Michael Chugani 褚簡寧 - worrywart｜又中又英

Relatives and friends often tell me I am a worrywart. An article in the Washington Post last week made me even more of a worrywart. The article scared the hell out of me for a while, but I managed to calm down eventually. It said health experts had warned the White House another coronavirus pandemic could come roaring back during the next two years. The experts agreed the new pandemic could be even worse than the one caused by the omicron variant. A worrywart is a person who often worries, even about unimportant things. If something scares the hell out of you, it means it shocks or frightens you.

The expression “come roaring back” means to become successful again. If the economy is in a bad situation but suddenly improves, you can say the economy has come roaring back. The expression can also be used to describe something that has become active again, such as a pandemic. The experts who sent the warning report to the White House agreed there’s a 20 percent chance of a new wave similar to the omicron outbreak. But one well-known biologist said the chance of a new omicron-type wave could be as high as 40 percent.

The warning coincided with a US government decision to end the public health emergency on May 11. The health emergency has lasted over three years. The WHO last week also said the pandemic is no longer a global health emergency. After reading the article I told myself there is no need to be a worrywart because it is not certain the pandemic would come roaring back.
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我的親戚和朋友常跟我說我是個杞人憂天者（worrywart）。上星期在《華盛頓郵報》刊登的一篇報道，更令我憂心忡忡（worrywart）。那篇報道嚇得我半死（scared the hell out of me），但過了一陣子後我終能平靜下來。它說，健康衞生專家向白宮發出警報，另一場新冠病毒全球大疫症，將於未來兩年內捲土重來（come roaring back）。那些專家們都認為，新一場全球大疫症會比omicron變種引發的病症更為嚴峻。A worrywart是一個杞人憂天的人，即使是一些瑣碎的小事亦會憂心忡忡。若某事物scares the hell out of you，即它令你震驚或嚇怕了你。

習語“come roaring back”是指東山再起，又再成功。若經濟很差但突然復甦，你便可以說經濟起死回生，the economy has come roaring back。這個習語也可以用來形容某事物再度活躍起來，例如全球大疫症。給白宮發送警示報告的專家們認為，會有百分之二十的機會出現跟omicron爆發相類似的新一波疫症。但一個知名的生物學家說，爆發新一波類近omicron疫症的機率，可高達40%。

這個警示發佈的同時，美國政府亦決定於5月11日結束公共衞生緊急狀態。這一公共衞生緊急狀態已經維持超過3年了。世界衞生組織上星期亦說，全球大疫症不再是全球衞生緊急事件。讀過那篇報道後，我跟自己說，不用杞人憂天（worrywart），因為並不確定全球大疫症真的會死灰復燃（come roaring back）。
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Michael Chugani褚簡寧
中譯：七刻
Michael Chugani 褚簡寧