又中又英｜Train of thought

Former President Donald Trump, who is running for a second term as US president, often loses his train of thought when he gives speeches or interviews. President Joe Biden who, at 81, is the oldest American president, also sometimes loses his train of thought due to old age. He lost his train of thought much of the time during an election debate with Trump last June. Democratic Party leaders succeeded in urging him to let Vice President Kamala Harris take over as the presidential candidate. The expression “train of thought” means a series of connected thoughts in your mind.

Loud noise makes me lose my train of thought. Trump is known for suddenly switching from one topic to a completely different one that is not related to the first topic. He loses his train of thought by doing that. During a Q&A session in New York last week, he was asked about how he would make childcare affordable if elected. He switched from childcare to increasing tariffs for foreign goods to making America great again to saying the US is a failing nation under Biden. His 2-minute answer was so confusing that it became a word salad.

A word salad is a mixture of confusing words or phrases, making it difficult to understand. Many of Biden’s answers were word salads during his June debate with Trump. Harris, who is much younger, doesn’t often lose her train of thought because she was a government prosecutor. But a few of her recent political speeches were also word salads.

現正爭取美國總統第二個任期的前總統唐納德‧特朗普，在演講或受訪時都經常會思路（train of thought）中斷。八十一歲的總統祖‧拜登，是歷來年紀最大的美國總統，他也會因為年事已高而有時思路（train of thought）中斷。六月他跟特朗普進行選舉辯論之時，就不時亂了思緒（train of thought），忘了自己要說甚麼。民主黨的領袖們成功勸退了他，讓副總統賀錦麗代他做總統候選人。習語“train of thought”是指你腦海中的思路。

吵耳的噪音也會打斷我的思路（train of thought）。眾所周知，特朗普常常突然由一個話題轉換至另一個完全不同、與原先話題毫不相關的話題。他這樣做的時候就會斷了思路（train of thought），忘了本來想說甚麼。上星期在紐約一個問答環節中，他被問到若他當選，會怎樣使兒童托管服務變得更便宜、讓人負擔得起。他從兒童托管轉了去說給入口貨物增加關稅，再說要令美國再次強大起來，再去說美國在拜登治下是個失敗的國家。他那兩分鐘的答覆非常令人困惑，變成了個「語詞沙律」（word salad）。

A word salad是東一句、西一句的雜碎拼湊，令其複雜難懂。拜登六月跟特朗普辯論時，他的回應亦是這種前言不搭後語的雜碎字句（word salads）。比二人年輕得多的賀錦麗，就很少會思路（train of thought）中斷，因為她曾經是政府的檢控官。但她最近有幾篇政治演說亦是東拉西湊的語句雜碎（word salads）。

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Michael Chugani褚簡寧
中譯：七刻