听力文本

Hello and welcome to the Voice of American Learning English program Words and Their Stories.

Do you have an enemy? Hopefully, you don't. An enemy is someone who hates you and you hate them back. An enemy threatens you, attacks you or tries to harm you.

In some languages, there are different words for a personal enemy versus an enemy of war, political enemy or enemy of the state.

In English, however, they are all called the same -- enemies.

We do have other words to describe an enemy. Adversary, foe and opponent are the most common.

However, if you do have enemies, I have some advice for you.

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." Many believe the Chinese military genius, Sun Tzu, wrote something like this in his book The Art of War. Others say Machiavelli wrote this sentence in The Prince.

We may not know for sure who said it first. But many know who said this line in the movie The Godfather II. Gangster boss Michael Corleone advises a member of his crime "family" on how to deal with an enemy who is causing trouble.

"My father taught me many things here. He taught me in this room. He taught me, ‘Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.'"

Here is another piece of advice, "An enemy of my enemy is my friend."

Let's say you have two enemies who also hate each other. If you are smart, you may be able to use their hatred of each other to get what you want.

Let's say you don't have a formal enemy. But what if you have a friend who treats you badly? People around you might say, "With a friend like that who needs enemies?" This expression means that if a friend treats you badly, they behave as an enemy. It also means you should get another friend.

We are supposed to hate our enemies. But when something is so bad, so terrible, we often say, "I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy." For example, "I was so sick last weekend! I wouldn't wish that flu on my worst enemy."

Public Enemy No. 1 is a status given to the worst criminals in the United States. During the Great Depression, John Dillinger was named Public Enemy No. 1. He was a killer, bank robber and the most feared gangster in the U.S. A gangster works in a group of people, like a network, or system.

Throughout the years several artists have borrowed this expression.

In 2009, Johnny Depp plays the famous gangster John Dillinger in the film titled Public Enemies.

An earlier film made in 1931 titled The Public Enemy is also a gangster film starring James Cagney.

Public Enemy is also a famous hip hop group that came out of Long Island, New York in the 1980s.

If you have many enemies, you may have to rank them in order of importance. Your archenemy is your main enemy. For example, "The two politicians were archenemies."

A great word that means the same as your archenemy is nemesis. A nemesis is an opponent that is very difficult to defeat. Your nemesis is always looking to destroy you.

Sometimes you don't need an enemy. Some people fail on their own. These types of people sometimes do not realize they are making things hard for themselves -- that they are their own worst enemy.

So, if you know someone like this, you can say to them, "Life is hard enough. Don't be your own worst enemy." I'm Anna Matteo.

重点解析

1.cause trouble 制造麻烦；搞事情
The real question is this: What happens if we try to cause trouble?
实际的问题是：如果我们企图制造麻烦，会发生什么情况呢？

2.worst enemy 最大的敌人
Unfortunately, I was my own worst enemy.
不幸的是，最大的敌人是我自己。

3.in order of 按...的顺序
The "good habits" are listed in order of priority, from most-important to least-important.
这些“好习惯”是按照优先顺序排列的，从最重要的习惯开始。

参考译文

欢迎收听VOA学英语《词汇掌故》节目。

你有敌人吗？但愿你没有敌人。敌人是指你们互相仇恨的人。敌人威胁你，攻击你或试图伤害你。

在一些语言中，个人之敌人与战场之敌人、政敌以及国家之敌人有着不同的词语。

然而在英语中，这些都称之为enemies。

我们也有一些其它词语用来描述敌人。最常见的就是adversary，foe和opponent。

然而如果你有敌人，我要给你一些建议。

“密切关注你的朋友，更要密切关注你的敌人。”许多人认为中国军事天才孙子在他的《孙子兵法》一书中有类似的说法。还有人称是马基雅维利在《君主论》中写了这样一句话。

我们可能无法确定到底这是谁先说的。但是很多人都知道谁在电影《教父II》中说了这句台词。黑帮老大迈克尔·科莱昂(Michael Corleone)建议他的犯罪家族成员之一如何处理搞事的敌人。

科莱昂说，“就在这间屋里，老头子教了我很多，他说：‘离朋友要近，离敌人要更近。’”

以下是另一条忠告，“敌人的敌人就是朋友。”

比如说，你有两个敌人，他们之间也互相仇视。如果你聪明的话，你可以利用他们的仇恨得到你想要的结果。

假如说你没有正经敌人。但是如果有一个朋友对你非常不好呢？你周围的人可能会说，“得友若此，生不如死。”这句话的意思是如果有朋友对你不好，他们就像是你的敌人。这也意味着你应该换个朋友。

我们应该仇恨我们的敌人。但是当事情非常糟糕可怕时，我们经常会说，“就算是我最大的敌人我也不希望他怎么样。” 例如，“上周我病得很厉害，就算是我最大的敌人我也不希望他感冒。”

头号全民公敌是美国最坏的罪犯享有的地位。在大萧条期间，约翰·迪林格（John Dillinger）被称之为头号全民公敌。他是一名杀手、银行抢劫犯以及美国最可怕的黑帮分子。黑帮分子结伙作案，他们就像是一个网络或系统。

这些年来，一些艺术家借用了这种说法。

2009年，约翰尼·德普（Johnny Depp）在《全民公敌》电影中扮演了最著名的黑帮分子约翰·迪格林。

1931年拍摄的一部名为《全民公敌》的早期电影也是黑帮电影，由詹姆斯·卡格尼（James Cagney）主演。

Public Enemy还是上世纪80年代从纽约长岛走出来的一个著名嘻哈组合的名称。

如果你有很多敌人，你可能需要根据重要性将他们排名。你的死敌（archenemy）是指你最大的敌人。例如，“这两位政治家是死敌。”

和死敌意思一样的词语就是克星（nemesis）。克星是指非常难以击败的对手。你的克星一直在寻求击垮你。

有时候你并不需要敌人。有人被自己打败。这类人有时候并没有意识到他们自己把事情搞得更加艰难，他们是自己最大的敌人。

所以如果你认识这样的人，你可以对他们说，“生活已够艰难，不要自我为难。”我是安娜·马特奥。