We received a letter from the Writers War Board the other day asking for a statement on "The Meaning of Democracy." It presumably is our duty to comply with such a request and it is certainly our pleasure.
前些時候，我們收到作家戰爭委員會的一封來信.信中他們要求我們闡述一下“民主的意義”一回答這樣的問題似乎確是我們的責任之一，當然我們也非常樂意于回答這個問題。
Surely the Board knows what democracy is. It is the fine line that forms on the right. It is don’t in don’t shove. It is the hole in the stuffed shirt through which the sawdust slowly trickles. It is the dent in the high hat. Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time. It is the feeling of privacy in the voting booths, the feeling of communion in the libraries, the feeling of vitality everywhere. Democracy is a letter to the editor. Democracy is the score at the beginning of the ninth. It is an idea that hasn’t been disproved yet, a song the words of which have not gone bad. It is the mustard on the hot dog and the cream in the rationed coffee. Democracy is a request from a War Board in the middle of the morning in the middle of a war. Wanting to know what democracy is.
委員會必定已經知曉了民主是什么東西它就是以右排為基準，全隊看齊;他是先來后到，不準推搡;它是繡花枕頭上的一個洞，鋸末就從其中慢慢撒出來;它還是高頂禮帽上的凹陷：民主是一個一直飽受質疑的論斷：大多數在大多時候都是正確的。它還是投票室里那種私密的感覺，那種自由如影隨形的感覺，那種到處充滿生機和活力的感覺它是給編輯的一封信，它是貝多芬第九交響曲開始的樂譜。它是一種還沒有證偽的信念，一首歌詞還沒有變味兒的歌曲它是熱狗上的芥末和定量配給‘的咖啡上的奶油民主是在戰爭時期的一個早晨，戰爭委員會要求知道民主是什么。
英語學習筆記:
1 .It presumably is our duty to comply with such a request, and it is certainly our pleasure.
英語點睛：本句的presumably 一詞將幽默和戲謔的意味表露無疑
2. Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time,
英語點睛：這個句子很糾結，要注意省略的部分。
3. Democracy is a request from a War Board, in the middle of the morning in the middle of a war, wanting to know what democracy is.
英語點睛：連用兩個in the middle of，產生在語氣上的詼諧和語感上的優美。
學習更多：
1. The past year has presumably, been kind to those with low testosterone levels.
(談論金融危機)看來，對于那些睪丸素水平較低的人來說，過去的一年還算不錯=
2.Nuclear power accounts for more than one-half of South Carolina’s electricity generation.
(能源問題)南卡一半以上的電力來自于核能，
3.Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.
(《北非諜影》的經典臺詞)世上有那么多的城鎮，城鎮有那么多的酒館，她卻走進了我的。
