副教授惊魂

某副教授翻译某字典初稿，我来帮忙做校对，看得我眼泪哗哗的，偶举两例：

US Copyright Office译作美国著作权办公室。

spillback n. the full or partial blockage of an intersection by one or more cars that don't make it through before the traffic lights turn red. 回堵（十字路口有一辆或多辆车造成的完全或部分堵塞，在交通灯变红灯前不能使交通顺畅）：Spillback is caused when a queue from a downstream intersection uses up all the space on a link and prevents vehicles from entering the upstream intersection on green. 车流占据一个方向的交通线上的十字路口，使另一方向的车流即使在绿灯时也不能开，这种现象叫回堵。

这位英文副教授英文好不好，反正是副教授，中文好不好？反正我没看懂她给的译文。可以肯定的是副教授一定缺乏生活常识，或没有见过spillback的情景，也大概没有用功，网络上搜一下，找到更精确的定义也不难――更何况，这个词条（包括其他很多词条）的解释、例句就是抄下面这个网站的：http://www.wordspy.com/words/spillback.asp

"As of late last week, that question was probably on the lips of 6,552 drivers who had been caught on just three days in the city's latest crackdown on the scourge of gridlock, or what traffic specialists call 'spillback,' in which a single intersection is blocked by cars that fail to get through before the light changes. (Strictly defined, gridlock occurs when spillback ties up traffic around an entire square block and offending drivers end up pretty much blocking themselves.)"

―Randy Kennedy, "At the Corner of Gridlock and Groan," The New York Times, September 12, 1999

我的校对意见：" 回堵（由于车辆没能在本方向交通灯从绿灯变成红灯前通过十字路口，造成路口堵塞或拥堵的现象）"