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Winston Churchill是個戰時領袖（war-time leader），他在面對德國的大規模進攻，而且在多方面都是以寡敵眾的情況下，要鼓勵國民奮力抵抗德國的方法，就是靠把口！原來這位prime minister不單是政治奇才，更是Nobel Prize Winner in Literature（諾貝爾文學獎得主），用字精警。他最出名的war-time speech（戰時演說）正正顯出他大文豪的風範：
But if we fail, then the whole world, including the United States, including all that we have known and cared for, will sink into the abyss of a new Dark Age made more sinister, and perhaps more protracted, by the lights of perverted science. Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duties, and so bear ourselves that if the British Empire and its commonwealth last for a thousand years, men will say, "This was their finest hour."
邱吉爾總動員英國國民要堅守各人的崗位，齊心協力對抗納粹德國的入侵。而最後的那句是整個演說的精粹：「如果大英帝國及所有英聯邦國家能再繼續1,000年，人們將會說：『那正是他們最美好的日子。』」其實finest hour不單是指最美好的時光，還有盡了最大努力（best effort）和崇高行為（noble deeds）的意思。
你能在很多英文報紙中看到這個表達。倫敦奧運中，英國健兒在運動場上比賽奪得獎牌，BBC的體育版即用了finest hour作他們的頭條：Ennis, Farah and Rutherford give Great Britain athletics its finest hour.（之二）■岑皓軒騎呢領隊
作者簡介：岑皓軒，畢業於英國Imperial College London，著有親子育兒書《辣媽潮爸哈哈B》及與馬漪楠合著暢銷書《Slang：屎爛英語1&2》等。
隔星期三見報
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