关注美国大选学英语：2012年美国大选专题>>>

Four debates and countless campaign stops later, voters have learned much about their candidates' positions, policies, and personalities. Or have they?
四场辩论结束美国总统大选即将收官，选民们对候选人的立场、政策和个性已经足够了解了。真是这样吗？

5 Things You Didn’t Know About Barack Obama
关于奥巴马你不知道的5件事

1. He learned not to sling mud from ...his mom.
他从母亲那里学会了不要诽谤他人

Although he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Barack Obama spent four years of his childhood in Indonesia. His mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, instilled in her young son a deep sense of respect, a particularly important value in Indonesian culture. Obama's sister opened up on this period of their lives for a New York Times story, and describes how even as children they adopted this Indonesian custom: "We were not permitted to be rude, we were not permitted to be mean, we were not permitted to be arrogant. We had to have a certain humility and broad-mindedness."
虽然出生在夏威夷的檀香山，奥巴马童年时期曾经在印度尼西亚生活了四年。他的母亲斯坦利·安·邓纳姆逐渐向年轻的儿子灌输了深深的尊重意识，这在印尼文化里是一种非常重要的价值观。奥巴马的姐姐在接受《纽约时报》的采访时曾经描述过他们那段时期的生活，提到了他们小时候养成的这种印尼的习惯：“我们不能举止粗鲁，不能心存邪念，不能傲慢自大。我们必须谦逊有礼、心胸开阔。”

2. His parents predicted his presidency.
他的父母预料到他会成为总统

Obama's mother always realized her son's potential, and told a friend from Hawaii she believed he could be president of the United States. One of Obama's teachers in Indonesia recounts a conversation between young Barry and his stepfather, Lolo. When Lolo asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up, Obama responded, "Oh, prime minister."
奥巴马的母亲一直看好儿子的潜能，她曾和一位夏威夷的朋友说过，她相信奥巴马会成为美国总统。奥巴马在印尼的一位老师回忆起小奥巴马和他的继父罗洛的一段对话。罗洛问奥巴马长大了想干什么，奥巴马回答说，“噢，想当首相。”

3. He's a poet (and we didn't know it).
他是一位诗人（而我们都不知道）

Journalist David Maraniss uncovered several of Obama's romantic correspondences for his book about the life of the President, Barack Obama: The Story. Obama's smooth words reveal the soft side of a young man in love. One such letter from 1983 to a one-time girlfriend, reported by Maraniss, describes New York City: "Moments trip gently along over here. Snow caps the bushes in unexpected ways, birds shoot and spin like balls of sound. My feet hum over the dry walks. A storm smoothes the sky, impounding the city lights, returning to us a dull yellow glow."
记者大卫·马拉尼斯在他记录总统生活的传记《巴拉克·奥巴马的故事》中披露了奥巴马的浪漫信件。奥巴马流畅的文字向我们展示了一个恋爱中的年轻人柔软的一面。马拉尼斯披露的一封他在1983年和前女友的信中这样描述纽约：“片刻时光的旅行在那儿悄悄延续。雪花用出乎意料的方式覆盖了灌木丛，被击中的鸟发出阵阵叫声，在空中旋转。我的双脚踏上这干燥的小路。一场风暴让天空平静，把城市的灯火熄灭，还给我们一片昏黄的光芒。”

4. Seinfeld, Suzanne Vega, and ...
经典美剧《宋飞正传》，著名女歌手苏珊·薇格，还有.......

Like most college students arriving in New York, Obama took up in a less-than-desirable apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side after transferring to Columbia University. To escape his living situation, where heat and hot water were in limited supply, Obama often went for breakfast with his roommate at Tom's Diner (the outside setting of Monk's, the Seinfeld characters' favorite meeting place).
和大多数来到纽约的大学生一样，奥巴马转入哥伦比亚大学后住在曼哈顿上西区的一所条件很差的公寓里。为了摆脱这种暖气和热水都限量供应的生活，奥巴马常常和他的室友去汤姆快餐店（就在蒙克快餐厅外面，系列喜剧《宋飞正传》里的主角最爱的见面地点）吃早餐。

5. His students got a preview of his presidency.
他的学生预先体验过他的总统魅力

Before he became the junior senator from Illinois, Obama taught for 12 years at the University of Chicago Law School, where he honed in his skills as a future politician. In the classroom he was easy-going, joking with students and interspersing movie references with case law. It wasn't until after Obama entered the political arena that his U. Chicago colleagues and students recognized themes of his campaign that had originated in the classroom.
在成为伊利诺伊州参议员之前，奥巴马在芝加哥大学法学院当了12年老师，在这里他磨练了未来从政的许多技巧。在课堂上奥巴马亲切随和，和学生开玩笑，穿插电影片段作为案例法的参考。直到奥巴马进入政坛，他在芝加哥大学的同事和学生才意识到，奥巴马竞选的主题就起源自当年的教室。