snap: 仓促的

继2月25日晚, 泰国总理他信突然宣布解散国会下议院，提前举行选举的消息传出后，泰国政局可以说是罩上了浓浓迷雾。针对他信的"提前选举"决议，泰国三个反对党--民主党、泰国党、群众党于26日宣布要求政改，向他信发难。同时，在曼谷的皇家田广场，大规模反他信及现政府的示威游行活动仍在举行。

请看路透社的相关报道：Three Thai opposition parties met separately on Sunday to debate whether to boycott a snap general election as Buddhist monks and nuns led members of the "Dharma Army" to a rally against Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. The opposition coalition handed an "ultimatum" to Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, demanding him to join in constitution amendment and political reform.

报道中的snap（突然的）更强调事件的"突发性"，a snap general election意思是"仓促的大选"，与他信所做决定的"突然；急促"相契合。Snap在这里是形容词形式，相当于sudden（突然的），如：It's risky to make snap judgments（仓促做出判断是危险的）。

日常，我们习惯用snap的动词形式，意味"to break suddenly and sharply off or in two parts"（突然中断；断成两截），举个例子：He snapped the chocolate in half（她把巧克力一掰两半）。因为snap本身强调动作的"短促"性，我们可以得到其它与之相关的引申义：The journalist snapped the film star as she was getting into her car（当那个电影明星钻进车门的一霎那，记者按下了快门）; He snapped at the child（他连声喝斥这个小孩）；It's a real bargain, you should snap it up（这东西真便宜，你应该赶快买下来）。