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President Bush at APEC
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President Bush had a terrible, horrible day at the Sydney Opera House Friday, confusing APEC with OPEC and transforming Australian troops into Austrians.
Bush's tongue started slipping almost as soon as he started talking at a business forum on the eve of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Sydney.
"Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction," he told Prime Minister John Howard. "Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit."
As the audience of several hundred people erupted in laughter, Bush corrected himself and joked, "He invited me to the OPEC summit next year." Australia has never been a member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.
Later in his speech, Bush recounted how Howard had gone to visit "Austrian troops" last year in Iraq. There are, in fact, no Austrian troops there. But Australia has about 1,500 Australian military personnel in and around the country.
Upon finishing his speech, Bush took the wrong way off-stage and, looking slightly perplexed, had to be re-directed by Howard to a centre-stage exit.
Bush is no stranger to the occasional faux pas, and often jokes about his habit of mangling the English language.
One of his highest-profile gaffes came in May when, at a welcoming ceremony for Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, he nearly placed her in the 18th century.
Then there was the famous incident at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg in 2006 when Bush, unaware he was on camera, greeted British Prime Minister Tony Blair with the words "Yo Blair."
Bush's sometimes muddled syntax and mispronunciation of words like nuclear ("nukular") have long been fodder for late-night TV comedians. But aides say his folksy style has helped endear him to Middle America.
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(Reuters) |
上周五，布什總統在悉尼歌劇院度過了十分糟糕的一天，他竟然把APEC說成了OPEC，還把“澳大利亞軍隊”變成了“奧地利軍隊”。
布什總統在悉尼APEC峰會前夕召開的一個經濟論壇上幾乎是一開口說話，就犯起了錯。
他對澳大利亞總理約翰?霍華德說：“總理先生，謝謝你的介紹。謝謝你把OPEC峰會辦得這么好。”
下面幾百名聽眾聽了布什的這番話后一陣爆笑，布什連忙糾正自己、開玩笑說：“他邀請我參加明年的OPEC峰會。”而澳大利亞壓根不是“歐佩克”（石油輸出國組織）的成員國。
之后，布什總統還說起了霍華德總理去年前往伊拉克探訪“奧地利軍隊”的事。然而，伊拉克并沒有奧地利軍隊駐扎，倒是在國內及周邊地區駐有大約1500名澳大利亞軍人。
布什發表完演講后準備下臺時，還走錯了路，看上去有些不知所措的總統先生最后還是被霍華德總理從臺中央的出口處領了下去。
布什總統愛犯口誤已不是什么新鮮事，他也常常自嘲自己愛說錯話的毛病。
布什總統犯過的一個最“高級”的口誤是今年5月在英國女王伊麗莎白二世的歡迎儀式上，他差點讓女王老了兩百歲。
還有一次“著名事件”發生于2006年在圣彼得堡召開的八國首腦會議上，當時布什總統沒意識到現場有攝像機，于是在問候英國首相布萊爾時竟說了句“嗨！布萊爾”。
布什總統有時說起話來顛三倒四，還會出現發音錯誤，比如，將nuclear發成nukular，這些都成為美國午夜喜劇的素材。但布什的助手們稱，他那自然無拘束的風格倒是深受美國中產階級的喜愛。
（英語點津姍姍編輯）
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