美國務卿賴斯訪俄 婉拒冰上“獻舞”

(L-R) US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian figure skating coach Tatyana Tarasova watch Russian figure skaters perform at the CSKA ice arena in Moscow.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice turned down a chance Saturday to show off her ice-skating talents and warm up frosty US-Russian relations during a visit to a rink in Russia.

Rice, herself a former ice-skating champion, joked that it was 10 years since she last put on her skates and cut a figure on the ice.

"There is this theory that ice skating is like riding a bicycle: you just get back on it, you immediately know how to do it," she said, adding: "I'm not going to take that chance -- just in case it's not true!"

Rice met with around 30 young ice-skaters at the Russian Army Sports Club rink who gave the top US diplomat a demonstration of their skills before posing for photographs.

Rice was a competitive ice skater between the ages of 12 and 17. She said she lost her skates in the move from Stanford University in California, where she was a lecturer, to Washington when she joined the Bush administration in 2000.

On Friday Russian and US differences were laid bare when the two countries failed to find a way forward on the proposed US anti-missile defence system in Europe.

上週六，美國國務卿賴斯在參觀俄羅斯一家滑冰場時婉言拒絕展示她的滑冰才華，美俄兩國也因此失去了一次緩和關係的佳機。

曾經是滑冰冠軍的賴斯開玩笑說，她已有十年沒碰溜冰鞋了。

她說：“理論上說，溜冰就像騎自行車，你只要穿上溜冰鞋，馬上就會知道該怎麼做。但今天還是算了——萬一這個理論不成立呢？”

當天，賴斯在俄羅斯中央陸軍體育俱樂部滑冰場會見了約30名小滑冰選手。小選手們爲賴斯進行了冰上表演，還有幸與這位美國高級外交官合影。

賴斯在12歲至17歲期間是一名很有實力的滑冰選手。她曾在加利福尼亞州的斯坦福大學任講師，並於2000年加入布什政府。她說，她的溜冰鞋就是當時從加利福尼亞搬到華盛頓的途中弄丟了。

上週五，俄美兩國就美國欲在歐洲部署反導彈防禦系統問題進行磋商，但未取得實質性進展，俄美兩國在這一問題上的分歧十分顯著。

cut a figure:斬露頭角；出風頭