时间:2019-01-12 作者:英语课 分类:VOA标准英语2008年(九月)


英语课

On Friday, presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain are scheduled to hold the first of three debates ahead of November's election. Presidential debates have often played a crucial role in U.S. election campaigns in the past, as we hear from VOA National Correspondent Jim Malone.
 
Sen. John F. Kennedy (r) speaks and Vice 1 President Richard Nixon listens during the fourth presidential debate from a New York TV studio, 21 Oct 1960


The first televised presidential debate was held during the election campaign of 1960.


"The candidates need no introduction," said the debate moderator Howard K. Smith. "The Republican candidate is Vice President Richard M. Nixon and the Democratic candidate is Senator John F. Kennedy."


Kennedy's youthful appearance helped him on television. Nixon suffered from a cold and bad makeup 3.


"I think in the final analysis, it depends on what we do here. I think it is time America started moving again," Kennedy said.


"There is no question but that we cannot discuss our internal affairs in the United States without recognizing that they have a tremendous bearing on our international position," said Nixon.


Those who watched the debates on television generally thought Kennedy was the winner. Many of those who listened on radio gave the edge to Nixon.


Kennedy narrowly won the election that year. And even though Nixon eventually won two presidential elections in 1968 and 1972, he never took part in another presidential debate.


In the 1976 election campaign, incumbent 4 Republican President Gerald Ford 5 trailed badly in the polls for much of the year behind his Democratic challenger, Jimmy Carter.


Ford nearly came back to win the election that year, but stumbled in one of his debates with Carter when he tried to argue that Eastern Europe was not controlled by the Soviet 6 Union.


"There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe and there never will be under a Ford administration," he said.


While much attention is paid to what is said in the debates, they can also be won or lost based on how the candidates speak and even their non-verbal body language.
 
President Bush (l) talks with independent candidate Ross Perot as Democratic candidate Bill Clinton (r) stands aside at the end of their second presidential debate in Richmond, Virginia, 15 Oct 1992


In the 1992 debates with Democrat 2 Bill Clinton and Independent candidate Ross Perot, then President George H. W. Bush appeared bored with the discussion and at one point was caught on camera looking at his watch.


In 2000, Democrat Al Gore 7 let out a loud sigh while his opponent, then Texas Governor George W. Bush, was answering a question.


Most of the time, presidential debates feature the candidates repeating the same policy talking points they have uttered over and over again on the campaign trail.


But there are moments when one candidate or another is able to crystallize for voters what is at stake in the election.


Such a moment came in a 1980 debate when Republican Ronald Reagan took on President Jimmy Carter.


"Next Tuesday, all of you will go to the polls and stand there in the polling place and make a decision," he said. "I think when you make that decision, it might be well if you ask yourself, 'Are you better off than you were four years ago?'"


Political analyst 8 Norman Ornstein says that moment proved crucial for Reagan as he tried to convince voters that he was up to the job of being president.


"And it wasn't really until we had that debate, just barely 10 days before the election, where Reagan went head-to-head in that direct comparison with Carter and not only reframed the election, as in 'Are you better off now than you were four years ago?' But he also showed that he was anything but some crazy man and that he was a reasonable person who could stand toe-to-toe with the President of the United States and more than hold his own that we saw the poll numbers change pretty dramatically over the closing days of the campaign," he said.


Reagan is also remembered for his humor in presidential debates. After a poor performance in his first debate in his 1984 bid for re-election, Reagan chose to make fun of his age during his second debate with Democrat Walter Mondale.


"I will not make age an issue in this campaign," he said. "I am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience."


Mondale laughed along with the audience.


After the debate, Mondale told his wife that he was almost certain that he was going to lose the election that year. He was right. Reagan went on to a landslide 9 re-election victory.


 



n.坏事;恶习;[pl.]台钳,老虎钳;adj.副的
  • He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
  • They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。
n.民主主义者,民主人士;民主党党员
  • The Democrat and the Public criticized each other.民主党人和共和党人互相攻击。
  • About two years later,he was defeated by Democrat Jimmy Carter.大约两年后,他被民主党人杰米卡特击败。
n.组织;性格;化装品
  • Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
  • Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗?
adj.成为责任的,有义务的;现任的,在职的
  • He defeated the incumbent governor by a large plurality.他以压倒多数票击败了现任州长。
  • It is incumbent upon you to warn them.你有责任警告他们。
n.浅滩,水浅可涉处;v.涉水,涉过
  • They were guarding the bridge,so we forded the river.他们驻守在那座桥上,所以我们只能涉水过河。
  • If you decide to ford a stream,be extremely careful.如果已决定要涉过小溪,必须极度小心。
adj.苏联的,苏维埃的;n.苏维埃
  • Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
  • Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。
n.凝血,血污;v.(动物)用角撞伤,用牙刺破;缝以补裆;顶
  • The fox lay dying in a pool of gore.狐狸倒在血泊中奄奄一息。
  • Carruthers had been gored by a rhinoceros.卡拉瑟斯被犀牛顶伤了。
n.分析家,化验员;心理分析学家
  • What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务?
  • The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。
n.(竞选中)压倒多数的选票;一面倒的胜利
  • Our candidate is predicated to win by a landslide.我们的候选人被预言将以绝对优势取胜。
  • An electoral landslide put the Labour Party into power in 1945.1945年工党以压倒多数的胜利当选执政。
学英语单词
Antennariidae
articulated pod
artificial oil
boreal woodland
brake cylinder release valve
branons
chibs
coarse grain
coating application
coherent system of unit of measurement
comb duck
consonantally
constant ratio plan
crani-
crucible pot
cylinder block end piece
DEIC
delay-action circuit breaker
department of incantation
desophisticating
dimethyl ketone, dimethylketone
drowths
dummy backward channel
Dysophylla yatabeana
Eastern Orthodox Church
Edewecht
electronic television
ellipsone
embryogenetic
entyloma oryzae sydow
fgg
flash-type stroboscope
free writer
front-runners
fuel evaporability
ganami (genemi)
geometric multiplicity
great cat-tail
heterotomous
hookster
hot swapping
incitatory
inner cone
instruction for despatch of goods
internal flow test
issuing account
jimho
karaits
Lamoille County
leeling
left Ore ring
limiting variance
liturgician
Locorotondo
lycostomus atrimembris
master dom
meaning and processes of management
moisture determination apparatus
Molpadida
Montreal Aquarium
Morgana, Proliv
muckledom
Newton's second law
non-glutinous
nonwaveform
ochropsora ariae
osteoconduction
Pentameton
persistatron
physical conditioning
pickguards
plain region
polychlorprene foam
public carrier
rear dump trailer
reseeds
rheboscelia
round edge bander
saluyd
semi-rigid airship
Setaria pallidefusca
sort capacity
space defense
speech marks
sphere ore
subleadership
summand
surfer-dude
terrestrial ambient noise
torpedo-bombers
traplines
Trentels
triple secs
truball
twin chain elevator
universal Euler-Poincare class
vane type relay
ventive
verrucose mycotic dermatitis
waferer
yoctoradian
Yushania polytricha