看亲侄女手撕特朗普，吃瓜顺便学英语

几个月前  Donald Trump 的亲侄女 Mary Trump 写了本书：Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man。

她说写这本书的目的不是报仇也不是出名，是想拯救国家，让大家知道特朗普的真面目，可别让他连任当总统了——「If he is afforded a second term, it would be the end of American democracy」。

虽是这样说，字里行间中能读出她认为是特朗普害了自己的父亲。她父亲本是家族中的太子，因饱受打击而放弃家族事业做了名飞行员。因为特朗普工于心计六亲不认，最终把哥哥逼上绝路。

书名 Too Much and Never Enough 说的是特朗普的性格养成根源：Too much 是指受反社会人格的父亲影响，从小就被鼓励做个坏蛋；Never Enough 是由于母亲患病，成长阶段中缺少母爱，感到被遗弃。

整本书的文笔一般，我读起来觉得有些啰嗦。内容上也没什么大瓜黑料，更多是家长里短，说车轱辘话。说来说去就是想说 Donald Trump 是个巨婴。

内容就说到这，有兴趣自己读读。

我边看边随手做笔记，在此总结书中的一些最好玩最实用的英语，也分享给你。

1. 读电子书的搜索大法

这本书我是在美国亚马逊买的 Kindle 版本，主要用 Kindle 和 iPad 上的 Kindle app 读的书。

和所有阅读类 app 一样，读电子书的好处是方便检索。当我觉得某个说法很眼熟时，就会搜一下：

trade on，off-putting，rein free 是我在书中第 2 次遇到的用法，我会特别珍惜这些老朋友。再次遇到就叙叙旧，搜一搜就记住了。

再比如这个 groom，读完整本书就见了 3 次，搜一搜用几秒的功夫在有语境的文本中复习一下，这个词的这个用法就忘不掉了：

2. 好玩的小词

 bracket

在介绍特朗普妈妈 Mary 时，作者写到：

...her childhood had been bracketed by two global tragedies. 也就是她的童年始末和全球悲剧事件相关——这两个事件像括号一样成了标志性的存在。

《经济学人》中也有类似的用法。比如：

Although 2010 brought legislative gains, including the great prize of health reform, the year was bracketed by political losses. At its beginning he lost his supermajority in the Senate. By its end he had lost his majority in the House.（写奥巴马）

His premiership was bracketed by evil fortune, from the premature death of his chancellor, Iain Macleod, in 1970 to the recession-inducing oil-price shock of 1973.（写前英国首相Edward Heath）

如何学以致用呢？当我们想从宏观角度概括一段时期时，就可以这样用 bracket 总结说明，后面再加上具体说明。比如：

赵本山和宋丹丹2008春晚合作的小品《火炬手》中有这样一段：「我从小与火结缘，我三岁就好玩火，为家里引起一场巨大火灾，六七岁我不小心贴上了火盆，至今臀部还有印记，十几岁我踏上火车，经过一个伙夫介绍认识了一个让我上了一辈子火的黑土，从此过上了水深火热的生活......」用英语是不是就可以说成 My life has been bracketed by fire？

in spades

Financial worth was the same as self-worth, monetary value was human value. The more Fred Trump had, the better he was. If he gave something to someone else, that person would be worth more and he less. He would pass that attitude on to Donald in spades. 

为啥学 in spades 呢？一是因为之前见过，二是这算是 spade 的熟词生义。in spades 表示「非常」，是不是就可以用来替换 greatly，very much 这样的词？

staple

Ever since the 1973 lawsuit, Donald had been a staple of the New York tabloids, and my grandfather had collected every single article that mentioned his name. 

staple 这个词真是超级好用。它是「订书钉」，也是「主食」，也可以是「主要产品」「主要部分」。这句话是说 Donald Trump 总上各种八卦头条。

《牛津高阶英汉双解》词典中给出了同款例句：

3. 实用的表达

At the end of one’s rope

After a few years of her husband’s continued unemployment, Maryanne was at the end of her rope. 

你说巧不巧？前两天读《岛上书店》时还遇到了这个 at the end of one's rope：

当我们想说「走投无路」的时候，用它就对啦！

turn south

When things turned south in the late 1980s, Fred could no longer separate himself from his son’s brutal ineptitude; the father had no choice but to stay invested.

south 不是「南」吗？这个 turn south 是啥意思？

head/turn/go south 是个常见习语，表示「变得糟糕」，相当于 go to the dogs。另外注意，《经济学人》中还经常这样用 south：

pick up the baton

In the 1970s, after my grandfather had already been preferring and promoting Donald for years, the New York media picked up the baton and began disseminating Donald’s unsubstantiated hype. 

刚刚我们学了个 staple，同样的语境，书中还用到了这个说法：pick up the baton。

字面的意思是媒体「捡起了接力棒」，也就是「继续做同样的事情」。baton 表示「指挥棒」「接力棒」，也常用来象征「责任」：

类似的常见说法还有 take on the mantle of something。

好啦，以上就是我的读书笔记。我只是把我的一点小心得和小笔记分享出来，这样的读书笔记人人都可以写呢。

要读的、想读的书很多，一本本来，急不得。别怕读得慢，有了习惯提升了水平自然越来越快；也别担心读不完。读不完也没关系呀，读总比不读强。比如把这篇文章中出现的英文选段读一遍，也是阅读训练呀。