时间:2019-01-27 作者:英语课 分类:PBS访谈商业系列


英语课

   JUDY WOODRUFF: And to the analysis of Shields and Brooks 1. That's syndicated columnist 2 Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks.


  Welcome, gentlemen. It's Friday.
  So let's start with the spectacle New Jersey 3, Republican Governor Chris Christie in hot water over a, apparently 4, Mark, deliberately 5 arranged traffic jam done in retribution for political enemies, people who didn't vote for him. What -- what do you make of this? Why is it getting so much attention?
  MARK SHIELDS: It's getting so much attention because he is the de facto front-runner in many people's minds for the Republican nomination 6. Certainly, Democrats 7 see him as the most formidable potential nominee 8 at this point in 2016 on the Republican side.
  But, Judy, this is a story that plays to his greatest strength and becomes his greatest vulnerability, in my sense. Chris Christie crystallized as a national figure August 26, 2011. He stood on the beach as Hurricane Irene thundered down upon the Jersey Shore. And there were some sunbathers who refused to go.
  JUDY WOODRUFF: Hurricane Sandy.
  MARK SHIELDS: No, Hurricane Irene, 2011.
  JUDY WOODRUFF: Oh, this is another one. This is 2011.
  MARK SHIELDS: Yes, this is 2011.
  JUDY WOODRUFF: Thank you.
  MARK SHIELDS: OK.
  And he went -- they refused to leave, in spite the threats and the warnings, and everything else. And Chris Christie went on television and said, get the hell off the beach. Get out, get in your car, the sun is down, it's 4:30. You have got all the tan you have got.
  It was just one of those moments that was just so real. And this was what he was. He was a no-nonsense guy. He was a take-charge, I'm in control guy, roll up your sleeves.
  And this, the only defense 9 he has is, he was detached, he was disengaged, he didn't know. And instead of the naturalness of that language, his language yesterday in the press conference was that of the victim, you know, that he was betrayed by those whom he trusted.
  And yet he didn't once express real, genuine, authentic 10 Chris Christie concern for the people whose lives were really disrupted, I mean, thousands of people who missed appointments, who missed funerals, who missed business opportunities, who missed their chance to get their kids to school.
  And it was a -- it was a lousy act. And it was a ruthless act. it wasn't -- this isn't hardball politics, where you take David's pet project and don't fund it. This is dislocating thousands of people and a cheap political trick. And if he didn't know about it, the people he trusted the most, brought in, and he was uncurious about, I think it raises serious questions about him.
  And the most important thing is that nobody has come to his defense, nobody. I mean, Republicans haven't come to his defense. And Democrats are happy to see him stew 11 right now.
  JUDY WOODRUFF: Raises serious questions?
  DAVID BROOKS: Here I come. Here I come to his defense.
  MARK SHIELDS: OK.
  DAVID BROOKS: No, I -- some of that, I agree with. He should have expressed more regret about the people who were inconvenienced.
  MARK SHIELDS: Yes.
  DAVID BROOKS: It should be said also the level of small-minded petulance 12 that exists in politics is never to be underestimated.
  People do nasty, cheap stuff all the time, because they are caught up in some small-minded politicalness of it. As having said that, though, I thought Christie did reasonably well. I thought...
  JUDY WOODRUFF: At the news conference.
  DAVID BROOKS: At the news conference.
  If he knew about what was happening at the time, his career is really damaged. But so far, there has been no evidence that he did.
  JUDY WOODRUFF: Because he denied.
  DAVID BROOKS: He denied, flatly denied.
  So, if an e-mail comes out showing he knew, then he is in deep trouble. But, so far, I thought he expressed naturalness. He expressed humiliation 13. He walked us through in intimate detail how he found out about it, how he fired the people.
  I thought it was Christie. Now, my friend Mike Murphy, the political consultant 14, says the essence of Christie, he doesn't come in small doses. He comes in big doses. And the challenge for Christie as a candidate has always been, will people accept somebody who comes on that strong?
  But if he comes on that strong as even a little bit of a bully 15, which is sort of what he looks like in this, he could be that people want a bully to go to Washington. If they're going to vote for Christie, they don't want a charmer. They want a big bully. And this will not hurt him, I think.
  I think some politicians would be hurt by this kind of scandal. He will not be hurt, because his image, as a big, tough, bully, that is what you are hiring him for if you are going to elect him president. And so this is consistent with that image, I think.
  MARK SHIELDS: You don't want the president who is a bully. You want a president who is strong. You want a president who can impose his will upon Congress. You want a president who can lead, is not afraid to make tough decisions.
  You don't want a bully. Chris Christie has been everyman up until now. Now, at this point, he has become somebody who is so uncurious about what is going on. He was the last person in the entire governor's office to find out about this?
  Add to this the other problem that he's going to have, is that, 2012, he was one of the finalists with Paul Ryan to be the Republican nominee for vice 16 president. He was passed over. And when somebody is passed over, there's always questions. And there were stories out of the Romney campaign. Many spoke 17 on the record that it was his entourage, overbearing, demands of a private jet, demands of a big support system, impossible, divas to deal with, and all of this.
  This plays right into that. And if he found out at 8:55 on Wednesday morning that this was happening, and then this is a story that has been brewing 18 now for two months, you know, I just think it really confounds anybody's believability.
  DAVID BROOKS: Yes. Well, first, if I...
  JUDY WOODRUFF: You mean you are saying you don't believe him?
  MARK SHIELDS: I don't. It's next to impossible.
  I can't believe anybody could be so chronically 19, terminally uncurious about something that affects his career, as well as his governorship, let alone his presidential ambitions.
  DAVID BROOKS: Well, it could be that he was lied to.
  It's also, it seems to me, true it's rare that a scandal, especially not a major scandal, knocks out a candidate, Bill Clinton, Gennifer Flowers. Scandals are not -- people are reasonably scandal-tolerant.
  And as to Mark's point about whether it should be a bully, I think in normal times, this is true. But now we're living in a time of incredible distrust of Washington, distrust of politics. I think the standards are a little different. In times of high distrust, maybe you want somebody -- and this has happened through history, and even in Israel, Bibi Netanyahu, a little rough guy.
  People get -- pick the rough guy when they're really fed up.
  MARK SHIELDS: What is the knock -- just one rebuttal? What is the knock on Barack Obama? A close, tightly-knit staff of ultra-loyalists, don't seek outside advice, don't go beyond that circle, detached and disengaged.
  Sound familiar to the Chris Christie modus...
  DAVID BROOKS: Well, the diva thing, I totally get. I totally agree with that. If the diva thing is a problem, he is a diva and that will hurt him.
  But he doesn't remind a lot of people of Barack Obama. Barack Obama is very cool and...
  MARK SHIELDS: No, no, but, I mean, his defense is that he was detached and disengaged. He didn't know what was going on.
  DAVID BROOKS: OK.
  JUDY WOODRUFF: All right.
  Well, speaking of President Obama, he was the, I guess you could say, victim, certainly the victim of criticism, in the book that came out in the last few days by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
  He has clearly broken a little bit of china with this book. It's 600 pages. I confess, I have not read the entire thing. I am going to be talking to Secretary Gates next Tuesday.
  But, just in a situation like this, David, where a former official comes out and says, among other things, that the president didn't believe in the war in Afghanistan and didn't trust the generals, is this the kind of thing that ends up hurting the president? Does it -- what effect -- what is the lasting 20 effect of something like this?
  DAVID BROOKS: Well, his -- his defense is that he was skeptical 22 of the Afghan surge. And maybe skepticism was well justified 23, because it was widely determined 24 it didn't work so well.
  And so he was skeptical. And then the criticism of him, he sent young men and women into harm's away not really believing in it. And the argument should be, if you don't totally believe in a military mission as president of the United States, you shouldn't do it.
  And my understanding at the time -- and I had a lot of direct reporting at the time -- my firm conviction then was the president wasn't fully 25 behind the surge, that he had completely understood and in many ways was very sympathetic to the arguments against it. Why he did, I really don't know.
  Maybe he wanted to give it a shot. Maybe he thought it would work. But I certainly -- the central charge, that he wasn't fully supportive of the Afghan surge, rings completely true to my memory of reporting at that time.
  MARK SHIELDS: I think, from everything -- and I have not -- I confess I have not read the book, but everything I have read about the book and excerpts 26 from it, it is quite nuanced.
  I mean, yes, this is an indictment 27 of the president.
  JUDY WOODRUFF: Is more than just criticism.
  MARK SHIELDS: Yes. He calls him the most deliberative president he's ever been around, a gutsy decision-maker. I mean, he really is quite full of praise. He had never made a political decision, that -- you know, that he was -- really, the consequences of the formulation of the campaign of 2008 came back to haunt the president.
  The consequences were that -- the formulation that Iraq was a bad war, Afghanistan was a good war. And so you come to office, and you have got to support the good war and wind down the bad war. And I don't think there's any question that -- but that that happened.
  And -- but, at the same time, to me, there are two questions. The serious thing that he says in the book -- and I think it's true of not just this administration -- we had the campaign in 2012, when none of the four had even been anywhere near military service. And there is a skepticism and distrust of the military thinking they want to go to war.
  They don't want to go to war. People who have been to war don't want to go to war. That's the first thing. And the second thing, I will leave to David.
  MARK SHIELDS: I have taken too much time. I'm sorry.
  JUDY WOODRUFF: Well, we will all go off read the book. Then we will come back and talk about it again.
  But the last thing I do want to ask the two of you about is, we observed the 50th anniversary this week of the war on poverty, what President Lyndon Johnson announced in 1964.
  David, looking back on it, big question. I want to ask you if it's been a success. And I mean that, because right now you have got this big debate under way between Democrats and among Democrats and Republicans about whether the whole -- the apparatus 28 that was established to fight poverty has been a total failure and should be torn up and we should start from scratch with something else.
  DAVID BROOKS: I'm still in shock Mark is giving me time.
  JUDY WOODRUFF: And I'm giving you some time too.
  DAVID BROOKS: Right.
  I wouldn't say it was a total failure, and I'm a skeptic 21 of it. There were programs that were clearly successful, the food stamp program. There were programs that were successful, but they just got the costs wrong, Medicare. So they estimated what Medicare would cost today. They were off by huge factors.
  There were some programs that could have been successful, but they were poorly executed. I think Head Start would count on that. And so you have got a bunch of programs that they tried all at once, which had some modest effect, but not the effect you wanted, and a lot of negative effects.
  And right after the Great Society program, there was a tremendous decay in our social fabric 29, a tremendous rise in crime. And I would say they emphasized the economic parts of poverty. They didn't emphasize and they misunderstood some of the social capital effects. And they had unintended negative consequences.
  So I would say mixed blessing 30. I would lean a little more on the skeptical side, that it was a -- more of a failure than a success.
  JUDY WOODRUFF: How do you see...
  MARK SHIELDS: The biggest criminal act of the last 50 years is committed by people who had nothing to do with OEO or a poverty program. It was done by people on Wall Street. And the country is still reeling and suffering and paying from it.
  I think, Judy, that it's been a very great success if you happen to be over the age of 60 in this country. We have reduced poverty among those over 65 from 35 percent of the population down to 9. Ninety-nine percent of people over 65 have medical care now. They didn't.
  And children, there are hard studies now that show people who went through Head Start are graduating from high school and going on to college at a higher rate than those who didn't. I agree that it hasn't been an unvarnished success.
  But I would just point out this. The difference is, in large part, people over 65 have very formidable lobbies, and they vote. And kids don't. And I do think the reexamination of it by the president, encouraged Republicans to participate in that dialogue, is important.
  I think the pope deserves credit for putting it on the agenda. And I think we are addressing poverty. It's something that when -- all we talked about in 2012 was the middle class, the middle class, the middle class. Now we are at least addressing a reality.
  JUDY WOODRUFF: But you are saying children have been left out of it.
  MARK SHIELDS: Children have -- children have been -- children have not benefited to the degree that those over 60 have, who have done very well.
  DAVID BROOKS: Well, I agree with that. The -- we did reduce elderly poverty, but by taking -- making the government a giant transfer machine from young families to the elderly.
  Just one thing on poverty and Republicans. Marco Rubio had a speech today, or this week, which was, I thought, a quite impressive speech, much more affirmatively using the power of government to address poverty problems, whether it's wage subsidies 31, whether it's through direct grants, much -- for a party that has become instinctively 32 anti-government, we are beginning to see Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio and some others wanting to affirmatively use government, I think, in targeted, but limited and conservative ways to really address practical problems.
  JUDY WOODRUFF: We can talk about that.
  MARK SHIELDS: OK.
  JUDY WOODRUFF: Unless you can say it in one word, or two words.
  MARK SHIELDS: David is not completely right.
  JUDY WOODRUFF: OK. Promise to let you finish that thought later.
  Mark Shields, David Brooks, thank you both.

n.小溪( brook的名词复数 )
  • Brooks gave the business when Haas caught him with his watch. 哈斯抓到偷他的手表的布鲁克斯时,狠狠地揍了他一顿。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • Ade and Brooks exchanged blows yesterday and they were severely punished today. 艾德和布鲁克斯昨天打起来了,今天他们受到严厉的惩罚。 来自《简明英汉词典》
n.专栏作家
  • The host was interviewing a local columnist.节目主持人正在同一位当地的专栏作家交谈。
  • She's a columnist for USA Today.她是《今日美国报》的专栏作家。
n.运动衫
  • He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
  • They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致,都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。
adv.显然地;表面上,似乎
  • An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽,豁然开朗。
  • He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。
adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地
  • The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
  • They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。
n.提名,任命,提名权
  • John is favourite to get the nomination for club president.约翰最有希望被提名为俱乐部主席。
  • Few people pronounced for his nomination.很少人表示赞成他的提名。
n.民主主义者,民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )
  • 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》
n.被提名者;被任命者;被推荐者
  • His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
  • Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。
n.防御,保卫;[pl.]防务工事;辩护,答辩
  • The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
  • The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。
a.真的,真正的;可靠的,可信的,有根据的
  • This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
  • Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。
n.炖汤,焖,烦恼;v.炖汤,焖,忧虑
  • The stew must be boiled up before serving.炖肉必须煮熟才能上桌。
  • There's no need to get in a stew.没有必要烦恼。
n.发脾气,生气,易怒,暴躁,性急
  • His petulance made her impatient.他的任性让她无法忍受。
  • He tore up the manuscript in a fit of petulance.他一怒之下把手稿撕碎了。
n.羞辱
  • He suffered the humiliation of being forced to ask for his cards.他蒙受了被迫要求辞职的羞辱。
  • He will wish to revenge his humiliation in last Season's Final.他会为在上个季度的决赛中所受的耻辱而报复的。
n.顾问;会诊医师,专科医生
  • He is a consultant on law affairs to the mayor.他是市长的一个法律顾问。
  • Originally,Gar had agreed to come up as a consultant.原来,加尔只答应来充当我们的顾问。
n.恃强欺弱者,小流氓;vt.威胁,欺侮
  • A bully is always a coward.暴汉常是懦夫。
  • The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。
n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的
  • 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。
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说
  • They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
  • The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。
ad.长期地
  • Similarly, any pigment nevus that is chronically irritated should be excised. 同样,凡是经常受慢性刺激的各种色素痣切勿予以切除。
  • People chronically exposed to chlorine develop some degree of tolerance. 人长期接触氯气可以产生某种程度的耐受性。
adj.永久的,永恒的;vbl.持续,维持
  • The lasting war debased the value of the dollar.持久的战争使美元贬值。
  • We hope for a lasting settlement of all these troubles.我们希望这些纠纷能获得永久的解决。
n.怀疑者,怀疑论者,无神论者
  • She is a skeptic about the dangers of global warming.她是全球变暖危险的怀疑论者。
  • How am I going to convince this skeptic that she should attention to my research?我将如何使怀疑论者确信她应该关注我的研究呢?
adj.怀疑的,多疑的
  • Others here are more skeptical about the chances for justice being done.这里的其他人更为怀疑正义能否得到伸张。
  • Her look was skeptical and resigned.她的表情是将信将疑而又无可奈何。
a.正当的,有理的
  • She felt fully justified in asking for her money back. 她认为有充分的理由要求退款。
  • The prisoner has certainly justified his claims by his actions. 那个囚犯确实已用自己的行动表明他的要求是正当的。
adj.坚定的;有决心的
  • I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
  • He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。
adv.完全地,全部地,彻底地;充分地
  • The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气,然后全部呼出。
  • They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。
n.摘录,摘要( excerpt的名词复数 );节选(音乐,电影)片段
  • Some excerpts from a Renaissance mass are spatchcocked into Gluck's pallid Don Juan music. 一些文艺复光时期的弥撒的选节被不适当地加入到了格鲁克平淡无味的唐璜音乐中。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He is editing together excerpts of some of his films. 他正在将自己制作的一些电影的片断进行剪辑合成。 来自辞典例句
n.起诉;诉状
  • He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。
  • They issued an indictment against them.他们起诉了他们。
n.装置,器械;器具,设备
  • The school's audio apparatus includes films and records.学校的视听设备包括放映机和录音机。
  • They had a very refined apparatus.他们有一套非常精良的设备。
n.织物,织品,布;构造,结构,组织
  • The fabric will spot easily.这种织品很容易玷污。
  • I don't like the pattern on the fabric.我不喜欢那块布料上的图案。
n.祈神赐福;祷告;祝福,祝愿
  • The blessing was said in Hebrew.祷告用了希伯来语。
  • A double blessing has descended upon the house.双喜临门。
n.补贴,津贴,补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )
  • European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
  • Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》
adv.本能地
  • As he leaned towards her she instinctively recoiled. 他向她靠近,她本能地往后缩。 来自《简明英汉词典》
  • He knew instinctively where he would find her. 他本能地知道在哪儿能找到她。 来自《简明英汉词典》
标签: PBS
学英语单词