時代經(jīng)典用詞人文篇 社會
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Chapter 7
Society
社會
alternative
另類
In a MTV Unplugged appearance, Kurt Cobain of the alernative band Nirvana performs a song called Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam.
在一次ＭＴＶ Ｕｎｐｌｕｇｇｅｄ節(jié)目演出時，另類樂團“超脫”成員Ｋｕｒｔ?。茫铮猓幔椋畋硌萘艘磺剩澹螅酰?Ｗａｎｔｓ?。停濉。妫铮颉。帷。樱酰睿猓澹幔?。
Many alternative therapies assume that mind and body are subtly interlocked and influence each other powerfully.
許多另類療法假設(shè)身與心之間有微妙的聯(lián)系，彼此有強大的影響。
Amnesty International
大赦國際
In a 1992 report on the indigenous people of the Americans,
在１９９２年一份南北美洲原住民狀況報告中，
Amnesty International cited dozens of human - rights violations carried out by Mexican authorities against the Maya people of Chiapas...
大赦國際舉出數(shù)十宗墨西哥政府對奇亞帕省瑪雅民族的違反人權(quán)案例。
baby boomers
嬰兒潮的一代
Much to the annoyance of baby boomers, their kids often prefer rapping to singing and consider rhythm and riffs more important than melody.
嬰兒潮這一代的人有一件事很不順眼：他們的小孩常常喜歡拉普歌曲的獨白而不喜歡唱歌，而且認(rèn)為節(jié)奏與反復(fù)比旋律重要。
The nation, with its glut of middle-aged baby boomers, is getting older.
這人國家，充斥著嬰兒潮一代的人口，逐漸老化了。
Black Panthers
黑豹黨
She tells an absorbing story of real struggle: how she became the leader of the Black Panther Party,
她說的是一個關(guān)于真實斗爭的復(fù)雜的故事：她如何成為黑豹黨的領(lǐng)袖，
how she and the party battled racism, and how she fought sexism within the group.
她和黨如何對抗種族歧視，還有她如何對抗黨內(nèi)的性別歧視。
His bizarre resurrection of an old story about how the North Vietnamese and the Black Panthers had conspired to kill him back in the 70s also disrupted his campaign,
他很奇怪，要挖出那段７０年代的老故事，說北越和黑豹黨串通起來要殺他。這也拖累到他的競選。
even as it caused people to wonder about his stability.
甚至讓人懷疑他是不是腦筋有問題。
bohemian
波希米亞人（式）
As for Iowa, more than 20 years ago, the state supreme court raised eyebrows nationwide when it ruled that a churchgoing set of grandparents would povide a better life for a young child than the child's father,
至于艾奧瓦州，二十多年前該州最高法院因一宗判例引起全國的驚訝。它判決固定上教堂的祖父母比起小孩的父親更能為小孩提供良好的生活。
who was living as a bohemian in California.
這位父親則是在加州過著波希米亞式的生活。
There were individualistic and bohemian groups of all stripes:hippies, anarchists,
當(dāng)時有各式各樣的個人與波希米亞團體：嬉皮士、無政府主義者、
human rights groups, lesbians, gays.
人權(quán)團體、女同性戀、男同性戀。
boutique
精品店
Cunning Hollywood script doctors had to approach he European originals not as finished portraits but as sketches in need of coherence,
聰明的好萊塢專業(yè)改寫劇本者，對歐洲原版的態(tài)度不能像對待完成的畫像，而要當(dāng)成素描，
heart, pizazz. It's what rewriters do: refashion a boutique item so it will jump off the shelves at the mall.
需要增加連貫性、感情與流行格調(diào)。改編者的工作就是如此：把精品店的物品改一下，再擺在購物中心架子上就特別搶眼。
brain drain
人才外流
One reason for the laggard pace was Britain's Passenger Act of 1803, which raised the cost of transatlantic tickets and served to discourage a brain drain of talented workers who might carry with them England's indusrial secrets.
速度趨緩的原因之一是英國１８０３年的船只乘客法案，它把橫越大西洋的票價調(diào)高，扼阻了人才外流，以免這些有才干的人把英國的工業(yè)機密攜出。
Cajuns
美南法裔人口
Amateur cooks have joined the craze with the help of more than 20 cookbooks devoted exclusively to hot and spicy Mexican,
業(yè)余廚師也趕時髦，借助２０多種食譜，全都是介紹辛辣的料理，包括墨西哥菜、
Thai and Cajun foods.
泰國菜與美南法式菜。
Following a 20-minute civil ceremony, the couple, accompanied by a brass band,
led their wedding party to a Creole turkey dinner at the city's landmark restaurant Arnaud's.
challenged
殘障
And besides, no Bushie really had the stomach to attack Dole for telling the truth,
此外，布什陣營中也沒有人愿意攻擊多爾，
which is that the nation's educationally challenged Vice President was a bit wide of the mark when he charged that Ross as Boss would destroy the Constitution.
因為他說的是真話：美國那位有教育障礙的副總統(tǒng)有點無的放矢，亂批評佩羅說如果了當(dāng)選會毀掉憲法。
come out (of the closet)
站出來，承認(rèn)是同性戀
Frank said he has had a faithful male relationship since coming out of the closet, and he will seek re-election in 1990.
Ｆｒａｎｋ說他站出來以后一直和一名男伴保持忠誠關(guān)系，而且在１９９０年要競選連任。
consciousness raising
提升意識
Throughout the 1970s, the movement was more consciousness raising in the classic sense.
整個７０年代，女權(quán)運動還是偏向傳統(tǒng)的意識提升。
People were enunciating new issues. There were speakouts and demonstrations.
大家提出新問題，有演說、游行。這些動作到現(xiàn)在還在做，
That still goes on, but now that we have majority support, we're ready for institutional change.
可是我們現(xiàn)在既然已經(jīng)得到多數(shù)人的支持，應(yīng)該進入改革制度的階段了。
University officials, and many students as well, are fighting to reverse the trend by cacking down on bigots and joining in consciousness-raising efforts.
大學(xué)校方與許多學(xué)生努力扭轉(zhuǎn)這股潮流，聲討偏激分子，參與意識提升的活動。
dependency culture
依賴文化
Welfare's flaws are under scrutiny. For a fraction of recipients,
社會福利的缺點正在被檢視，接受福利的人當(dāng)中有一小部分因為拿到救濟金，
the checks create a culture of dependency in which children grow up without ever seeing members of their family go to work.
而產(chǎn)生了一種依賴文化。這種家庭中小孩子從小到大從來不曾見到家人出外工作。
A Democrat uttering such sentiments would have been drummed out of the party a few years ago,
幾年前如果民主黨人說這種話可能會被趕出黨外。
but the deepening culture of dependency has made an emphasis on personal responsibility palatable even to liberals.
可是依賴文化愈來愈嚴(yán)重，所以強調(diào)個人責(zé)任的觀點就算是自由派人士也能接受了。
disadvantaged
弱勢（群體）
In a study published last June, Bard College economist Dimitri Papadimitriou concluded that new laws were needed to head off "a bitter struggle between these new immigrants and disadvantaged segments of the U.S. population for increasingly carce low-skill,
在去年６月出版的一份報告中，巴德大學(xué)的經(jīng)濟學(xué)家帕帕季米特里烏的結(jié)論是需要立法來防止“這些新移民和美國弱勢人口搶奪日漸稀少的低技術(shù)、
low-wage jobs."
低所得的工作。”
glitterati
知名人士，時髦、富有的階級
Woody and Mia. No last names, please, for the king and queen of Manhattan's glitterati.
伍迪和米亞。請不要提姓。他們是曼哈頓區(qū)名人之中的國王皇后。
Long before the Literati invented Magic Realism, the people who worked in movie studios were living it.
在文學(xué)界人士發(fā)明魔幻現(xiàn)實主義之前很久，在電影公司工作的人老早就生活在其中了。
harbinger
前鋒 預(yù)示
Signals is a good example of why White Oak's eclectic programming works - and may be a harbinger of dance's future.
Ｓｉｇｎａｌｓ是很好的例子，可以看出Ｗｈｉｔｅ Ｏａｋ舞團兼容并蓄的曲目為何成功，同時它也可能是對舞蹈前途的預(yù)示。
The legal actions herald a major new offensive by America's antismoking forces.
這些法律行動預(yù)示了美國反煙陣營的一次大規(guī)模的新攻勢。
The '90s has also ushered in some drug novelties.
９０年代也引起了一些新藥。
hobo
流浪漢，流動性工人
Ironweed, the grim and shadowed second novel of the eries, retreats a few years and fleshes out Billy's father Francis,
once a major-league baseball player, later a hobo who exiled himself because, while drunk,
he accidentally dropped and killed an infant son.
hooligan
流氓，混混
In a hail of rocks and Molotov cocktails, kinheads and neo Nazis in the eastern German port of Rostock tried to storm an apartment block housing 200 asylum-seeking Romanian Gypsies,
beginning an ugly battle that would last all week. After officials moved the Gypsies,
the hooligans trapped 100 Vietnamese guest workers in a neighboring building and set it ablaze.
jet set
噴氣客機族
At the dinner hour one evening, Maguy Le Coze, co-owner of Miami's chic Brasserie Le Coze,
was recounting tales of European friends who are investing in Miami,
including a Jetset residential club on South Beach.
The unseemly image of charity officials living high on the hog threatened to dampen future donations and tarnish the squeaky-clean image of the nation's premier nonreligious charity.
慈善機構(gòu)官員卻過著驕奢的生活，這種不好的形象可能會造成未來的捐款減少，同時這個全國第一的非宗教性慈善機構(gòu)一向清白的名聲也可能會染上污點。
knock-off
偽制品
Shows like America's Most Wanted and Reporters have resorted to tabloid sensationalism,
《美國頭號通緝犯》和《記者群像》之類的電視節(jié)目已經(jīng)向小報的聳動手法看齊，
while Totally Hidden Video is a tacky knock-off of Candid Camera.
另外《完全隱藏鏡頭》則是把《真實攝影機》庸俗化的模仿品。
Fox's hit high school show, Beverly Hills 90210, begot a doleful dormful of knock-offs,
福斯公司熱賣的高中生電影《比佛利高中９０２１０號》衍生出一大堆可悲的仿制品，好像塞得滿滿的學(xué)生宿舍，
all vying for the young audience.
全都在競爭年輕觀眾市場。
ku klux klan
三K黨
Southern blacks, hounded by poverty and a rampaging Ku Klux Klan,
南部的黑人飽受貧窮之害與三Ｋ黨猖狂之苦，
were moving to the North in large numbers.
大量向北部遷移。
So there in the middle of Rockport Park stood a massive burlap-wrapped,
所以在Ｒｏｃｋｐｏｒｔ公園中央豎著一支龐大的十字架，
kerosene-soaked cross surrounded by Klansmen, and even a few Klanswomen, their robes billowing in the soft breeze.
上面纏繞粗帆布，浸了柴油，周圍都是三Ｋ黨員，甚至還有女性黨員，長袍在微風(fēng)中擺動著。
Movement, the
６０年代的左派運動
Martin Luther King Jr., not Kennedy, was the moral leader of the civil rigts movement-rights confirmed only in Lyndon Johnson's tenure.
小馬丁·路德·金博士才是民權(quán)運動的道德領(lǐng)袖，而非肯尼迪。這個運動所追求的人權(quán)到了約翰遜總統(tǒng)任內(nèi)才達成。
Many of the first black mayors, like Stokes and Hatcher,
許多首任的黑人市長，像斯托克和哈契爾，
were charismatic veterans of the civil rights movement who became national spokesmen for the pligt of the inner cities.
從前都是有領(lǐng)導(dǎo)魅力的民權(quán)運動老兵，之后成為代表苦難貧民區(qū)的全國性代言人。
Murphy's Law
墨菲定律
In December astronauts are scheduled to ride the shuttle into orbit to repair the star-crossed Hubble Space Telescope.
宇航員預(yù)訂在１２月乘航天飛機進入軌道來修理遇到災(zāi)星的哈勃太空望遠(yuǎn)鏡。
Should the unprecedentedly complex mission go exactly as planned,
如果這項有史以來最復(fù)雜的任務(wù)完全依計劃進行，
NASA could regain some credibility. But if history is any guide, it probably won't.
國家航天和航空局將可重拾一些信譽?？墒前凑找酝?jīng)驗來看，很可能不會那么順利。
Space is a harsh and unforgiving place, where Murphy's Law is paramount.
太空是嚴(yán)苛、不能出錯的地方，而墨菲定律在那里是最高準(zhǔn)則。
punk
龐克
Meshing the angry nihilism of punk and heavy metal with the synthetic sheen of techno,
新唱片《下旋》里面揉合了龐克和重金屬兩種樂風(fēng)的虛無主義以及科技搖滾的電子合成器光澤，
The Downward Spiral is a 14-song, 65-minute howl of somebody falling into the void.
構(gòu)成１４首歌、６５分鐘的吼叫，好像發(fā)自一個掉進虛空的人之口。
"I was taking it all out on these innocent people," he concluded.
“我拿那些無辜的人出氣”他表示。
"I would call them bitch, whore and punk just like I was called. It made me fell powerful."
“我叫他們母狗、婊子和小混混，好像別人叫我的一樣。這樣叫叫，我就覺得很了不起。”
shantytown
違章建筑區(qū)、貧民區(qū)
The happy ending is cold comfort:a ruck of bony children trying to sleep in a shantytown.
書中的快樂結(jié)局也沒有帶給人多少安慰：一群瘦巴巴的小孩在貧民區(qū)中設(shè)法安睡。
There, the visitors found a second city of cardboard condos,
訪客在此可看到一個紙板公寓的城中城，
clogged with the traffic of shopping carts through makeshift living rooms,
購物推車川流不息，通過臨時湊合的客廳，
outfitted with easy chairs and dresser drawers.
擺設(shè)有便椅和五斗柜。
Social Security
社會安全制度
The government issued revised estimates on the solvency of Social Security and Medicare.
政府對社會安全制度與醫(yī)療保健的償債能力發(fā)布新的預(yù)估，
Both remain in trouble:the Social Security old age and disability trust funds are expected to run out of money in 2029,
兩項都仍有困難：社會安全制度的老年與傷殘信托基金預(yù)計在２０２９年會無力支付，
the Medicare hospital trust fund in 2001.
醫(yī)療保健的醫(yī)院信托基金則是在２００１年。
Guaranteed-benefit programs currently eat up 49% of the federal budget, a whopping $738 billion.
保障福利的專案目前占掉聯(lián)邦政府預(yù)算的４９％，金額高達７３８０億。
The largest chunk is Social Security ($319 billion), but entitlements also include Medicare,
其中占大宗的是社會安全制度（３１９０億），可是特別福利還包括醫(yī)療保健、
Medicaid, veterans' benefits, government pensions, unemployment insurance and farm subsidies.
醫(yī)療補助、退伍軍人福利、公務(wù)員退休金、失業(yè)保險與農(nóng)業(yè)補貼。
teetotaler
滴酒不沾的人
A teetotale with a consuming passion for food in all its varieties,
他滴酒不沾，可是是個酷愛各色美食的老饕。
he is a well-known workaholic; he supposedly sails for relaxation,
他是有名的工作狂，據(jù)他說他玩帆船是為了放松，
but he sails alone.
可是他卻一個人出海。
Off the job or on, a political boozer is apt to be a loser.
不論是否在工作崗位上，酗酒的政客常常都是失敗者。
That's not to say teetotaling assures success.
當(dāng)然滴酒不沾也不一定就會成功。
telecommuting
電訊通勤
Companies must adopt flexible work schedules and "telecommuting"-taking advantage of the electronic revolution so that a bank's back-room operations,
公司行號得采行有彈性的工作時間以及“電訊通勤”－利用電子革命帶來的好處，
for example, can be located far from its headquarters.
使得譬如銀行的非柜臺性作業(yè)可以距離總部很遠(yuǎn)的地方進行。
yuppie
雅皮
After all, the problem of these Harvard women could simply be the yuppie, baby-boomer hubris that says this generation of upscale Americans is going to make easy what their parents found hard.
畢竟，這些出身哈佛的女人的問題所在，很可能只是雅皮、雅皮、戰(zhàn)后嬰兒潮這一代的狂妄自大，自稱他們這一代的美國上流社會可以輕易解決上一代解決不了的問題。
The Rocky Mountain home of cowboys and lumberjacks has become a magnet for lone-eagle telecommuters and Range Rover-driving yuppies.
落基山上的地域，傳統(tǒng)上是牛仔與伐木工人的家，現(xiàn)在變成極具吸引力的地方，吸引了獨行俠的電訊通勤族以及開著路寶吉普車的雅皮。
Welfare:A White Secret
TIME, Dec. 16, 1991, p.84 By Barbara Ehrenreich
Come on, my fellow white folks, we have something to confess.
No, nothing to do with age spots or those indoor-tanning creams we use to get us through the winter without looking like the final stages of TB.
Nor am I talking about the fact that we all go home and practice funky dance moves behind drawn shades.
Out with it, friends, the biggest secret known to whites since the invention of powdered rouge:
welfare is a white program. Yep. At least it's no more black than Vanilla Ice is a fair rendition of classic urban rap.
The numbers go like this:61% of the population receiving welfare,
listed as "means-tested cash assistance" by the Census Bureau, is identified as white,
while only 33% is identified as black. These numbers notwithstanding,
the Republican version of "political correctness" has given us "welfare cheat" as a new term for African American since the early days of Ronald Reagan.
Yet if the Lakers were 61% white and on a winning streek, would we be calling them a "black team"?
Wait a minute, I can hear my neighbors say, we're not as slow at math as the Asian Americans like to think.
There's still a glaring disproportion there. African Americans are only 12% of the population as a whole,
at least according to the census count, yet they're 33% of the welfare population - surely evidence of a shocking addiction to the dole.
But we're forgetting something. Welfare is a program for poor people, very poor people.
African Americans are three times as likely as whites to fall below the poverty level and hence to have a chance of qualifying for welfare benefits.
If we look at the kind of persons most likely to be eligible - single mothers living in poverty with children under 18 to support - we find little difference in welfare participation by race:
74.6% of African Americans in such dire straits are on welfare, compared with 64.5% of the poor white single moms.
That's still a difference, but not enough to imply some congenital appetite for a free lunch on the part of the African-de-rived.
In fact, two explanations readily suggest themselves: First, just as blacks are disproportionately likely to be poor,
they are dispropotionately likely to find themselves among the poorest of the poor,
where welfare eligibility arises.
Second, the black poor are more likely than their white counterparts to live in cities,
and hence to have a chance of making their way to the welfare office.
So why are they so poor? I can see my neighbor asking as visions of feckless idlers dance before his narrowed eyes.
Ah, that is a question white folks would do well to ponder.
Consider, for a start, that African Americans are more likely to be disabled (illness being a famous consequence of poverty) or unemployed (in the sense of actively seeking work)
and far less likely to earn wages that would lift them out of the welfare-eligibility range.
As for the high proportion of black families headed by single women (44%, compare with 13% for whites):
many deep sociohistoric reasons could be adduced, but none of them is welfare.
A number of respected studies refute the Reagan-era myth that a few hundred a month in welfare payments is a sufficient incentive to chuck one's husband or get pregnant while in high school.
If it were, states with relatively high welfare payments-say, about $500 a month per family - would have higher rates of out-of-wedlock births than states like Louisiana and Mississippi,
which expect a welfare family to get by on $200 a month or less. But this is not the case.
So our confession stands:white folks have been gobbling up the welfare budget while blaming someone else.
But it's worse than that. If we look at Social Security, which is another form of welfare,
although it is often mistaken for an individual insurance program, then whites are the ones who are crowding the trough.
We receive almost twice as much per capita, for an aggregate advantage to our race of $10 billion a year-much more than the $3.9 billion advantage African Americans gain from their disproportionate share of welfare.
One sad reason:whites live an average of six years longer than African Americans,
meaning that young black workers help subsidize a huge and growing "overclass" of white retirees.
I do not see our confession bringing much relief. There's a reason for resentment,
though it has more to do with class than with race.
White people are poor too, and in numbers far exceeding any of our more generously pigmented social groups.
And poverty as defined by the government is a vast underestimation of the economic terror that persists at incomes-such as $20,000 or even $40,000 and above - that we like to think of as middle class.
The problem is not that welfare is too generous to blacks but that social welfare in general is too stingy to all concerned.
Naturally, whites in the swelling "near poor" category resent the notion of whole races supposedly frolicking at their expense.
Whites, near poor and middle class, need help too - as do the many African Americans,
Hispanics and "others" who do not qualify for aid but need it nonetheless.
So we white folks have a choice. We can keep pretending that welfare is a black program and a scheme for transfering our earnings to the pockets of shiftless, dark-skinned people.
Or we can clear our throats, blush prettily and admit that we are hurting too - for cash assistance when we're down and out,
for health insurance, for college aid and all the rest.
Racial scapegoating has its charms, I will admit:the surge of righteous anger,
even the fun - for those inclined - of wearing sheets and burning crosses.
But there are better, nobler sources of white pride, it seems to me.
Remember, whatever they say about our music or our taste in clothes, only we can truly, deeply blush.
