這篇《經濟學人》訃告賞析來自“現象級英語”社群成長群會員。
標題、摘要及正文第 1 段由燦燦完成，2-3 段由路人丁完成，4-5 段由 Nancy J. 完成，6-7 段由 Becky 完成。本文由 Eric 刪減編輯，點擊閱讀原文可以讀原始版本。
歡迎大家多多指正。
<strong>標題賞析：
<strong>Doing one's darnedest，意思是“盡某人最大的努力”，在這裡可以理解為“鞠躬盡瘁”。darnedest 是粗話 damnedest 的委婉語，這個詞也表現出了老布什敢想敢作的形象，牛x閃閃，開掛一樣的人生。
<strong>《經濟學人》會常在小標題中用插入語來介紹一個人的身份，這裡用的是 the last of his kind, 意思是“像他這樣的總統，他是最後一個了”。通過查背景資料瞭解到，像老布什這樣經歷過二戰以及他們那個年代的政治家，他是最後一位了；另一個角度來看，這也是一個很高的評價，說明他那樣的作風已經風華絕代，絕無僅有。究竟他是什麼風格的呢？這裡也賣了個關子，吸引讀者趕快去讀訃告正文。
<strong>Paragraph 1:
①Wherever he went, as America’s president or before it, George Herbert Walker Bush usually carried a felt-tipped pen and a supply of notecards. ②On these he wrote letters. ③Some were thank-yous; others a clumsy, but courteous, attempt to get his views across to other people; yet others just a “good to see you” kind of thing. ④When the time came to write his presidential memoirs, to <strong>salve some of that desperate hurt after Bill Clinton<strong>thrashed him in 1992, he published instead 600-plus pages of correspondence. ⑤They ranged from doting letters to newborn grandchildren to his worries, as a young seaman in 1943, that his girlfriend Barbara, “so darn attractive”, would drop him while he was away; from his attempt to explain the Watergate scandal to his four young sons, to his<strong>mortified account of throwing up in 1992 on the Japanese prime minister, “the damnedest experience”. ⑥He admitted that some of the letters were<strong>nutty. ⑦But they were also of the moment. ⑧As he said, “<strong>It’s all about heartbeat.”
<strong>段落解析：
文章的開頭用一個細節描寫展開：老布什不管去到哪裡，無論是以美國總統的身份還是在那之前，他總是帶著一支毛氈筆和一疊便籤紙。為什麼呢？因為他喜歡寫信，寫各種各樣的信。
<strong>詞句精讀：
<strong>salve，“藥膏”，這裡用作動詞是引申義“；撫平（創傷、傷害等）”。文中是說老布什通過出版書信集來慰藉他大敗於克林頓的傷心史。我們想表達，做善事使我們的良心得到安慰，就可以說：Charity salves our conscience.
<strong>thrash，這個詞作為“擊敗”是有“輕易擊敗，大敗，重創”的意思，比 defeat 顯得更輕而易舉，放在這裡更準確，表現出克林頓不費吹灰之力且以大比分領先擊敗了老布什的總統連任。
<strong>mortified，形容詞，意是是“羞愧的；難堪的”。《美麗心靈》中有這樣一句經典臺詞，可以直接背下來：
<strong>nutty，形容詞，意思是“傻里傻氣，瘋瘋癲癲的”，就是“crazy”的意思。我們也常用到的是“go nuts”或“somebody is nuts”，來表示 “crazy”。
這裡作者是引用了他的書信集中序言裡的說法，原文節選“...Letters written when my heart was heavy or full of joy. Serious letters. Nutty letters. Caring and rejoicing letters.” 一個 nutty 表現出了老布什的自嘲幽默，就像小布什悼詞裡對他父親的評價一樣：“He loved to laugh, especially at himself. He could tease and needle, but never out of malice.”（父親愛笑，尤其喜歡自嘲。他喜歡調侃，但絕無惡意。）
<strong>“It’s all about heartbeat.”
這就話被加了引號，說明是引自某部作品，經查詢其實是來自老布什的書信集 All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings。書中的序言部分出現了三次“heartbeat”，其中有一處就是“It's all about heartbeat”。
<strong>Paragraph 2:
①In one letter he happened to mention a childhood rebuke from his mother: “Now, George, don’t walk ahead.” ②He <strong>took her words to heart, staying, for most of his political career, loyally behind and modestly to one side. ③As chairman of the Republican National Committee in 1974, he stuck by Richard Nixon until it became more urgent to save the party; at which point, he publicly asked him to resign. ④<strong>He felt afterwards as though someone had died.⑤In his eight years as Ronald Reagan’s vice-president, though they had sparred bitterly in the 1980 primaries over Reagan’s “voodoo economics” and his callow Hollywood sparkle, he never criticised or<strong>upstaged him. ⑥During the Iran-contra affair of the 1980s, though present at many salient meetings, he declared himself out of the loop, and it was hard to prove otherwise.
<strong>段落解析：
這段主要講老布什一直堅守“don't walk ahead”。
<strong>詞句精讀：
<strong>take something to heart，表示“十分介意某人的話或行為；耿耿於懷”。如果想安慰別人不要把什麼事都放在心上，你可以這麼說：You can’t take everything people say to heart。
<strong>He felt afterwards as though someone had died.
這裡的難點其實是 feel 這個詞，在這裡的意思是“讓人感到”，和 seem 的意思差不多。也就是說，“忠義兩難全”那種痛苦，為了大義，他不得不忠，這讓他很痛苦。
<strong>upstage，這個詞很形象，它當副詞的意思是“在舞臺後部”，當動詞時就是“將……置於幕後”，引申為“搶…的風頭”。《經濟學人》有篇講很多法國人不知道法國總理的名字，有人這麼風趣地解釋道：“The main job for a French prime minister is not to upstage the president,” says one observer wryly.”
<strong>Paragraph 3:
<strong>The vision thing
①People often supposed him <strong>out of the loop in other ways, too: a boy<strong>born to privilege, called “Poppy” by his parents,<strong>a product of Phillips Academy and Phi Beta Kappa at Yale, who was (falsely) rumoured in the 1992 campaign never to have passed a quart of milk through a supermarket scanner. ②He was a Yankee aristocrat who could have followed his Daddy on to Wall Street but instead became a Texas oil man (the only Texan, growled Speaker Jim Wright, who ate lobster with his chilli), and went on to represent the toniest bit of Houston in Congress. ③All this, as well as the tennis-playing summers in Kennebunkport, seemed to set him firmly apart from the average Joe, though he<strong>let it be known as president that his favourite food was pork rinds, and banned from the White House the broccoli his mother had made him eat.
<strong>段落解析：
小標題<strong> The vision thing 是個分界線，承上啟下。在它之前，基本上跟他具體履歷無關的東西，講信講他媽媽的話對他的影響；在它之後，文章要開始講他非凡的一生，比如成長背景、政治生涯及興趣愛好等等。
<strong>詞句精讀：
<strong>out of the loop，注意它屬於非正式用語，我們用它來描述“不瞭解、不知道某圈子內的最新消息和狀況”。in/out of the loop 和中文裡的“圈內/圈外”一個意思，表示 kept / not kept informed。
<strong>a boy born to... a product of...我們下次用來介紹他人生平時，就可以用到這樣的表達，來替換“his father/mother is...”。
<strong>let it/sth be known，這個短語表示“使人們知道或清楚；明確表示；公開表示”。還有個相類似的表達叫“make it/sth be known”。
《經濟學人》在難民帶來的挑戰的文章裡，提到德國官方的決定：German officials have let it be known that countries that resist such efforts will meet a sceptical eye when they next try to win subsidies from the EU budget. 比如我們想表達，他公開表示他要參加市長競選。我們可以說：He let it be known [=he announced] that he intends to run for mayor.
<strong>背景補充：
小布什在致老布什的悼詞中也拿“西蘭花”說事幽了一默，“The man couldn't stomach vegetables, especially broccoli. And by the way, he passed these genetic defects along to us.”（他不愛吃蔬菜，尤其討厭西蘭花。 順便說一句，他把這些缺陷也遺傳給了我們。）
<strong>Paragraph 4:
①<strong>With the label “preppy” came the tag “wimp”, which infuriated him far more. ②He had had a brave war, enlisting at 18 and completing one mission with his aircraft on fire. ③Later he did not hesitate to send 27000 troops to dislodge Manuel Noriega from Panama, or to launch a ground war against Saddam Hussein in 1991-declearing victory and pulling out in 100 hours, which pushed his approval ratings to 89%. ④He was not above nasty attack ads in the 1988 campaign, excoriating Michael Dukakis for giving furlough to a black rapist. ⑤But Nixon, who hated Ivy Leaguers, seemed to think him soft; Reagan said he lacked spunk; and his talk of “Big Mo”and “kicking ass” on the campaign trail often ended in retreat. ⑥In1990 a<strong>dust-up with Congress forced him to capitulate on his steely election pledge of “No new taxes”. ⑦This, as well as the brief recession of 1990-91, cost him the 1992 election, though even as voters went to the polls the figures for growth were ticking upwards, ushering in almost a decade of prosperity.
段落解析：
從本段開始，具體來說老布什作為總統的從政風格，還有他的政績，別人對他的評價，他的政治主張以及他連任慘敗的原因。
<strong>詞句精讀：
①With the label “preppy” came the tag “wimp”, which infuriated him far more.
蜘蛛俠有句名言：With great power comes great responsibility。我們可以學習這個 with... comes 的地道句型。
⑥In1990 a<strong> dust-upwith Congress forced him to capitulate on his steely election pledge of “No new taxes”.
注意這裡用“a dust-up”做了主語。<strong>dust-up，表示“ 爭吵，爭鬥”，a commotion，quarrel, or fight. 可以說have a dust-up with somebody表示與某人爭吵。
<strong>Paragraph 5:
①What he lacked, as he <strong>more or less admitted, was “the vision thing”. ②Ideologically, he was flexible: moderate sometimes (indeed, in one Texas race, left of the Democrat), while at others he would<strong>traipse round pandering to conservatives, as George Will cruelly put it, with a thin tinny “arf”, like a<strong>lap-dog. ③On domestic policy, as president, he inclined to the hard right (prayer in schools, gun rights, anti-abortion), while also loosening immigration policy and expanding the rights of the disabled. ④Wearing his mild Episcopalian hat, he mentioned<strong>a thousand points of light, a kinder, gentler America, and a new breeze blowing away the leaves of an old tree. ⑤It was all as vague as it was all deeply hoped for.
段落解析：
這段仍承接上一段，講老布什的從政風格和政治主張。
<strong>Paragraph 6
①His <strong>forte, and first love, was foreign policy. ②He had been ambassador to the UN for Nixon, an envoy to China for Gerald Ford (he and Barbara riding round delightedly on bicycles) and head of the CIA, besides, as vice-president, a follower-of-the-hearse at dozens of state funerals. ③Instinctively, he thought in terms of global power games;fortuitously, his time as president coincided with the end of the cold war, a heady and fascinating moment. ④With Mikhail Gorbachev he struck up an easy working friendship, and in 1991,<strong>in the wake of the Gulf war, he even had a moment of comprehensive vision: a new world order, based not on force but on the rule of law, which America would strongly lead.
<strong>段落解析：
本段主旨就是老布什在外交方面的出色表現及想法。
<strong>詞句精讀：
<strong>forte，意思是“長處，特長”，這個詞完美替換了strength，advantage，類似的表達還有 strong suit。比如你想說自己的長處就是能吃不胖，就可以說：My forte is that I can eat a lot of without getting fat. 這真是每個小仙女都想要的長處了。
<strong>Paragraph 7
①Such grandiloquence, like eloquence, was rare in him. ②He was schooled in modesty, fond of the small <strong>behind-the-scenes gesture rather than the large<strong>public show. ③He belonged to a generation that had no patience for today’s blowhards who, putting self before nation, always push themselves forward. ④But when the times and events demanded he could, perhaps to his own surprise, find the right words and walk confidently ahead.
<strong>段落解析：
這段描寫了老布什的優良品格。老布什是一個不善言辭的人，而且非常謙虛低調，比起臺上更喜歡幕後工作。他屬於對今天這種將自己置身於國家之上、總愛畫大餅的吹牛大王沒有耐心的一代人。雖然如此，當需要挺身而出時，他總是知道該說什麼鼓舞人心，並挑起大梁。
<strong>詞句精讀：
<strong>behind-the-scenes / public show，兩個一組，一個幕後，一個臺前公映，非常相得益彰了。送給大家一句雞湯：Don't compare your behind-the scenes to someone else's highlight reel。
後記：
在這個共賞的過程中，我們一起查閱了老布什的書信集（All the Best, George Bush: My Life in Letters and Other Writings）、小布什致老布什的悼詞以及其他相關背景資料，我們瞭解到了一個立體的老布什，也更能體會到讀 Obituary 的樂趣所在，謝謝我們小組成員們自己爭取來的這次賞析機會，收穫也是滿滿的！
Eric 的點評：
亮點：《經濟學人》的訃告板塊具有文學性，能主動選擇賞析閱讀更有難度的閱讀材料本身就是非常棒的嘗試。本文的最大亮點我認為是賞析的時候主動進行主題閱讀收集資料，在主題閱讀中不僅可以獲取更多的信息，還可以從不同角度賞析和學習語言。
不足之處：
1）不要過多拓展，點到為止即可，要把更多的精力放在“學以致用”上。賞析的最終目的是把語言素材內化成自己的，不要看上去很美。
2. 除了關注詞彙外，要關注句型和行文結構，注意同義表達替換，別把外刊讀成了詞彙書。文中若有不是 100% 確定的語言問題，一定要拿出來討論。
<strong>賞析外刊的時候我們主要賞析什麼呢？
<strong>首先要讀懂。因此我們需要能夠用自己的話來總結每一段說了什麼主要內容，文章主要討論了什麼內容。
<strong>其次是學習文章中的地道、實用、優美的表達，它可以是一個詞，也可以是一個詞組或者一種句型。
除了弄清楚每句話的內容（也就是第一步“讀懂”），每一段話中可以重點學習 2-4 個表達，利用咱們學習“每日一詞”的方法，分析它們的用法、總結它們好在哪裡、拓展我們可以如何使用它們。在這裡我們可以問自己“我會怎麼寫？” “《經濟學人》是怎麼寫的？” “這樣寫好在哪裡？”來幫助自己賞析語言。
最後，對文章中不好理解的句子單獨做分析，弄清楚它們的結構和意思。同時也可以對文章中出現的文化梗（例如標題中的彩蛋）、專有名詞（例如一個你不太熟悉的概念）做梳理總結。如果有興趣的話，還可以對文章中的觀點發起討論（中英皆可）。
閱讀愉快，咱們下期見。
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