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US President Barack Obama on Monday got to work replenishing his mind, body and spirit, playing tennis and golf and taking on a hefty stack of books on his first full day of vacation.
After a brutal seven months facing economic blight, rising trouble abroad and fighting for an increasingly under-fire agenda, Obama opened his day with a workout at the mansion he is renting on the Martha's Vineyard resort.
Then the athletic commander-in-chief challenged First Lady Michelle Obama to a game of tennis and hit the links at an island golf club with partners including UBS chief executive officer Robert Wolf.
"Thank you," said a smiling Obama, clad in brown slacks and a black shirt, to a cheering crowd as he stepped up to the tee to fire off his opening drive.
Aides said the president was seeking respite after a punishing few months in Washington's political swamp.
"The president's been coming to Martha's Vineyard for some 10 years," said White House deputy spokesman Bill Burton.
"He's probably been five or six times over the course of that time period. He enjoys it, it's comfortable, the beaches are nice, the people are particularly nice. There's really good food to eat."
The president had no planned public events during his weeklong vacation -- his first since taking office -- but was expected to make telephone calls to lawmakers in support of his top priority health care reform drive.
Obama arrived on the millionaires' playground off the US east coast on Sunday, and planned to get stuck into a list of books -- amounting to a wedge of nearly 2,300 pages, revealed by Burton.
If in the mood for gritty fiction, Obama had at hand "The Way Home" by George Pelicanos, who has created his own genre focusing on the crime and tensions stalking wrong-side-of-the-tracks streets in the nation's capital, Washington.
Obama had more inner city atmospherics at his finger tips with Richard Price's "Lush Life," a fictional look at a shooting on Manhattan's Lower East Side.
The vast landscape of Colorado is the backdrop to Obama's final fictional choice, "Plain Song" by Kent Haruf, which delves into small town life in the heartland.
Next on Obama's list was "Hot, Flat and Crowded," by New York Times columnist Tom Friedman, which is subtitled: "Why we need a Green Revolution and how it can renew America."
One of Obama's top agenda items starting in September is pushing a plan through Congress to establish a cap-and-trade system to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and he has spent considerable capital on calling for a new renewable energy economy.
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(Agencies)
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美國總統巴拉克?奧巴馬于本周一開始了其第一天的休假，趁機養精蓄銳，放松身心，除了打網球和高爾夫，他還要讀厚厚的一摞書。
七個月以來，奧巴馬處境嚴峻， 他要應對經濟衰退、海外問題升級以及（醫療改革）計劃不斷遭到批評等問題。在瑪爾塔葡萄園島度假勝地租用的別墅內，奧巴馬以鍛煉身體開始了他的一天。
之后，這位運動強將向第一夫人米歇爾?奧巴馬發起了網球挑戰，隨后與瑞士銀行（美國區）首席執行官羅伯特?沃爾夫等人一起前往島上的一個高爾夫俱樂部打球。
奧巴馬身著棕色休閑褲和黑色T恤衫。在前往發球區擊出第一桿之前，奧巴馬微笑著對歡呼的人群說：“謝謝”。
據奧巴馬的助手介紹，在華盛頓的政治泥淖中疲憊地掙扎了數月之后，奧巴馬想暫喘口氣。
白宮副發言人比爾?伯頓說：“總統與瑪爾塔葡萄園島的緣分大概有十來年了。”
“在這十年中，他大概來過五六次，他很享受在這里的時光，這里很舒服，海灘很漂亮，人們非常友好，食物也不錯。”
在上任后首次為期一周的假期中，總統沒有任何公事安排，但他可能會與支持他醫改計劃的議員保持電話聯絡，醫改計劃是他目前工作的重中之重。
伯頓透露，奧巴馬于上周日抵達這處位于美國東海岸的富豪莊園。他打算專心讀幾本書，總計共有近2300頁。
這其中有反映堅韌意志的小說《歸途》，這本書由喬治?佩利凱諾所著，他專事描寫潛藏在首都華盛頓貧民區街道的犯罪和沖突，并以此形成了自己的風格。
奧巴馬手邊還有幾本描寫城市生活的書，例如理查德?普賴斯的《旺盛的生命》，這本小說主要描寫了發生在曼哈頓下東區的一次槍擊事件。
奧巴馬可讀的最后一本小說、肯特?哈羅夫所著的《無伴奏圣歌》以科羅拉多州壯麗的風光為背景，深入描寫了其中心地區的小鎮生活。
書單中的下一本書是《紐約時報》專欄作家湯姆? 弗雷德曼所著的《世界又熱又平又擠》，副標題是“為什么我們需要一場綠色革命，它怎樣重塑美國。”
奧巴馬即將于今年九月展開的重要議程之一就是敦促國會通過一項建立“總量管制與排放交易”體系的計劃，以減少溫室氣體排放。他已花費巨資呼吁建立新型可再生能源經濟。
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（英語點津許雅寧 姍姍編輯）
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