[ti:How to Win an Election] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:07.64]And now the VOA Learning English program -- Words and Their Stories. [00:14.32]On this show, we explore common expressions in American English. [00:19.92]Today we talk about expressions related to the biggest contest [00:25.12]in the United States – the election of the American president. [00:30.20]Well, except for the first election. [00:38.32]That was not much of a contest. [00:41.96]On February 4, 1789, all 69 members of Congress voted for George Washington. [00:51.36]Supposedly, Washington didn't even want to be president. [00:57.24]John Adams was the runner-up. [01:00.72]So, according to the rules at the time, [01:03.64]Adams became Washington's vice president. [01:08.68]Elections these days are much harder to win. [01:13.60]They can last for years and cost millions and millions of dollars. [01:21.32]So it is not surprising that there are many expressions [01:26.24]to describe the race for the White House. [01:29.76]That expression, in fact, is one of them. [01:35.04]We often call political elections races, [01:39.05]a word you probably know from sports. [01:44.28]Many expressions we use for political campaigns [01:48.28]are borrowed from sports competitions. [01:52.56]In fact, sometimes we just cut to the chase [01:57.24]and call the presidential election, a horse race. [02:01.31]If the race is close, we can say the candidates are neck-and-neck. [02:08.80]This horse racing term means the two candidates are nearly tied in the polls [02:14.84]and a winner is difficult to predict. [02:19.60]We call such a race – political or otherwise – a dead heat. [02:25.81]In the early part of an election cycle when a party is picking its nominee, [02:32.64]usually many candidates are in the running. [02:37.16]Sometimes a candidate pulls away from the pack and becomes the clear favorite. [02:44.72]These two terms also come from horse racing. [02:49.12]So does down to the wire. [02:53.36]In a horse race, the horses race to the finish [02:57.28]and run through a wire as they cross the finish line. [03:02.68]A presidential race that is down to the wire is very close. [03:08.24]The only way to know the winner is to wait for all the votes to be counted. [03:15.40]If a candidate wins the election by a large margin [03:19.87]-- that is to say won by many, many votes [03:23.72]-- he or she has won hands down. [03:27.48]We also say the race was a landslide. [03:33.04]Or you could say the race was simply no contest. [03:39.08]These expressions all mean a candidate won easily. [03:45.20]But if a candidate loses an election by a big margin, [03:50.28]we could say that campaign got blown out of the water, [03:55.36]as if by a submarine torpedo. [03:59.60]Or we might say simply that the candidate got crushed at the polls. [04:06.12]More informally, we might also say the candidate got beat like a rug, [04:12.16]which is visually entertaining. [04:16.52]Some candidates lose an election [04:19.08]because they are unwilling to toe the party the line. [04:23.60]In other words, they refuse to go along with the rules [04:27.92]and standards of their own political party. [04:32.68]This may upset the candidate's base [04:35.96]-- the people who usually support that party. [04:40.24]The opposite of toeing the party line is reaching across the aisle. [04:47.88]In the U.S., the two major parties are the Democrats and the Republicans. [04:54.28]In this expression, the "aisle" refers to the actual physical walkway [05:00.08]that divides the legislative halls. [05:03.52]Members of the two parties sit on opposite sides. [05:09.04]So "to reach across the aisle" means to make an effort [05:13.44]to negotiate with members who are not in your party. [05:18.36]Many politicians win elections because of their willingness [05:23.12]to work with members of the opposing party. [05:27.52]On the other hand, some politicians lose for the same reason. [05:33.37]Voters can, sometimes, be very difficult to predict. [05:40.04]And that brings us to the end of another Words and Their Stories. [05:44.52]I'm Anna Matteo. [05:46.28]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM