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双语美文：你好，这儿阳光明媚！
发布时间：2012-3-23 13:37:00|| 点击：2879次|| 文章分类：翻译学习|| 发布人：翻译家(Fanyijia.com)
South Carolina 南卡罗来纳 Hello, sunshine! 你好，这儿阳光明媚！ How not to sell a state that’s feeling the pinch 不要如此塑造政府形象，这只能让我们感到痛苦！ IT’S a great day in South Carolina, and if you don’t believe it, ask Governor Nikki Haley. On September 27th the governor ordered the 16 directors of cabinet agencies under her direct control to change the way their employees answer the telephone. So now when phoning, say, the Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services or the Department of Employment and Workforce, callers are supposed to hear this cheery greeting: “It’s a great day in South Carolina. How may I help you?” 今天的南卡罗来纳州非常美好，如果你不相信的话，去问问尼基?哈利州长吧。 州长在9月27日要求她治下的16个州政府主管改变其下属的电话应答方式。 举个例子，现在你打电话到酒精及其它药物滥用管理局或者劳动与就业局，你就会听到这样愉悦的问候：“今天的南卡罗来纳真美好。有什么可以帮您？” Ms Haley says the new greeting will boost the morale of state workers and help her to sell the state. “It’s part of who I am,” she declares. “As hokey as some people may think it is, I’m selling South Carolina as this great, new, positive state that everybody needs to look at.” 哈利女士说，这种新的问候方式将会提升政府工作人员的士气，并帮助她塑造政府形象。 “这就是我工作的一部分，”她说。 “部分人也许会认为这像作秀，但每个人都应当意识到，我正在为南卡罗来纳州塑造一个全新、美好的积极形象。 The blogosphere has been inundated with people mocking the new salutation and proposing alternative greetings. One suggestion: “It’s still better here than Mississippi. How can I help you?” Another was more explicit: “Thank you for calling South Carolina where unemployment is high, morale is low and political leaders are very busy wasting your resources. How may I direct your call?” 网络上，这种新的问候方式已经被人们的嘲讽所淹没，并调侃成新的问候语。 例如：“这儿依然比密西西比州要好的多。 有什么可以帮您？” 另一种说法则更加直白：“欢迎您致电南卡罗来纳州，这里失业率高，士气低下，还有着忙于浪费资源的政客们。 我该怎么处理你的电话？” The irony is that nothing is particularly great in the Palmetto State at the moment. The unemployment rate stands at 11.1%, the fourth-highest in the country. State workers have not received cost-of-living increases in four years and no merit-based raises since 2001. Cuts to their pension plans are now being discussed. Health-insurance premiums for 410,000 public employees, retirees and family members are going up by 4.5% in January. Medicaid payment rates to physicians were cut across the board by 3% in April, which is expected to lead to reduced services for the poor and disabled in rural areas. 这些讽刺意味着，当前的玲珑棕榈州（南卡罗来纳州的别称）并没有任何特别值得称道的事情。 南卡罗来纳州高达11.1%的失业率在全美排名第四。 在2001年就失去了绩效奖金的工人们已经四年没有加薪。 他们退休金也正在被考虑削减。 在一月份，41万的公共事业雇员，退休者及其家庭成员的医疗保险费用上升了4.5%。 四月，内科的医疗补助支付率被全面削减了3%，这部分被削减的经费将用于乡村的贫困及残疾人口扶助。 And so it goes on. This year the state’s public schools missed out on more than $144m in federal stimulus money earmarked for teachers because the governor and her education chief refused to apply for funds which would have mitigated teacher lay-offs. The money was then redistributed to the other 49 states which did want it. A new order has gone out that South Carolinians who do not possess a government-issued photo identification card-who tend to be black and poor- will no longer be able to vote. 不仅如此。 因为州长及她的教育主管拒绝申请一笔为教师提供的1.44亿联邦专项资金，而使南卡罗来纳州的公立学校错失了这根可能缓和教师裁员的稻草。 紧接着这笔钱就被想要她的其它49个州瓜分。 一项新出台的法案还意味着，不久后，那些没有公共身份证的南卡罗来纳州人将失去投票权，而他们大多是黑人与贫困人口。 For a clincher, racial hostility seems to be alive and well. A white employee who recently left Santee-Cooper, a state-owned utility and one of the largest power providers in South Carolina, has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that in late 2009 the man’s supervisor sent some employees a text message with an image of a gallows, from which hung a noose and a sign saying: “For Sale, Nigger Swing Set”. The complaint is under investigation. 更严重的是，种族歧视似乎依然存在。 “桑堤-库伯”（州立公用事业公司，南卡罗来纳州最大的电力供应商之一）的一个刚刚离职的白人雇员，向就业机会均等委员会提出申诉，声称在2009年末，公司的一个主管向部分雇员发送了一个配有绞刑架图案的信息，信息中绘有绞索并标示：“出售，黑鬼秋千”。 目前该申诉正在调查中。 Some state agencies have obediently begun complying with the governor’s sunny directive; others have apparently not yet got the message. Or are they perhaps indulging in some daring bureaucratic resistance? 部分州政府机构已经开始忠实地执行州长的阳光新政；而其它部门似乎还没明白。 或许他们正在进行某些大胆的官僚抵抗吗？  更多文章
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