(单词翻译:单击)
听力文本
Now, Words and Their Stories, a VOA Learning English program about American expressions. I'm Anna Matteo with the expression, Catch-22.
Here is a situation: You want to find work. You find a job that you think you could do well. You ask for the job, but are told you cannot have it. The reason? You have not done that job before.
That is insane, you think. I cannot get the job because I have never done the work. How can I ever do the work if I cannot get the job? And that is the catch -- "Catch-22," to be exact.
The expression Catch-22 comes from the name of a book written in the 1960s by Joseph Heller. Catch-22 is the story of Captain John Yossarian, an imaginary Air Force flier in Europe in the closing months of World War II.
Yossarian is angry because so many people he never met are trying to kill him. He has to fly day after day to drop bombs on the Nazis who are trying to shoot down his plane. His commander keeps raising the number of times his men must fly before they can go home.
Yossarian searches for a way to stop flying.He finds an Air Force rule that says a soldier can be removed from flight duty if he is insane. Yossarian decides any soldier is insane if he is willing to put his life in danger by continuing to make dangerous flights.
He thinks he has found a way to save his life. But he learns there is a "catch" – a tricky condition — to that rule. Anyone who requests to be removed from flight duty because he no longer is willing to put his life in danger cannot claim to be insane. He must continue to fly.
(The book Catch-22 was made into a 1970 movie. Here is the scene where Captain Yosasarian learns about Catch-22.)
That was the "catch" in Catch-22. Catch-22 is often used today to describe what seems to be a reasonable solution that will not work because of an unreasonable condition.
The book Catch-22 has many other examples of Catch-22, of course. At one point, a prostitute, a woman who has sex for money, tells Yossarian that she cannot marry him because he is crazy. She says she will never marry a crazy man. And she considers any man who would marry a woman who has already had sex ... crazy.
This is a Catch-22 because as soon as a man agrees to marry her, he becomes crazy for wanting to marry a woman who has already had sex. So, she cannot marry him. She will remain unmarried until she changes the illogical condition that keeps her in her own Catch-22.
That is what happens in a Catch-22 situation -- no way out.
Here is another simple, real-life example. You want to borrow your parent's car for the night. You ask your mother. She says, "That is fine with me. But first, you must get permission from your father."
But when you ask your father, he says, "It is fine with me. But you must first get permission from your mother."
In other words, you are caught in a classic Catch-22, a trap used by some parents.
But you are not caught in Catch-22 if you want to learn English. Simply listen to VOA Learning English.
This VOA Learning English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Frank Beardsley. I'm Christopher Cruise.
And I'm Anna Matteo.
文本来自51voa，译文属可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
词汇解释
1.imaginary adj. 虚构的，假想的；想像的；虚数的
Lots of children have imaginary friends.
许多孩子都有假想的朋友。
2.insane adj. 疯狂的；精神病的；极愚蠢的
The doctor certified him insane.
医生确诊他精神失常。
3.prostitute vt. 使沦为妓女 adj. 卖淫的；堕落的 n. 妓女
He admitted last week he paid for sex with a prostitute.
他承认上星期曾和一名妓女有过性交易。
内容解析
1.In other words, you are caught in a classic Catch-22, a trap used by some parents.
catch in 被……困住，绊住
The men were caught in the act of digging up buried explosives.
那些人在挖掘掩埋的爆炸物时被逮个正着。
I wondered if it was an animal caught in a trap.
我在想，会不会是什么动物掉进了陷阱。
参考译文
这里是美国之音慢速英语词汇典故，我是安娜·马特奥，今天讲解Catch-22这个表达。
举个例子，你想找份工作，然后找到了你认为自己可以胜任的工作，你申请了这份工作，但你被告知你没有应聘上。理由何在？你以前没有做过这样的工作。
你想这肯定是疯了，你不能得到这份工作是因为你从未做过这种工作，如果不被录用，又怎么能做过这种工作呢？这就是所谓“陷入死循环”。
Catch-22这个表达来自约瑟夫·海勒于20世纪60年代写的一本书的书名，这本书讲述了约翰·约塞连上尉的故事，他是一位虚构的二战末期欧洲空军飞行员。
令约塞连很生气的是，很多他从未见过的人都在试图杀害他。他每天都不停地飞行，对那些试图将他的飞机击落的纳粹投掷炸弹，他的指挥官一直在提高其下属必须飞满才能回国的飞行次数。
约塞连想办法不再飞行，他找到一条空军规定，该规定称士兵如果发疯就可以不用履行飞行任务，约塞连认为，如果他愿意不停地飞行来让自己置于危险之地，那才是疯了。
他认为自己找到了活命的办法，但他意识到这条规定很棘手，任何因为不愿置自己于危险境地的人如果请求不再飞行，那么他就不能声称自己疯了。所以他必须继续飞行。
这就是第22条军规中的陷阱，如今Catch-22被用来描述那些看似合理，却因为不合理条件而不不管用的办法。
《第22条军规》这本书中还有很多逻辑陷阱，有一次，一名出卖身体的妓女告诉约塞连，她不能嫁给他，因为他疯了。她说她不会嫁给疯子的，她认为任何想娶已经有过性经历女人为妻的男人都是疯子。
这里就是自相矛盾，因为一旦一个男人愿意娶她，那么他因为娶已有过性经历的女人为妻，就是发了疯。所以，她不能与他结婚。她将保持单身，直到她改变这种让自己两难的不合逻辑条件。
这就是Catch-22的结果，就是没有出路。
这里有个生活中很简单的例子，你想今晚借用父母的车，你问母亲，她回答说，“我没问题，但首先你得先得到你父亲的许可。”
但你问你父亲时，他说，“我没问题，但你必须先得到你母亲的同意。”
也就是说，你处在一种经典的两难处境，这是一些父母经常使用的圈套。
但如果你想学英语，那你就不会陷入两难了，只需听美国之音即可。
这就是美国之音慢速英语词汇典故，作者弗兰克·比尔兹利，我是克里斯多夫·克鲁斯，我是安娜·马特奥。
