纽约时报 爱荷华州的民主党初选风波(2)

The fragile edifice¹ of the caucuses³, which demoralized Democrats⁴ in search of a strong nominee⁵ to take on President Trump⁶,

初选这座摇摇欲坠的大厦，正是这座大厦瓦解了寻求强有力的候选人接替特朗普总统的民主党的士气，

crumbled⁷ under the weight of technology flops⁸, lapses⁹ in planning, failed oversight¹⁰ by party officials,

因为承受不了技术失败，规划疏忽，民主党官员监管不力，

poor training, and a breakdown¹¹ in communication between paid party leaders and volunteers out in the field,

训练操作欠缺，加之有偿工作的党领导与负责实际操作的无偿工作的志愿者——

who had devoted¹² themselves for months to the nation’s first nominating contest.

他们为了这个国家的初选竞争已经呕心沥血数月之久——之间沟通中断等各种问题的重压才出现了崩溃。

The wider scope of the malfunctions¹³ came to light partly because of a new set of reporting requirements,

这些故障之所以能曝光，一定程度上是因为该州推出了一套新的上报规定，

mandated¹⁴ by the Democratic National Committee after allies of Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont

规定由民主党全国委员会授权，因佛蒙特州参议员伯尼·桑德斯在2016年爱荷华州的初选中惜败希拉里·克林顿后，

pushed the national party to demand more transparency following his narrow loss to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Iowa caucuses.

桑德斯的盟友便催促该党委员会提高选举透明度。

The widespread lack of faith in the Iowa results has shaken many Americans’ confidence in their electoral system.

民众普遍对爱荷华州的投票结果失去了信心，进一步又动摇了不少人对美国选举制度的信心。

Mr. Trump has reveled in the meltdown.

特朗普却对这场危机感到颇为得意。

Democrats have proposed abolishing caucuses and ending Iowa’s time at the front of the presidential nominating calendar.

民主党人提议取消投票小组，结束爱荷华州在总统提名日程表上的优先地位。

Even as party officials scramble¹⁵ to contain the fallout, the full extent of the problems in Iowa is still not known.

尽管民主党官员正在竭力亡羊补牢，爱荷华州此次选举事故的整个影响范围目前仍然无法确定。

An analysis by The New York Times revealed inconsistencies in the reported data for at least one in six of the state’s precincts.

《纽约时报》的一项分析显示，该州各选区上报的数据中有至少1/6存在不一致之处。

Those errors occurred at every stage of the tabulation¹⁶ process:

且这些错误出现在了统计的每个环节：

in recording¹⁷ votes, in calculating and awarding delegates,

记录投票环节，计算并奖励代表环节

and in entering the data into the state party’s database.

和将数据输入该州民主党数据库的环节。

Hundreds of state delegate equivalents, the metric the party uses to determine delegates for the national convention,

这样一来，这些选区的数百张州代表等价票，即用来决定此次全国选举大会选票的度量，

were at stake in these precincts.

都已不再安全。

The Iowa Democratic Party released a list of 92 precincts on Sunday

周日，爱荷华州民主党公布了由92个选区构成的一张选区名单，据说，

that it said were flagged as problematic by three presidential candidates —

这些选区都被桑德斯、印第安纳州南本德市前市长皮特·巴蒂吉格

Mr. Sanders; Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind.; and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

和马萨诸塞州参议员伊丽莎白·沃伦三名总统候选人标记成了存疑选区。

That figure is far fewer than the number with inconsistencies captured in the Times review.

然而，这一数字远远低于《纽约时报》评论文章提到的存在不一致的投票数据。

The Associated Press said it was unable to declare a caucus² winner.

美联社表示无法决定此次初选的胜出者。

Sean Bagniewski, the Democratic chairman of Polk County, which includes Des Moines,

得梅因市所在的波尔克郡的民主党主席肖恩·巴格涅夫斯基

blamed state officials for neglecting the hard work of overseeing the caucuses.

指责该州官员忽视了监管初选投票这一艰巨任务。

“It’s very easy to slip into the celebrity¹⁸ of the caucuses,” Mr. Bagniewski said.

“他们很容易陷入投票小组带来的名誉之中，”巴格涅夫斯基称。

State party leaders, he said, were distracted by offers to appear on cable TV,

他表示，州的党领导被有线电视的露面邀请，

hobnob with national Democratic leaders and meet presidential candidates,

与国家层面的党领导人交谈以及认识总统候选人等荣誉分散了注意力，

and did not take their day-to-day duties “seriously from the get-go.’’

故“从一开始就没有认真对待”自己的日常工作职责。

In the aftermath of the disaster, state and national party leaders are pointing fingers at one another.

灾难发生后，州级党领导和国家级党领导便开始互相推诿。

On Sunday, Mr. Price, the state party chairman, said he was proud of the volunteers who put on the caucuses

周日，州党委主席普莱斯表示，他为成就了此次大选的志愿者们感到自豪，

and that the state party worked with the national committee for months to prepare for them.

也为该州民主党人，他们为准备大选已经与该党的全国委员会努力了数月之久，感到自豪。

1 edifice   

n.宏伟的建筑物(如宫殿，教室)

参考例句：

• The American consulate was a magnificent edifice in the centre of Bordeaux.美国领事馆是位于波尔多市中心的一座宏伟的大厦。
• There is a huge Victorian edifice in the area.该地区有一幢维多利亚式的庞大建筑物。

2 caucus   

n.秘密会议；干部会议；v.（参加）干部开会议

参考例句：

• This multi-staged caucus takes several months.这个多级会议常常历时好几个月。
• It kept the Democratic caucus from fragmenting.它也使得民主党的核心小组避免了土崩瓦解的危险。

3 caucuses   

n.（政党决定政策或推举竞选人的）核心成员( caucus的名词复数 )；决策干部；决策委员会；秘密会议

参考例句：

• Republican caucuses will happen in about 410 towns across Maine. 共和党团会议选举将在缅因州的约410个城镇进行。 来自互联网

4 democrats   

n.民主主义者，民主人士( democrat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The Democrats held a pep rally on Capitol Hill yesterday. 民主党昨天在国会山召开了竞选誓师大会。
• The democrats organize a filibuster in the senate. 民主党党员组织了阻挠议事。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 nominee   

n.被提名者；被任命者；被推荐者

参考例句：

• His nominee for vice president was elected only after a second ballot.他提名的副总统在两轮投票后才当选。
• Mr.Francisco is standing as the official nominee for the post of District Secretary.弗朗西斯科先生是行政书记职位的正式提名人。

6 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

7 crumbled   

（把…）弄碎， （使）碎成细屑( crumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 衰落； 坍塌； 损坏

参考例句：

• He crumbled the bread in his fingers. 他用手指把面包捻碎。
• Our hopes crumbled when the business went bankrupt. 商行破产了，我们的希望也破灭了。

8 flops   

n.失败( flop的名词复数 )v.（指书、戏剧等）彻底失败( flop的第三人称单数 )；（因疲惫而）猛然坐下；（笨拙地、不由自主地或松弛地）移动或落下；砸锅

参考例句：

• a pair of flip-flops 一双人字拖鞋
• HPC environments are often measured in terms of FLoating point Operations Per Second (FLOPS) . HPC环境通常以每秒浮点运算次数(FLOPS)加以度量。 来自互联网

9 lapses   

n.失误，过失( lapse的名词复数 )；小毛病；行为失检；偏离正道v.退步( lapse的第三人称单数 )；陷入；倒退；丧失

参考例句：

• He sometimes lapses from good behavior. 他有时行为失检。 来自辞典例句
• He could forgive attacks of nerves, panic, bad unexplainable actions, all sorts of lapses. 他可以宽恕突然发作的歇斯底里，惊慌失措，恶劣的莫名其妙的动作，各种各样的失误。 来自辞典例句

10 oversight   

n.勘漏，失察，疏忽

参考例句：

• I consider this a gross oversight on your part.我把这件事看作是你的一大疏忽。
• Your essay was not marked through an oversight on my part.由于我的疏忽你的文章没有打分。

11 breakdown   

n.垮，衰竭；损坏，故障，倒塌

参考例句：

• She suffered a nervous breakdown.她患神经衰弱。
• The plane had a breakdown in the air,but it was fortunately removed by the ace pilot.飞机在空中发生了故障，但幸运的是被王牌驾驶员排除了。

12 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

13 malfunctions   

n.故障，功能障碍（malfunction的复数形式）vi.失灵（malfunction的第三人称单数形式）

参考例句：

• The mood of defeat was as pervasive as the odor of malfunctions and decay. 失败的情绪就象损坏腐烂的臭味一样弥漫全艇。 来自辞典例句
• Possibility of engine malfunctions due to moisture, are lessened. 发动机故障的可能性，由于水分，也将减少。 来自互联网

14 mandated   

adj. 委托统治的

参考例句：

• Mandated desegregation of public schools. 命令解除公立学校中的种族隔离
• Britain was mandated to govern the former colony of German East Africa. 英国受权代管德国在东非的前殖民地。

15 scramble   

v.爬行，攀爬，杂乱蔓延，碎片，片段，废料

参考例句：

• He broke his leg in his scramble down the wall.他爬墙摔断了腿。
• It was a long scramble to the top of the hill.到山顶须要爬登一段长路。

16 tabulation   

作表，表格； 表列结果； 列表； 造表

参考例句：

• A tabulation of a function of two variables is cumbersome, but possible. 二元函数的列表法是不方便的，然而是可能的。
• Such a tabulation cannot represent adequately the complex gradation relationships between the types. 这样的图表不能充分代表各类型之间的复杂级配关系。

17 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

18 celebrity   

n.名人，名流；著名，名声，名望

参考例句：

• Tom found himself something of a celebrity. 汤姆意识到自己已小有名气了。
• He haunted famous men, hoping to get celebrity for himself. 他常和名人在一起, 希望借此使自己获得名气。