儒琴英语词组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组，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。
儒琴英语词组（English Phrase of the Day）
witch hunt
英文解释
A witch hunt is persecution, an effort to find and punish people who are believed to be enemies. Sometimes the phrase is used to mean an unfair, or improperly motivated, accusation against an individual.
The metaphor refers to trials of witches, who from the 1400′ s to 1700′ s were tortured and killed because they were thought to be evil and have special powers. George Orwell may have been among first to use the phrase to refer to people other than witches.
中文解释
witch hunt 字面意思是：搜寻女巫、或猎杀女巫。引申为：一种迫害，一种寻找并惩罚被认为是敌人的行为。有时，这个短语用来表示对个人的不公平的，或动机不正的指控。可以考虑翻译成：政治迫害，猎杀女巫行为。
这个比喻指的是对女巫的审判，从14世纪到18世纪，她们被认为是邪恶的，拥有特殊的力量，所以被折磨和杀害。乔治·奥威尔(George Orwell)可能是第一个用这个短语来指代女巫意思以外的人。
原文举例
Maria Butina’s attorney has denied that Butina is a Russian agent. Her father has called the accusations against his daughter a “witch hunt.” —WBAY-TV (7/ 18/ 2018)
玛丽亚·布蒂娜的律师否认布蒂娜是俄罗斯特工。她的父亲称对他女儿的指控是“政治迫害”。-WBAY-TV(2018年7月18日)
Former president Donald Trump called the historic second impeachment case against him “yet another phase of the greatest witch hunt in the history of our Country,” while promising Saturday that he would not leave the political field. （msn.com）
前总统唐纳德·特朗普称对他的第二次历史性弹劾案是“我们国家历史上最严重的政治迫害的又一个阶段”，同时承诺他不会离开政治领域。