2016托福满分作文名师点评
THREE PROBLEMS WITH THE MELANIA TRUMP PLAGIARISM ADMISSION
By Ryan Lizza from The New Yorker
For the second day in a row, the biggest news at the Republican National Convention, in Cleveland, is not about Donald Trump’s ideas for the country or even his case against Hillary Clinton.
Instead, the campaign story of the day—as Trump arrives on the shore of Lake Erie in his helicopter, and his running mate(副总统竞选搭档), Indiana Governor Mike Pence, gets ready for his début tonight—is how several sentences from Michelle Obama’s speech at the Democratic National Convention in 2008 made their way into the speech that Melania Trump gave on Monday night.【这表达真是讽刺啊，这说法~ 米歇尔的那几句话怎么会一字不落地跑到了梅拉尼亚的讲稿中呢?】
共和党最近不省心啊，最大的新闻不是川普的言论或与希拉里之间的对峙，而是星期一晚上， Melania·Trump在共和党全国代表大会上发表的演说中若干台词似乎一字不差地抄袭了Michelle·Obama在2008年民主党全国代表大会上发表的演说。
This afternoon, the Trump campaign released a letter from Meredith McIver, a speechwriter for the Trump Organization, that explains what happened. McIver wrote, 川普团队的演讲稿撰写人McIver这样解释道：
“In working with Melania on her recent First Lady speech, we discussed many people who inspired her and messages she wanted to share with the American people. A person she always liked is Michelle Obama. Over the phone, she read me some passages from Mrs. Obama’s speech as examples. I wrote them down and later included some of the phrasing in the draft that ultimately became the final speech. I did not check Mrs. Obama’s speeches. This was my mistake, and I feel terrible for the chaos I have caused Melania and the Trumps, as well as to Mrs. Obama. No harm was meant .
我们讨论的是一些激励了她的人，以及她想要与美国人分享的一些信息。她一直很欣赏米歇尔，所以读了些米歇尔的讲稿给我听。我自认为是改了改——但没和原稿校对，我为这次带来的混乱感到抱歉，并无恶意。
主页君：这，也行? 这团队真是给力啊!
No, this is not Watergate, but episodes like this can tell us something about the character of a campaign.It is notable that(值得注意的是), until McIver’s letter appeared, the Trump campaign and an army of surrogates(代理人) repeatedlydenied accusations of plagiarism(对于抄袭的指控).
“There’s no cribbing(抄袭) of Michelle Obama’s speech,” Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, said on CNN Tuesday morning. “These were common words andvalues(价值观), that she cares about her family(关心家庭). To think that she would be cribbing Michelle Obama’s words is crazy.”
Somewhat more colorfully【作者真的是文风犀利】, Sean Spicer, the Republican National Committee’s communications director, pointed out(指出)that the language in question was so common that Twilight Sparkle, from “My Little Pony,” and Kid Rock had said similar things.
虽非水门事件，但也足以让看客一窥美国大选的特征。特别值得一提的是，川普及其团队在McIver发布声明信之前一直不断拒绝所有抄袭的指控，并称：这都是共通的表述和价值观，只是因为 Melania也在乎家庭，说这就是抄袭简直可笑。为这件事更添浓墨重彩的一笔的是Sean Spicer的.言论：这都是常用词汇好吗?儿童动画作品中也说过类似的话。
It’s unclear whether Manafort and Spicer knew the real story before they went on TV with their claims. If they did, then they knowingly did not tell the truth(说实话). If they didn’t, then the Trump campaign sent them out to tell lies(说谎)and has nowthrown them under the bus(扔下车).
很难讲，这二位在发表言论前是否看过演讲片段。但凡看过……就该知道自己在说谎。或者，他们压根就不知情，被川普摆了一道。
The second issue raised by McIver’s letter concerns the continued mixing of Trump’s business and political organizations. McIver works for the Trump Organization, and her letter was on Trump Organization letterhead(信头). If she did【表强调】 in fact contribute to Melania Trump’s speech, then her time working for the campaign could be considered an in-kind donation(物资捐赠). The Federal Election Commission has clear rules about combining one’s business and campaign assets, but all signs point to the fact that there is no clear line separating these two Trump entities.
这封声明信还说明Mclver帮川普夫人写了演讲稿。但问题是，个人事务和竞选资源必须完全分开，摆明是在打脸啊!—— 读到这里，主页君不禁开始怀疑，引咎辞职的Mclver难道是临走前黑了一下川普团队?所有漏洞都是故意留下的?
【下面这一段，真是批得漂亮啊!】
Finally, McIver’s explanation for what happened serves Melania poorly, putting her at the center of theplagiarism scandal(抄袭丑闻)rather thanmaking her an innocent victim(让她成为一个无辜的受害者)of her staff. It was Melania who【强调句，强调：正是Melania做了这些事】sought out(找出) Michelle Obama’s speech for inspiration. It was Melania who plucked passages that she admired from the 2008 speech. It was Melania whogave those passages to her speechwriter.【一连串强调句的排比，增强语势的同时，不给对方任何转圜的余地】How could Melania not recognize those exact lines(一模一样的字句)when she received thefinal draft(终稿)?【最后，还再补上一句反问句，你怎么可能认不出终稿中那些一模一样的字句呢?!】
请感受这种强调句 + 排比句 + 反问句的变换句式所带来的酣畅淋漓的阅读体验吧!你的作文是不是还是永远只有平铺直叙的陈述句?另外，这解释本身就很尴尬啊有木有……Melania完全甩不掉抄袭的锅啊!这演讲材料不是你找来念给McIver听的吗?这内容你难道不是比她还熟悉?最后的稿件中有抄袭的文字你会不知道?
Of course, Melania is not an author or academic. She might be unaware of(不了解)how seriously people in the press(媒体行业)and at universities(高校)take plagiarism. And perhaps she simply didn’t remember that the lines came from a speech she had admired. But, whatever the case(无论何种情况), McIver’s letter makes clear that it was Melaniaherself(反身代词，表示强调) who first lifted Michelle Obama’s language.
【关于lift的这个用法，特此转发给很爱抄袭的人】
lift = vt. to take words, ideas etc from someone else's work and use themm in your work, without stating where they came from and as if they were your own words etc
从他人的作品中盗用文字、思想并用于自己的作品中，而不声明它们的具体出处，就仿佛是你自己的文字一般。
By releasing the letter, the Trump campaign might have thought that it wasputting the plagiarism story behind it(put sth. behind把……抛诸脑后，解决带哦), but it has just created a bigger mess(制造了更大的麻烦).
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