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Former US president George W. Bush topped a poll of the worst examples of mangled English released Wednesday, followed closely by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Donald Rumsfeld.
French footballer-cum-philospher Eric Cantona and former US president Bill Clinton also produced prime examples of gobbledegook, according to the online poll of 4,000 people inspired by the Plain English Campaign.
Notoriously language-challenged Bushromped to the top accolade for his: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
Second came to bodybuilder-turned-actor-turned-California governor Schwarzenegger, who during an election campaign in 2003 minted the puzzling: "I think that gay marriage should be between a man and a woman."
The rest of the top 10 in the poll, commissioned by an insurance company after it won an award from the Plain English Campaign, were:
3. Rumsfeld, in February 2002: "Reports that say that something hasn't happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns: the ones we don't know we don't know."
4. Murray Walker, motor racing commentator: "The lead car is absolutely unique, except for the one behind it which is identical."
5. John Motson, football commentator: "For those of you watching in black and white, Spurs are playing in yellow."
6. Prime Minister Gordon Brown, explaining budget plans to lawmakers in July this year: "Total spending will continue to rise and it will be a zero percent rise in 2013-14."
7. Clinton, in 1998 grand jury testimony about Monica Lewinsky: "It depends upon what the meaning of the word 'is' is. If 'is' means 'is and never has been' that's one thing -- if it means 'there is none', that was a completely true statement."
8. Cantona, 1995: "When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea."
9. Bush, July 2001: "I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what I believe -- I believe what I believe is right."
10. London mayor Boris Johnson, on British satirical gameshow "Have I Got News for You" in 2003: "I could not fail to disagree with you less."
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(Agencies)
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本周三公布的一項“不知所云語錄”調(diào)查顯示，美國前總統(tǒng)喬治?W?布什名列該榜首位，緊隨其后的是阿諾德?施瓦辛格和（美國前國防部長）唐納德?拉姆斯菲爾德。
這項在線調(diào)查的創(chuàng)意來自“簡明英語運動組織” ，共有四千人參加。法國足球運動員、哲學(xué)愛好者埃瑞克?坎通納和美國前總統(tǒng)比爾?克林頓也躋身該榜。
一直以“雷人”英語而著稱的小布什“輕而易舉”地奪得該榜冠軍，他的奪冠語錄是：“我們的敵人足智多謀，我們也是。他們從沒停止過想辦法來侵害我們的國家和人民，我們也沒有。”（Video）
亞軍得主是加利福尼亞州州長施瓦辛格，他在2003年的一次競選活動中冒出了這么一句讓人摸不著頭腦的話：“我認(rèn)為同性婚姻應(yīng)該是一男一女的結(jié)合。”施瓦辛格曾是一名健身教練，在競選成為加州州長之前曾做過演員。
這項民意調(diào)查由一家保險公司委托開展，之前該公司獲得了“簡明英語運動組織”頒發(fā)的一個獎項。該調(diào)查評選出的十大不知所云語錄還包括：
第三名，拉姆斯菲爾德于2002年2月所說的一段話：“媒體報道說我總是對尚未發(fā)生的事情感興趣，因為正如我們所知，世界上有一些已知的已知，有我們知道自己知道的事。我們也知道還有一些已知的未知，也就是說我們知道自己還有一些不知道的事情。但也有一些未知的未知，也就是那些我們不知道自己不知道的事物。”
第四名，賽道汽車賽評論員穆雷?沃爾克：“領(lǐng)頭的車絕對是獨一無二的，除了它后面的那輛和它一模一樣的車。”
第五名，足球評論員約翰?莫森：“看黑白電視的觀眾請注意，‘馬刺’隊穿的是黃色賽服。”
第六名，英國首相戈登?布朗；他于今年七月向立法委員解釋他的預(yù)算計劃時說：“總支出會繼續(xù)上升，到2013年至2014年將為零增長。”
第七名，克林頓；1998年他就莫妮卡?萊溫斯基事件在大陪審團(tuán)面前作證時說：“這一切都取決于‘是’這個字的意思。如果‘是’的意思是‘是且從未有過’，那是一種情況；如果‘是’意味著‘現(xiàn)在沒有’，那么該陳述就完全真實。”
第八名，坎通納，1995年語錄：“如果海鷗跟著拖網(wǎng)漁船，那是因為它們認(rèn)為沙丁魚會被扔進(jìn)海里。”
第九名，布什，2001年7月語錄：“我知道我的信仰是什么。我會繼續(xù)表明我的信仰，我的信仰就是——我相信我的信仰是正確的。”
第十名，倫敦市長波里斯?強(qiáng)森，2003年他在英國的諷刺性智力競賽節(jié)目《我?guī)淼男侣劇分姓f：“我不能給你更少的反對意見了。”
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（英語點津陳丹妮 姍姍編輯）
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