我们从The Economist 等外刊精选了一些地道表达，本期讲解表示“回避、避开某人/某物”语义的两个短语。

1. fend off sth/sb 避开某人/某物

As the Ukrainian military fights to defend the town, battling with artillery and tanks to fend off Russian advances, the police force has tried to tend to the needs of the civilian population.

在乌克兰军队用大炮和坦克抵挡俄罗斯的进攻，奋力保卫城市的同时，其警察部队也在做出努力，设法满足平民的需求。

难点解析：表示避开、回避我们常用avoid，除此以外，还可以用fend，其经常构成fend off sth/sb的结构，表示to defend or protect yourself from sth/sb that is attacking you（保护某人免受他人/他物攻击）, 宾语可以是批评、问题。

【例句】The police officer fended off the blows with his riot shield. 警察用防暴盾牌抵挡攻击。

The United Kingdom said it would also continue to help Ukraine fend off cyberattacks. 英国表示，它还将继续帮助乌克兰抵御网络攻击。

She managed to fend off questions about new tax increases. 她设法避开了关于新增赋税的问题。

另外，句中的artillery是“大炮”[ɑːˈtɪləri]，civilian是形容词[səˈvɪliən]，表示“平民的”，the civilian population就是指“平民”。

2. ward off sth 避开某物

He said that in his apartment complex, they are reminded to take their coronavirus tests every couple days to help ward off the risk of a relapse into lockdown.

他说，在公寓大楼里，他们被提醒每隔几天就要进行一次核酸检测，以避免再次面临被封控的风险。

难点解析：ward作名词表示病房、牢房，例如a maternity /surgical /psychiatric /children's, etc. ward 产科、外科、精神科、儿科等病房。作动词有保护的语义，与off搭配，表To ward off a danger or illness means to prevent it from affecting you or harming you. 阻挡 (危险、疾病等)。

【例句】Nato, a Western military alliance, was founded in part to ward off threat from the Soviet Union in 1949. 1949年，为了抵御来自苏联的威胁，西方成立了军事联盟北大西洋公约组织。

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov later told Russian state media that the threat of nuclear war “should not be underestimated” given the rush of Western arms to Ukraine to ward off the Russian invaders.

俄罗斯外长谢尔盖·拉夫罗夫（SergeyLavrov）随后告诉媒体说，鉴于西方武器不断涌入乌克兰来攻击俄军，爆发核战争的威胁“不应低估”。

9 Surprising Ways to Ward Off Colds and Flu 9种令人惊讶的预防感冒和流感的方法

另外，句中的complex表示“综合大楼”，relapse是“复发、重新恶化”的语义，a relapse into lockdown就是“再次封控”。

【二者辨析】fend off 与ward off后面都可以加人和物，但在加问题、批评时，常用fend off，加疾病时，常用ward off。

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