当地时间5月27日,美国前总统乔治·HW·布什于因低血压等症状进入缅因州一所医院接受治疗。自发妻芭芭拉于上月17日病逝后,老布什身体状况第二次亮起红灯。
老布什夫妻结发73年,是迄今美国总统夫妻中婚龄最长的一对。
Photo credit: Getty Images
壹
老布什低血压再度入院
George H.W. Bush, the oldest living former U.S. president, was taken to Southern Maine Health Care last Sunday after experiencing low blood pressure and fatigue and will remain there for a few days for observation, the family spokesman Jim McGrath said in a statement.
乔治·赫伯特·沃克·布什是目前在世最长寿的美国前总统。布什家族发言人吉姆·麦克格莱斯(Jim McGrath)发布声明称,上周日老布什因低血压与疲劳症状被送入南缅因医疗中心接受治疗,并将留院观察数日。
“The former president is awake and alert, and not in any discomfort,” McGrath wrote on Twitter.
麦克格莱斯在Twitter上写道:“前总统已醒来并恢复意识,身体没有不适反应。”
① fatigue [fə'tiːg] n. 疲乏 vt. 使疲劳
例句:As soon as I finished my speech, my eyes began to close, fatigue took over and I returned to my room as quickly as I could. 演讲一结束,我的眼睛就睁不开了,全身倦意笼罩。我以最快的速度回到房间。
② alert [ə'lɜːt] vt. 警告;使警觉,使意识到 adj. 警觉的;留心的 n. 警戒;警报
例句:Twenty minutes later, he climbs out and heads back to his office, alert and ready to battle whatever the rest of the day has in store. 二十分钟后,他走了出来返回办公室。此时他十分警觉、做好了应对这一天里出现任何战役的准备。
Screenshot: Twitter
Bush was hospitalized in Texas last month for treatment of an infection that spread to his blood, and stayed there for nearly two weeks. He was admitted to the hospital a day after he attended the funeral of his wife, Barbara, the former first lady who died on April 17. The couple had been married for 73 years.
当地时间4月17日,老布什的妻子——美国前*夫人芭芭拉(Barbara)去世。在参加完她的葬礼次日,老布什即在德克萨斯州被送入院接受了血液感染相关治疗,并住院近两周。这对夫妻已经结发73年。
The 93-year-old Bush arrived in Maine last week. He has spent part of every summer in Kennebunkport since his childhood, except while serving as a naval aviator during World War II. Friends of the 41st president have said he'd been eager to get to Maine after Barbara Bush’s death.
93岁的老布什上周抵达缅因州。除二战期间担任海军飞行员那些年外,自孩提时代以来,他每年夏天都会在肯纳邦克波特呆上一段时间。这位美国第41任总统的朋友们说,他在芭芭拉·布什去世后一直想到缅因州来。
③ hospitalize ['hɒspɪt(ə)laɪz] vt. 就医;送…进医院治疗
例句:The cause of death was not yet known, but she had been hospitalized in recent months because of a recurring blood infection. 她最近因血管受感染入院,但确切死因还不清楚。
④ infection [ɪn'fekʃ(ə)n] n. 感染;影响;传染病
例句:His mother's blindness before she died had terrified him and his own eye infection had been a stroke of doom. 在他母亲去世前失明的那些年他十分害怕,而且他认为自己眼部的感染是命中注定。
⑤ aviator ['eɪvɪeɪtə] n. 飞行员
例句:Lagerfeld, who was dressed in a tight Dior suit of broad gray and blue stripes, and a pair of aviator sunglasses, disdains this practice. 穿着迪奥灰蓝色宽条纹紧身服的拉格斐德戴着一副飞行员式太阳镜,他对这种行为表示不屑。
Photo credit: Getty Images
贰
老布什与芭芭拉的73载婚姻长跑
在老布什夫妻73年相守中,妻子芭芭拉·布什功不可没。她专注于家庭,一直保持着良好的公众形象,是丈夫敏锐的盟友,也是孩子们的坚强后盾。
Barbara Bush, who has passed away at the age of 92 at the family's Houston home, was the second American woman to have been the wife of one president and the mother of another. The first was the formidable Abigail Adams.
芭芭拉·布什上月在其位于休斯敦的家中去世,享年92岁。她是美国历史上第二位既是美国总统妻子又是总统母亲的女性。*位是令人敬畏的阿比盖尔·亚当斯(Abigail Adams)。
(注:阿比盖尔是第2任美国总统约翰·亚当斯(John Adams)的夫人与第6任美国总统约翰·昆西·亚当斯(John Quincy Adams)的母亲。)
⑥ formidable [fə(r)'mɪdəb(ə)l] adj. 强大的;可怕的;令人敬畏的;艰难的
例句:This sets it apart from the formidable competition that, in New York, seems to renew itself on an almost monthly basis. 纽约城里那种可怕的竞争,那种几乎每月一次的改头换面,统统都会被抛在脑后。
Photo credit: Getty Images
In her autobiography Barbara Bush: A Memoir(1994), Barbara Bush describes her and her husband as "the two luckiest people in the world, and when all the dust is settled and all the crowds are gone, the things that matter are faith, family and friends. We have been inordinately blessed, and we know that."
在她的自传《芭芭拉·布什回忆录》中,芭芭拉·布什将自己和丈夫形容为“世界上最幸运的两个人,且当一切尘埃落定,繁华散去,人生中重要的东西就是信仰、家人和朋友。我们知道自己很幸福。”
⑦ inordinately [ɪn'ɔrdnɪtli] adv. 非常地;无度地
例句:Google is inordinately useful, but it is not remotely intelligent, as we human beings understand that term. 虽然谷歌特别有用,可是按照人类理解“聪明”这个词来讲,它一点也不聪明。
Screenshot: businessinsider.com
初见定终生
Their first meeting left an indelible impression on young George Bush. They met at a dance over Christmas vacation in 1942. She was 16 and he was 17, and Barbara claimed that George was the first boy she ever kissed. "I'm not much at recalling what people wear, but that particular occasion stands out in my memory," he says in his autobiography.
两人的初见给年轻的乔治·布什留下了难以磨灭的印象。他们在1942年圣诞节假期的一次舞会上相遇,那年芭芭拉16岁,布什17岁。芭芭拉称乔治是她亲吻过的*个男孩。“我不太记得人们穿了什么,但那个特别的场景深深地镌刻在我的记忆之中。”老布什在自传中描述道。
After dating for a year and a half, the two became engaged and planned to get married before George went off to serve in World War II as a Navy pilot. He famously named three of his Navy planes after her, and the two shared love letters while he was away.
约会了一年半后,两人订婚,并计划在布什二战时期作为海军飞行员服役之前结婚。他以芭芭拉的名字命名了他所驾驶的三架海军飞机,分隔两地期间两人还互寄情书。
⑧ indelible [ɪn'delɪb(ə)l] adj. 难忘的;擦不掉的
例句:The scandals have ensured that its goods now have an indelible image of being not just cheap, but life-threatening as well. 这些丑闻让它的产品留下了难以摆脱的形象:它们不仅廉价,还可能有生命危险。
Photo credit: Getty Images
13年养育6子
Over the next 13 years, the couple had six children: George, Robin, Jeb, Neil, Marvin, and Dorothy. The husband gives Barbara all the credit when it came to raising their children, and described her as "themainstay, of course, the parent who was always there to help solve the daily problems and emergencies of teen and preteen life."
在接下来的13年中,这对夫妇有了六个孩子:乔治、罗宾、杰布、尼尔、马文和多萝西。丈夫老布什将抚养子女的所有功劳都归于芭芭拉,并形容她为“(家庭的)主心骨,当然,也是一位时刻准备着帮助孩子们解决少年时与青春期生活中日常问题与突发事件的母亲。”
⑨ mainstay ['meɪnsteɪ] n. 支柱;中流砥柱
例句:It has been a mainstay of American economic growth and prosperity. 长期以来,它始终是美国经济增长和繁荣的支柱。
⑩ preteen ['priː'tiːn] n. 青春期前的孩子 adj. 13岁以下的;青春期前的
例句:Born in Cairo, he had spent a few years in Oregon as a preteen while his father earned a PhD. 他在开罗出生,10岁前在俄勒冈州待了几年,那时他父亲获得了哲学博士学位。
Photo credit: Getty Images
长久的婚姻不乏考验
Their marriage also has weathered more serious trials: A daughter, Robin, died in 1953 of leukemia a few weeks before her 4th birthday; Barbara Bush has recalled a bout of depression in the mid-1970s... "Night after night, George held me weeping in his arms while I tried to explain my feelings," she said. "I almost wonder why he didn't leave me."
他们的婚姻也遭受过多次严峻的考验:1953年,女儿罗宾在她的四岁生日前几周死于白血病;70年代中期,芭芭拉·布什曾一度患上抑郁症……“许多个夜晚,乔治将哭泣的我抱在怀里,我就会试图诉说自己内心的感受,”她说,“我甚至想知道他为什么不离开我。”
Just last year, allegations surfaced that Bush, who for more than five years has used a wheelchair for mobility, inappropriately touched more than a half dozen women on their buttocks as they stood next to him to take photos. Through the spokesman McGrath, Bush issued repeated apologies "to anyone he has offended." Also last year, they bothwound up in the same Houston hospital — the former president with pneumonia; his wife with bronchitis.
老布什有五年多一直依靠轮椅行动,就在去年他受到指控,超过六名女性表示在与他合影时,他曾不妥当地触碰过她们的臀部。发言人麦克格莱斯则表示,布什为“他曾冒犯过的所有人”多次道歉。同样在去年,夫妇二人被送入了休斯敦同一家医院——老布什因为肺炎,芭芭拉则是因为支气管炎。
⑪ weather ['weðə] n. 天气;气候;处境 v. 经受住;使风化;侵蚀 adj. 露天的;迎风的
例句:Turkey, unlike some of the Eurozone’s heavily indebted economies, has weathered the financial crisis relatively well. 土耳其与欧元区一些负债累累的经济体不同,它相对安然地度过了金融危机。
⑫ bout [baʊt] n. 一次;一阵;(疾病的)发作
例句:If the events of this week encourage greater circumspection then this will have been a bout of market turmoil well worth enduring. 如果本周所发生的事件能让投资者更为慎重,那么这将是一次很值得承受的市场动荡。
⑬ wind up 解散;结束,收场;将…绕成团
例句: The spokeswoman for the auction house said she did not know how the oil painting had wound up inside the sofa. 拍卖行的发言人表示,她也搞不明白这副油画是怎么跑到沙发里面的。
Photo credit: Getty Images
芭芭拉:“我不惧怕死亡”
In 2013, Barbara told C-SPAN that she and George pray aloud each night and sometimes "fight over whose turn it is." "I have no fear of death, which is a huge comfort because we're getting darn close," the First Lady said in the same conversation. "I don't have a fear of death for my precious George, or for myself, because I know that there is a great God, and I'm not worried."
2013年,芭芭拉告诉美国有线电视C-SPAN,她和丈夫乔治每晚都会大声祈祷,有时还会“因为争论轮到谁了而打起来”。“我不惧怕死亡,那是很大的慰藉,因为我们离它很近,”这位前*夫人在这次访谈中还说道,“我对我的爱人乔治和自己的死亡都没有恐惧,因为我知道存在着一个伟大的上帝,我并不担心。”
⑭ darn [dɑ:n] n. 补丁adj. 该死的 adv. 极其 v. 缝补
例句:"It's pretty darn exciting, and a bit crazy," she says, "to see a bunch of researchers running around burning down a forest." “这真是太刺激了,而且还有点疯狂,”她说,“看着一群研究人员东奔西跑烧毁一片树林。”
Photo credit: Getty Images
*,附上1990年芭芭拉·布什在韦尔斯利女子(Wellesley College)毕业典礼上的一段精彩演讲: