Fly by the Seat of One’s Pants 隨機應變,憑感覺做事

  1. to pilot a plane by feel and instinct rather than by instruments
  2. to proceed or work by feel or instinct without formal guidelines or experience

(CNN, 2017/4/29)

Just hours after North Korea’s failed missile test, a ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee voiced concern over the ways in which President Donald Trump responds to such challenges from foreign adversaries.

“The President seems to go back and forth. It’s kind of fly by the seat of your pants,” said Rep. Eliot Engel.

北韓飛彈測試失敗之後沒過幾個鐘頭,美國眾議院外交委員會資深議員就對川普總統回應北韓挑戰的方式表達關切。安格爾眾議員說,總統立場似乎搖擺不定,都是憑感覺做事。

(BBC, 2017/08/31)

Newsreader Martyn Lewis recalls the day he broke the news of Princess Diana’s death: 20 years after the ‘People’s Princess’ died, the BBC news anchor recalls the “adrenalin and nerves” that filled the unscripted live broadcast

BBC主播路易斯追憶黛妃車禍身亡當天播報此突發新聞的種種 

We went on the air with very little information, desperate to find out more. Every few minutes there’d be the calm voice of the producer in my ear saying who I needed to interview next. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever done in that it was a six-and-half-hour stint, which we just couldn’t plan at all. There was no script for the first few hours, we had to fly by the seat of our pants. In a peculiar way it wasn’t like a news program, it was like imparting the news of bereavement to the British family. There was a dark grey suit, white shirt and black tie for all the newscasters hanging up in the wardrobe at the BBC for occasions like this.

我們根本沒什麼訊息就開始播報,同時急著想知道多一點。製作人每隔幾分鐘就在我的耳機裡很鎮定地跟我說,接下來我要訪問哪個人。這段六個半小時的特別節目跟我以前做過的任何報導都不同,完全無法事先計畫。前面幾個鐘頭都沒有腳本,我們只能隨機應變。它從某方面來說不像新聞節目,而更像去跟英國家庭報喪。我們BBC新聞部的衣櫃裡每個主播都有一套深灰西裝,白襯衫和黑領帶,就是為這種場合準備的。

Photos: BBC News

Explanations in Mandarin Chinese: ICRT podcast