美国大选初期辩论是“欢乐时光”？

2016年美国大选两党内部的候选人辩论自去年9月开始，陆续爆出各种热议话题，各位候选人有关移民、枪支管控，恐怖主义等话题的言论也多次在媒体引发讨论。从学英语的角度来看，他们的辩论阶段其实也产生了一些新的词汇表达，我们今天选两个来看一看。

The kids' table 儿童桌

The implication of the term kids' table or kiddie table is that the candidates in the early meeting have not yet grown up enough to be included among the adults in the primetime debate. Ironically, though, the level of discussion in the early debates has often been judged to be more thoughtful and substantive than that in the main event, perhaps due to the smaller number of voices and the less manic atmosphere.

“儿童桌”这个说法的含义是：选举初期参与辩论的候选人还不够成熟老道，无法进入后期的黄金时段辩论。讽刺的是，初期辩论中的话题探讨水平往往被认为比核心辩论阶段有思想、有实质内容，或许是因为发言人数不多，气氛也不太狂躁吧。

For example:

[Carly Fiorina's] dominant showing at the ‘kid's table' in the first GOP debate earned her a spot at the main event for the second.

卡莉·菲奥莉娜在共和党第一场“儿童桌”辩论中的强势表现为她赢得了第二场辩论中的席位。

——Atlantic Online, 17 November, 2015

The happy hour debate 欢乐时光辩论

Senator Lindsay Graham, who has yet to grace the main stage this year, is credited with coining the term ‘happy hour debate', alluding to the late afternoon starting time of the event. To judge from the shockingly high number of Google hits for ‘republican debate drinking game', many Americans are taking the notion of a happy hour debate literally.

共和党参议员格雷厄姆尚未在辩论中有什么出彩的表现，不过，他还是有一个贡献，那就是造出了“欢乐时光辩论”（happy hour debate）这个词，借此暗指辩论在午后开始的时间。从谷歌搜索中有关“共和党辩论喝酒游戏”的大量惊人数据来看，很多美国人都把这个“欢乐时光”当真了。

Happy hour指饭店、酒吧等场所在特定时段，一般是下班后5点到8点左右，提供优惠价格饮食的营销方式。

For example:

Well, when I'm in the first debate, which is the happy hour debate, at five o'clock, start drinking. By nine o'clock, Donald may make sense to you if you drink enough.

嗯，我参加第一场辩论的时候，是五点开始，那是一场欢乐时光辩论，你们就开喝。到了九点，如果你喝的够多的话，川普说的话可能听着就有点道理了。

——Senator Lindsay Graham, 1 August 2015