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 brutal¹ seven months facing economic blight², rising trouble abroad and fighting for an increasingly under-fire agenda, Obama opened his day with a workout at the mansion³ he is renting on the Martha's Vineyard resort.

Then the athletic⁴ 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 respite⁵ 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 genre⁶ 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 fictional⁷ 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 delves⁸ into small town life in the heartland.

Next on Obama's list was "Hot, Flat and Crowded," by New York Times columnist⁹ 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 emissions¹⁰, and he has spent considerable capital on calling for a new renewable energy economy.

美国总统巴拉克•奥巴马于本周一开始了其第一天的休假，趁机养精蓄锐，放松身心，除了打网球和高尔夫，他还要读厚厚的一摞书。

七个月以来，奥巴马处境严峻， 他要应对经济衰退、海外问题升级以及（医疗改革）计划不断遭到批评等问题。在玛尔塔葡萄园岛度假胜地租用的别墅内，奥巴马以锻炼身体开始了他的一天。

之后，这位运动强将向第一夫人米歇尔•奥巴马发起了网球挑战，随后与瑞士银行（美国区）首席执行官罗伯特•沃尔夫等人一起前往岛上的一个高尔夫俱乐部打球。

奥巴马身着棕色休闲裤和黑色T恤衫。在前往发球区击出第一杆之前，奥巴马微笑着对欢呼的人群说：“谢谢”。

据奥巴马的助手介绍，在华盛顿的政治泥淖中疲惫地挣扎了数月之后，奥巴马想暂喘口气。

白宫副发言人比尔•伯顿说：“总统与玛尔塔葡萄园岛的缘分大概有十来年了。”

“在这十年中，他大概来过五六次，他很享受在这里的时光，这里很舒服，海滩很漂亮，人们非常友好，食物也不错。”

在上任后首次为期一周的假期中，总统没有任何公事安排，但他可能会与支持他医改计划的议员保持电话联络，医改计划是他目前工作的重中之重。

伯顿透露，奥巴马于上周日抵达这处位于美国东海岸的富豪庄园。他打算专心读几本书，总计共有近2300页。

这其中有反映坚韧意志的小说《归途》，这本书由乔治•佩利凯诺所著，他专事描写潜藏在首都华盛顿贫民区街道的犯罪和冲突，并以此形成了自己的风格。

奥巴马手边还有几本描写城市生活的书，例如理查德•普赖斯的《旺盛的生命》，这本小说主要描写了发生在曼哈顿下东区的一次枪击事件。

奥巴马可读的最后一本小说、肯特•哈罗夫所著的《无伴奏圣歌》以科罗拉多州壮丽的风光为背景，深入描写了其中心地区的小镇生活。

书单中的下一本书是《纽约时报》专栏作家汤姆• 弗雷德曼所著的《世界又热又平又挤》，副标题是“为什么我们需要一场绿色革命，它怎样重塑美国。”

奥巴马即将于今年九月展开的重要议程之一就是敦促国会通过一项建立“总量管制与排放交易”体系的计划，以减少温室气体排放。他已花费巨资呼吁建立新型可再生能源经济。

Vocabulary:

replenish:to fill or make complete again; add a new stock or supply to（补充）

under-fire：under censure¹¹ or criticism（受到批评，指责）

tee:the starting place, usually a hard mound¹² of earth, at the beginning of play for each hole.（高尔夫球场的发球区，球座）

respite:a usually short interval of rest or relief（暂缓）

punishing:累人的

get stuck into：全身贯注地做某事，积极地做某事

wrong-side-of-the-tracks：城市中贫民区，贫民阶层