Dominic Cummings once complained of "a widespread befuddled defeatism" in Westminster. He has a chance to tackle it
The way to improve Britain's banks lies less with rattling the banks than with rousing their befuddled clients, reckons the Competition and Markets Authority
How did refugees from Myanmar end up in a turkey factory in America's frozen Mid-West? Full story here: bbc.in/138Y6Cl
More than 2,000 refugees have swapped the hot and humid tropics for Huron, South Dakota. The migration has transformed the small community, leaving some residents "befuddled". But a local turkey factory has welcomed them with open arms.
Is it discreet or treacherous to Bcc? Should you vape at work? Luckily, Debrett’s has unveiled a “What to do” guide to help you think before you faux pas, based on a list of the public’s most frequently asked questions
Debrett’s guide to politeness in the 21st century
Modern life is filled with many befuddling moments when the proper codes of conduct remain unclear...
THEGUARDIAN.COM|由 PRIYA ELAN 上傳
A British soldier's death in Iraq spurs his stolid brother on a journey of discovery in this novel.
Well
Schizophrenic and Wanting to Connect
By MICHAEL HEDRICK
I had been happy
in high school, popular even, and the ability to connect with people
seemed so effortless then. It's a goal I've been striving to reattain
for the last eight years, since my diagnosis of schizophrenia.
Japan's Intervention Strategy Befuddles Market
Wall Street Journal
By TAKASHI MOCHIZUKI TOKYO—Japan's new tactics for trying to weaken the yen, mixing highly public forays into the market with stealth intervention, has left investors uncertain over what may come next, which appears to be just what the authorities ...
Naypyitaw, as well, could turn out to be a giant, and costly, white elephant. One visitor interviewed on Tuesday, a Chinese diplomat who had traveled from Yangon on business, said he thought it was boring and a bit befuddling. 'You just stay at your hotel or go to the pagoda,' he said.
內比都也一樣有可能成為一件昂貴的大而無當的擺設。記者採訪了一位到訪內比都的中國外交官﹐他是從仰光過來出差的。他說他覺得內比都比較無聊﹐還有一點讓人摸不著頭腦。他說﹐“你只能待在賓館或者去看佛塔。”
befuddle
(bĭ-fŭd'l)
tr.v., -dled, -dling, -dles.
To confuse; perplex. See synonyms at confuse.
To stupefy with or as if with alcoholic drink.
Dizzy, staggered, befuddled, unable to think: 昏憒 befuddled,
stolid[stol・id]
発音記号[stɑ'lid | stɔ'l-]
[形]((通例けなして))無表情な, 無感動な.
stol・id・ly
[副]
sto・líd・i・ty, ・ness
[名]
听苹果的话
Words to describe the glory of Apple
英国《金融时报》 露西•凯拉韦
Like most Brits, I find success in others pretty hard to cope with. When that success is combined with good looks, I can’t tolerate it at all.
与多数英国人一样，我很难面对别人的成功。要是人家既成功又漂亮，我简直根本无法容忍。
Apple’s continued glory eats away at me like a maggot at my core. I long for it to pick up some bruises. When the iPad came out, I prayed that it would be awful. My prayers were not heard: like all Apple products, it is sleek and gorgeous, and in due course I shall go to one of its wondrous temples of consumption and grumpily buy one.
苹果(Apple)一直以来的荣耀，就像蛆虫一样啃噬着我的心。我期待它会绊几个跟头。iPad问世时，我祈祷它会丑陋不堪。我的祷告并不灵验：如同所有苹果产品一样，iPad时尚雅致，光彩夺目。我还是赶紧去苹果那神奇的消费殿堂，咬牙切齿地买上一部吧。
Now I find that Apple has succeeded in an area even more revolutionary than designing beautiful products that are easy to use. This time, though, I feel no discomfort. Apple has discovered something that other companies have long forgotten, if they ever knew: language can also be beautiful and easy to use. Words can be fun to read. They can look elegant. They can make you laugh.
现在我发现，比起设计漂亮好用的产品，苹果在另外一个领域更具革命性。不过这一回，我可是心平气和。苹果发现了一个秘诀：语言也可以既漂亮、又好用。文字可以显得优雅而风趣，让人会心而笑。(其它公司即便曾经知道这个秘诀，也早已将其抛诸脑后。)
Earlier this month it published a set of guidelines for apps sold at its App Store. According to the laws that govern this sort of thing, this document should have been doubly unreadable. It was a list of legal requirements and was aimed at techies. Instead, it was funny and clear, and I found myself reading it effortlessly, even though I barely know what an “app” is.
本月早些时候，苹果颁布了一套规范在其“应用软件商店”(App Store)出售的应用软件(app)的指导方针。按照规范此类事物的准则，这份文件本应晦涩难懂，让人读起来头大。其中罗列一堆法律条款，就是给搞技术 的人看的。然而，恰恰相反，这份文件充满趣味，意思清晰明了。尽管我几乎不懂“应用软件”是什么东东，但发现自己读这份文件毫不费力。
“We have over 250,000 apps in the App Store. We don’t need any more Fart apps. If your app doesn’t do something useful or provide some form of lasting entertainment, it may not be accepted.”
“我们的应用软件商店里有25万余种应用软件。我们不需要更多的恶搞软件。既没有用处、也不能提供某种持久娱乐的应用软件，不会受到认可。”
The tone is direct, comic and elegantly threatening.
这话直截了当、幽默并且带着微妙的威胁意味。
“We will reject apps for any content or behaviour that we believe is over the line. What line, you ask? Well, as a Supreme Court Justice once said, I’ll know it when I see it. And we think that you will also know it when you cross it.”
“我们抵制一切应用于越界的内容或行为的软件。你可能会问，底线在哪？嗯，一位最高法院的法官曾经说过，当我看到时，我就会知道。同样，我们认为，当你越过底线时，你自己就会知道。”
Now compare this to the standard stuff on the Microsoft website. The brand new browser, it says, “delivers a richer, faster, and more business-ready Web experience. Architected to run HTML 5, the beta enables developers to utilise standardised mark-up language across multiple browsers”. Well I never. Reading this, I’m bored and restless, irritated and alienated.
现在把这段话和微软(Microsoft)网站上的套话比较一下。微软表示，全新的浏 览器“会带来更为丰富、迅捷和便利的网络体验。本测试版运行HTML 5语言，使开发者能够使用在多种浏览器上通用的标准化标记语言。”我就感觉不爽。读这段话，让我觉得厌烦、心绪不宁、上火，而且有一种疏离感。
Given the towering superiority of the first linguistic style over the second, will it catch on? Will other companies copy Apple’s language just as they have copied its design?
既然第一种语言风格远胜于第二种，那么它会流行吗？其它公司会像模仿苹果的设计风格一样，模仿它的语言吗？
You might think so. You might think there was a clear commercial advantage to be had in writing clearly and stylishly. But you would be wrong. There is no sign that Microsoft has been suffering from its stolid, dodgy way with words. Indeed it is one of the great mysteries of capitalism that there is no invisible hand that joins good language and good profits. If anything, the hand pushes the two apart.
你可能就是这么想的。你或许以为，清晰漂亮的文笔必然具备明显的商业优势。可你错了。 没有任何迹象表明，贫乏冷漠、闪烁其词的用语给微软带来了损失。事实上，这正是资本主义的一大奥秘：没有什么“看不见的手”把优美的语言和丰厚的利润联系 起来。就算是有，这只手也会把二者分开。
Even in industries that make their money by selling messages there is no appetite for clarity. Just last week a reader sent me the following sentence from the blog of Bob Jeffrey, the head of JWT, in which he describes what his vast and successful advertising agency does: “Global consumers are rapidly re-evaluating and readjusting their value paradigms and purchasing decisions. Our job is to keep our ear to the ground with these consumers, providing relevant real-time insight to our clients that inspires cutting-edge, cost-efficient solutions.”
即使是靠贩卖信息牟利的行业，也不青睐清晰的表述。就在不久前，有位读者发给我从智威 汤逊(JWT)掌门人鲍勃•杰弗里(Bob Jeffrey)的博客上摘下的一句话，描述了这家庞大而成功的广告机构是干什么的：“全球消费者正在迅速重新评估和调整他们的价值范式和购买决策，而我 们的职责就是认真倾听消费者的意见，向我们的客户提供相应的与时俱进的洞见，以启发他们制定前沿的、符合成本效益的解决方案。”
The Apple version of this would be something like: “Consumers can change so we try to keep up.” This version reads better, but it is not hard to see why Mr Jeffrey didn’t put it that way. “A relevant real-time insight” sounds like something that a befuddled client might pay more money for.
换成苹果版本，这段话大致是说：“消费者会变，所以我们要设法跟上变化。”这个版本更容易理解，但杰弗里为什么不这么说呢？原因不难想见。“相应的与此俱进的洞见”之类的用词才能把客户搞蒙，让他们乐意掏更高的价钱。
An even better example of the link between high profits and low language was on the appointments pages in the Financial Times 10 days ago. It was an advertisement from “one of the largest and most trusted banking and financial services organisations in the world” which was hoping to hire a “customer journey re-engineering manager”.
英国《金融时报》半个月前的招聘版上有个更好的例子，能够说明拙劣的语言与优厚的利润 之间的关系。那是一则出自“世界最大、最受信赖的银行业及金融服务业机构之一”的招聘广告，诚聘一位“客户旅程再造经理”(customer journey re-engineering manager，大概是客户购买流程再造经理)。
This title contains three layers of obfuscation: the ludicrous yet ubiquitous idea that a banking customer is on a journey; the idea that this journey needs re-engineering; the notion that this needs managing. There is only one conclusion to be drawn: surplus profits generate bonuses and bullshit in equal measure.
这个头衔包含了三层歧义。首先它会让人普遍产生一种滑稽的想法，想到一位银行客户在旅途中；其次是这趟旅程需要调整；第三是这事需要管理。由此只能得出一个结论：过多的利润会产生等量的奖金和废话。
The only customers who are really on a journey are those of the transport sector. And as I looked at a collection of them chugging along into Moorgate station last week I thought of another reason why Apple’s brave effort to rehabilitate language won’t catch on. Words are finished. Customers on journeys don’t read. They watch videos on their iPads, iPhones and iPods.
唯一真正身在旅途的，只有交通运输行业的客户。日前看到一伙旅客涌入Moorgate车站时，我恍然大悟，苹果重振语言活力的创举之所以不会流行，还有另外一个原因：语言已经过时。旅客们什么都不读。他们在各自的iPad、iPhone和iPod上观看视频。
译者/杨远
dodgy[dodg・y]
発音記号[dɑ'dʒi | dɔ'dʒi]
[形]（-i・er, -i・est）((英略式))
1 ごまかしのじょうずな, ペテンの.
2 へまな, 無器用な.
3 〈計画が〉危なっかしい；〈物が〉危険性がある, 危ない.
4 〈体の一部が〉弱い, 健康でない.
(dŏj'ē)
adj. Chiefly British, -i·er, -i·est.
Evasive; shifty.
Unsound, unstable, and unreliable.
So risky as to require very deft handling.
effortless
Syllabification: ef·fort·less
Pronunciation: /ˈefərtlis/
adjective
- 1.1Achieved with admirable ease: her effortless sense of style
More example sentences
- He is a passionate garden-maker, a sensualist blessed with an artist's eye and an effortless sense of style.
- Her style is effortless, drop-dead elegance.
- Khakis have become synonymous with effortless style suitable for leisure trips and business casual wear.
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