2020-05-28 每日英语片刻

Today we are going into our next chapter.

Rigging the Race

rig 英文释义  to arrange or influence sth in a dishonest way in order to get the result that you want   操纵  比如例句 He said the election had been rigged.

The morning workshops had concluded with little closure to the question of mixed-race America.

这里的conclude 等同于end。

They got it wrong. Bureaucrats have no balls.

这里出现了我们从小学时候就见过的词，ball，除了常见的表示“球”的意思，还有大型舞会的意思。在这里更靠近“有把握的东西”的意思，意思是 官僚们没有牌可出（无计可施）了。

因为 ball 本身的“球”的意象，所以有种“甩球，甩锅”的感觉。比如常见用法 the ball is in your/sb's court（球已经丢给你了）下一步就看你的了

it is your/sb's responsibility to take action next

例句 They've offered me the job, so the ball's in my court now. 他们已答应把那份工作给我，下一步就看我怎么办了。

Les used his drugstore pen to point to a line of numbers that looked to the minister like complicated algebra.

译文：莱斯用药店的笔指着一行数字，这行数字在牧师看来就像复杂的代数。

注意这里面 look 的用法，“numbers”和“minister”的关系是被动的，但形式并不是被动。

例句：He's had another heart attack; things are looking bad for him, I'm afraid. 他又犯了一次心脏病，恐怕他情况不妙。