“這里錯了！”：英語老師糾正特朗普簽名信錯誤
一封有特朗普總統(tǒng)簽名的信上寫滿了評語。
In the top left corner: “Have y’all tried grammar & style check?”
左上角寫著：“你們都做過語法和格式檢查嗎?”
At the top right: “Federal is capitalized only when used as part of a proper noun.”
右上角寫著：“Federal(聯(lián)邦)只有用在專有名詞中的時候才大寫。”
And toward the bottom: “OMG this is WRONG!”
信的下方寫著：“我的天哪，這里錯了!”
The letter, dated May 3 and printed on White House stationery, was addressed to Yvonne Mason, 61, a former high school English teacher who retired last year but hadn’t quite left “grading-paper mode,” she said on Sunday.
這封信打印在白宮抬頭的信紙上，信上注明的日期是5月3日，是寫給現年61歲的伊馮娜·梅森(Yvonne Mason)的。曾是高中英語老師的梅森于周日表示，她雖然已在去年退休，但還沒完全脫離“閱卷模式”。
So when she received the letter in the mail, she pulled out her go-to purple pen and started making corrections. Then she snapped a picture, posted the letter on Facebook and mailed it back to the White House.
因此在收到寄來的信后，她就拿出自己常用的紫色鋼筆開始修改。然后，她拍了一張照片，把這封信發(fā)在了Facebook上，然后把它寄回白宮。
“It was a poorly worded missive,” she said. “Poor writing is not something I abide. If someone is capable of doing better, then they should do better.”
“它是一封措辭糟糕的信函，”她說。“我受不了糟糕的文章。如果有人能夠寫得更好，那他們就應該做到。”
Ms. Mason, a Democrat who lives in Atlanta, had written to Mr. Trump to ask that he visit each family of those who died in the shooting that killed 17 people at a school in Parkland, Fla., in February.
梅森是一名民主黨人，住在亞特蘭大。她曾寫信給特朗普，要求他看望在佛羅里達州帕克蘭校園槍擊案中所有遇難者的家人，該事件發(fā)生在2月，造成17人死亡。
“I had written to them in anger, to tell you the truth,” she said. “I thought he owed it to these grieving families.”
“說實話，我是懷著憤怒的心情給他們寫信的，”她說。“我覺得他應該去看望這些傷心的家人。”
The letter she received did not address her concerns, she said. Instead, it listed a series of actions taken after the shooting, like listening sessions, meetings with lawmakers and the STOP School Violence Act, a bill that would authorize $500 million over 10 years for safety improvements at schools but had no provisions related to guns.
她說，她收到的回信沒有提到她關切的事，只是列出了事件發(fā)生后采取的一系列行動，如聆聽會、與立法者召開的會議以及《制止校園暴力法案》(STOP School Violence Act)。該法案授權在10年內撥付五億美元(約合32億元人民幣)用于改善學校的安全，但沒有和槍支相關的條款。
Then there were the grammatical errors.
然后還有語法錯誤。
“Nation” was capitalized, so was “states.” Ms. Mason circled both. “nation”(國家)大寫了，“ states”(州)也是。
梅森把這兩個詞圈了出來。
A sentence about a “rule” banning devices that turn legal guns into illegal machine guns was unclear. “Explain ‘rule,’” she wrote.
一個句子里寫著，某項“規(guī)章”禁止使用把合法槍支改造為非法機關槍的裝置，這句話表達不清楚。“解釋一下‘規(guī)章’，”她寫道。
There was more. Much more.
還有很多很多。
“If my students turned that in they would get exactly the same marks,” she said.
“如果我的學生把這樣的作業(yè)交上來，他們會得到完全一樣的分數。”
But she didn’t correct everything. 但她并沒有糾正所有錯誤。
“I did not mention the dangling modifier,” she said. “I focused mainly on mechanics.”
“我沒有還提垂懸修飾語錯誤，”她說。“我主要關注結構。”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
白宮沒有立即回復記者的置評請求。
The letter stood in contrast to other letters she has received from politicians, Ms. Mason said. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, sent “beautiful” letters that struck a tone that “makes me more important than him,” she said.
梅森說，這封信與她從其他政治人物那里收到的來信形成鮮明對比。南卡羅來納州共和黨參議員林賽·格雷厄姆(Lindsey Graham)寄來的信語言“優(yōu)美”，信中的語氣“顯得我比他更重要”，她說。
She has written to several legislators in South Carolina, where she taught Advanced Placement English language and composition.
她給南卡羅來納州的多名立法者寫過信。退休前，她在該州教大學先修課程英語和寫作。
Following up on a New Year’s resolution, she has written a postcard to the White House every day since Jan. 1, she said.
她說，從今年1月1日開始，她每天給白宮寫一張明信片，這是她的新年計劃。
When she was teaching, she wanted to show her students that their voices mattered, even if they weren’t old enough to vote, she said.
她說，當老師的時候，她想讓學生知道，他們的聲音很重要，即使他們還不到投票的年齡。
“You’re important. You need to be a part of this, you need to pay attention to what’s going on,” she said.
“你們很重要。你們必須參與其中，必須關注正在發(fā)生的事情，”她說。
When word spread about the corrected letter she had sent to the White House, Ms. Mason received hundreds of messages from people across the country — some positive (a lawyer in Houston wanted to know if she would be interested in looking over his appellate briefs) and others venomous (one person suggested she “must be a lonely bitter hag with a lot of cats”).
當她把修改后的信寄回白宮的消息傳開后，梅森收到了全美各地發(fā)來的成百上千條訊息。一些是肯定的(休斯頓的一名律師想知道她是否有興趣檢查他的上訴摘要)，另一些言語惡毒(有人說她“肯定是一個養(yǎng)著很多貓，孤獨、惡毒的丑老太婆”)。
But Ms. Mason wasn’t focusing on the negativity.
但梅森并不關注負面言論。
“Let them have their day, bless their little hearts,” she said. “They aren’t changing my mind.”
“就讓他們自娛自樂吧，那些可憐蟲，”她說。“他們不會改變我的想法。”
