继2月25日晚, 泰国总理他信突然宣布解散国会下议院，提前举行选举的消息传出后，泰国政局可以说是罩上了浓浓迷雾。针对他信的"提前选举"决议，泰国三个反对党--民主党、泰国党、群众党于26日宣布要求政改，向他信发难。同时，在曼谷的皇家田广场，大规模反他信及现政府的示威游行活动仍在举行。

请看路透社的相关报道：Three Thai opposition¹ parties met separately on Sunday to debate whether to boycott² a snap general election as Buddhist³ monks⁴ and nuns⁵ led members of the "Dharma Army" to a rally against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The opposition coalition⁶ handed an "ultimatum⁷" to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, demanding him to join in constitution amendment⁸ and political reform.

报道中的snap（突然的）更强调事件的"突发性"，a snap general election意思是"仓促的大选"，与他信所做决定的"突然；急促"相契合。Snap在这里是形容词形式，相当于sudden（突然的），如：It's risky⁹ to make snap judgments¹⁰（仓促做出判断是危险的）。

日常，我们习惯用snap的动词形式，意味"to break suddenly and sharply off or in two parts"（突然中断；断成两截），举个例子：He snapped the chocolate in half（她把巧克力一掰两半）。因为snap本身强调动作的"短促"性，我们可以得到其它与之相关的引申义：The journalist snapped the film star as she was getting into her car（当那个电影明星钻进车门的一霎那，记者按下了快门）; He snapped at the child（他连声喝斥这个小孩）；It's a real bargain, you should snap it up（这东西真便宜，你应该赶快买下来）。