Let's Get 7 in IELTS

News Correspondent Richard Lui

It’s the first day of the month, and we have the first dustup on the explosive issue of race in the presidential election.

Thursday, Senator John McCain accused of Senator Barack Obama of bringing up race in the campaign. Until now it has been a subject off limits between the two presumptive nominees in the public forum.

The issue popped when McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said that “Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.”

When asked if his campaign manager’s comment was fair, McCain said, “It is, I’m sorry to say that it is, and it’s legitimate. And there is no place in this campaign for that, there’s no place for it and we shouldn’t be doing it”.

Davis and McCain were responding to comments made by Obama earlier in the day.

At one stop Obama responded to a recent attack ad with Paris Hilton and Britney Spears released by McCain:

“What they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me,” Obama said. “You know, he’s not patriotic enough, he’s got a funny name, you know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.”

Obama used the wording of not looking like other presidents on dollar bills three times yesterday.

The McCain camp implies Obama’s statements are allusions to Obama’s ethnicity; that Obama is biracial and the presidents on the dollar bills are white.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton defends Obama’s statements. According to Politico.com, Burton said that McCain’s campaign was “misinterpreting” both the “tenor and the meaning” of Obama’s words.

“I think they should probably be a little less paranoid about parsing every word we say and a little more focused on actually addressing the challenges that Americans expect the president of the United States to take on,” Burton said.

So who’s playing the race card? Was it McCain by accusing Obama of playing the race card? Or was it Obama by bringing up the issue of how he looked versus presidents on dollar bills? Or was it McCain for using two tabloid queens who are white and blonde in his attack ad when asking if Obama is ready to lead? Are you dizzy yet?

Is this latest duel about race, pettiness, or real issues? We’ll try to get as many of your comments as we can on air! And thank you for taking the time!

紅色ㄉ地方看不懂ㄚ

dustup 騷動;爭論;爭吵
explosive 爆發性的
race 比賽,競賽;人種;種族;民族
accuse 指控,控告;譴責;指責,把...歸咎(於)
bringing up 養育;提起...,談到
campaign 戰役;運動;競選運動
subject 主題;題目;題材
limit 界線;界限
presumptive 根據推定的;可據以推定的
nominees 被提名人
forum 公開討論的場所;討論會
pop 出現,發生
bottom 底;底部;下端
divisive 區分的;分裂的;引起不和的
negative 否定的;否認的
shameful 可恥的,丟臉的;不道德的,不體面的;猥褻的,下流的
legitimate 合法的;正當的,合理的
comments 批評,意見,評論;閒話,議論
ad
released 豁免;赦免;免除
patriotic 愛國的
camp  陣營;擁護某一主義(或黨派等)的人們
imply 暗指;暗示;意味著
statements 陳述,說明;聲明
allusions 暗示;間接提到;提及
ethnicity 種族地位;種族特點;種族淵源
biracial 二種人種間的(尤指黑、白人種的)
defend 防禦;保衛;保護
misinterpret 誤解
tenor 要旨,大意
paranoid 屬於偏執狂的
parse 從語法上分析
address 向...致詞,向...發表演說;對...說話
take on 承擔
versus (法律和運動用語,常略作v.或vs.)對;對抗;與...相對
tabloid 扼要的;摘要的,縮略的
blonde 白膚金髮碧眼的
dizzy 被弄糊塗的,愚蠢的
duel 決鬥;抗爭
pettiness 委瑣;器量小;卑鄙