听力文本

These counties were almost all white , relatively poor
还有一些大部分居民为白人，相对贫困的区域
A lot of them are coal mining areas where some are and some aren't but actually it didn't matter
这些县多为产矿区，也有些区域不是，不过这都没关系
It didn't matter if you unionize that didn't come into play
矿区工人有没有工会化并不会有很大影响
And so, it looks for a long time like it was no way West Virginia would vote for Obama
从这幅图来看奥巴马要得到西弗吉尼亚的支持看似遥遥无期
But it's interesting to look at those trend lines
观察该州的选情走向线是很有趣的
Trend lines that has recently across, Obama ahead slightly. at least, by most polls I've looked at
两党支持线逐渐靠近然后重合。现在奥巴马已经略微领先。至少我所见的大部分民意调查都是如此
So pretty interesting patterns looking at the Virginia's
所以弗吉尼亚地区的选情很受关注
I just have two more maps from today
我这还有两份今天才出炉的地图
It's interesting from map to map
在地图和地图间比较很有趣
You'll see different patterns
你能看到不同的格局
So this map from today is showing West Virginia and Virginia both as weakly democratic trending
今天的这幅地图显示西弗吉尼亚和弗吉尼亚都略微倾向民主党
It's showing North Dakota as strongly republican trending
北达科他州则明显支持共和党
but then here is the Electoralvote, another polling operation
再来看看Electoralvote发布的地图，这是另一个民意调查机构
showing North Dakota as weakly democratic trending, with the blue outline there
这幅图则显示北达科他州略微倾向民主党，是用蓝色轮廓表示的
It's also showing West Virginia and both Virginia as moderately democratic trending
同时该图也显示西弗吉尼亚和弗吉尼亚都是略微倾向民主党的
and it's only showing Missouri as, boy, smack dab in the middle no particular leader
而图中的密苏里州正中间那块白色区域，没有倾向任一位候选人
Those are my maps and that's my talk for today
这就是今天要给你们看的地图。今天的课先讲到这儿
We do have about 20 minutes for general discussion
我们有20分钟讨论的时间

I would like have some time in the class and we can just talk over these issues
我想在课上用一些时间一起探讨一些问题
One thing I found in these classes
我发现这个课堂上
The audience knows an awful lot of them
听课的学生知识都很渊博
and there is plenty of issues where the audience knows more than I do
在很多事情上，你们甚至了解的比我还多
So I'd like to hear from you
所以我很想听听你们的意见
Yes, ok the question is the fairness of the electoral college system
他的问题是选举人团制度的公平性
Yes, indeed. ok so it's obviously based on population
众所周知，每个州按人口多少确定票数
but if you multiply the population of North Dakota to get California, It's not three to fifty-five
但如果你按比例计算北达科他和加州的人口比，并不是3:55
We have 38,000,000people here and we have 620,000 over here
加州有三千八百万人口，北达科他只有62万人口
So it's the population disparity as much great than the electoral vote disparity
实际上他们在人口上的比例（1:61）比选票上的比例差距大得多
Three is the minimum, you have one member in the house, two senators, you get three electoral votes
但3票是一州选举人数的下限，众议员一票 ，两个参议员一人一票，一个州至少有3票选举人票

视频及简介

本课程结合大量地图，探索了美国总统大选（包括过去和现在）中的地理学，并且对仅仅简单把美国分为红州（共和党）和蓝州（民主党）这一说法提出挑战。现实中，美国社会两党的情况，远比这种简单的两分法要复杂。