US president George W. Bush knows he's unpopular.

美国总统布什知道自己不太受待见。

unpopular   adj.不得人心的，不受欢迎的，不流行的

But he thinks he has done his best to solve the financial crisis, in which "… the excesses of the past have caused a lot of folks to hurt when it comes to their 401(k)'s or jobs," Bush said in an interview with Fox News Channel last week.

但是，布什认为自己在处理金融危机的时候尽了自己的最大努力，在上周，布什在接受福克斯新闻频道的采访的时候说道：“过去的不当举措使很多人失去了养老金以及工作。”

excess   adj.超重的；过量的；额外的

folk    n.1人们 2大伙儿，各位 3亲属，父母     adj.民间的，普通平民

What is a 401(k)?

上文中所提到的401k究竟是个什么东东呢？

This is the name of a retirement savings plan initiated by the US federal government.

它实际上是由美国联邦政府所创建的养老金储蓄计划。

initiate   vt.开始，着手

Employees can choose to put a certain amount of their salary into an account and withdraw the money when they retire.

雇员可以选择从将他们的一部分薪水存入到一个账户之中，等他们退休以后，钱将被返还给他们。

withdraw   vt.1取回，收回 2撤退

The money is invested collectively.

所有的钱都被用于投资了。

collectively   adv.全体地，共同地

The financial crisis has shrunk many people's 401k funds.

金融危机导致许多人的养老基金缩水。

The fund's name comes from the section of US law that initiated it: the 401(k) section of the US Internal Revenue Code, passed into law in 1978.

这个基金的名字来源于发起这项基金的法律条文：美国国家金融条例第401项。这项法律条文在1978年被制定。

Here are some other numbers that carry special significance in American English:

在美国英语中，还有许多的其他数字也具有特殊含义：

significance   n.1意义，意思 2重大意义，重要性

101

Pronounced "one-oh-one", it refers to courses intended for beginners – "English 101" (英语入门课), for example.

读作“one-oh-one",它指的是为初学者设定的课程。比如："English101"。

The university offers 101 courses for those freshmen and sophomores who have little knowledge of mathematics.

大学为大学一年级、二年级数学基础薄弱的学生准备了入门课程。

sophomore   n.大学二年级的学生，有两年经验的人

411

When someone says 411, they are referring to information about something;

当有人说道411的时候，他们指的是关于某些事的信息

411 is the number Americans dial to find people's telephone numbers.

在美国，当人们想要查询某人的电话号码的时候，一般会拨打这个号码。

The number 114 is used for this service in China.

在中国，提供这项服务的号码为114。

So what's the 411 on your recent job interview?

[What's the news about your recent job interview?]

[你的求职面试有什么进展吗?]

9 times out of 10 = most of the time 大部分时间

Nine times out of 10, she will cook a delicious meal.

在通常情况下，她都会准备美味佳肴。

put 2 and 2 together = think about something   对某事进行思考

I think if you put two and two together you will make the right decision.

在我看来，如果你能够考虑以下的话，就会做出正确的决定。

、

THOMAS Friedman, the author of the popular book The World Is Flat, wrote recently in his New York Times column that the US should spend its bailout (救市) money wisely.
《扁平的世界》的作者托马斯·弗雷德曼，最近在纽约时报中发表专栏，表示美国政府应当合理使用救世资金。

"[The money] has to go into training teachers, educating scientists and engineers, paying for research and building …productivity-enhancing infrastructure – without building white elephants," wrote Friedman.

弗莱德曼表示，这些钱应当用来培训教师、培养科学家和工程师以及建造用于提高生产效率的基础设施，而不是建造白象。

Here, Friedman uses "white elephant" (白象) to mean projects that are huge and expensive to build and maintain (累赘、大而无用的东西).

在这里，他所使用的白象一词指的是建造和维护成本高昂的庞然大物。

How can an animal term be used in a seemingly completely irrelevant context?

一个动物的名称是如何被应用到与其本身毫无关联的语境当中的呢？

White elephants are sacred animals kept by kings in Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand, Laos and Cambodia.

在泰国、柬埔寨等东南亚国家中，白象是稀有生物，只有国王才能喂养他们。

They represent peace and prosperity. Kings used to give them as gifts to their subjects (臣民).

它们是平安和富贵的代表。国王将它们作为礼物赏赐给自己的大臣。

However, laws protected the sacred elephants from doing labor.

然而，法律禁止这种稀有的生物从事生产活动。

As a result, their owners couldn't put them to any practical use in order to offset (抵消) the cost of maintaining them.

因此，他们的主人为了喂养它们耗费巨资，却不能够让它们有任何实际用处以弥补喂养它们的开支。

Therefore, gradually, white elephants came to represent something that is useless but expensive.

久而久之，白象便成为昂贵而无用的东西的象征。

Here's how the term can be used:

示例如下：

We shouldn't only build venues for the Olympics. We should design them so they'll be useful long after the Games are over – that way they won't become white elephants.

我们不应当仅仅为奥运会而建设场馆。我们在设计它们的时候应当考虑到奥运会结束以后，它们还可以被利用，避免让它们成为白象。

The new printer's a white elephant. It's very complicated to use, so everyone still prints with the old one.

新的打字机是个白象。它的使用方法十分复杂。因而所有的人都在使用以前的。

BRITAIN'S National Union of Journalists has criticized Israel's military attacks in the Gaza Strip and voted narrowly in favor of a boycott of Israeli goods.

不列颠记者联合会对以色列对加沙地带采取军事行动表示不满，并且采取联合行动抵制以色列商品。

criticize   v.评论，批评

narrowly   adv.勉强地，精细地

boycott   vt.抵制；拒绝参加

The vote followed calls by some British academics last year to ostracize (排斥) their Israeli counterparts.
在不列颠，许多大学也开始排斥他们的的以色列同事。

acadamic   n.大学教师；专业学者   

                    adj.1学校的，学院的 2学术性的 3纯理论性的，不切实际的

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word "ostracize" as used above, is defined as "to exclude from a group by common consent".

在上文中出现的单词“ostracize"在韦氏词典中的解释为：“被一个集团中所有的人所排斥。”

define   vt.1精确地解释；界定 2规定，确定

exclude   vt.排除；不包括在内

consent   n.准许，同意，赞成     vt.同意；赞成

In ancient Greece, the Athenians would take part in a voting campaign to decide whom they wanted to exile (流放).

在古希腊，雅典人一般会通过选举的方式确定被流放的人选。

campaign   n.1运动 2战役       vi.参加（发起）运动， 参加竞选

They carved the name of the person they wanted to exile on a piece of pottery (陶器), used as a vote.

在选举的时候，他们将自己认为应当被流放的人的名字刻在一片陶器上。

The leader would sort the names and the person with the highest number of votes would be exiled for 10 years.

族长会对票数进行统计，票数最高的人将会被流放十年。

In politics, "to ostracize" can mean "refuse to cooperate with sb". Here's another example:

在政治领域，"to ostracize"的含义是“拒绝同某人合作”，举例如下：

During South Africa's apartheid (种族隔 离) policy, the international society not only ostracized South Africa as an economic sanction, but also forbid its participation in international sports events.

在对南非实行种族隔离的时期，国际社会不仅对南非实行经济封锁，同时还将南非排斥在各种国际运动赛事之外。

sanction   n.1批准，认可   2制裁 3约束力   vt.批准，认可

forbid   vt.禁止

participation   vt.禁止

"Ostracize" can be used in daily life to mean "exclude sb from friendship or conversation".

Ostracize也可以应用于日常生活之中，其含义是“与某人绝交或不理睬某人”。

His friends seemed to ostracize him after his father's arrest.

自从他的父亲被捕以后，他的伙伴便不再理睬他了。

arrest   vt.1逮捕；拘捕   2制止；阻止 3吸引

The word "blackball" has a similar meaning to "ostracize" and is defined as "to vote against, especially to exclude from membership by casting a negative vote" .

与“ostracize”含义相近的是“blackball", 它的含义是“投票反对，尤其是通过头反对票的方式将某人排除在外”。

negative    adj.1拒绝的；怀疑的；不同意的     n.拒绝，否认

Generally, blackballing is used in elections to describe a negative vote keeping someone from joining a gentlemen's club or similarly organized institution.

一般情况下，“blackballing"指的是通过投反对票的形式拒绝某人假如绅士俱乐部或类似的组织。

In modern times, people participating in an election used to place a small ball in a wooden ballot box.

在现代，人们参加选举的时候会在木质的投票相中放入一个小球。

A white ball signified support, a black ball, opposition.

白色的小球代表同意，黑球表示反对。

So, obviously, "to blackball sb" is to oppose their participation or "to exclude sb".

因而，很明显，“to blackball sb"的含义是“反对某人加入”或者是“排斥某人”。