《中英對照讀新聞》D.C. hotels were expecting an inaugural booking frenzy. Instead they’ve got vacancies－華府飯店原本期待就職房熱潮。結果卻乏人問津

◎張沛元

A few blocks from the White House, employees at the St. Regis hotel had spent weeks preparing for election night.

距離白宮幾條街外的聖瑞吉斯飯店的工作人員，為了（總統）大選之夜花了好幾週做準備。

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They knew that as soon as the country’s next president was announced, or even a few hours before, there would be an onslaught of requests from supporters looking to book rooms for January’s inauguration. As they do every four years, the hotel staffed its reservation desk around-the-clock and waited.

他們知道，一旦宣布誰當選美國下任總統，或甚至在揭曉前數小時，（當選人的）支持者為1月總統就職大典訂房的要求便會蜂湧而至。該飯店的預約訂房部門每4年都會24小時配置人力，等待預約電話上門。

Except this time, the calls didn’t come.

只不過，這回沒人來電訂房。

Nearly 36 hours after Donald Trump was named the country’s next president, the luxury hotel hadn’t received a single new reservation for January’s festivities.

在唐納．川普成為下任總統的近36小時後，這家高檔飯店仍未接到任何一通為了1月就職盛典的新預約電話。

"Nope, zero, nothing," said Douglas Camp, the hotel號s director of sales and marketing. "Dead silence."

「沒，掛蛋，啥都沒有，」該飯店業務行銷主任道格拉斯．坎普說。「一片死寂。」

In fact, that wasn號t exactly true. The hotel did receive two calls on Wednesday morning － both from Democrats looking to cancel their previously made reservations.

事實上，這並不完全正確。該飯店在週三一早確實接到2通電話－－2通都是來自希望取消稍早預約的民主黨人。

《新聞辭典》

as soon as：慣用語，一…就。例句：She left as soon as she heard you were coming.（她一聽到你要過來就走了。）

onslaught：名詞，突擊，猛攻。

look to someone or something （for something）：慣用語，指望，期待。例句：She looked to the bank for a loan.（她想要跟銀行貸款。）