美国总统大选进入了最后的关键阶段，鹿死谁手已初见端倪，截止11月3日上午11:20，布什已获得193张选举人票，遥遥领先于克里的112张。请看最新的外电报道：President Bush and challenger John Kerry traded early victories Tuesday in a tense and testy¹ contest between an embattled wartime incumbent² and a hard-charging Democrat³ who blamed the Republican for chaos⁴ in Iraq and joblessness at home.

From the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River, polls closed in more than two dozen states but the race was wide open. It was too close to call in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, with a combined 68 electoral votes, one-fourth of the coveted⁵ total of 270.

Bush won West Virginia, a battleground state with five electoral votes and a long history of backing Democrats⁶ until the president took it in 2000. Kerry battled back by winning the statewide vote in Maine, worth three electoral votes.

Embattled有双重含义：“严阵以待的，投入战斗的”或“四面楚歌的，被攻击、批评或反对包围的”。在这里embattled是形容布什是一个做好准备的“战争斗士”，还是一个遭到谴责和攻击的“战争罪人”呢？请看下面的相关例子：embattled troops（严阵以待的部队）；an embattled legislative⁷ minority（被四面攻击的立法少数派）；an embattled governor（四面楚歌的官员）。