Monday, 13 April 2015 was a typical day in modern British politics. An Oxford University graduate in philosophy, politics and economics (PPE), Ed Miliband, launched the Labour party’s general election manifesto. It was examined by the BBC’s political editor, Oxford PPE graduate Nick Robinson, by the BBC’s economics editor, Oxford PPE graduate Robert Peston, and by the director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Oxford PPE graduate Paul Johnson. It was criticised by the prime minister, Oxford PPE graduate David Cameron. It was defended by the Labour shadow chancellor, Oxford PPE graduate Ed Balls.
2015年4月13日（星期一）是現代英國政治史上平常的一天。這一天，畢業於牛津大學哲學、政治和經濟學專業（簡稱PPE）的艾德·米利班德（Ed Miliband）發布了工黨的大選宣言。這份宣言由三位牛津大學PPE畢業生進行審查，他們是BBC政治編輯尼克·魯濱遜（Nick Robinson）、BBC經濟編輯羅伯特·普雷斯頓（Robert Peston）和財政研究所主任鮑爾·詹森（Paul Johnson）。這份宣言也受到了英國首相、牛津大學PPE畢業生大衛·卡梅倫（David Cameron）的批評，而影子內閣大臣、牛津大學PPE畢業生艾德·鮑爾斯（Ed Balls）則為此進行了辯解。
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Elsewhere in the country, with the election three weeks away, the Liberal Democrat chief secretary to the Treasury, Oxford PPE graduate Danny Alexander, was preparing to visit Kingston and Surbiton, a vulnerable London seat held by a fellow Lib Dem minister, Oxford PPE graduate Ed Davey. In Kent, one of Ukip’s two MPs, Oxford PPE graduate Mark Reckless, was campaigning in his constituency, Rochester and Strood. Comments on the day’s developments were being posted online by Michael Crick, Oxford PPE graduate and political correspondent of Channel 4 News.
在英國其他地方，距離大選還有三周的時候，自由民主黨財政部首席秘書、畢業於牛津大學PPE專業的丹尼·亞歷山大（Danny Alexander）準備訪問金斯頓和瑟比頓，爭取獲得同為牛津PPE畢業生的自由民主黨主席艾德·戴維（Ed Davey）手中可貴的的倫敦席位。在肯特，獨立黨議員、牛津PPE畢業生馬克·蕾克裡斯（Mark Reckless）則正在他的選區（羅切斯特和斯特魯德）進行拉票。關於這一天進展的報導，則由第四新聞頻道的記者，同樣畢業於牛津PPE專業的邁克·克裡克（ Michael Crick）在網上進行發布。
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On the BBC Radio 4 website, the Financial Times statistics expert and Oxford PPE graduate Tim Harford presented his first election podcast. On BBC1, Oxford PPE graduate and Newsnight presenter Evan Davies conducted the first of a series of interviews with party leaders. In the print media, there was an election special in the Economist magazine, edited by Oxford PPE graduate Zanny Minton-Beddoes; a clutch of election articles in the political magazine Prospect, edited by Oxford PPE graduate Bronwen Maddox; an election column in the Guardian by Oxford PPE graduate Simon Jenkins; and more election coverage in the Times and the Sun, whose proprietor, Rupert Murdoch, studied PPE at Oxford.
在BBC第四廣播臺的網站上，《金融時報》統計專家、畢業於牛津PPE專業的提姆·哈福德（Tim Harford）發表了第一篇關於大選的播客。BBC第一頻道「新聞之夜」的主持人、牛津PPE畢業生埃文·戴維斯（Evan Davies）則主持了黨魁系列專訪的第一集採訪。在印刷媒體界，《經濟學人》雜誌由牛津PPE畢業生桑尼·明頓-貝多（Zanny Minton-Beddoes）主稿，發表了一篇關於大選的特稿；《展望》雜誌由牛津PPE畢業生布朗文·馬多克斯（Bronwen Maddox）主編，發表了一系列關於大選的文章；《衛報》由牛津PPE畢業生西蒙·詹金斯（Simon Jenkins）主編開設了一個大選專欄；《泰晤士報》和《太陽報》也發表了一系列關於大選的報導，而他們的老闆——魯伯特·默多克（Rupert Murdoch）——也曾就讀於牛津大學的PPE專業。
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More than any other course at any other university, more than any revered or resented private school, and in a manner probably unmatched in any other democracy, Oxford PPE pervades British political life. From the right to the left, from the centre ground to the fringes, from analysts to protagonists, consensus-seekers to revolutionary activists, environmentalists to ultra-capitalists, statists to libertarians, elitists to populists, bureaucrats to spin doctors, bullies to charmers, successive networks of PPEists have been at work at all levels of British politics – sometimes prominently, sometimes more quietly – since the degree was established 97 years ago.
其他大學的任何其他課程，其他或受尊敬或被嫌惡的私立學校，對英國政界的影響都遠不如牛津大學PPE課程來得深遠，其影響之深遠甚至已經到了其他民主國家無法匹及的程度。從左派到右派，從核心黨到邊緣政黨，從分析師到領導者，從和平主義者到革命分子，從環保主義者到資本家，從統計學家到自由主義者，從社會精英到民粹主義者，從官員到公關顧問，從惡霸到萬人迷，在英國政界工作的牛津PPE畢業生連接成了一張巨大的網絡——他們中有的人表現突出，有的則較為低調——這張網自九十七年前這一學位設立時便已連成。
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「It is overwhelmingly from Oxford that the governing elite has reproduced itself, generation after generation,」 writes the pre-eminent British political biographer, John Campbell, in his 2014 study of the postwar Labour reformer and SDP co‑founder Roy Jenkins, who studied PPE at the university in the 1930s. The three-year undergraduate course was then less than two decades old, but it was 「already the course of choice for aspiring politicians」: the future Labour leaders Michael Foot and Hugh Gaitskell, the future prime ministers Edward Heath and Harold Wilson.
「一代又一代，大量的政界精英從牛津大學誕生」，前著名政治傳記作家約翰·坎貝爾（John Campbell）在他2014年關於戰後工黨改革者、社民黨創始人，20世紀30年代曾攻讀牛津大學PPE課程的羅伊·詹金斯（ Roy Jenkins）的研究中寫道。那時，這門三年制的課程開設還不到20年，但它已經成為有抱負的政治家們的必修課：工黨主席麥可·福特（Michael Foot）和休·蓋茨克爾（Hugh Gaitskell）以及首相愛德華·希斯（Edward Heath）和哈羅德·威爾遜（Harold Wilson）都曾攻讀這一門課程。
But Oxford PPE is more than a factory for politicians and the people who judge them for a living. It also gives many of these public figures a shared outlook: confident, internationalist, intellectually flexible, and above all sure that small groups of supposedly well-educated, rational people, such as themselves, can and should improve Britain and the wider world. The course has also been taken by many foreign leaders-in-the-making, among them Bill Clinton, Benazir Bhutto, Aung San Suu Kyi, and the Australian prime ministers Malcolm Fraser and Bob Hawke. An Oxford PPE degree has become a global status symbol of academic achievement and worldly potential.
牛津大學的PPE課程不僅僅是一座生產政界精英或其他以評判政治為生的人的工廠。它給這些公眾人物塑造了共同的人生觀：自信、國際主義、思維活躍，並堅信一小群像他們一樣受過良好教育的、理性的人可以，並且應該為英國乃至整個世界做出貢獻。這門課程也造就了很多其他國家的領導人，比如比爾·柯林頓（Bill Clinton）、貝娜齊爾·布託（Benazir Bhutto）、翁山蘇姬（Aung San Suu Kyi）以及澳大利亞首相馬爾科姆·弗雷澤（Malcolm Fraser）和鮑勃·霍克（Bob Hawke）。牛津大學PPE學位已經成為了學術成就和世俗成就的象徵。
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The Labour peer and thinker Maurice Glasman, who studied modern history at Cambridge, says: 「PPE combines the status of an elite university degree – PPE is the ultimate form of being good at school – with the stamp of a vocational course. It is perfect training for cabinet membership, and it gives you a view of life. It is a very profound cultural form.」
工黨思想家，曾就讀於劍橋大學現代歷史專業的格拉斯曼（Maurice Glasman）說：「PPE學位集精英大學和專業課程於一身——它是好學生的最好證明。它能夠很好的塑造內閣成員，也能夠塑造一個人的人生觀。它是一種影響深遠的文化形式。」
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Yet in the new age of populism, of revolts against elites and 「professional politicians」, Oxford PPE no longer fits into public life as smoothly as it once did. With corporate capitalism misfiring, mainstream politicians blundering, and much of the traditional media seemingly bewildered by the upheavals, PPE, the supplier of supposedly highly trained talent to all three fields, has lost its unquestioned authority. More than that, it has become easier to doubt whether a single university course, and its graduates, should have such influence in the first place. To its proliferating critics, PPE is not a solution to Britain’s problems; it is a cause of them.
然而，在這個充斥著平民主義、反對精英和「專業政客」的聲音的時代，牛津大學的PPE學位已經不再能夠像以往那般順利融入公眾生活了。隨著企業資本的失敗、主流政客的失誤和傳統媒體在社會巨變中的迷失，PPE這一為這三大領域而開設的課程已經失去了它原本不容置疑的權威。不僅如此，人們也開始質疑，僅僅一門大學課程及它的研讀者，是否應該對社會造成如此深遠的影響。隨著質疑聲的逐漸增加，PPE學位已經不再是為英國社會解決問題的金鑰匙；它已經變成了問題的製造者。
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Misfire v. 未奏效；為獲得預期效果；失敗
Eg. Some of their policies had misfired. 他們的一些政策已經失敗了。
Blunder v. 犯愚蠢的錯誤；失誤
Eg. No doubt I had blundering again. 無疑，我又犯了一個愚蠢的錯誤。
Proliferate v. 激增；劇增
Eg.Computerized data bases are proliferating fast. 計算機化的資料庫正在激增。
Oxford PPE remains opaque to outsiders. It is often mentioned in the media but rarely explained. Even to know what PPE stands for is to be unusually well-informed about British education and power – often, to be part of the same Oxford milieu as the PPEists. When I asked one former party leader what he got from the degree, he said with studied insouciance: 「Why would you want to write about PPE?」 As the establishment often says when scrutinised: nothing to see here.
外人看不透牛津PPE的真面目。在媒體上它總是被提及，極少被解釋。單單要知曉PPE代表了什麼，你就得對英國的教育和權力體系了如指掌才行，通常來說，你要和PPE人有同樣的牛津背景。我曾經問一位前黨魁從這個學位中有何受益，他故作漫不經心地答道：「你怎麼想到要寫PPE了」。一如權威們被仔細審查時的慣常說法：此地無銀，無需深究。
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PPE is particularly associated with Labour. The degree helped shape party figures as different as Tony Benn, Tony Crosland and Peter Mandelson. In office, says Glasman, Labour has often effectively been 「the governing wing of the PPE course」. Yet the same could be said of the Tories. The former cabinet ministers Michael Heseltine, Nigel Lawson, William Hague and David Willetts, and Cameron’s former Downing Street guru Steve Hilton, are all Oxford PPE graduates. Current Conservative PPEists include the health secretary Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor Philip Hammond, the work and pensions secretary Damian Green, and the justice secretary Elizabeth Truss.
PPE和工黨的關係格外密切。這個學位塑造了各式各樣的黨內人物，像彭東尼（Tony Benn），託尼.克洛斯蘭（Tony Crosland）和彼得.曼德爾森（Peter Mandelson）。據格拉斯曼說，在執政方面，工黨已然堪稱「PPE執政派」。這種說法其實也可以套用在保守黨身上。前內閣大臣麥可.赫塞爾廷（Michael Heseltine）、尼格爾.勞森（Nigel Lawson）、威廉.黑格（William Hague）和戴維.威利茨（David Willetts），還有卡梅倫內閣曾經的唐寧街首席顧問史蒂夫.希爾頓（Steve Hilton），他們都畢業於牛津PPE。現任保守黨內的PPE人包括衛生部長傑裡米.亨特（Jeremy Hunt），財政大臣菲利普.哈蒙德（Philip Hammond），就業及退休保障大臣達米安.格林（Damian Green）和司法大臣伊莉莎白.特拉斯（Elizabeth Truss）。
「PPE thrives,」 says Willetts, a former education minister who is writing a book about universities, 「because a problem of English education is too much specialisation too soon, whereas PPE is much closer to the prestigious degrees for generalists available in the United States. As a PPE graduate, you end up with a broad sense of modern political history, you』ve cantered through political thought, done [philosophical] logic, wrestled with economics from monetarism to Maynard Keynes. You』ve had to get through a lot of work – 16 essays a term. That’s very useful later when you have to write a speech to a deadline.」 Willetts adds: 「As a minister, you do sometimes think that British political life is an endless recreation of the PPE essay crisis.」
一位正著書探討大學系統的前教育部長威利茨（Willetts）說， 「PPE之所以蓬勃發展是因為英國教育的一大問題就是過早地進行了專業細分化，而PPE卻更接近通行美國且久負盛名的通識教育。作為一位PPE畢業生，你最終會對現代政治史有著廣泛的了解，你穿行遊歷於政治思想，完成了哲學思辨，同經濟學較量一番，從貨幣主義攻克到凱恩斯理論。你被逼著熬過海量的作業——一學期16篇論文。等你未來趕截止時間寫發言稿的時候，它會令你受益無窮」。威利茨補充道：「作為部長，你有時候確實會想，英國政治生活就是在PPE念書期間論文危機的無限重演啊」。
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Specialization
(UK usually specialisation) noun countable or uncountable a particular area of knowledge or the process of becoming an expert in a particular area 專門化（特定知識領域，或成為某一特定領域的專家的過程）
e.g. In the course I'm taking, there's no opportunity for specialization (= limiting my studying or work to one particular area) until the final year.我現在學的課程，要到最後一年才能確定專業方向。
Canter V
When a horse canters, it moves at a speed that is slower than a gallop but faster than a trot. (馬)小跑,慢跑
e.g. The competitors cantered into the arena to conclude the closing ceremony.選手們慢跑進入競技場,為閉幕式畫上了句號。
Not everyone thinks that last-minute cramming and improvisation – Cameron’s hastily-arranged EU referendum comes to mind – is the best way to run a country. Last October, the leading Brexit campaigner and former government education adviser Dominic Cummings wrote on his influential blog: 「If you are young, smart, and interested in politics, think very hard before studying PPE … It actually causes huge problems as it encourages people like Cameron and Ed Balls to … spread bad ideas with lots of confidence and bluffing.」
不是每個人都認可最後關頭的填鴨式補救和臨場發揮——不由令人想到卡梅倫內閣匆忙組織的脫歐公投——是統治國家的最好方式。去年十月，領導英國脫歐運動的活動家兼前政府教育顧問多米尼克.卡明斯（Dominic Cummings）在他頗具影響力的博客裡寫道：「如果你年輕又機智，有志於政治，去念PPE前最好還是慎重斟酌……那真的會搞出一堆麻煩，因為它鼓勵了像卡梅倫和艾德.鮑爾斯（Ed Balls）那種人……自信昂揚而虛張聲勢地大放厥詞」。
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Improvisation
UK [ˌɪm.prə.vaɪ'zeɪ.ʃən] US [ɪmˌprɑ:.vɪ'-] noun countable or uncountable a performance which an actor, musician, etc. has not practiced or planned （演員）即興表演；（音樂家）即興創作
e.g. There are classes in movement, dance and improvisation.有音樂、舞蹈和即興表演方面的課程。
Other critics of PPE are blunter still. 「All the Worst Remainers Read PPE at Oxford」, jeered James Delingpole on the far-right website Breitbart last year. Nigel Farage of Ukip sometimes calls over-complicated political ideas 「PPE bollocks」. In the tabloids and on the internet, PPE has become synonymous with elitist, impractical, inadequate. In 2014, the columnist Nick Cohen, himself an Oxford PPE graduate, published his much-cited thoughts on the course in the conservative Spectator magazine. PPEists, he wrote, 「form the largest single component of the most despised governing class since the [1832] Great Reform Act」.
其他對PPE的批評甚至更不客氣。「所有最垃圾的剩貨們都在牛津讀PPE呢」，詹姆斯.德林波爾（James Delingpole）去年在極右翼網站布萊特巴特（Breitbart）上嘲諷道。英國獨立黨的奈傑爾.法拉奇（Nigel Farage）有時會把過於繁冗的政治理念戲稱為「PPE式胡言亂語」。在網絡和小報上，PPE已經成等同於「精英主義，不切實際，不夠格」。在2014年，專欄作家尼克.科恩（Nick Cohen）——他本身就畢業於牛津PPE專業——在偏保守的《觀察家》雜誌上發表了自己對這門課程的看法，它們之後被廣泛引用。關於PPE人，他寫道：「構成了自《1832年改革法案》以來規模最大也最受唾棄的統治階級獨立組群。」
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Synonymous / siˈnɔniməs; NAmE -ˈnɑːn- / adj.
~ (with sth) so closely connected with sth that the two things appear to be the same 等同於…...的
e.g. Wealth is not necessarily synonymous with happiness. 財富未必等同於幸福。
Britain is a country notoriously comfortable with educational elitism, with elaborate hierarchies and tight power networks. Yet in their often crude and illiberal way, these enemies of PPE are right to point out the strangeness of a single degree, and the mindset it often produces, remaining dominant for so long. And some of their arguments are echoed, in a more subtle way, inside Oxford PPE itself. The Labour peer Stewart Wood, a former adviser to Ed Miliband, took the degree in the 1980s, taught politics at Oxford between 1995 and 2010, and still runs occasional seminars there for PPE students. 「It does still feel like a course for people who are going to run the Raj in 1936,」 he says. 「Vast reading every week; writing essays that synthesise and summarise – these are the skills of a civil servant in the late British empire. In the politics part of PPE, you can go three years without discussing a single contemporary public policy issue. There’s too much about the past, about political institutions, and not enough about populism or social movements.」
英國是個在縱容教育精英主義方面臭名昭著的國家，有著精密劃分的等級制度和嚴絲合縫的權利架構網。雖說方式上比較粗俗和狹隘，但這些仇視PPE的人正確地指出了這一怪象：單單一個學位，和它造就的思維模式，居然佔據主導地位如此之久。而這種爭論的一部分在牛津PPE內部以一種更微妙的方式迴響。保守黨同僚斯圖爾特.伍德（Stewart Wood）——艾德.米利班德（Ed Miliband）的前顧問——在19世紀80年代拿到這個學位，1995年至2010年間在牛津教授政治學，至今仍時不時地在那兒為PPE學子組織研討會。「它還是活像一門給1936年統治英屬印度的人才開辦的課」，他說道，「每周都在博覽群書，寫綜合概述論文——都是些大英帝國晚期公務員幹的活計。你可以對當代公共政治問題閉口不談，還能在PPE的政治學課程上相安無事地通行三年。這兒總是在不厭其煩地討論過去，討論政治體制，對民粹主義或社會運動的關心卻遠遠不夠」。
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The very structure of the course, Wood believes, leaves many PPE graduates with 「a centrist bias」. 「You cover so much material that most students think, mistakenly, that the only way to do it justice is to take a centre position. And they conclude, again mistakenly, that to do well in the exams you have to avoid being an outlier. They think if you know a bit of everything, you』ll never be found out.」
這項課程的整體構架，伍德相信，將許多PPE學子置於「某種中間派偏頗」。「涉及的材料多種多樣，多到大部分學生會錯誤地認為做出公眾評判的唯一方式是站在中立地帶。而且他們錯上加錯地推斷，想要在測驗中拿高分，你必須避免成為一個顯眼的離群者。他們以為如果你在各方各面都略知皮毛，就絕不會露出馬腳」。