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.
根據(jù)美國陽光基金會發(fā)布的一份調(diào)查顯示，現(xiàn)在美國聯(lián)邦議員講話的用詞復雜性正不斷下降，美國國會議員們?nèi)缃竦闹v話水平僅僅相當于高二學生，幾乎比2005年的調(diào)查結果降了整整一個年級。

The members speaking at the lowest grade levels tend to be freshmen Republicans.
新當選的共和黨議員們的講話水平是最差的。

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.
美國國家公共之聲在周一說：“在10名被認為講話水平最差的議員中，有8個是新當選的議員，并且全都是共和黨議員。”這項調(diào)查是基于議員們從1996年以來所有講話的基礎上進行的。

Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) clocks in at the lowest grade-level: 7.9 in this Congress.
共和黨議員Mick Mulvaney是所有國會議員中，講話水平最差的議員，他的講話水平僅相當于7.9年級的學生，還不如一個初二的學生。

"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曾經(jīng)在喬治城大學獲得學士學位，并在北卡羅來納大學獲得法律學位。他說：“我在可以使用短詞的時候不會使用長詞，因為我一直接受用清晰簡潔的風格來寫作。當然我也沒有挖空心思地去刻意降低我講話的難度。”

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，共和黨議員在講話的平均水平上比民主黨議員要好。但從那之后，民主黨議員的說話水平開始高于共和黨議員。

Sunlight also found that members of Congress rarely use the 100 most common SAT words, which are likely very familiar to high school students.
陽光基金會同時發(fā)現(xiàn)，國會議員們極少實用最常見的100個SAT考試詞匯，這些詞匯對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.
頗具諷刺意味的是，國會議員們最常使用的SAT詞匯是“妥協(xié)”。這個詞在2012年1月至4月底，就已經(jīng)被使用了1820次。參議院多數(shù)黨領袖Harry Reid是國會中使用這個詞最多的人。