本周，由Manny為大家分析經濟學人的寫作，主要學習常見詞彙在法律英語中的用法以及一些好用短語，大家可以舊詞新學，吃透一些詞彙短語的用法。內容在精不在多，真正掌握要多做積累、多下功夫。話不多說，我們開始今天的學習內容。
近日美俄兩國總統已約定於2月5日前完成《新削減戰略武器條約》延長工作。由86國籤署的《禁止核武器條約》於1月22日正式生效，但中美英法俄等核大國均無意加入，中方發言人表示將合理推動核裁軍進程。控制核擴散是共同追求的目標，這篇文章分析了各國的核外交利益對立等問題，表示要遏制核擴散，核大國必須做出努力。下面我們來看看經濟學人的分析，並學習其中一些表達和作出引申。
學習音頻：
原文片段：
The nuclear omens are bad. Arms control between America and Russia, which saw cuts of 38,000 warheads—a 79% fall—in 1991-2010, has dwindled. On January 26th Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin agreed to extend the last remaining pact, the New START treaty, for five years. That is welcome, but prospects for a follow-on are dim.
China, India, North Korea and Pakistan are all expanding and modernising their nuclear forces. There is dismal progress towards global disarmament, the ultimate aim of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the cornerstone of the nuclear order. A new treaty banning the bomb, which was signed by 86 countries and came into force on January 22nd, channels the frustration among nuclear have-nots. It accomplishes little else.
If nuclear weapons are not going away, and security threats are worsening, some states will be tempted to pursue a bomb of their own. In decades past America kept nuclear aspirants in line, threatening to withdraw security guarantees from errant friends, like Taiwan, and using sanctions and military force to dissuade enemies, such as Iraq.
【原文】
The nuclear omens are bad. Arms control between America and Russia, which saw cuts of 38,000 warheads—a 79% fall—in 1991-2010, has dwindled. On January 26th Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin agreed to extend the last remaining pact, the New START treaty, for five years. That is welcome, but prospects for a follow-on are dim.
【參考譯文】
核武器控制前景並不理想。美國和俄羅斯之間的軍備控制有所減少，在1991-2010年間削減了38,000枚核彈頭，下降了79％。1月26日，喬·拜登總統和普京總統同意將即將期滿的《新削減戰略武器條約》延長五年。這是喜聞樂見的，但後續條約的前景黯淡。
Omens
Omen是前兆、預兆的意思，文中所指的就是「當前核武器控制的前景」並不樂觀，我們來看下BBC中的例句：
Many cultures traditionally believed that a total eclipse was a bad omen or a supernatural event.
很多國家傳統上把日全食看做兇兆或者超自然現象。
雖然omen中文解釋只有預兆、兆頭之意，但是我們可以像文中一樣作「前景、勢頭」使用，比如改寫本段最後一句：
That is welcome, but the follow-on omens are bad.
Pact
Pact的意思是條約、協定、約定，如the Warsaw pact華沙條約，其近義詞為treaty。常用的搭配為sign/make a pact with （a country）。我們來看一下生活大爆炸中的例子：
Leonard, pact is a pact.
萊納德，約定就是約定（我們說好了的）。
在法律英語當中，pact一般指公約，如：Pact of Locarno《洛迦諾公約》，Munich pact《慕尼黑公約》。《巴黎氣候協定》的表達也可以用the Paris Climate Pact，等同於the Paris Climate Agreement。
That is welcome, but prospects for a follow-on are dim.
這句話的意思即「這件事情是喜聞樂見的，但後續的發展並不樂觀」，可以起到起承轉合的作用，比如這裡就表示「美俄延長條約」是喜聞樂見的事情，但是「兩國後續對核武器控制的發展」不容樂觀。這樣的句子我們平時可以積累下來用到英語寫作當中，既地道又很巧妙。我們還可以改寫，welcome和dim也可以用pleasing和bleak/frustrating/depressing等進行替換。
【原文】
China, India, North Korea and Pakistan are all expanding and modernising their nuclear forces. There is dismal progress towards global disarmament, the ultimate aim of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the cornerstone of the nuclear order. A new treaty banning the bomb, which was signed by 86 countries and came into force on January 22nd, channels the frustration among nuclear have-nots. It accomplishes little else.
【參考譯文】
中國、印度、朝鮮和巴基斯坦都在擴大和改進其核力量。全球裁軍是核秩序基石《不擴散核武器條約》(《核不擴散條約》)的終極目標，但其進展令人沮喪。一項由86個國家籤署並於1月22日生效的《禁止核武器條約》，除了引發無核國家的不滿，它幾乎沒有其他作用。
Channels
我們都知道channel是頻道的意思，這是它的名詞用法，但channel其實還能作動詞使用，意思是輸送、傳送、導向，文中channel所表達的是一個引申含義「引發、導致」，意思是無核國家籤署禁止核武器條約而核大國並不認可不加入，沒有任何意義，只能引發籤署國的不滿。我們來看一下channel作動詞的幾個例句，注意介詞的搭配：
Most of his energy was channeled into writing and lecturing.
他把大部分精力都放到寫作和講課上。
The famine relief money was channeled through the UN.
賑濟饑荒的款項是通過聯合國撥出的。
Women were likely to be channeled into jobs as teachers or nurses.
女性有可能被派去做老師或護士一類的工作。
第一個例句channeled代替了常用的put，第二個例句可以換allocate的表達，第三個例句可以與direct（v.）替換，轉換的時候也要注意介詞的改變。因此，在表達傳送、導致等意思時我們就可以考慮使用channel來活化我們的表達。
have-nots
have是「有」，have not自然就是「沒有」，中間加連字符的have-not則變為名詞形式，意為「沒有財富的人」，前面需要加上the，the have-nots相當於the poor。The haves也可以用來表達the rich。在文中的語境，the have-nots表示「沒有核武器的國家」。我們再來看個例句加深印象：
The struggle of the trade unions for more pay was a struggle between the haves and the have-nots.
工會要求增加工資的鬥爭是一場窮人與富人之間的鬥爭。
It accomplishes little else.
Accomplish意為通過努力完成或實現某事，這句話用表示否定意義的詞語「little」強調了這個條約的無用。我們在平時的寫作當中也可以用這樣的形式，轉換思路表達，這樣子我們寫作的內容不會太過枯燥乏味，比較簡潔，可以讓閱讀更加輕鬆。表示否定含義的詞語還有hardly、barely、seldom、scarcely、few等等，我們來看個例句：
Seldom have I read an article that was so full of lies.
我很少讀到充斥著這麼多謊言的文章。
句型的變換也是給英文寫作增加調味劑的做法，我們經常使用賓語從句、定語從句、狀語從句、複合句等等，可以穿插倒裝、被動、非謂語、虛擬語句等少用的句型。
【原文】
If nuclear weapons are not going away, and security threats are worsening, some states will be tempted to pursue a bomb of their own. In decades past America kept nuclear aspirants in line, threatening to withdraw security guarantees from errant friends, like Taiwan, and using sanctions and military force to dissuade enemies, such as Iraq.
【參考譯文】
如果核武器不會消失，而安全威脅又在惡化，一些國家就會傾向於研發自己的核武器。在過去的幾十年裡，美國通過威脅臺灣等不安分的朋友收回安全保證，管控著這些志在研發核武器的地區，並使用制裁手段和軍事力量勸阻伊拉克等敵人研發核武器。
kept … in line
stand in line意為排隊，keep sb in line即讓某人排隊、遵守秩序，引申的意思就是管理、管制某人、讓某人聽話/規規矩矩。我們來看一下《權力的遊戲》中的例句：
Do you think honor keeps them in line?
榮譽就能讓他們俯首稱臣嗎？
Errant
Errant一般用來表示孩子不聽話或者伴侶不忠，我們來看兩個例句：
I squirm, and he made me feel like an errant child.
我挪動了一下身體，他讓我感覺我像一個犯錯的孩子。（——《五十度灰》）
I saw myself, too, from the dramatic standpoint, and I was pleased with my role of the trusted friend bringing back the errant husband to his forgiving wife.
我也從做戲的角度看待自己，對我扮演的這個角色——一個受人衷心相託的朋友把誤入歧途的丈夫帶回給寬恕的妻子——非常欣賞。（——《月亮與六便士》）
不忠還可以用unfaithful、cheat on sb等表示。這裡用errant來形容這些受美國力量庇護的地區研發核武器的蠢蠢欲動十分形象。
這篇節選展現了當前局勢下核擴散風險高漲，核裁軍進程推進困難，側面反映核大國在遏制核擴散工作中的核心作用。同學們可以再通讀一下無解析版本，回憶剛才所講到的表達和用法。
The nuclear omens are bad. Arms control between America and Russia, which saw cuts of 38,000 warheads—a 79% fall—in 1991-2010, has dwindled. On January 26th Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin agreed to extend the last remaining pact, the New START treaty, for five years. That is welcome, but prospects for a follow-on are dim.
China, India, North Korea and Pakistan are all expanding and modernising their nuclear forces. There is dismal progress towards global disarmament, the ultimate aim of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the cornerstone of the nuclear order. A new treaty banning the bomb, which was signed by 86 countries and came into force on January 22nd, channels the frustration among nuclear have-nots. It accomplishes little else.
If nuclear weapons are not going away, and security threats are worsening, some states will be tempted to pursue a bomb of their own. In decades past America kept nuclear aspirants in line, threatening to withdraw security guarantees from errant friends, like Taiwan, and using sanctions and military force to dissuade enemies, such as Iraq.
往期更新：
經濟學人寫作：美國大選和最高法院
經濟學人寫作：螞蟻集團IPO上市
經濟學人寫作：美最高法院大法官金斯伯格
經濟學人寫作：黎巴嫩爆炸案
經濟學人寫作：蘋果公司與Epic的「訴訟戰」
經濟學人寫作：美國司法部正式對谷歌提起反壟斷訴訟
經濟學人：美國藥物巨頭強生公司遭起訴
經濟學人寫作：律師拜登勝選下的美國未來
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