句子：这个女演员自曝曾被某导演潜规则。

误译：The actress exposed that she had been taken in by a certain director through the potential rule.

正译：The actress exposed that she had been forced to share a casting couch with a certain director.

解释：潜规则本来是个名词，在这里变成了动词。to be taken in的意思是to be deceived，“被欺骗”没有表达出“被潜规则”的含义。

娱乐圈的潜规则，指的是“演员为上镜与导演之间进行性交换”，带有贬义。potential是个中性词，指“现在还不是，而将来会变成的”，即“潜在的”，例如：potential customer(潜在的顾客)。

而potential rule的意思是“现在还不是，而将来可能会变成的规则”，将“潜规则”译成potential rule是不妥的。英语可以用casting couch表示“潜规则”；用to be forced to share a casting couch with sb表示“被潜规则”。例如：

1. 这个年轻女演员利用潜规则进入电影业。The young actress used the casting couch to enter the film industry.

“潜规则”在一般不带有负面意义的情况下，可以译为hidden rule, latent rule，underlying rule或unspoken rule。例如：

2. 各行各业都有潜规则。All trades and professions have their own hidden rules.

3. 这位职业经理人现身说法揭露了商场潜规则。The professional manager exposed the latent rule in the commercial circles through his own examples.

4. 关于财富的一个潜规则是人们不谈论钱，但是谈论投资。An underlying rule of wealth is that money is not discussed but investments are.

5. 我问过演艺圈内几十个人是否听说过这个潜规则。I asked dozens of people in the entertainment business if they had heard of this unspoken rule.▲

（本栏目供稿：王逢鑫教授）