2019年翻譯資格考試英語筆譯高級模擬題：貝蒂·福特
Betty Ford
貝蒂·福特
Betty Bloomer Ford, an outspoken First Lady, diedon July 8th, aged 93;
貝蒂·布魯姆·福特，直率的前第一夫人，于7月8日逝世，享年93歲;
All her life, Betty Ford loved to dance. At ten shewas gliding round to the waltz and the foxtrot atsocial-dancing classes in Grand Rapids, Michigan.As a young woman, she was taught by MarthaGraham and danced in her troupe at Carnegie Hall. In the White House she tried out disco steps, and shimmied to the Bump at dinner-dances. But if you tried to teach her an arabesque or a jetée，she turned into the worstballet dancer who ever came down the road. She couldn t bear to be constrained like that.She was, as she put it once, a booby who only wanted to soar。
貝蒂·福特一生中都摯愛舞蹈，十歲時，她就在密歇根的大急流城參加交際舞學(xué)習(xí)班，自如的跳華爾茲和狐步舞。少女時期，她師從瑪莎·葛蘭姆，并隨團在卡內(nèi)基音樂大廳演出。在白宮，她又學(xué)習(xí)了迪斯科，伴著西迷舞曲在晚宴上盡情搖擺。但如果你想讓她學(xué)學(xué)阿拉貝斯克舞或者吉提，那她可是將是你見過的最差勁的芭蕾舞者了。她可受不了那種束縛，正如她自己說的，她只想做一個自由翱翔的笨鳥。
Of course, she could be proper too. In her brief stint as First Lady, from August 1974 toJanuary 1977, she was always immaculately turned out. She wore white gloves whenever she had to do so. But, much as she adored clothes—the room-long rack ather house in Virginia had fallen off the wall, she had so many—all the ladylike publicbehaviour could be a bit of a strain.So too could the split-second scheduling, when she likedto linger in bed in the mornings till 9.30 or so, putting on her makeup in her own good time.It sometimes happened that she had to greet the public from the balcony with her nightgowntucked up under her coat. “Hi, Betty!” they would shout back.
當然，她也會中規(guī)中矩的合乎禮儀。從1974年8月到1977年1月，在任第一夫人期間，她總能做到舉止得體。必要的場合，她甚至?xí)䦷习咨痔�。在他們弗吉尼亞州家中，墻上本懸掛著一個與房間一樣長的架子上陳列的全是她的衣服，但因為太多，架子都塌了下來。她是如此喜歡衣服，但在各種公共場合裝淑女卻讓她很不自在。她喜歡一直在床上賴到大概九點半，然后悠閑自在地化妝，所以白宮緊湊的公共行程安排也讓她郁悶。有好幾次，她出現(xiàn)在陽臺上向大家問好時，正裝下是還未及更換的睡衣�！班�，貝蒂!”大家總是這樣回應(yīng)她的問候。
On Jerry s inauguration day she kept quiet, because she had taken advice from her LivingBible that morning to “put a muzzle on your mouth”. But she made it clear that she didn tintend to change the candid habits of a lifetime just because she was in the White House.Jerry and she were going to keep their sleeping arrangements , in which they wouldhave sex “as often as possible!” The flag she had made for her limousine featured a pair ofvoluminous calico knickers on a blue satin ground, because her maiden name was Bloomer.On “60 Minutes” in 1975, her bouffant hair perfect and her warm smile ever ready, shedeclared that smoking marijuana was like “having a first beer” and that she wouldn t besurprised if her 18-year-old daughter Susan had an affair. Jerry said: “Honey, you just lostme 20m votes.” Her own ratings soared.
在杰拉爾德·福特就職時，她參照《新版圣經(jīng)》的訓(xùn)誡，整個早晨都“保持緘默”。但即使入住白宮，她也沒有改變從前的生活方式，這一點很明確。她和杰拉瑞德保持從前的作息時間，“只要有機會就做愛”;她為給自己的豪華轎車做了一面旗子，藍色緞子打底，上面畫著一條顯眼的大號白棉布燈籠褲，只因為她自己的姓氏是布魯姆.1975年做客“60分”節(jié)目，她一頭膨松的美發(fā)恰到好處，臉上始終掛著笑容。直言吸大麻的感覺像“當年初嘗啤酒時”一樣美妙，還有，如果她18歲得女兒蘇珊在談戀愛，她也不會覺得詫異。杰拉爾德開玩笑道：“親愛的，你剛剛讓我失去了2000萬張選票”，但貝蒂自己的人氣卻在飆升。
She had no preparation for the White House. When Spiro Agnew resigned the vice-presidency in 1973 Jerry became Veep; when Richard Nixon resigned the next year, he wassuddenly president. There was no election. She felt terrified, but ended up enjoying it. Shehad never known what she was in for since she had met Jerry, the big, blond, handsomefootball hero who walked beside her at their wedding in 1948 in awful dusty brown shoes thatdidn t match his suit. He had seemed such a relief after Bill, her first husband, who soldfurniture and was an alcoholic. But Jerry too had a secret vice, and that was politics.
她沒想過能入住白宮。 1973年，斯皮羅·阿格紐辭去副總統(tǒng)職務(wù)，杰拉爾德接替他成為美國副總統(tǒng);第二年，時任美國總統(tǒng)的理查德·尼克松辭職，杰拉爾德升職為美國總統(tǒng)，這個過程，甚至都未曾經(jīng)歷過一場選舉。這一切來得太快，讓她有點恐慌，但是最終卻欣然享受第一夫人的身份。有著一頭金發(fā)的杰拉爾德是她心中高大帥氣的足球英雄，在他們婚禮上，他穿著一雙與禮服極不相稱、沾滿灰塵的棕色鞋子走在她身旁。她從未料到遇見杰拉爾德會有怎樣的命運等待著她。她有前夫比爾是嗜酒如命的家具銷售代表。遇見杰拉爾德對她而言則是一種解脫。當然，杰拉爾德也有一個不為人知的缺點，那就是太專注于政治。
He was elected to Congress the year they got married, and they stayed in Washington for 28years. For more than half that time he was away from home while she raised Mike, Jack,Steve and Susan, tripping over bags of marbles and toy trucks, burying pet alligators, visitingthe emergency room, measuring out her life in Pablum spoons. She was a den mother forcub scouts and taught Sunday School, but by 1965 she couldn t be Bionic Woman any more.A psychiatrist told her she had to believe she was important again.
在他們結(jié)婚當年，杰拉爾德入選國會，他們在華盛頓待了28個年頭，這期間杰拉爾德有一半時間都不在她身邊，她一人將4個孩子——麥克，杰克，斯蒂芬和蘇珊拉扯大：會被一大袋的彈子兒和玩具卡車絆倒;埋葬寵物短吻鱷;帶著孩子看醫(yī)生;在乏味的碗筷之間經(jīng)營著自己的生活。她還是童子軍女訓(xùn)導(dǎo)，在主日學(xué)校上課。但1956年，她再也無法扮演“無敵女金剛”的角色了，精神醫(yī)生告訴她必須得開始關(guān)注自己了。
She went to him for almost two years, and openly admitted it later. Why not get help if youneeded it? It was the same when breast cancer struck her as First Lady. She spoke “breast”aloud and “cancer” aloud, had a mastectomy and urged others to do the same. Why, she toldthe world, she could even wear her evening clothes. When she became addicted to pills forneck pain and, over martini-filled years, started drinking too much, she publicly booked into aclinic to recover, sharing a room with three other women, and then in 1982 founded the BettyFord Centre for addiction in Rancho Mirage, California. There she would tell patients: “Hi,I m Betty. I m an addict and an alcoholic.”
她看了兩年的精神病醫(yī)生，后來大方的承認了此事。如果有需要，為什么不接受幫助呢?她在當?shù)谝环蛉似陂g患上了乳腺癌，把“乳腺”和“癌”說的響亮，她接受了乳房切除手術(shù)并鼓勵其他病人也接受手術(shù)治療。為什么不呢?她告訴全世界她依然可以穿著自己的晚禮服。她因頸椎病依賴藥品和雞尾酒療法而染上酒癮，這時她又公開預(yù)定診所接受治療，甚至還和其他三位女性共用一個病房。1982年，在加州的蘭喬米拉市成立了貝蒂·福特中心，在這里，她會和病人們打招呼：“嗨，我叫貝蒂。曾經(jīng)沉溺于藥品，嗜酒成性”。
Her impulse to speak out shockingly and usefully extended into politics, too. Though shetried not to get in Jerry s way, she realised that First Ladies had power to make waves. Shethought Roe v Wade, which legalised abortion, a great decision, and said so. She lobbiedhard for a woman on the Supreme Court, though pillow-talk had no effect in that case.Naturally she supported the Equal Rights Amendment, but since Jerry opposed it she waiteduntil 1977 to get out in front of the sisterly protests with her placard. She had spent so muchof her life feeling secondary that she burned to undo the lawsthat hemmed women in.
她把直率敢言、語出驚人卻字字珠璣的風格也帶到了政治上。盡管她試著不給杰拉爾德添麻煩，但是第一夫人還是有足夠威力引起風波。她認為羅伊案促使墮胎合法化，這是個不錯的決定，于是加以肯定;她為一名婦女在最高法庭上努力游說眾人，雖然在那個案子中，即使吹枕邊風福特也幫不上忙。當然她也支持《平等權(quán)利修正案》，但由于杰拉爾德反對這項法案，直到1977年她才得以與姐妹般得抗議者們站在一起，高舉標語牌。在她一生的大部分時間中，她總感覺自己作為女性得不到重視，于是盡自己所能解除那些禁錮女性的法律。
She was only an ordinary woman, she liked to say. She d worked in a department store, hadan unlucky marriage, could only make scalloped potato out of a box, never got a collegedegree. But she was caught up in extraordinary times. And when they ended—as sheblissfully contemplated getting both life and husband back, as they packed up to leave theWhite House—she took just a moment to climb on the Cabinet table, so beautifully set, anddance.
如她所言，她只是一名普通女性：曾在百貨公司工作，經(jīng)歷過一次不幸的婚姻，只會用烤盤做焗薯仔，更沒有大學(xué)學(xué)歷，但是她卻趕上了特殊時期。當這一切都結(jié)束了 ——當她幸福的預(yù)計到生活和丈夫都能回到自己身邊、打點好行李準備離開白宮時，她用一眨眼的功夫躍上精美的議會餐桌，翩然起舞。
