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TEM8 GRE
外刊例句
- “It was the intelligence coup of the century,” crowed a CIA report. “Foreign governments were paying good money…for the privilege of having their most secret communications read.”
“这是本世纪情报工作非常难得的成就，”美国中央情报局的报告中洋洋自得地写道，“外国政府花重金……把自己最机密的通信开放给他人。”
——《经济学人》 - Throughout the weekend, most of the conversations I had were with friends and family debating the probability of a coup.
整个周末，我和亲朋的大部分对话都是在讨论政变的可能性。
——《纽约时报》
基本释义
[noun] a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government
[名词] 政变
深入解读
Coup 一词比较简单好记，与常见的 soup （汤、羹）和 group （组、群、批、簇）结尾相同。该词源自古希腊语 kolaphos （一击、一拳、一巴掌），15世纪经古法语 coup, colp （一击）进入英语，最初也是用来表示“一击”，不过这个含义现已不再流行。
转而到了1852年， coup 开始用作法语 coup d'etat （政变）的简称，也是用来表示“政变”，多指反对派小集团（faction）经过精心策划，以暴力手段突然非法地推翻政府并夺取权力，并通常在军队的支持下得以确保成功，且一般不需要流血，比如：
- 总统在军事政变中被赶下台。
The president was ousted in a military coup. - 我的死敌在一场董事会突变中失去了职位。
My nemesis lost her position in a boardroom coup.
发动政变（to stage/mount a coup）往往不是件容易的事，所以经常有失败或流产的政变（a failed coup or an abortive coup），也可以说成是政变未遂（an attempted coup）。从其困难和结果难料的角度出发， coup 还用来表示“突然而巧妙的行动、计划或策略”或者说“成功之举、意想不到的成功”，常意味着因非常难办而特别了不起，比如：
- 要不是他们从对手那儿抢到了合同，他们早就破产了。这对他们来说真是成功的一着。
They'd have gone bust if they hadn't snagged that contract from their rivals. It was quite a coup for them. - 我说服了沉默内向的第一夫人来参加聚会，实属意外之得。
I got the reticent and reserved first lady to come to a party, which was something of a coup.
此外，在美国历史中， coup 还指“棒击”，即北美印第安人打仗时棒击敌人后继续前进而不将其打死，以示勇敢。
最后值得注意的是， coup 一词末尾的字母 p 不发音，不要误将其读作 [kuːp] 。
名著用例
"The coup has been smooth and virtually silent," said Lupin. "The official version of Scrimgeour's murder is that he resigned; he has been replaced by Pius Thicknesse, who is under the Imperius Curse."
“政变很平稳，几乎无声无息，”卢平说，“斯克林杰遇害的官方说法是他辞职了，接替他的是皮尔斯·辛克尼斯，被施了夺魂咒。”
出自英国作家J·K·罗琳的奇幻小说《哈利·波特》系列的第七本《哈利·波特与死亡圣器》（Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows）。
同近义词
- overthrow: a removal from power; a defeat or downfall
- takeover: an act of assuming control of something, especially the buying out of one company by another
- deposition: the action of deposing someone, especially a monarch
