英國的Plain English Campaign今年的Foot in the Mouth Award得主不是別人,正是布希總統的好搭檔倫斯斐國防部長大人。



倫斯斐得獎的這段話是去年二月在北約國防部長會議記者會上,針對美伊情勢的談話。〈註:以下談話是根據新聞影帶逐字transcribe,跟Plain English Campaign網頁上引述的段落稍有出入。〉倫斯斐說:



"The message was that there are known knowns, there are things we know that we know."

這份訊息是有些事情是已知的已知,我們知道我們知道的事情。



"There are known unknowns, that is to say there are things that we now know we don't know."

有些事情是已知的未知,也就是說我們知道有些事情是我們不知道的。



"But there are also unknown unknowns (laughter from the press). There are things we do not know we don't know."

但也有些事情是未知的未知(記者開始有人笑了,但倫斯斐仍舊一臉正氣,還用手勢強調,怕大家跟不上他的繞口令)。有些事情我們不知道我們不知道。



"So when we do the best we can, and we pull all those informations together, and we then say that's basically what we see as the situation."

所以當我們盡力將所有資訊湊在一起,然後說基本上我們認為情勢就是這樣。



"That is really the known knowns and the unknown unknowns."

也就是已知的已知和未知的未知。



(鏡頭轉到記者席上人人一片茫然~ 美伊情勢果然太高深了~有志學習英語者不妨練習快速唸誦這段名言。)



(Well,事實上這應該是倫斯斐故意耍的花招。)



這個語無倫次大獎去年的得獎人是完全清楚自己是誰的李查基爾:



"I know who I am. No one else knows who I am. If I was a giraffe and somebody said I was a snake, I'd think: 'No, actually I am a giraffe."

我知道我是誰。沒其他人知道我是誰。如果我是長頸鹿,而有人說我是蛇,我會想:「不,事實上我是長頸鹿。」



哈哈~~

這好像我家咪兒覺得自己是人,雖然別人說別鬧了,你是貓!但咪兒心裡自然會想:不,事實上我是人~





http://www.plainenglish.co.uk/
















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