今日英语词汇: skin in the game, kick the can down the road, go to one’s reward, Thucydides Trap, eviction, redistrict, shellacking

儒琴英语词汇选自欧美报刊文章以及英语原文小说。坚持学习英语今日词汇,有助于阅读和理解当今欧美主流媒体的新闻时事报道和英语文学作品。

儒琴英语词汇(English Words and Phrases of the Day)

have skin in the game
informal
to be directly involved in or affected by something, especially financially
直接卷入或受某事影响

It signals that Washington has skin in the game of Taiwan’s interest and will be there for the islanders should war come. (National Interest)

kick the can down the road
US informal
to avoid or delay dealing with a problem 避免或拖延处理问题

For many years opinion on the island was steady and predictable. Some small percentage, generally under 10 percent of the electorate, generally favored either immediate independence or immediate unification. The middle 80 percent or so were content to kick the can down the road in hopes of getting their wish sometime in the indefinite future, whether that wish was for unification or for independence. (National Interest)

go to one’s reward
euphemistic used euphemistically to indicate that someone has die
委婉地用来表示某人已经死了

Youthful islanders defined themselves as Taiwanese while the elder generation, many of mainland origins, went to their reward. Events seem to have accelerated that trend—as You notes. (National Interest)

Thucydides Trap 修昔底德陷阱
In the book Destined for War, Allison uses the phrase the Thucydides Trap which, according to him, refers to the theory that “when one great power threatens to displace another, war is almost always the result”.(Wiki)
这个备受争议的概念,是哈佛大学(Harvard)教授格雷厄姆•艾利森(Graham Allison)提出的,指的是崛起中的大国威胁到占主导地位的大国时,可能会发生军事对抗。这个概念通常被用来形容中美两国之间的超级大国对决。

The fatal skirmish rubbed salt into an old wound that has refused to heal since the 1962 border war, and raised questions about China’s strategic calculations on the rise of India. It also prompted fears about armed conflicts between the nuclear powers becoming a deadly manifestation of the Thucydides Trap. (SCMP)

eviction
noun [ C or U ]/ɪˈvɪk.ʃən/
the act of forcing someone to leave somewhere, especially their home
强迫某人离开某地,尤指被从家里驱逐出去的行为

Evictions are likely to skyrocket this summer as jobs remain scarce. Black renters will be hard hit. A backlog of eviction cases is beginning to move through the court system as millions of Americans who had counted on federal aid and eviction moratoriums to stay in their homes now fear being thrown out. (Washington Post)

redistrict
/rēˈdistrikt/ verb US
divide or organize (an area) into new political or school districts.
划分或组织(一个地区)成新的行政或校区

Democrats smell a rout — and the chance to control redistricting in 2021. The party is starting to think bigger than just beating Trump. Intent on not repeating the mistakes of 2010 under then-President Barack Obama, the party is seizing on a once-in-a-decade opportunity to drive the redistricting process — and reverse the built-in advantage Republicans amassed over House district lines after the last census. (Politico)

shellacking
noun [ C usually singular ]US informal /ʃəˈlæk.ɪŋ/ /ˈʃel.æk.ɪŋ/
a complete defeat 彻底的失败

From Pennsylvania to Texas to Minnesota, cash-flush Democrats are working to win back legislative chambers needed to take control of drawing congressional maps — or at least guarantee a seat at the table. If they succeed, it would correct an Obama-era down-ballot shellacking that handed Republicans House control and resulted in the loss of more than 900 Democratic legislative seats.

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