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作者|Stop gap? 权宜之计

Reader question:
Please explain “stop gap”, as in: Odom was the perfect stop gap coach.
My comments:
Odom, whoever that is, was considered the perfect coach for the team – for the time being.
For the time being, or temporarily, as an emergency solution.
Stopgap, in other words.
Stopgap, or stop-gap, literally means stop a gap, gap being, for example, a hole in a pipe.
You spot a little hole in the water pipe, say, in the garden. You go and fetch a roll of tape. You turn off the water and wrap some tape around the leaking hole. You turn on the water again. Water still leaks from the hole in the pipe but this time, only a little bit. The problem is not as serious as it was.
You still want to fix the pipe later on, maybe even buy a new one but for the moment, the tape works. Problem solved.
In this case, the tape works as a stop-gap measure. It temporarily plugs the hole, so to speak, and blocks the leaking water from flowing freely.
In our coaching example, Odom serves as such a stop-gap measure. And he’s the perfect one, perhaps for knowing the players well and for having been around the team for a long time. Obviously the old coach was let go – due to poor results or due to differences with, say, the owner of the club over how the team should have been run. For the time being, Odom was named as interim coach, a temporary one until a permanent coach is found.
For the time being, Odom serves as a stop-gap, as a temporary solution. For the time being, Odom fixes the problem, to a degree.
To a degree, because Odom is perhaps not good enough. Otherwise, they would have given him the job as coach.
In other words, they’re still in search for that person. They still need a new regular coach for the team to be wholesome once again.
All right?
All right, here are media examples of “stop-gap” as adjective:
1. The House easily passed a temporary government-wide funding bill Tuesday evening in a bipartisan effort to keep the government running through the beginning of December.
The House voted 359-57 to approve the stop gap measure that will keep the government open through December 11.56 Republicans and Rep. Justin Amash, I-Mich. voted against the measure, while Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., voted present.
Agreement on the bill came after considerable behind-the-scenes battling over proposed add-ons. The final agreement gives the administration continued immediate authority to dole out Agriculture Department subsidies in the run-up to Election Day. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., retreated from an initial draft that sparked a furor with Republicans and farm-state Democrats.
Instead, in talks Tuesday, Pelosi restored a farm aid funding patch sought by the administration, which has sparked the ire of Democrats who said it plays political favorites as it gives out bailout money to farmers and ranchers.
In return, Pelosi won COVID-related food aid for the poor, including a higher food benefit for families whose children are unable to receive free or reduced lunches because schools are closed over the coronavirus. Another add-on would permit states to remove hurdles to food stamps and nutrition aid to low-income mothers that are more difficult to clear during the pandemic.
The deal permitted the measure to speed through the House after a swift debate that should ensure smooth sailing in the GOP-held Senate before next Wednesday's deadline. There's no appetite on either side for a government shutdown.
The measure is the bare minimum accomplishment for Capitol Hill's powerful Appropriations committees, who pride themselves on their deal-making abilities despite gridlock in other corners of Congress. It came after bipartisan negotiations on a huge COVID-19 relief package imploded and appear unlikely to be rekindled — especially since the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has upended U.S. politics.
“We need to keep the government open but we also need additional COVID relief for the American people," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla.

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