日本高清色视频在线视频在,国产香蕉97碰碰视频碰碰看,丰满少妇av无码区,精品无码专区在线,久久无码专区免费看,四虎欧美精品永久地址99,亚洲色无码一区二区三区

您現(xiàn)在的位置: Language Tips> Columnist> Zhang Xin  
 





 
Read between the lines
[ 2007-09-07 14:37 ]

Scanning Salon.com, I came across a good example for explaining the idiom "read between the lines", which has been a topic I want to address for some time.

First, definition. To read between the lines is to guess someone's real feelings and meanings from something they actually write.

Political observers understand this perfectly. If, say, a politician is reported to have resigned because of "personal" reasons, you can often be sure that the said politician has just been removed from power, and perhaps brutally. He's the loser of the latest round of power struggle. In other words, the reasons are anything but "personal". Similarly, if someone has done the same for "health" problems, you can be certain they are NOT ill. He has no physical ailment but may develop one later – "health" problems may catch up with him soon if he can't successfully deal with the depression he suffers from being sacked.

Likewise, when a government spokesman says that the leadership is one of "unity and harmony", you can infer pretty safely that the leaders can't stand each other.

In diplomatic writing, we often see meetings between heads of governments described as "frank", "cordial" and so forth. Cordial means that the leaders are exchanging pleasantries only – telling each other what they want to hear. If the discussion is described as "frank", on the other hand, that means the leaders hate each other and are making sure the other person knows it. The Economist magazine, for example, routinely describes "frank discussion" as "a diplomat's word for a fallout," or fierce quarrels short of "trading blows" and "dispatching gunboats", also Economist terminologies. Next, the very "diplomat" may be expelled for involving in "activities deemed incompatible with his status", which is euphemism, usually for spying.

That's exaggerating it, I know. But, with media increasingly owned and controlled by fewer people and fewer interest groups, isn't it better to err on the side of caution? You'd better stay aware and alert of these things so as not to be taken for a ride. The public needs a healthy cynicism regarding TV, newspapers as well as anything from cyberspace. After all, propaganda does two things, usually simultaneously – it propagates some facts and ideas while it goes out of its way to hide others.

Anyways, the latest example I have concerns a Financial Times report about China. It is alarmingly titled "Chinese military hacked into Pentagon".

"Sounds like the 'China threat' is very much alive!", writes Andrew Leonard in his How The World Works column. Leonard read in between the lines of the FT report on Tuesday and saw the other side of the story, as is evidenced by the way he titles his article – "U.S. military routinely hacks into Chinese networks".

That's exactly what he read in between the lines of the FT report. Leonard says:

 How the World Works doesn't doubt that the dance between the world's preeminent superpower, the U.S., and the No. 1 contender for the throne, China, could someday turn into an ugly showdown. But the Financial Times' choice for a headline, "Chinese military hacked into Pentagon," could be accused of rhetorical alarmism, and not just because most of the information accessed during the attack appears to have been unclassified.

Later in the same article:

The PLA regularly probes U.S. military networks – and the Pentagon is widely assumed to scan Chinese networks – but U.S. officials said the penetration in June raised concerns to a new level because of fears that China had shown it could disrupt systems at critical times.

Scan? Scan? What does that mean?Is it the same as "probe"? Or could one even say, "The Pentagon is widely assumed to regularly hack into Chinese networks"?

And:

        An editorial in the Financial Times running along with its "scoop" even observes:

Yet it is probably also right to assume that the U.S. and other western governments are busy infiltrating the computer systems of foreign governments. It is therefore disingenuous to complain too vigorously when those same foreign governments become good at doing it back.

Infiltrating? Isn’t that the same as "hacking"? Or, to be semiotically precise, "cracking"?

Yes, it's a fine world for the West to "infiltrate" Chinese systems because they're just "scanning". The world becomes dangerous (to the present international powers that be, that is) if countries like China begin to be "doing it back". Then the "scanning" becomes "hacking".

The real danger is a world to be run by a single voice. And the biggest danger is if you can't read between the lines.

 

About the author:
 

Zhang Xin is Trainer at chinadaily.com.cn. He has been with China Daily since 1988, when he graduated from Beijing Foreign Studies University. Write him at: zhangxin@chinadaily.com.cn, or raise a question for potential use in a future column.

 
 
相關(guān)文章 Related Stories
 
         
 
 
 
 
 
         

 

 

 
 

48小時(shí)內(nèi)最熱門

     
  “交通協(xié)管員”怎么說(shuō)
  Loose cannon:無(wú)視規(guī)矩的人
  事實(shí)勝于雄辯
  癡情的祈禱:My prayer
  Click《人生遙控器》(精講之八)

本頻道最新推薦

     
  Read between the lines
  “中山門”在英語(yǔ)里究竟應(yīng)該怎么表達(dá)
  Learning the value of money
  Cold turkey: Can you dig it?
  是故意“不顧”還是“顧不上”?

論壇熱貼

     
  怎么翻譯“你冤枉我”?
  “不服” 怎么翻譯
  how to say “舉手之勞”
  參加BBC在線競(jìng)賽 獲免費(fèi)倫敦游機(jī)會(huì)!
  Penny for your thoughts?
  怎么翻譯‘公益廣告'






<strong id="xdwva"><div id="xdwva"></div></strong>
<label id="xdwva"></label>

<thead id="xdwva"></thead>
    <label id="xdwva"></label>

  1. 日本高清色视频在线视频在,国产香蕉97碰碰视频碰碰看,丰满少妇av无码区,精品无码专区在线,久久无码专区免费看,四虎欧美精品永久地址99,亚洲色无码一区二区三区 久久九九久精品国产日韩经典 国产国语国拍精品 啊v在线观看高清无码 视频一区二区欧美 久久精品爱爱唉爱