跟《经济学人》学英文：2024年08月17日这期 Winston Churchill’s urinal shows Britain’s hang up with heritage-CSDN博客

本文链接：https://blog.csdn.net/shizheng_Li/article/details/141434356

Winston Churchill’s urinal shows Britain’s hang up with heritage

A planned Labour reform goes down the drain

urinal：美 [ˈjʊrənl] （男用）小便池；小便处；男厕所

在这里插入图片描述

hang up：过度关注，执念

“Hang up” 在这里指的是对某件事过度关注或执念，通常带有负面的含义。文中指英国对保护遗产（heritage）的过度关注或执念。

go down the drain：失败，被浪费

“Go down the drain” 是一个习语，意思是某事物被浪费或失败。文中指的是计划中的改革被取消或未能成功实施。

简介丘吉尔，GPT4o：

温斯顿·丘吉尔（Winston Churchill，1874年11月30日—1965年1月24日）是英国著名的政治家、作家和军事领袖，以其在二战期间的领导作用而闻名。

丘吉尔出生于英国贵族家庭，早年从军，参加过多个军事行动。他在政界的职业生涯非常丰富，曾多次担任内阁部长职务。最著名的是他在1940年到1945年期间，担任英国首相，带领英国抵抗纳粹德国的侵略。他以鼓舞人心的演讲和坚定的意志，激励英国人民在二战中坚持到底。

丘吉尔的名言之一是“我没有什么可提供的，只有血、辛劳、眼泪与汗水。”这句话象征了他在危机时刻领导国家的决心和毅力。

除了作为政治家，丘吉尔还是一位多产的作家，曾获得诺贝尔文学奖。他的著作涵盖历史、战争和政治，最著名的作品是《第二次世界大战回忆录》。

在战后，丘吉尔继续活跃于政坛，1951年再次担任首相，直到1955年才退休。丘吉尔被认为是20世纪最重要的领导人之一，对英国及世界历史产生了深远的影响。

Winston Churchill (November 30, 1874 – January 24, 1965) was a renowned British politician, writer, and military leader, best known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during World War II.

Churchill was born into a noble family in England and had a distinguished military career in his early years, participating in various military campaigns. His political career was extensive, holding several cabinet positions throughout his life. He is most famous for his role as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1945, during which he led Britain in resisting Nazi Germany’s aggression. His inspiring speeches and unwavering resolve played a crucial role in motivating the British people to persevere through the war.

One of his most famous quotes is, “I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat.” This statement epitomizes his determination and leadership during a time of crisis.

In addition to being a statesman, Churchill was also a prolific writer, earning the Nobel Prize in Literature. His works span history, war, and politics, with his most famous being “The Second World War,” a multi-volume account of the conflict.

After the war, Churchill remained active in politics, serving as Prime Minister again from 1951 until his retirement in 1955. He is regarded as one of the most significant leaders of the 20th century, leaving a lasting impact on British and world history.

原文：

Winston Churchill, unusually, underestimated himself. He stated that he had

nothing to offer Britain but “blood, toil, tears and sweat”. A spat over a

urinal that stands in the Treasury—and that may have been used by the great

man himself—shows that, for Britons, other Churchillian fluids are also of

abiding interest.

温斯顿·丘吉尔异乎寻常地低估了自己。他表示，除了“鲜血、辛劳、眼泪和汗水”，他没有什么可以奉献给英国。财政部的一个小便池引发了一场口水战，这个小便池可能是这位伟人自己用过的，这场口水战表明，对英国人来说，丘吉尔的其他液体也是持久的兴趣所在。

学习：

toil：（尤指长时间的）辛勤劳动，苦干；劳累地工作

spat：争吵；口角；小争执

abiding：持久的；恒久的；长期的；长久的；

原文：

The spat began before the election when Rachel Reeves—who is now

Britain’s first female chancellor of the exchequer—said she wanted to smash

“glass ceilings and urinals” in her new job. She wanted the urinal, which

stands in the chancellor’s private toilet, removed. But after being advised

that it would cost £8,000 even to apply to cover it up because the urinal is

both old and (as the delicate phrase has it) “associated with Churchill”, she

has, according to a source, “pulled the plug” on the plan. The offending

urinal, Ms Reeves recently confirmed, “still is in there”. Part-porcelain, part-

parable, it is starting to look like a metaphor for Britain’s bunged-up

planning system.

这场口水战始于选举前，现任英国第一位女财政大臣的雷切尔·里夫斯说，她想在新工作中打破“玻璃天花板和小便池”。她要求拆除总理私人厕所里的小便池。但据一位消息人士透露，在被告知即使申请遮盖也要花费8000英镑，因为这个小便池既旧又(用微妙的说法)“与丘吉尔有关”之后，她已经“取消”了这个计划。里维斯女士最近证实，令人不快的便池“仍然存在”。部分是瓷器，部分是寓言，它开始看起来像是对英国混乱的规划系统的隐喻。

学习：

exchequer：美 [ɪksˈtʃɛkər] （英国）财政部；财政

chancellor of the exchequer：财政大臣

smash：粉碎；猛力打碎；彻底粉碎；猛击；打破；

porcelain：美 [ˈpɔːrsəlɪn] 瓷；瓷器；瓷制品

parable：美 [ˈpærəbl]寓言；比喻故事；譬喻；教训性故事

as the delicate phrase has it: 按照委婉的说法

“as the delicate phrase has it”：这句话的意思是“按照委婉的说法”，通常用于引出一个礼貌或婉转的表述，以避免冒犯或保持礼节。

As the delicate phrase has it: This expression is used to introduce a phrase or terminology that is being stated in a polite or tactful way, often to avoid offense or to maintain decorum. It’s a way of gently referring to something that might be sensitive or controversial.

As the delicate phrase has it: “The delicate phrase refers to a polite or euphemistic way of stating something, as in, ‘He’s not lazy, just energy-efficient, as the delicate phrase has it.’”

bunged-up：系统堵塞

“bunged-up”：这个短语意思是堵塞的、不通畅的，既可以指物理上的堵塞，也可以比喻系统或流程缓慢或不顺畅。

Bunged-up: This phrase means blocked, clogged, or not functioning smoothly. It can refer to a physical blockage or, metaphorically, to systems or processes that are slow or inefficient.

Bunged-up: “The city’s traffic system is so bunged-up that it takes hours to get across town during rush hour.”

pull the plug: 取消某个项目，放弃某个项目

“pull the plug”：在这里指的是取消或放弃一个计划或项目。这个短语原本来自于拔掉插头让设备停止工作的意思。

“pull the plug”：公司在几次延迟和成本上升后决定取消新软件项目。

Pull the plug: “After several delays and rising costs, the company decided to pull the plug on the new software project.”

原文：

Labour came to power on a “Change” manifesto; Ms Reeves has already

announced some tweaks to the planning system to help “get Britain building

again”. But the government has yet to say much about “listed” buildings,

which often stymie projects. The idea had sensible origins. In the second

world war, air-raid wardens were given lists of buildings of historic interest

that, if bomb-damaged, required rapid repair. The bar for listing has,

however, since been lowered. The current, 400,000-long list, managed by

Historic England, a public body, offers 20,404 entries for “railings”; 2,733

entries for “telephone kiosk” and 2,860 for “urinal”. Rarely has so much

been preserved by so many to the interest of so few.

工党凭借“变革”宣言上台；里夫斯女士已经宣布了对规划系统的一些调整，以帮助“让英国重新建设”。但是政府还没有说太多关于“listed”建筑的事情，这经常阻碍项目。这个想法有着合理的起源。在第二次世界大战中，防空洞管理员得到了一份具有历史意义的建筑清单，这些建筑如果被炸弹损坏，需要迅速修复。然而，listed的门槛已经降低。目前，由公共机构“历史英格兰”管理的400，000长的名单提供了20，404个“栏杆”词条；“电话亭”2733个条目，“便池”2860个条目。很少有如此多的东西被如此多的人保存下来，而让如此少的人感兴趣。

学习：

air-raid：空袭

wardens：看守人；（warden的复数）

kiosk：美 [ˈkiːɑːsk] 报刊亭；售货亭；信息亭；电话亭；小卖部

railings：美 ['reɪlɪŋz] 围栏；栅栏；（railing的复数）

原文：

Any association with a historical figure, even tenuous, is noted (the list also

offers a riding school where Churchill trained and a hotel he once spoke in).

In the case of the Treasury buildings, in which the urinal stands, the

association is strong: Churchill was chancellor from 1924 to 1929. The

historical record is silent on whether or not the great man anointed this

urinal by anything more than his mere proximity but in Britain, where the

second world war is less national history than national hobby, that is enough.

“Winston Churchill’s urinals are…part of our national heritage,” says

Andrew Roberts, his biographer. “And should be protected at all costs.”

任何与某个历史人物的联系，即使是模糊的，都会被记录下来(名单中还提供了丘吉尔训练过的骑术学校和他曾经演讲过的酒店)。就小便器所在的财政部大楼而言，这种关联很强:丘吉尔在1924年至1929年间担任财政大臣。历史记录没有记载这位伟人是否仅仅因为他离得近而选择了这个小便池，但是在英国，第二次世界大战与其说是国家历史，不如说是国家爱好，这就足够了。“温斯顿·丘吉尔的小便池是……我们民族遗产的一部分，”他的传记作者安德鲁·罗伯茨说。“应该不惜一切代价保护它。”

学习：
tenuous：美 [ˈtɛnjuəs] 稀薄的；脆弱的；微弱的；

anoint：美 [əˈnɔɪnt] 选定；指定

proximity：接近；邻近；临近；

原文：

The interest is far from absurd: toilet seats reveal much about the seats of

power. “We shape our buildings,” as Churchill observed in 1943, after the

Commons chamber had been destroyed by a bomb, “thereafter, they shape

us.” The restored House of Commons tacitly made clear what shape it saw

its future inhabitants to be: while men had a toilet in a corridor behind the

Speaker’s chair, female MPs had—as Ms Reeves herself noted in a recent book

on women in Westminster—to walk a quarter of a mile from the chamber to

the nearest women’s loo. Women’s “conveniences” in Parliament were

frequently nothing of the kind since women themselves, says Anthony

Seldon, a historian, were seen as “an inconvenience.”

这种兴趣一点也不荒谬:马桶座圈揭示了很多关于权力的座位。“我们塑造我们的建筑，”正如丘吉尔在1943年下议院被炸弹摧毁后观察到的，“然后，它们塑造我们。”重建后的下议院心照不宣地表明了它对未来居民的看法:尽管男性可以在议长座椅后面的走廊里上厕所，但正如里维斯女士自己在一本关于威斯敏斯特女性的书中指出的那样，女性议员必须从下议院步行四分之一英里才能到达最近的女厕所。历史学家安东尼·塞尔顿说，女性在议会中的“便利”往往与此无关，因为女性本身被视为“一种不便”

学习：
Commons Chamber：下议院

tacitly：美 ['tæsɪtlɪ] 肃静地；沉默地；心照不宣地

loo：厕所；洗手间；卫生间

原文：

Nonetheless, Britain’s obsession with heritage does make building harder.

Labour came to power with hopes—which Tories taunted would fail—of

smashing urinals and obstacles to building. The offending urinal is now

covered by a glass screen; a frosted one has been proposed. There has been

talk of hiding it with a pot plant. This is not the end for Labour’s dreams of

sweeping, iconoclastic reform; nor even the beginning of the end. But it is

perhaps the end of the beginning. ■

尽管如此，英国对遗产的痴迷确实让建筑变得更加困难。工党带着砸碎小便池和建筑障碍的希望上台，保守党嘲笑这一希望会落空。令人不快的小便池现在被一个玻璃屏盖住了；有人提议用磨砂玻璃。有人说用盆栽挡住。这并不是工党彻底的、打破传统的改革梦想的终结；也不是末日的开始。但这也许是开始的结束。■