经济学人精读 | 弗吉尼亚·霍尔：伟大的美国瘸腿间谍
原文译文
The limping lady
瘸腿夫人
Virginia Hall, the greatest spy you’ve never heard of
弗吉尼亚·霍尔：最伟大的无名间谍
A stirring biography of an astonishing, one-legged woman
一个伟大的单腿女人的惊人传记
As tales of wartime derring-do go, it would be hard to beat that of Virginia Hall, a young, one-legged American woman who, in the Gestapo’s view, became the Allies’ most dangerous spy.She did more than anyone else to forge the disparate, rivalrous groups of the French Resistance into effective military units that by 1944 could play a part in liberating their country. As Sonia Purnell shows in her new biography, Hall’s bravery was of the cool, calculating, unflagging kind that is peculiarly required of the special agent operating for years in enemy-occupied territory, in constant danger of betrayal or of making the one wrong false step that would result in exposure, capture, torture and death.
随着战争时期英勇事迹的流传，弗吉尼亚·霍尔的故事恐怕是无人能敌的。在盖世太保看来，这位年轻的美国独腿女人成了盟军最危险的间谍。她比任何人都更努力地把法国抵抗运动中各自心怀鬼胎、相互竞争的派别打造成高效统一的军事作战单位，到1944年在解放法国的时候发挥了作用。在她的新传记中，索尼娅·珀内尔展示了霍尔的那种冷静，精明，不屈不挠的勇敢。而这，正是在敌占区活动多年，在不断地面临背叛和犯错（一个小小的错误就可能导致暴露，被捕甚至是死亡）的危险中工作所需要的。
From the outset, she seemed to have known she was different. Born in Baltimore in 1906 to conventional, upper-middle class parents, she insisted on going to university (Radcliffe College, the bluestocking offshoot from Harvard) and completing her studies in French, German and Italian in Europe. Her ambition to join the State Department was thwartedfirst bybureaucratic misogyny and then by a hunting accident in Turkey when she was 27, which led to the amputation of her leg and the fitting of a prosthesis she named “Cuthbert”.
似乎从一开始，霍尔就知道自己与众不同。霍尔1906年出生于巴尔的摩一个中产阶级家庭，她立志要去哈佛大学最引人注目的分校拉德克利夫学院上大学，并且在欧洲学习了法语、德语和意大利语。最初，她想进入国务院的雄心壮志被官僚主义的厌女症所碍。后来，在她27岁那年，在土耳其的一次狩猎事故中，她的腿被截肢，并装上了一个她称之为“卡斯伯特”的假肢。这，阻断了她进入国会的道路。
Unbowed and determined to relay the horrors of fascism to readers at home, she became astringer in Europe for several American newspapers. By the summer of 1940, as German Panzers rolled through France, she had found new work driving wounded soldiers from the collapsing French army to hospitals in Paris. It was then that she had an idea. As the citizen of a neutral country, she could exploit her relative freedom to move around by becoming anundercover agent for Britain’s nascent Special Operations Executive (SOE), which sent her back to France in 1941.
但她不屈服，决心让让国内的读者知道法西斯主义的恐怖，她因此成为了几家美国报纸在欧洲的线人。1940年夏天，德国装甲部队占领了法国之后，她找到了一份新的工作——把受伤的士兵从溃败的法国军队送往巴黎的医院。就在那时，她萌生了一个想法。作为一个中立国的公民，她可以利用自己相对的行动自由，做英国新成立的特别行动署(SOE)的卧底。1941年，英国特种部队将她送回法国。
Although continually patronized and underestimated, Hall quickly adapted to the secret life, basing herself in Lyon, deep in collaborationist Vichy France, and exploiting her cover as a journalist. Her bosses in London soon saw that she had talents they could use. She was an able recruiter of intelligence assets, including a courageous brothel madam, several prostitutes and a VD doctor. At a time when the Resistance barely existed, she found and trainedsaboteurs and developed escape routes for downed British pilots and brave butbungling agents sent from London. She even organized spectacular jail breaks when colleagues were captured by the Germans or the French police. When other agents wereslapdash and guilty of lethal security breaches, she somehow kept the show on the road, even as the personal risks to her intensified. Klaus Barbie, the psychopathic“Butcher of Lyon”, became obsessed with killing the “limping lady”.
尽管霍尔一直被人低估，受人保护，但她很快就适应了这种隐秘的生活。她利用自己记者的身份，以里昂为根据地，渗透到维希政府时期的法国。她在伦敦的上司们很快就发现她的才干，对他们很有用处。她很有能力招募情报人员，招募了一位勇敢的妓院老鸨、几名妓女和一名性病医生。在抵抗力量几乎不存在的时候，她发现并训练了反抗者，为被击落的英国飞行员和从伦敦派来的勇敢但笨拙的特工设计了逃生路线。当她的同事被德国或法国警方抓获时，她甚至帮助同事从戒备森严的监狱越狱。当其他特工草率行事、犯下致命错误，威胁到自身安全时，她总能坚持下去，但是她面临的个人风险加剧了。心理变态的“里昂屠夫”克劳斯•巴比(Klaus Barbie)一心想杀死“跛足女士”。
Eventually Hall’s luck ran out. Betrayed by a clever and vile double agent, Abbé Alesch, her network shattered (many of her associates were tortured and sent to death camps), her own cover blown, she escaped from France by crossing the Pyrenees in midwinter on foot, herstump oozing blood as Cuthbert fell apart. Once back in London, Hall resolved to return to France to help prepare the ground for D-Day. When SOE refused to send her back, deeming the risks too high, she persuaded the British outfit’s fledgling American counterpart, the Organisation of Strategic Services (OSS), to take her on. Operating in the Haute-Loire region in the guise of a milkmaid—the Madonna of the Mountains, as Hall was dubbed by her Resistance recruits—she shaped her men into an insurgent force capable of liberating the region with little need of external help. Intelligence provided by Hall on the disposition of the German Seventh Army led the Americans to trap and destroy it in the Falaise Gap, resulting in the decisive breakthrough in the Battle of Normandy.
霍尔的好运终于还是到头了。她被一个聪明而卑鄙的双料间谍阿莱施(Abbe Alesch)出卖，她的关系网被粉碎(她的许多同事被拷打并送往死亡集中营)，她自己的身份也暴露了。她不得不在隆冬徒步穿越比利牛斯山脉逃离法国。当她的“卡斯伯特”掉落时，她的残肢渗出了鲜血。回到伦敦后，霍尔决定返回法国，为诺曼底登陆做准备。但SOE认为风险太高，拒绝送她回去，她说服了当时羽翼未丰的美国战略服务组织(OSS)与之抗衡。她假借挤奶女工之名在上卢瓦尔地区开展行动——霍尔的抵抗组织人员称她为“山区圣母”(Madonna of the Mountains)——她把手下打造成一支起义力量，在不需要外界帮助的情况下解放了该地区。霍尔提供的有关德国第七军部署情况的情报，使美国人在法拉伊斯山口诱捕并摧毁了德国第七军，从而在诺曼底战役中取得了决定性的突破。
After the war, Hall joined the successor of the OSS, the CIA. But despite herunparalleledrecord of service, she was once again the victim of prejudice and frequently passed over for promotion. Only after her death in 1982, her health almost certainly damaged by the overuse of “uppers” and “downers” in wartime, did she gain the official recognition she deserved. Gina Haspel, the CIA’s first female director, may have been thinking of Hall when she said she stood “on the shoulders of heroines who never sought public acclaim”. There have been other books about Hall, but with her thriller-writer’s style and copious new research, Ms. Purnell has written a fitting and moving tribute to an amazing woman.
战争结束后，霍尔加入了OSS的继任者——中央情报局。但是，尽管有着无与伦比的服役记录，她还是再次成为偏见的受害者，没有获得应得的晋升。直到1982年去世后，她才获得了官方认可。她的健康因为战时过度使用“兴奋剂”和“镇定剂”而受损。当CIA首位女局长吉娜•哈斯佩尔(Gina Haspel)说她站在“从未寻求公众赞誉的女英雄们的肩膀上”时，她可能想到了霍尔。关于霍尔的书还有很多，但凭借她惊悚小说作家风格和大量的新研究，珀内尔女士为一位了不起的女性写了一篇恰如其分、令人感动的颂词。
精读解析
篇章结构：
P1: 简介霍尔的故事及传记
P2—P5：霍尔的间谍生涯
P6: 霍尔战后受挫但最终还是得到了应得的认可。
重点词汇：
● hard to beat = to be very good, or to be better than other things of its kind = 无人能及的
【例句】
Current market pricing represents an extremely pessimistic set of economic assumptions that will not be hard to beat.
当前的市场定价代表着一系列极其端悲观的经济假设，推翻这些假设并不困难。
Australia are playing fantastically, and then you've got teams like India, Pakistan and South Africa who will all be hard to beat.
澳大利亚队已经打地出神入化了，而且印度，巴基斯坦，南非这些球队的实力也不容小视。
● derring-do /'deriŋ'du:/ n. 拼命的勇气,大胆的行为,蛮勇
【短语】
stirring tales of derring-do 讲述英勇事迹的激动人心的故事
【例句】
Tucker's hilarious, rapid-fire jive-talk, and Chan's nimble derring-do in tight spaces and high places.
塔克滑稽搞笑，妙语连珠，而成龙无论高空狭隙都身手敏捷，艺胆过人。
● disparate /'dɪsp(ə)rət/ adj. (两种或多种东西)根本不同的, 不能相比较的
【短语】
disparate development发展不平衡
disparate impact差别效果；差别性影响
disparate treatment差别性对待
【例句】
She has taken two disparate music styles and made them work very well together.
她选取两种完全不同的音乐风格，并将它们巧妙地融合在-起。
The resultant sticky goo cemented all the disparate bits together.
结果导致产生的黏性物质彼此之间相互融合。
● rivalrous /'raɪv(ə)lrəs/ adj. 有竞争性的,敌对性的
【例句】
Therefore, America’s provision of security via its system of alliances is rivalrous between allies.
因此，美国通过联盟体系所提供的安全防务事实上会导致盟友之间的竞争。
● unflagging /ʌn'flægɪŋ/ adj. 不倦的,持续的,不松懈的
【例句】
His apparently unflagging enthusiasm impressed her.
他那经久不衰的激情给她留下深刻印象。
Remember that through desire, goal setting and unflagging effort you can have anything you want.
记住，有愿望、有目标、有不懈的努力，你就能得到你想得到的任何东西。
● thwart /θwɔːt/ vt. 横过；反对；阻碍；挫败adj. 横放的；固执的n. 划手座；独木舟的横梁
【例句】
They thwarted her plans.
他们制止了她的计划
We must thwart his malevolent schemes.
我们决不能让他的恶毒阴谋得逞。
Our plans for a picnic were thwarted by the rain.
我们的野餐计划因雨受挫。
● bureaucratic /ˌbjʊrə'krætɪk/ adj. 官僚的, 官僚主义的, 官僚作风的
【例句】
A high-level meeting that triggered bitter bureaucratic debates.
一个引发了激烈的官僚政治论争的高级会议
She planned a way to circumvent all the bureaucratic red tape.
她计划避开官僚体制下的繁文缛礼
● amputation /ˌæmpjʊˈteɪʃən/ n. <医>截肢(术);切断;切除
【例句】
A prosthesis was fitted after the amputation
截肢之後安装了义肢。
● prosthesis /prɒs'θiːsɪs/ n. 假体(如假肢、假眼或假牙等)；〈医〉人体修复(术)
【例句】
His upper jaw was removed and a prosthesis was fitted.
他下巴的上半部分被切除，装了个假体。
● relay /'riːleɪ/ n. [电工]继电器；接替，接替人员；驿马v. 转播；使接替；分程传递
【例句】
I'm only relaying your mother's orders.
我只是在转达你母亲的决定。
Relay this message to your king.
给你的国王传个口信。
● fascism /'fæʃɪz(ə)m/ n. 法西斯主义；极端国家主义
【例句】
Fascism is in the air all over the place.
法西斯主义四处传播开来。
I condemn fascism and all it stand for.
我遣责法西斯主义及其代表的一切。
● stringer /'strɪŋə/ n.[建]纵梁，楼梯基;上弦工人，弦匠;特约记者，特约通讯员;[铁路]纵向轨枕
【例句】
He picked up extra money as a local stringer for the New York Herald.
他做《纽约先驱报》的当地特约记者来赚些外快。
undercover /ʌndə'kʌvə/ adj. 暗中进行的;秘密做出的;私下的；做密探工作的
【例句】
He worked undercover in Northern Ireland.
他在北爱尔兰从事密探工作。
A federal judge upheld the undercover methods used in the case.
一位联邦法官主张在此案中使用秘密的方法。
● patronize /ˈpætrənaiz/ vt. 以高人一等的态度对待；经常光顾，惠顾；资助；保护
【例句】
Local churches and voluntary organizations were patronized by the family.
当地的教堂和自发性组织均由该家族赞助。
● collaborationist /kə,læbə'reɪʃənɪst/ n. 通敌卖国者adj. 通敌的;与敌人勾结的
【例句】
Quinn headed the collaborationist government throughout the war.
奎因在战争期间领导汉奸政府。
● saboteur /ˌsæbə'tɜː/ n. 从事破坏活动者；怠工者，破坏者
【例句】
Saboteurs dynamited the bridge.
破坏者炸毁了桥梁。
These saboteurs threatened to blow up the factory if their demands were not met.
怠工者们威胁说，他们的要求如果得不到满足，他们就要炸掉工厂。
● bungling /'bʌŋɡliŋ/ adj. 笨拙的；粗劣的n. 拙劣的工作
【例句】
You can’t do a thing without bungling it.
你做事总是笨手笨脚。
That man is a bungling oaf.
那人是个草包。
● slapdash /'slæpdæʃ/ adj. 草率的,粗心的,匆促的
【例句】
He gave a slapdash performance.
他仓促表演。
● lethal /'liːθ(ə)l/ adj. 致命的，致死的n. 致死因子
【例句】
It is unwise to carry lethal weapons.
携带危险的武器很不明智。
● psychopathic /ˌsaɪkə'pæθɪk/ adj. 精神病的,精神错乱的,要发疯似的n. 精神变态者
【例句】
But it turns out that many mobsters are actually less psychopathic than other criminals.
但一项研究表明相比罪犯实际上多数歹徒的精神状况要更好。
● shatter /'ʃætə/ v. 打碎；破掉；使散开；粉碎；破坏
【例句】
The crisis will shatter their confidence.
危机会动摇他们的信心。
Everyone was shattered by the news.
听到这个消息，大家都十分震惊。
● stump /stʌmp/ n. 树桩；残余部分；假肢v. 砍伐；使为难；在…作巡回政治演说
【例句】
Hagrid looked stumped at the question.
海格似乎被这个问题难住了。
They walked past a mossy tree stump.
他们走过一个布满苔藓的树桩。
● ooze /uːz/ vt. 使(液体)缓缓流出；(浓液)渗出，慢慢流出n. 泥浆, (河底的)淤泥
【例句】
Silence except for the steady drip drip of ink still oozing from the diary.
只听见墨水仍然从日记本里嘀嗒嘀嗒地渗出来的声音。
The house oozed with charm.
这座房子很奇特
● outfit /'aʊtfɪt/ n. 全套装备, 全套工具；一套服装
The outfit for a cowboy identified him.
牧童的服装表明了他的身份。
The whole outfit matches up beautifully.
整套衣服搭配得很好看。
● fledgling /'fledʒlɪŋ/ n. (刚学会飞的)幼鸟；无经验的人
【例句】
For a fledgling nation the paintings are important as an historical record.
对于一个新兴国家来说这些绘画作品就同历史记载一般重要。
Now both mother and fledglings are doing fine.
现在母鸟和幼鸟都活得很好。
● unparalleled /ʌn'pærəleld/ adj. 无比的, 无双的, 空前的
【例句】
He called your experience and wisdom in financial matters unparalleled.
他说您在财政方面的经验和智慧无人可比。
the sudden rise in unemployment is unparalleled in the post-war period.
失业率猛升在战后还无先例。
● upper [ 'ʌpə ] 兴奋剂
【例句】
Coffee and tea are mild uppers .
咖啡和茶都是平和的兴奋剂。
● downer ['daʊnə(r)] n. 镇定剂；令人沮丧的人或事
【例句】
Now it's too late - I'm on a 1000 downers now, I'm drowsy
现在太迟了，我已吞进1000颗镇静剂，昏昏欲睡。
● copious ['kəʊpiəs] adj. 丰富的；大量的；(指作家)多产的
【例句】
He is possessed of a copious vocabulary.
他的词汇量很大。
重点句子：
As tales of wartime derring-do go, it would be hard to beat that of Virginia Hall, a young, one-legged American woman who, in the Gestapo’s view, became the Allies’ most dangerous spy.
在本句中，as表示随着…引导一个时间状语，本句中，that of Virginia Hall指的是tales of Virginia Hall. 本句中，a young, one-legged American woman who, in the Gestapo’s view, became the Allies’ most dangerous spy.整个部分都是定语，修饰Virginia Hall，而在这部分句子中，who引导的是一个定语从句，对American woman起补充说明的作用。
As Sonia Purnell shows in her new biography, Hall’s bravery was of the cool, calculating, unflagging kind that is peculiarly required of the special agent operating for years in enemy-occupied territory, in constant danger of betrayal or of making the one wrong false step that would result in exposure, capture, torture and death.
这个句子比较长，句子的主干部分是As Sonia Purnell shows in her new biography, Hall’s bravery was of the cool, calculating, unflagging kind。As在这个句子中，表示正如…一样。后面的that引导的是一个定语从句，补充说明the cool, calculating, unflagging kind到底是什么样的。
Operating in the Haute-Loire region in the guise of a milkmaid—the Madonna of the Mountains, as Hall was dubbed by her Resistance recruits—she shaped her men into an insurgent force capable of liberating the region with little need of external help.
这个句子中，动词的-ing形式operating…表示伴随，Operating in the Haute-Loire region in the guise of a milkmaid—the Madonna of the Mountains, as Hall was dubbed by her Resistance recruits—这整个部分都是伴随状语部分，在这部分中，破折号部分是插入语，对milkmaid作解释说明。后面的she shaped her men into an insurgent force capable of liberating the region with little need of external help.部分才是句子的主干部分。
