Ready, fire, aim
Foreword：A vice-president, a quail[1] and the first glimmer of class warfare in hunting
POLITICALGRAVEYARD.COM is (1)a goldmine for both trivia addicts and congenital time-wasters. Do you want to find out about American politicians who were killed in duels (17 a______①_____ to the site)? Or about politicians who were murdered (86)? Or politicians who have been to outer space (6)? Or politicians who died while hunting or fishing (14)? Just point and click. But as yet the site doesn't have an entry for politicians who almost kill the poor saps[2] they are hunting or fishing with.
No doubt (2)the good people at politicalgraveyard will soon update their site. Ever since Dick Cheney took aim at a quail on February 11th and hit a 78-year-old lawyer i_________②, America has been talking of little else. This is not only because Mr Cheney's tragicomic accident seemed to sum up his style of shooting first and asking questions later (hence a torrent of jokes about Mr Cheney's insistence that he was right to shoot despite the failure to find quail in the bushes). It is also because he handled the incident with astonishing ineptitude[3].
Harry Whittington's wounds were s________③: he was pepper-sprayed in the face, neck, chest and rib cage, and rushed to intensive care. But Mr Cheney didn't bother to tell the public that their vice-president had winged[4] a lawyer until the next day (when he got his host to phone her local paper, the Corpus Christi[5] Caller-Times) and he didn't give a television interview until February 15th, a day after his v_________④ suffered a mild heart attack. As one ally puts it, “(3)Dick is beyond PR.”
The media has pored over[6] every aspect of the incident: the fact that Mr Cheney had failed to buy the proper stamp for his licence (he subsequently sent $7 to the requisite authorities); that his host was a lobbyist; that the White House initially tried the strategy of t________⑤the shooting as a joke. But one thing was almost entirely ignored—(4)the fact that Mr Cheney was spending his weekend slaughtering innocent birds in the first place.
In many European countries, no ambitious politician would want to be seen with a hunting rifle in his hands and a cuddly[7] animal in his sights. In America, politicians go to great lengths[8] to get seen doing just that. The classic example of the shooting photo-op was (5)John Kerry's appearance in rather too pristine[9] duck-hunting gear in October 2004. But even left-wingers like Howard Dean and Dennis Kucinich (6)defer to[10] the hunting vote.
And why not? Hunters like to boast that their sport is as American as baseball and apple pie, a tradition shared by young and old, rich and poor, conservatives and l_______⑥. The US Fish and Wildlife Service claims that 80m Americans aged 16 or over—nearly 40% of the adult population—“enjoyed some recreational activity relating to fish and wildlife” in 2001, the latest year for which figures are a__________⑦. About 13m Americans shoot, and they spend some $20.6 billion a year on their pastime. (7)There is a hunting channel. There are camouflaged[11] Bibles for people who want to read scripture before blasting off. There are also powerful lobbies, from the National Rifle Association to the Safari[12] Club International. The Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation has more than 300 members.
But(8) the reality is not quite so tally ho[13]. The proportion of the population that goes hunting has been shrinking for the past 20 years. The number of hunters fell by 7% in the decade ending in 2001; the number of small-game hunters, including quail hunters, fell by 29%. The main cause of this is e__________⑧. Every year America loses 1.5m acres of wildlife habitat and 1m acres of farm and ranchland to development and sprawl[14]. But the real worry for hunters is, or should be, class.
完型填空答案
1、according 2、instead 3、serious 4、victim 5、treating 6、liberals 7、available 8、economics
注释
[1]quail：n.鹌鹑
vi.(与at, before连用)畏惧;畏缩;沮丧：
如：He quailed at the thought of meeting the President.他对会见总统的打算感到害怕。
[2]sap：n.(俚语)笨蛋，傻瓜;精力，活力;树汁，体液
vi.挖坑道;vt.使衰竭，消耗
[3]ineptitude：n.不称职，不适当的动作(adj. inept)
[4]wing：vt.打伤……翅膀，打中……要害
[5] Corpus Christi：n.【罗马天主教】圣餐节：三一节(星期日)后的第一个星期四、食圣餐的日子
[6]pore over：v.注视，凝视
如：He pored over the classified ads in search of a new job.他仔细阅读分类广告栏以寻找新的工作
[7]cuddly：adj.令人想拥抱的，喜爱抚的
[8]go to great lengths：竭尽全力 go to great pains 费大力气
[9]pristine adj.纯洁的，质朴的;古时的，原来的
[10]defer to：v. 服从，遵从(出于尊敬他本人或由于承认他的权威、学识或判断力，听从他的意见，遵从他的愿望，服从他的决定)
如：Do you always defer to your parents wishes? 你总是顺从父母的意志吗?
近义词辨析
yield， relent， bow， defer， submit， succumb
这些动词都表示让步于不能再反对或抵抗的人或事。
1) Yield的应用最为广泛：
如：yield to an enemy; 对敌投降;
yield to reason;屈服于理由;
yieldto desire. 屈服于欲望。
“The child . . . soon yielded to the drowsiness” (Charles Dickens). “这孩子…一会儿就支持不住昏昏欲睡了” (查尔斯•狄更斯)
2) relent 是指出于对处于自己权威和影响下的人的尊重而缓解某一制度或决定的苛刻或严格：
“The captain at last relented, and told him that he might make himself at home” (Herman Melville). “最后，船长缓和下来，告诉他随便些” (荷曼•麦尔维尔)。
3)Bow表示因失败或通过礼貌而让步：
“Bow and accept the end/Of a love” (Robert Frost). “屈服并接受爱情的结局” (罗伯特•弗罗斯特)
4)defer是指出于尊重或对他人权威、才学或判断的认可而让步：
“Philip . . . had the good sense to defer to the long experience and the wisdom of his father” (William Hickling Prescott). “菲利浦…很明智地在他父亲的丰富经验和智慧面前作出了让步”(威廉姆•希克林•普莱斯哥特)。
5)Submit表示经过无用或不成功的抵抗之后，出于被迫而放弃：
“What must the King do now? Must he submit?” (Shakespeare). “现在国王必须做什么? 他必须投降吗?”(莎士比亚)。
6)Succumb 强烈暗示屈服不可一世的或无法抵抗的事物：
“I didn't succumb without a struggle to my uncle's allurements” (H.G. Wells). “我对叔叔的诱惑未作任何反抗便屈服了” (H.G.威尔斯)
[11]camouflage：vt.伪装，掩饰
如：The military vehicles were camouflaged.军车被伪装起来了。
[12]safari：n.旅行，探险(复数：safaris)
[13] tally n. 符木(古时用,上有刻痕记载交货、欠款等的数量), 记账, 得分, 标记牌, 标签, 符合, 对应物, 计数器
ho：interj.嗬!(用来表示惊讶或高兴以引起注意或催促前行)
如：Land ho! Westward ho!停下!向西!
[14] sprawl vi.摊手摊脚地坐卧，平躺，倒卧;不规则的伸展;蔓延
如：sprawling on the sofa平躺在沙发上
suburbs that sprawl out into the countryside乱七八糟向乡间扩展的市郊
参考译文：
预备!开火!瞄准!!
引言：一位副总统，一只鹌鹑，等级矛盾第一次在打猎中凸现。
对于喜欢捕风捉影的人和那些天生爱好浪费时间的人而言，政治墓园网站(politicalgraveyard.com)是一个极佳去处。您想知道有多少美国政治家在决斗中丧生吗(该网站认为是17人)?有多少政治家遭谋杀(86人)?有多少政治家曾去过外太空(6人)?又有多少政治家在打猎或钓鱼时不幸身亡(14人)?点击便知。不过迄今为止，有关那些差点杀死同去狩猎或者钓鱼的“可怜虫”的政治家人数，这家网站还没有登记。
政治墓园网站指定要更新他们的网页了。2月11日，迪克•切尼瞄准一只鹌鹑，结果却击中一位78岁的律师。自那以后美国人无不对此议论纷纷。切尼先生令人啼笑皆非的遭遇，似乎充分表明他惯于先斩后奏(因此这事也一时传为笑柄，都说他有权开枪射击，即便是灌木丛中没有鹌鹑)，不过人们关注的焦点并非仅此而已，他在处置这一突发事件中所表现出来的无能也让人感到惊讶。
哈里•惠廷顿伤得不轻，面、颈、胸和胁部都被散弹击中，当时已立即被送往重症救护中心。不过切尼却直到事发次日才不情愿地告知公众，他们的副总统开枪误伤了一名律师(他让牧场女主人打电话给当地的《圣餐号召者时报》透露实情)，并且直到2月15日(也就是事发后第四天)才接受电视采访，而此时受害者出现轻微心脏病症状已近一天。正如切尼的一位支持者所说，“迪克没有处理好公共关系。”
媒体对整个事件方方面面都很关注：如切尼的捕猎许可证上缺少一个需要购买的印章(高地猎禽印章——译者注)(他后来已经给管理部门送去了7美元);那个牧场女主人是个政治说客;白宫起初曾试图把这一事件当作笑话来处理。尽管如此，人们还是完全忽视了一个问题——事情归根究底在于切尼周末去打猎了。
在许多欧洲国家，没有哪一个胸怀大志的政治家希望别人发现，自己手中拿着一支来福枪，对着视线中某个小生灵。可是在美国，政治家们却想方设法让自己在众人面前露脸。2004年10月约翰•克里站在一架有点土气的跟踪野鸭装置前的照片可谓经典。不过，即使是霍华德•迪恩和丹尼斯•库希尼奇这样的左翼人士，也对狩猎持赞同意见。
况且，何乐而不为呢?猎人们不无自豪地说，这项运动跟棒球、苹果点心一样，是一项传统，无论老少、贫富，还是保守或自由人士都喜闻乐见。美国鱼类和野生物部称，2001年首次统计显示，有8000万16岁以上的美国人——约占成人总人数的40%——“喜欢某种与鱼类和野生物有关的娱乐活动”。目前，大约有1300万美国人会打猎，他们每年花掉约206亿美元用于此项消遣。现在，只要你想打猎，就有人给你安排好;还有人为你准备了假《圣经》，让你在开火前能装模作样地诵读一遍;还有一大批有着三寸不烂之舌的说客，有来自全国步枪协会的，也有来自国际狩猎俱乐部的。国会运动员基金会的成员已超过300人。
不过，实际情况还是有所不同的。近20年来，进行捕猎的人数所占人口比例持续下降，2001年之前的10年内，捕猎人减少了7%，而捕猎小动物如鹌鹑的人数更是减少了29%。这主要是由经济情况造成的。美国每年有150万英亩野生物栖息地和100万英亩农牧场被经济扩张所蚕食鲸吞。然而，真正让狩猎者感到担忧的，还是或者说应该是，捕猎过程中的等级问题。
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