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）
pussyfoot
verb & noun [ I ] /ˈpʊs.i.fʊt/
Meaning
1.to move about stealthily or warily like a cat
轻轻走，偷偷走
2.to avoid making a decision or expressing an opinion because you are uncertain or frightened about doing so; to avoid committing oneself
优柔寡断，缩手缩脚，畏首畏尾
Note: Here “pussy” means ”cat”.
这个词在西奥多·罗斯福（Theodore Roosevelt，October 27, 1858 – January 6, 10, 1919) 的政治学中很流行。与某些人所认为的相反，该术语并不意味着性别歧视。由于猫走路安静而隐秘，因此被称为“猫脚”。如果一个政客在某些问题上不置可否，以避免反弹，那可以说他们是“pussyfooting”(猫脚)。
Citations
And the Justice Secretary urged viewers not to “pussyfoot” around the issue and condemn Trump’s comments as “racist”.
Mr Yousaf wrote: “Let’s not pussyfoot around, this is not ‘racially charged’ from the President of the US, this is racist plain and simple!
(thescottishsun.co.uk /Alan Zycinski/16 Jul 2019, 10:21)
shy voter (noun)
Meaning
A shy voter is one who does not show that he or she supports a certain candidate in public, but till votes for that candidate in the election.
字面“害羞的选民”，指在大选民调的时候不好意思表达自己的观点，但在实际选举时，投了自己心中的候选人。
该术语来自“害羞的保守党效应”（Shy Tory Effect），该现象发现英国保守派的表现大大超过其民意测验数字。
2016年大选中讨论了shy Trump voter（害羞的特朗普选民）的现象，以此解释特朗普如何胜过民意调查。
Citations
Is there a shy Trump voter factor the way there used to be “shy Tory factor” in polls? Probably.
The good news for the Trump reelection campaign is that that they can feel reasonably optimistic that Trump will outperform the final polls conducted before Election Day 2020. The bad news is, we don’t know if this “shy Trump voter factor” will be good for one percentage point, 5 percentage points, or 10 percentage points.
movers and shakers
noun
Meaning
people with a lot of power and influence (Cambridge)
有权势的人
movers and shakers 主要是指在商业，政治，公共或其他领域具有权力和影响力的人。这个词是19世纪诗人Arthur O’Shaughnessy创造的。
Citations
It’s a play that’s attracted the attention of the Broadway movers and shakers. 这部戏剧引起了百老汇大人物的关注。(Cambridge)
The events of the last ten days have also heightened the sense of urgency among the anti-Trump forces within the Republican Party—some of whom, met on Friday and again over the weekend in a rolling series of secret meetings to decide how to derail Trump’s campaign, now gathering more momentum going into more primary states this week. Some conservative activists and anti-Trump movers-and-shakers met in private in Washington, D.C. on Friday to discuss strategy and to weigh options for stopping Trump before—or at—the Republican convention in July. Other anti-Trump groups met in private in New York over the weekend to develop plans for a protracted caucus and primary fight, and for the likelihood of a contested convention.
turkeys voting for Christmas
Meaning
Said of people who choose or accept a situation that is not in their interest or will be directly harmful to them. Turkeys are often prepared for a Christmas meal;If someone’s action or choice is like turkeys voting for Christmas, it will have a very bad result for them. (thefreedictionary)
像火鸡支持过圣诞一样; 指某个举动或决定是无望地自我拆台
Citation
本月英国议会25日复会后，总检察长杰弗里考克斯（Geoffrey Cox ）批评那些竭力阻挠议会提前选举的议员都是懦夫， 并把他们比喻成“turkey”。他在愤怒的演说中提到“turkey”和“Christmas”这个习语的衍生的意思, 声称：这些turkey们无法阻挡人们过圣诞节，言外之一“这turkeys们无法阻挡我们脱欧”。
“Because so many of them are really all about preventing us from leaving the European Union.
“The time is coming, Mr Speaker, when even these turkeys won’t be able to prevent Christmas!” （thesun.co.uk Sep 25, 2019 )
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The election of Boris Johnson by the Conservative party membership should – but won’t – put to bed the popular hypothesis that Brexit was chiefly a rebellion by the ‘left-behind’ against the establishment. In this account, a combination of unchecked EU immigration and a decade of austerity had left great swathes of the working class, especially those in the North, in dire economic straits and angry at the establishment. The Brexit referendum was a welcome opportunity to take revenge. As a result, the last three years have seen intrepid reporters voxpopping Wearsiders, with the subtext that these are the turkeys that voted for Christmas.
(lse.ac.uk August 13th, 2019)
