純巧克力、黑巧克力，哪種你更喜歡？估計你在“純”或“黑”上稍加猶豫后，還是會毅然地選擇“黑”。為什么？因為“黑”字聽著酷！殊不知“純”者、“黑”者本來就是一種東西。

By Derwent May

莫琳梅 選注

Have you bought any chocolate digestives[1] lately? If you have been looking for plain chocolate[2] ones, rather than milk, you may have discovered that they are hard to find. What you will have found are dark chocolate digestives. “Plain” chocolate! Who could hope to sell such a thing in this day and age? “Dark” is what people want—biscuits full of mystery and romance.

We are living in a new age of euphemisms[3], all working of course, just as before, to persuade us that something is a little better than what it really is. A more sinister[4] one that has come into use lately is to be heard from firms trying to lend us money. What we are offered now is “flexible interest rates[5]”.

That “flexible” is quite subtle[6]. It really just means “variable”—but everyone knows that “variable interest rates” are almost bound to go up.[7] The phrase is a fairly honest warning that that might happen.

But “flexible”—that sounds like something quite different. We associate the word with people or proposals that are not rigid, that will bend a little to please us or accommodate us.[8] Who would not sooner have flexible rates than variable ones? But there is no difference.

Estate agents have always been notorious for their inventive euphemisms.[9] One much in use at the moment is “beautifully presented”, or even “superbly[10] presented”. “A beautifully presented, spacious Victorian house”[11] —what does it mean? Nothing. The only beautiful presentation is by the estate agent himself—and that is of no use when you find the house is a cheaply tarted-up[12] ruin.

In the poet D. J. Enright’s anthology of essays on euphemisms, wittily entitled Fair of Speech, David Pannick gives some examples of legal euphemisms used to seduce people.[13] Barristers are always called “counsel”, says Pannick, which suggests they are friends or confidants, not just professional lawyers.[14] Their fees after the first day are called “refreshers”—cleverly implying a physical need for what is merely another financial transaction.[15]

As Enright says in his introduction, euphemisms may be fair of speech, but they are often “foul of meaning and dishonest in intent”[16]. We can perhaps live without plain chocolate digestives—but all too often we still look in vain for plain speech.

Vocabulary

1. chocolate digestive: 巧克力消化餅干。

2. plain chocolate: = dark chocolate，純巧克力、黑巧克力，指不加牛奶的低糖巧克力，比加牛奶的巧克力更純，味道更好。本文作者認為商家之所以更青睞“黑巧克力”而非“純巧克力”這個名字，是因為“黑”字聽上去更神秘、更富浪漫色彩。

3. euphemism: 委婉語，委婉的說法。

4. sinister: 陰險的，邪惡的。

5. flexible interest rate: 彈性利率。

6. subtle: 微妙的，難以捉摸的。

7. variable: 可變的；be bound to: 一定會。

8. rigid: 僵硬的，死板的；accommodate: 順應，迎合。

9. estate agent: 房地產經紀人；notorious: 臭名昭著的；inventive: 富有創造力的。

10. superbly: 極好地。

11. 一幢外觀漂亮、空間寬敞的維多利亞時代的房子。

12. tarted-up: 粉飾的，裝飾的。

13. 詩人D. J. Enright邀請了16位著名的作家從不同方面對委婉語進行了深度剖析，并將研究結果集結成文集《說好聽的話》（Fair of Speech），于1985年出版。anthology: （詩、文等的）選集；wittily: 詼諧地；seduce: 誘惑，哄騙。

14. barrister: （英格蘭或威爾士可在高等法院出庭的）出庭律師，大律師；counsel: 辯護律師；confidant: 密友，知己。

15. 律師在第一天出庭之后的收費被委婉地稱為“refresher”（字面意思是“恢復精力的事物”），看似為滿足身體上的需要，實則不過是另一種收費。refresher: （因訴訟延長而補給律師的）額外訴訟費。律師第一天出庭的收費稱為“辯護委聘費”（brief），以后每一次出庭的收費稱為“額外訴訟費”，按日收取。

16. foul of meaning and dishonest in intent: 含義丑惡，意圖不誠。

（來源：英語學習雜志）