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President Bush at APEC
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President Bush had a terrible, horrible day at the Sydney Opera House Friday, confusing APEC with OPEC and transforming Australian troops into Austrians.
Bush's tongue started slipping almost as soon as he started talking at a business forum1 on the eve of an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Sydney.
"Mr. Prime Minister, thank you for your introduction," he told Prime Minister John Howard. "Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit."
As the audience of several hundred people erupted in laughter, Bush corrected himself and joked, "He invited me to the OPEC summit next year." Australia has never been a member of the Organization of the Petroleum2 Exporting Countries.
Later in his speech, Bush recounted how Howard had gone to visit "Austrian troops" last year in Iraq. There are, in fact, no Austrian troops there. But Australia has about 1,500 Australian military personnel in and around the country.
Upon finishing his speech, Bush took the wrong way off-stage and, looking slightly perplexed3, had to be re-directed by Howard to a centre-stage exit.
Bush is no stranger to the occasional faux pas, and often jokes about his habit of mangling4 the English language.
One of his highest-profile gaffes5 came in May when, at a welcoming ceremony for Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, he nearly placed her in the 18th century.
Then there was the famous incident at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg in 2006 when Bush, unaware6 he was on camera, greeted British Prime Minister Tony Blair with the words "Yo Blair."
Bush's sometimes muddled7 syntax and mispronunciation of words like nuclear ("nukular") have long been fodder8 for late-night TV comedians9. But aides say his folksy style has helped endear him to Middle America.
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上周五，布什总统在悉尼歌剧院度过了十分糟糕的一天，他竟然把APEC说成了OPEC，还把“澳大利亚军队”变成了“奥地利军队”。
布什总统在悉尼APEC峰会前夕召开的一个经济论坛上几乎是一开口说话，就犯起了错。
他对澳大利亚总理约翰•霍华德说：“总理先生，谢谢你的介绍。谢谢你把OPEC峰会办得这么好。”
下面几百名听众听了布什的这番话后一阵爆笑，布什连忙纠正自己、开玩笑说：“他邀请我参加明年的OPEC峰会。”而澳大利亚压根不是“欧佩克”（石油输出国组织）的成员国。
之后，布什总统还说起了霍华德总理去年前往伊拉克探访“奥地利军队”的事。然而，伊拉克并没有奥地利军队驻扎，倒是在国内及周边地区驻有大约1500名澳大利亚军人。
布什发表完演讲后准备下台时，还走错了路，看上去有些不知所措的总统先生最后还是被霍华德总理从台中央的出口处领了下去。
布什总统爱犯口误已不是什么新鲜事，他也常常自嘲自己爱说错话的毛病。
布什总统犯过的一个最“高级”的口误是今年5月在英国女王伊丽莎白二世的欢迎仪式上，他差点让女王老了两百岁。
还有一次“著名事件”发生于2006年在圣彼得堡召开的八国首脑会议上，当时布什总统没意识到现场有摄像机，于是在问候英国首相布莱尔时竟说了句“嗨！布莱尔”。
布什总统有时说起话来颠三倒四，还会出现发音错误，比如，将nuclear发成nukular，这些都成为美国午夜喜剧的素材。但布什的助手们称，他那自然无拘束的风格倒是深受美国中产阶级的喜爱。
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