他的话说成是“警告”要比说成是“央求”更符合当时的气氛。那美国媒体为何没用“警告（ warning ）”而用“央求（on one knee ）”呢？因为媒体不愿意在此时让国民产生两党对此事有党争的痕迹。美国人都知道on one knee 是求婚的温柔的央求，而非被绑匪绑架防止被杀的央求。也就是说，美国媒体要充当和事老的角色。
那么，为何所有的中国媒体都用“美国财政部长鲍尔森给波罗西单腿下跪”这样的报道呢？因为他们看到了 on one knee 这个词就直译成单腿下跪了。而美国人看到 paulson on one knee 就理所当然地知道那是指鲍尔森温柔地恳求民主党同意他的救市计划的意思。电视画面上鲍尔森正襟危坐仪表堂堂不卑不亢地告诉民主党大佬们不救市的后果十分严重，言外之意就是说后果你们是担当不起的！
看到所有的中文媒体甚至在美国呆了很多年的网络写手们也用“鲍尔森给波罗西单腿下跪”来描述鲍尔森在白宫的哀求，我只有摇头叹息。这反映了国人真的相信美国的财政部长也可以给人下跪的！这不仅仅是对鲍尔森的个人尊严的侮辱，也是对中国人奴性文化根深蒂固的反映。不是吗？汶川大地震后，市长县长给孩子家长下跪了！电视报纸网上都有下跪的照片。看到 on one knee 便自然想到美国财长也下跪了。
那么，如果假如（这只能是假如，因为事实上是天方夜谭）鲍尔森真的下跪哀求反对党了，那该用哪个英文词呢？美国人要用 kowtow 这个词，而绝不能用 on one knee 。因为西方人用中文造出来的英文 kowtow 最能贴切地表达中国人心里的下跪哀求。它的意思不是简单的同音“磕头”而是中国人心里“下跪”的意思。中国的“磕头”有奴才对主子的下跪磕头，也有婚礼上新娘给来贺喜的亲友感谢他们来参加婚礼的磕头。而英文的 kowtow 是指前者。on one knee 则是温柔的求婚似的情感表达，而非事实陈述。
As the meeting broke up and participants stormed out,
Paulson followed Frank and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Paulson,
pleading with Pelosi to keep the deal alive in spite of the
partisanship, got down on one knee and begged her to push on,
congressional aides who were present say.
所以PAULSON的钱是下跪了。
阎大侠认为美国财长没有下跪，有网友反驳：“literally on one knee”就是下跪了。那么堂堂美国财长究竟跪下没有？
如果从原文的标题看，只要对英文有一些了解就可以知道：bring sb.to his knees的意思是让某人屈服，和跪不跪下没有关系。然而这篇报道又来了一句：“The image of the brick-built Treasury Secretary literally on one knee in the White House Roosevelt Room succinctly captures Mr Paulson's humiliation.”
这里有两个关键字："image"和“literally”。新英汉字典里说的明白“image”，可以有实的（real）和虚的（virtual），一个“image”不一定就是一幅真实的景象。“literally”更是一种强调和夸张：“He literally flew into the room." ——人是无论如何不可能飞起来的。
Instead, the summit broke up so bitterly that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson got on one knee before Democratic leaders in a theatrical attempt to salvage talks.
。。。
After the session, Paulson, hoping to prevent any chance for agreement from being torpedoed, pleaded with Democratic leaders not to publicly disclose how poorly the session had gone, said three people familiar with the episode. Frank and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded angrily, and Paulson, in an attempt to lighten the mood, got down on one knee, said the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, like the others, because the conversations were private.
7000亿美元赎买方案谈崩了！财政部长给反对党议员下跪无济于事
By JENNIFER LOVEN and JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writers
1 minute ago
WASHINGTON - A Republican rebellion stalled government efforts Thursday to avoid economic meltdown, a chaotic turnaround that disrupted the choreography of an extraordinary White House meeting meant to show joint resolve from the president, the political parties and the presidential candidates. Instead, the summit broke up so bitterly that Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson got on one knee before Democratic leaders in a theatrical attempt to salvage talks.
After six days of bare-knuckled negotiations on the $700 billion financial industry bailout proposed by the Bush administration, with Wall Street tottering and presidential politics intruding six weeks before the election, there was far more confusion than clarity.
An apparent breakthrough was announced with fanfare at midday by key members of Congress from both parties — but not top leaders. Wall Street cautiously showed its pleasure, with the Dow Jones industrials closing 196 points higher.
But the good news and the market close were followed by a rash of less-positive developments.
Washington Mutual Inc. was seized by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in the largest failure ever of a U.S. bank, after which JPMorgan Chase & Co. Inc. came to its rescue by buying the thrift's banking assets.
And the late-afternoon White House gathering of President Bush, presidential contenders John McCain and Barack Obama, and top congressional leaders turned into what one person in the room described as "a full-throated discussion" and McCain's campaign called "a contentious shouting match."
Conservatives were in revolt over the astonishing price tag of the proposal and the hand of government that it would place on private markets.
Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, emerged from the White House meeting to say the announced agreement "is, obviously, no agreement." McCain's campaign issued a statement saying, "the plan that has been put forth by the administration does not enjoy the confidence of the American people as it will not protect the taxpayers and will sacrifice Main Street in favor of Wall Street." The White House, too, acknowledged there was no deal, only progress.
Meanwhile a group of House GOP lawmakers circulated an alternative that would put much less focus on a government takeover of failing institutions' sour assets. This proposal would have the government provide insurance to companies that agree to hold frozen assets, rather than have the U.S. purchase the assets.
Inside the White House session, House Republican leader John Boehner announced his concerns about the emerging plan and asked that the conservatives' alternative be considered, said people from both parties who were briefed on the exchange.
Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank, the feisty Democrat who has been leading negotiations with Paulson, reacted angrily, saying Republicans had waited until the last moment to present their proposal.
McCain, who dramatically announced Wednesday that he was suspending his campaign to deal with the economic crisis, stayed silent for most of the session and spoke only briefly to voice general principles for a rescue plan.
After the session, Paulson, hoping to prevent any chance for agreement from being torpedoed, pleaded with Democratic leaders not to publicly disclose how poorly the session had gone, said three people familiar with the episode. Frank and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi responded angrily, and Paulson, in an attempt to lighten the mood, got down on one knee, said the sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, like the others, because the conversations were private.
Weary congressional negotiators then resumed working with Paulson into the night in an effort to revive or rework the proposal that Bush said must be quickly approved by Congress to stave off "a long and painful recession." They gave up after 10 p.m. EDT, more than an hour after the lone House Republican involved, Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama, left the room.
Talks were to resume Friday morning on the effort to bail out failing financial institutions and restart the flow of credit that has begun to starve the national economy.
The Bush administration plan's centerpiece remained for the government to buy the toxic, mortgage-based assets of shaky financial institutions in a bid to keep them from going under and setting off a cascade of ruinous events, including wiped-out retirement savings, rising home foreclosures, closed businesses and lost jobs.
The earlier bipartisan accord establishing principles and important details would have given the Bush administration just a fraction of the money it wanted up front, subjecting half the $700 billion total to a congressional veto. The treasury secretary would get $250 billion immediately and could have an additional $100 billion if he certified it was needed, an approach designed to give lawmakers a stronger hand in controlling the unprecedented rescue.
The Bush administration had already agreed to several concessions based on demands from the right and left, including that the government take equity in companies helped by the bailout and put rules in place to limit excessive compensation of their executives, according to a draft of the outline obtained by The Associated Press. Democrat Obama and Republican McCain, who have both sought to distance themselves from the unpopular Bush, sat down with the president at the White House for the hourlong afternoon session that was striking in this brutally partisan season. By also including Congress' Democratic and Republican leaders, the meeting gathered nearly all Washington's political power structure at one long table in a small West Wing room. "All of us around the table ... know we've got to get something done as quickly as possible," Bush declared optimistically at the start of the meeting. Obama and McCain were at distant ends of the oval table, not even in each other's sight lines. Bush, playing host in the middle, was flanked by Congress' two Democratic leaders, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. But neither Bush, McCain nor Obama have been deeply involved so far in this week's scramble to hammer out a package. The meeting was intended more to provide bipartisan political cover for lawmakers to support a plan in the face of an angry public and their own re-election bids in six weeks. At day's end, Frank said he told Paulson "this whole thing is at risk if the president can't get members of his own party to participate." Layered over the White House meeting was a complicated web of potential political benefits and consequences for both presidential candidates. McCain hoped voters would believe that he rose above politics to wade into nitty-gritty and ultimately successful dealmaking at a time of urgent crisis, but he risked being seen instead as either overly impulsive or politically craven, or both. Obama saw a chance to appear presidential and fit for duty but was also caught off guard strategically by McCain's surprising campaign gamble. ___ Associated Press writers Deb Riechmann, Martin Crutsinger, Christopher Wills and Beth Fouhy in Washington and researcher Judy Ausuebel in New York contributed to this story.
