The sophistication of federal lawmakers' speech patterns is on the decline, with members of Congress now talking, on average, at the level of high school sophomores. According to a new report by the Sunlight Foundation, Congress has fallen by almost a full grade-level since 2005.
根据美国阳光基金会发布的一份调查显示，现在美国联邦议员讲话的用词复杂性正不断下降，美国国会议员们如今的讲话水平仅仅相当于高二学生，几乎比2005年的调查结果降了整整一个年级。
The members speaking at the lowest grade levels tend to be freshmen Republicans.
新当选的共和党议员们的讲话水平是最差的。
As NPR noted on Monday, "Of the 10 members speaking at the lowest grade level, all but two are freshmen, and every one is a Republican." That measurement is for all speeches since 1996.
美国国家公共之声在周一说：“在10名被认为讲话水平最差的议员中，有8个是新当选的议员，并且全都是共和党议员。”这项调查是基于议员们从1996年以来所有讲话的基础上进行的。
Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) clocks in at the lowest grade-level: 7.9 in this Congress.
共和党议员Mick Mulvaney是所有国会议员中，讲话水平最差的议员，他的讲话水平仅相当于7.9年级的学生，还不如一个初二的学生。
"I was trained to write in a clear and concise fashion, and you didn't use big words if small words would do," Mulvaney, who graduated with honors from Georgetown and earned a law degree from the University of North Carolina, told NPR. "Certainly I'm not trying to dumb down the message by any stretch of the imagination."
Mulvaney曾经在乔治城大学获得学士学位，并在北卡罗来纳大学获得法律学位。他说：“我在可以使用短词的时候不会使用长词，因为我一直接受用清晰简洁的风格来写作。当然我也没有挖空心思地去刻意降低我讲话的难度。”
Before 2005, Republicans spoke, on average, at a slightly higher grade level than Democrats. Since then, Democrats have been slightly higher.
在2005年之前，共和党议员在讲话的平均水平上比民主党议员要好。但从那之后，民主党议员的说话水平开始高于共和党议员。
Sunlight also found that members of Congress rarely use the 100 most common SAT words, which are likely very familiar to high school students.
阳光基金会同时发现，国会议员们极少实用最常见的100个SAT考试词汇，这些词汇对高中生而言是非常熟悉的。
The most commonly used SAT word was, ironically, "compromise." It has been used 1,820 times in this Congress as of the end of April. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has used it more than anyone else.
颇具讽刺意味的是，国会议员们最常使用的SAT词汇是“妥协”。这个词在2012年1月至4月底，就已经被使用了1820次。参议院多数党领袖Harry Reid是国会中使用这个词最多的人。