請(qǐng)看《中國(guó)日?qǐng)?bào)》的報(bào)道:
Boehner earlier told reporters there never had been an agreement between the sides on the $33 billion figure and accused the White House of using "smoke and mirrors" accounting to get to the number.
約翰•波伊納早先向記者表示,兩黨對(duì)330億美元的預(yù)算案并未達(dá)成一致,并指責(zé)白宮采用“歪曲真相”的賬目計(jì)算,才得出了這一預(yù)算金額。
文中的smoke and mirrors就是指“歪曲真相,欺騙性行為”,最初是指馬戲團(tuán)的魔術(shù)師進(jìn)行表演時(shí),有時(shí)會(huì)放出一些煙霧來分散你的注意力,掩飾魔術(shù)的奧秘,如今也頻頻出現(xiàn)于政治性文字或演說中,被一方用來攻擊另一方歪曲真相的所作所為。
如果兩黨還不能就預(yù)算案達(dá)成一致,美國(guó)政府將面臨government shutdown(政府關(guān)門)的窘境,給80萬公務(wù)員“放大假”。我們?cè)賮砜纯催@里的“放大假”該怎么說:
A government shutdown could see hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed, national parks closed and non-essential services halted when the money approved by Congress for their operations runs out at midnight on Friday.
如果在周五午夜兩黨還不能就白宮已批準(zhǔn)的預(yù)算案達(dá)成一致,那么美國(guó)政府關(guān)門將導(dǎo)致幾十萬聯(lián)邦職員放假。
Furlough就是指“暫時(shí)解雇,休假”。“正處于休假期”就可以用on furlough來表示。這里的“準(zhǔn)假、休假”通常是因?yàn)榘l(fā)不出工資引起的。