名人教英文：从日本政治困局学英语

《经济学人》文章指日本菅直人政府在灾后阵脚大乱，饱受政敌抨击。他所领导的民主党在4月初的地方选举因此而失利：

On April 10th the DPJ's （民主党） troubles took their toll in regional and local elections. The party lost all three of its races for prefectural governorships to the LDP（自民党）.

Take a/ its/ their toll解作「重创」、「造成损害」，上述例子就是说民主党的问题在选举中（对该党）造成负面影响。这个用语通常配on somebody or something，例如：Strauss-Kahn's sex scandal will take its toll on the French Socialist Party in next year's French presidential election.

The drubbing has emboldened LDP politicians to resist more collaboration... A semblance of political co-operation may last only until a second round of local elections on April 24th. It leaves just enough time to pass the first of many proposed disaster-relief bills... Later bills will be the source of fresh squabbles.

Drubbing 即「打击」，民主党在选举受挫，自民党自然想乘胜追击，不愿合作。Semblance是「表面」的意思。作者预计，自民党一定会找机会发难，squabbles即「因琐事而起的争吵」。

Complicating Mr Kan's position is the make-up of his own party. The DPJ is stuffed with backbenchers loyal to Ichiro Ozawa...

菅直人有外患，又有内忧。Make-up在此不是指「化妆」，而是指「组成」。自民党充斥忠于另一领袖的backbenchers (后排议员，通常指没有内阁职务的议员)，威胁菅直人在党内的地位。

The LDP is hardly in better shape. Few people believe it would have handled the many-headed catastrophe any more adroitly... The party is beset by internal conflict. The dinosaurs see little need to revitalise the party's appeal or methods. Indeed, post-tsunami reconstruction, they think, is a way to dole out public-works contracts, just as in the old days. Younger members think this is why politicians and voters... are not returning to the fold.

不过，自民党状态亦不佳。Many-headed catastrophe指灾难像多头妖怪；自民党不能机巧地（adroitly）一下子解决，恐怕还是用老办法，靠发出工程合约来争取支持（dole out 即小量地分发）。自民党这类庞大而古老的组织，往往被比喻作dinosaurs。许多选民即使不支持民主党，也不会重投自民党的怀抱（fold原指羊栏，return to the fold意即重返一个群组）。

英语单词词汇学习：

embolden……壮胆
catastrophe……灾难
adroitly……机巧地
beset……困扰