丘吉爾的四個秘密

曉菲

溫斯頓·丘吉爾（1874—1965）是一位非常受民眾愛戴的英國首相。他出身于貴族家庭，父親曾擔任英國財政大臣。提起丘吉爾，很多人最熟知的莫過于他叼著雪茄的嚴肅形象。事實上，這位偉人還有一些鮮為人知的秘密，比如別致的抽雪茄的方式、在白宮的特殊“裝扮”等。

Cigars

The classic image of Winston Churchill includes1 a giant cigar between his lips. Churchill developed his love of cigars as a young man， when he traveled to Cuba as a reporter. For the rest of his life， he smoked eight or nine cigars every day. However， he almost never took a bite， preferring to2 chew on the end until it went out， then re-lighting it and re-starting again. At any given time， Churchill had 3，000 to 4，000 cigars in his house， his favorite being Romeo & Juliet brand.

酷愛雪茄

溫斯頓·丘吉爾給人的印象，嘴里總是叼著一支大雪茄。少年時代，他在古巴當記者時，就愛上了雪茄。他每天抽八九支，卻很少真正吸上一口，大多數時候只是叼著雪茄的末端，待它熄滅后再重新點上，周而復始。無論什么時候，他的家中總儲存著3000到4000支雪茄，“羅密歐與朱麗葉”是他最喜歡的雪茄品牌。

His “White House Suit”

Churchill apparently3 had several nude4 incidents while staying in the White House. President Franklin Roosevelt also saw him naked， along with several White House staff 5 during his 24-day visit in 1941. Churchill had just taken his bath and was walking around naked when Roosevelt entered the room. The president quickly tried to leave， but Churchill told him not to， saying that he clearly had nothing to hide from his closest ally6.

Two Churchills

Although Winston Churchill is famous for his political career， he was an accomplished7 writer. In fact， he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1953.

Coincidently， there was another writer named Winston Churchill who was active during the same time. This Winston Churchill was an American who wrote a number of novels， six or seven of which became huge bestsellers8.

Interestingly， both Churchills published their first books in 1898， although the American Churchill was the first to become famous for his writing. Unsurprisingly， he would be overshadowed by the fame of British Churchill and is almost forgotten today. But at the time， the two writers were often confused9 with each other. To avoid further difficulty， the two Churchills agreed that the British Churchill would publish as Winston S. Churchill while the American would simply go by Winston Churchill.

His “Black Dog”

Throughout his life， Churchill probably suffered from manic（躁狂的）depression10， which he called his “black dog”. At times， his depression was so severe that he didnt like standing close to a passing train or looking at the ocean from a ship because he feared he would try to commit suicide11.

When not depressed， Churchill was famously full of energy， usually working and talking until the early hours of the morning. He jumped constantly from one topic to another， causing Roosevelt to laugh observing that he “has a thousand ideas a day， four of which are good”.

在白宮的“裝扮”

丘吉爾在白宮居住時，顯然有過不止一次的“裸露事件”。1941年，在丘吉爾對美國為期24天的訪問期間，美國富蘭克林·羅斯福總統在白宮一些官員的陪同下看到過赤身裸體的丘吉爾。當時，丘吉爾剛洗完澡，正光著身子在浴室里走來走去，羅斯福恰好出現在門口。總統試圖馬上離開，丘吉爾卻說不用了，在最親密的盟友面前他沒什么可隱藏的。

兩位丘吉爾

盡管溫斯頓·丘吉爾因其政治生涯而出名，但他確實是個才華橫溢的作家。事實上，他在1953年獲得了諾貝爾文學獎。

說來也怪，活躍在同一時期的還有另一個叫做溫斯頓·丘吉爾的作家。這位丘吉爾是美國人，著有許多部小說，其中有六七本是暢銷書。

有趣的是，兩位丘吉爾都在1898年出版了他們的第一本著作。不過，雖然美國的丘吉爾先因作品而出名，但毫無疑問他最終被英國的丘吉爾所獲得的聲望超越，如今幾乎被人遺忘。但在當時，人們常常分不清這兩位作家。為了避免產生更多麻煩，兩人一致決定，英國的丘吉爾出版署名為“Winston S. Churchill”，而美國的丘吉爾則簡單署名為“Winston Churchill”。

他的“黑狗”

丘吉爾可能患有躁狂抑郁癥，他把這種病叫做“黑狗”。有時，他由于過于焦躁而不喜歡太靠近經過的火車或者從船上看大海，因為他害怕自己突然想自殺。

在不抑郁的時候，丘吉爾總是精力充沛，工作或與人交談直到凌晨。他能不斷地從一個話題跳到另一個話題，使得羅斯福總統嘲笑他“一天有1000種想法，但只有4個是有用的”。

Tips

●prefer to：意思是“更喜歡做……”，常與短語rather than 或instead of搭配。如：I prefer to sing rather than dance. 比起跳舞，我更喜歡唱歌。Prefer后也可直接加動名詞。如：I prefer singing.我更喜歡唱歌。

●had nothing to do：短語have nothing to hide from sth./sb.的意思是“沒什么可隱瞞”。如：I have nothing to hide from my parents. 我沒有什么可對父母隱瞞的。當然，替換動詞“hide”可以衍生出不同意思。如：As a young man， I have nothing to lose. 作為一個年輕人，我沒有什么可害怕失去的。