新义，想当然便会出错。

Carter, himself a critic of Bush, was 78 when he won the prize 1 ．But Gore is just 59 and an active presence 2 in American politics, if only as a large thorn in Bush's side—and in the side of Democrats worried that he might challenge 3 them for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination．Gore, who lost the 2000 election to Bush after a bitter electoral dispute that had to be resolved by the Supreme Court, has regularly said that he will not run for president again．But Friday's announcement touched off renewed interest in his plans…

“We would encourage all countries, including the big countries, and challenge 4 them to think again and to say what they can do to conquer global warming,”Mjoes said in a news conference in Oslo.“The bigger the powers, the better that they come in front of this.”（2007/10/12 International Herald Tribune）

1．Former US president Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace prize at 78 in 2002, and former Vice President Al Gore and the UN climate panel shared the peace Prize for climate work in 2007．

2．here referring to prominent political figure

3．compete against

4．encourage

这两段中，“presence”是个抽象指具体意义的词，西方长于抽象思维，中国人擅长形象思维，对这种用法不太习惯。两个challenge义不同，不能见到此字就认为只有“挑战”一义。

下面再举五例：

1．a high-profile military presence .

2．Sir Keith himself would agree that industrial policy now begins and ends with the treasury：an economic policy designed to foster the“ enterprise culture ”.（The Economist）

3．Terrorists might hit American interests abroad.（VOA）

4．At the root of the problem is money．As a poor nation, China has few resources left over for cultural conservation after struggling to overhaul its command economy, dampen rising unemployment, take care of an aging population, put in infrastructure and modernize its massive military.（Los Angeles Times）

5．Even as Harper was carrying out his espionage tasks, America's Polish mole was discussing the case with Harper's own Polish case officer．Later，he passed on the entire story to U.S．agents，including word that the Poles had received congratulations from Yuri Andropov, the late Soviet President and former KGB chief.（U.S．News & World Report）

以上这五例是否都能将多义词对号入座，译为“存在”、“企业文化”、“利益”、“资源”、“故事”呢？显然不妥，那样会显得生硬，不合乎汉语的习惯表达法，甚至会闹笑话。