人生沒有用不到的經歷

這篇文章純講英文，不談政治。
當你閱讀英文時，務必要留心冠詞的涵義，尤其是定冠詞 The，有沒有加定冠詞，意義差很多。
1) I saw you on television last night.
2) I saw you on the television last night.

第1句的意思是「我昨晚看到你上了電視。」或是「我昨晚在電視裡看到你。」，因 television 之前無「The」，television 變成一種抽象的電視，可在腦中呈現不定型的概念。
第2句有點不通，意思是「我昨晚看到你(坐/站)在電視機上面。」，因 television 之前有「The」，television 變成一台具體的電視機。

當你看到 bumbler 這字，一眼望去，應該是個生字，查過各家字典後，解釋有輕有重，輕與重之間就成了一個模糊抽象的概念，至於哪個解釋最正確，請注意「the bumbler」。

下文標題 「Ma the bumbler」，請再注意，「the bumbler」應由經濟學人的作者下定義，解釋馬英九被他定義成一個甚麼樣的bumbler。你不是作者，要下定義，請讀完原文。

請讀一下原文，其實全篇都是在講馬英九最近半年的施政，比較重的字眼是「ineffectual (無效率的)」與 「indecisiveness (優柔寡斷)」，似乎沒有「笨蛋」那麼重的具體概念；如果讀者硬要說有，只能說每個人讀完之後，在腦袋中呈現截然不同的具體概念。說實在的，這篇文章第一位媒體人的翻譯--笨蛋，就成了許多人的具體概念，而那許多人恐怕沒看過或根本讀不懂經濟學人期刊作者的原文。

Ma the bumbler
A former heart-throb loses his shine
Nov 17th 2012 | TAIPEI | from the print edition

WHEN he was first elected in 2008, Taiwan’s president, Ma Ying-jeou, offered Taiwanese high hopes that the island’s economy would open a new chapter. He promised ground-breaking agreements with China to help end Taiwan’s growing economic marginalisation. At the time, Mr Ma’s image was of a clean technocrat able to rise above the cronyism and infighting of his party, the Kuomintang (KMT). He was a welcome contrast to his fiery and pro-independence predecessor, Chen Shui-bian, now in jail for corruption.

Five years on, and despite being handily re-elected ten months ago, much has changed. In particular, popular satisfaction with Mr Ma has plummeted, to a record low of 13%, according to the TVBS Poll Centre. The country appears to agree on one thing: Mr Ma is an ineffectual bumbler.

Ordinary people do not find their livelihoods improving. Salaries have stagnated for a decade. The most visible impact of more open ties with China, which include a free-trade agreement, has been property speculation in anticipation of a flood of mainland money. Housing in former working-class areas on the edge of Taipei, the capital, now costs up to 40 times the average annual wage of $15,400. The number of families below the poverty line has leapt. Labour activists have taken to pelting the presidential office with eggs.

Exports account for 70% of GDP. So some of Taiwan’s problems are down to the dismal state of rich-world economies. Yet Mr Ma’s leadership is also to blame. He has failed to paint a more hopeful future, with sometimes hard measures needed now. Worse, he frequently tweaks policies in response to opposition or media criticism. It suggests indecisiveness.

Public anger first arose in June, when Mr Ma raised the price of government-subsidised electricity. Few Taiwanese understood why, even though Taiwan’s state-owned power company loses billions. In the face of public outrage, Mr Ma postponed a second round of electricity price rises scheduled for December. They will now take place later next year.

People are also worried that a national pension scheme is on course for bankruptcy in less than two decades. Yet Mr Ma cannot bring himself to raise premiums sharply, because of the temporary unpopularity it risks. When Mr Ma does try to appeal to Taiwanese who make up the island’s broad political centre, it often backfires with his party’s core supporters. Following public grumbles that retired civil servants, teachers and ex-servicemen were a privileged group, the cabinet announced plans to cut more than $300m in year-end bonuses, affecting around 381,000. The trouble was, veterans are among the KMT’s most fervent backers. Now some threaten to take to the streets in protest and deprive the KMT of their votes until the plan is scrapped. Meanwhile, Mr Ma’s clean image has been sullied by the indictment of the cabinet secretary-general for graft.

Cracks are starting to grow in the KMT façade. Recently Sean Lien, a prominent politician, criticised Mr Ma’s economic policies, saying that any politician in office during this time of sluggish growth was at best a “master of a beggar clan”—implying a country of paupers.

But the next election is four years away, and presidential hopefuls will not try to oust or even outshine Mr Ma anytime soon. After all, they will not want to take responsibility for the country’s economic problems. Nothing suggests Mr Ma’s main policies will change (or that they should), but his credibility is draining by the day.