snap

繼2月25日晚, 泰國總理他信突然宣布解散國會下議院，提前舉行選舉的消息傳出后，泰國政局可以說是罩上了濃濃迷霧。針對他信的"提前選舉"決議，泰國三個反對黨--民主黨、泰國黨、群眾黨于26日宣布要求政改，向他信發難。同時，在曼谷的皇家田廣場，大規模反他信及現政府的示威游行活動仍在舉行。

請看路透社的相關報道：Three Thai opposition parties met separately on Sunday to debate whether to boycott asnapgeneral election as Buddhist monks and nuns led members of the "Dharma Army" to a rally against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The opposition coalition handed an "ultimatum" to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, demanding him to join in constitution amendment and political reform.

報道中的snap（突然的）更強調事件的"突發性"，a snap general election意思是"倉促的大選"，與他信所做決定的"突然；急促"相契合。Snap在這里是形容詞形式，相當于sudden（突然的），如：It's risky to make snap judgments（倉促做出判斷是危險的）。

日常，我們習慣用snap的動詞形式，意味"to break suddenly and sharply off or in two parts"（突然中斷；斷成兩截），舉個例子：He snapped the chocolate in half（她把巧克力一掰兩半）。因為snap本身強調動作的"短促"性，我們可以得到其它與之相關的引申義：The journalist snapped the film star as she was getting into her car（當那個電影明星鉆進車門的一霎那，記者按下了快門）; He snapped at the child（他連聲喝斥這個小孩）；It's a real bargain, you should snap it up（這東西真便宜，你應該趕快買下來）。