【8月29日】看軍聞學英語

■刀客

原文：

Unlike last year, the July Fourth celebration will not include static displays on the mall of military ground equipment such as Bradley fighting vehicles. It was not immediately clear why the administration decided to eliminate the static displays this year, but their exclusion will likely reduce cost and crowds on the national mall.

Last year's celebration cost taxpayers more than $13 million, twice as much as previous celebrations, government watchdogs reported Thursday. The inclusion of military vehicles and Trump's attendance at the Lincoln Memorial drove up costs.

Mitchell said this year's flights are a ＇sunk cost,＇ adding＇these aircraft and crews would be using these hours for proficiency and training at other locations if they were not conducting these flyovers.＇

中譯：

7月4日慶典不同於去年之處，在於今年不包括軍事地面裝備館的靜態陳展，諸如「布萊德雷」裝甲戰鬥車等。目前尚不清楚當局為何決定要取消今年的靜態陳展，但將該案排除，可能會降低成本，並減少國家廣場上的人群。

政府監督組織週四報告，去年的慶典花了納稅人超過1300萬美元的稅金，比前年的慶典還要高出兩倍。讓成本增加的項目，包括軍用車輛及川普出席林肯紀念堂活動的費用。

米契爾表示，今年的飛行活動是「既定成本」，倘若這些飛機及機組員不執行這些衝場任務，也會在其他地方將這些時間用於熟飛及訓練方面。

－關鍵軍語－

※Bradley fighting vehicle:

An American infantry fighting vehicle.

※sunk cost:

A cost that has already been incurred and cannot be recovered.

例句：

The F-35 seems to be a textbook case of the sunk-cost fallacy.

F-35戰機似乎成為既定成本謬誤的活教材了。