◎俞智敏
Surreal shades of "Alice in Wonderland" crept into Australia’s election campaign recently when Prime Minister Julia Gillard was forced to deny that "Mr. Rabbit" had appeared on the hustings.
澳洲國會大選最近突然冒出了幾許「愛麗絲夢遊仙境」的超現實色彩，因為總理吉拉德被迫否認「兔子先生」出現在造勢活動上。
The nation’s first woman leader was asked in a radio interview to answer charges that she was deliberately calling her opponent Tony Abbott "Mr. Rabbit" instead of Mr. Abbott.
這位澳洲首位女性領袖在電台訪問中，被要求回應她故意把競選對手艾伯特稱為「兔子先生」，而非艾伯特先生的指控。
But Gillard appeared genuinely baffled when asked to answer some listeners’ claims she was making a point of running the ’r’ of "mr" into the ’a’ of Abbott to give her rival a humorous new moniker.
但當被要求回答聽眾指稱她刻意把「先生」（mr）裡的字母r與艾伯特（Abbott）姓氏字首字母a連在一起唸，好替她的對手起一個可笑的新綽號時，吉拉德看起來真的非常困惑。
"Mr. Rabbit? What do you mean?" asked the leader who has in the past been criticised for her broad Australian style of speech.
「兔子先生？這是什麼意思？」這位領袖問道，她過去也曾因為說話時澳洲口音太重而招來批評。
When she was told that talkback radio listeners were speculating about her pronunciation of her conservative rival’s name, she said： "I wasn’t conscious of that at all. If I am doing it, I’m not intending to," she said adding very slowly and carefully that she would try to be more precise in the future.
當她被告知，政論廣播節目聽眾正猜測她對保守派對手姓名的發音時，她說，「我完全沒有意識到這件事。假如我有這樣唸，也絕非故意的。」她還用緩慢、謹慎的口氣表示，以後她會試著發音更標準一點。
In a campaign that features two candidates from opposite sides of the political spectrum offering broadly similar agendas, local media has frequently been forced to focus on minutiae and small details of the battle.
由於這場選戰中，兩位代表政壇相反立場的候選人提出的政見都大同小異，當地媒體經常被迫把焦點集中在選戰的枝微末節上。
新聞辭典
hustings： 複數名詞，指政見發表會場、選舉造勢演說與活動，如Three weeks before the election the candidates are all out on/at the hustings.（距離選舉僅剩三週，候選人紛紛在造勢活動中卯足全力拉票。）
make a point of sb/sth：片語，指刻意把某人或某事視為必要的、不可或缺的、特別注意某人或某事，如She made a point of thanking everyone in the department for their efforts.（她特地感謝部門裡所有人的努力。）
broad：形容詞，指帶有（某地）明顯口音或腔調的，如He spoke with a broad Australian accent.（他說話帶有很濃重的澳洲腔。）
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