閱讀是英語考試的重中之重,想要得高分,可以多多練習。以下是為大家整理的《2018年考博英語閱讀經(jīng)濟學人文章每日精析【三篇】》希望對大家的寫作有啟發(fā)和幫助。
【第一篇:旅行安全】
Travel security旅行安全Risky business高風險生意International SOS is the biggest player in a fast-growing industry國際SOS救援中心是旅游安全——這個快速增長的行業(yè)的參與者
AT THE centre of a large office in west London sits a raised circular platform with several seats. Screens in front carry international news superimposed on a huge atlas. From here rescue missions are co-ordinated by International SOS (ISOS), the world’s largest travel-security firm, which counts nearly two-thirds of the Fortune Global 500 companies as clients. It operates 26 other centres across the world. The firm says they have never been busier.在倫敦西部一個大型的寫字樓的中間,擺放著一張大圓桌,幾把椅子。前方的屏幕滾動的國際新聞疊加在一個巨型地圖冊上,世界上的旅行安全保障公司國際SOS救援中心(ISOS)就是從這里策劃營救活動的,全球財富500強公司里接近2/3都是它的客戶。它經(jīng)營者橫跨全球的其他26處中心,該公司表示它從來沒有這么忙碌過。
ISOS has responded to emergencies large and small. They range from giving timely advice to the parents of a child in Nigeria who had swallowed a coin to evacuating corporate and NGO clients from Burundi during last year’s coup attempt. Torn between a medical airlift and potentially risky surgery in a local hospital, the child’s parents were counselled by ISOS doctors to let nature take its course, which it duly did. The Burundi operation was trickier.國際SOS救援中心對大大小小的緊急情況做出了回應。從他們給尼日尼亞的一位吞了一枚硬幣的小孩的父母提供了及時的建議,到去年布隆迪政變期間組織撤離企業(yè)和非政府組織成員。期待您的翻譯,您可以將翻譯留言到文章底部,第二天會有答案解析哦。
“When the president [Pierre Nkurunziza] started talking about serving an unconstitutional third term,” explains Tim Willis, a former army officer who is the firm’s European security director, “we thought ‘look out’ and began sending alerts to our members. When the balloon went up in May, their families had got out and they were prepared.” A nurse was embedded with one client, a local security provider was told to stand by with vehicles and an ISOS manager flew to neighbouring Rwanda to co-ordinate the operation.前陸軍軍官蒂姆·威利斯,現(xiàn)任國際SOS救援中心歐洲安全主管說:“當布隆迪總統(tǒng)(皮埃爾·恩庫倫齊扎)違反憲法,表示自己會在第三個任期的繼續(xù)擔任總統(tǒng)時,我們就開始留意并提醒其他成員警戒起來。等到5月份局勢變糟的時候,本公司成員和其家庭成員都已經(jīng)做好準備了?!闭儼l(fā)生期間,一個護士照顧一個客戶,當?shù)匾粋€備有車輛的安全機構(gòu)隨時待命,還有一位國際救援中心經(jīng)理還跑到鄰國盧旺達去指揮調(diào)配救助工作。
Next a handful of people were moved into a secure hotel. Then, once the road to the border was declared viable, they made their way out. A plane was being chartered in Nairobi meanwhile to collect another 73 employees of a client from the airport at Bujumbura, the capital, and fly them to Rwanda’s capital, Kigali. For Mr Willis it showed how managing efforts close to the action results in a “boring evacuation, which is what we want”. 隨后一群人被轉(zhuǎn)移到安全賓館里。一旦邊界道路宣布可以通行,就可以出去了。與此同時,國際SOS救援中心在內(nèi)羅比租一架飛機,將布隆迪首都布瓊布拉機場的另外73名客戶接去了盧旺達首都基加利。對威利斯來說,這次行動表明指揮管理中所下的功夫的得到了回報。他說“撤離行動有驚無險,這正是我們想要的。”
Viable:可行的,能行的
Globalisation (ever-increasing business travel and tourism), political instability (spreading in an arc from the Gulf to sub-Saharan Africa) and fear of terrorism in places previously thought safe (such as Istanbul, Jakarta, Paris and Brussels) are all drivers of the business. So too is China’s expanding international footprint. This year China will overtake America as the biggest spender on business travel. Last year ISOS saw its “outbound” China business grow by 46%, thanks in part to Beijing’s commitment to building a “new silk road” from Central Asia to the Mediterranean.全球一體化(持續(xù)推動商務(wù)出行和觀光旅游的發(fā)展),政治局勢的不穩(wěn)定性(從海灣一路延伸到撒哈拉以南非洲)和有些之前人們認為是安全的地區(qū)(如伊斯坦布爾、雅加達、巴黎和布魯塞爾)現(xiàn)在卻籠罩在恐怖陰影下還有中國對外貿(mào)易的擴展,這些因素都推進了旅游安全服務(wù)的增長。還有中國國際擴張的腳步加快也是另一個因素。今年中國將取代美國,商務(wù)出行的花費達到全球第一位。去年國際SOS救援中心“出口”到中國的貿(mào)易增長增長了46%,這在一定程度上歸功于中國政府決心要建成從亞洲中部到地中海的“新絲綢之路”。
Founded over 30 years ago to provide emergency medical care for Europeans working in South-East Asia, ISOS has become a global business. When the Arab Spring got going in 2011, it had the resources to carry out large-scale evacuations from Egypt (1,250 people) and then Libya (1,500).國際SOS救援中心成立于三十多年前,成立之初是給工作在東南亞的歐洲人提供緊急醫(yī)療護理?,F(xiàn)在它的服務(wù)已經(jīng)擴展到全球了。2011年阿拉伯之春運動開始之時,國際SOS救援中心斥資先后在埃及(1250人)和利比亞(1500人)開展了大規(guī)模的撤離行動進行了大規(guī)模的人員撤離行動。
The Arab Spring: 所謂“阿拉伯之春”,就是自2010年最早發(fā)生在突尼斯的阿拉伯世界爭取民主、平等的運動。對應的是:The Arab Winter。
Since 2001 ISOS has grown from revenues of $250m a year and 2,500 employees to $1.5 billion and a staff of 11,000, which includes over 5,000 medical professionals and 200 security specialists. Operating from around 1,000 locations in 90 countries, it takes nearly 5m assistance calls every year. However, while it is large-scale evacuations at times of crisis that grab attention, the biggest risks that business travellers face are more prosaic. According to a survey of its European customers in 2015, 11% said they had experienced terrorism as a threat to their safety compared with 34% who cited petty crime and 33% traffic accidents.2001年國際SOS救援中心的年收益為二萬五千美元,擁有員工兩千五百人。如今其年收益已經(jīng)達到一百五十億美金,擁有員工一萬一千人,其中包括五千多醫(yī)學專業(yè)人員和兩百個安全方面的專家。國際SOS救援中心平均每年收到近五百萬個求助電話,來自全球九十個國家的一千個地方。盡管危機時刻大規(guī)模的人員撤離比較能吸引大家的注意,但是相比之下,商務(wù)出差人士所能面臨的危險就顯得平淡無奇了。2015年一份針對國際SOS救援中心歐洲客戶的調(diào)查表明,只有11%的人表示自己的人身安全曾受到恐怖主義的威脅。相比之下受到輕微犯罪威脅的和遭受交通事故的人所占的比例分別高達34%和33%。
Prosaic: 乏味的,平淡無奇的
Whatever the emergency, knowing exactly where your people are when something bad happens is the first part of any plan to help them. After the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001, ISOS introduced travel-tracking technology that provides real-time data about employee movements. Now, apps on phones using GPS can establish virtual secure areas—so called “geo-fencing”. A panic button on the phone sends SMS and e-mail alerts with location information if someone leaves or enters designated perimeters.無論是什么緊急情況,一旦發(fā)生,第一件事就是先弄清楚人在哪里。無論何種救援方案,這都是幫助他們的第一步。2001年9月11日恐怖襲擊事件發(fā)生后,國際SOS救援中心就引進了一種旅游追蹤技術(shù)。它可以提供員工的實時地理移動數(shù)據(jù)?,F(xiàn)在,有些手機APP可以利用GPS定位系統(tǒng),構(gòu)建虛擬安全領(lǐng)域——這就是所謂的“地理圍欄”。如果某人踏入或離開指定周界,手機上的緊急按鈕可以發(fā)送帶有位置信息的短信和郵件提醒。
Geo-fencing:地理圍欄是LBS的一種應用,就是用一個虛擬的柵欄圍出一個虛擬地理邊界,當手機進入、離開某個特定地理區(qū)域,或在該區(qū)域內(nèi)活動時,手機可以接收自動通知和警告。Perimeter:周界
Although support when an emergency strikes is what gives clients reassurance, ISOS and its smaller rivals, such as Annapolis-based iJet and Anvil Group, a British firm, emphasise that risk mitigation starts with understanding where and how threats arise and knowing how to avoid or deal with them. That matters not just for practical reasons but for legal ones too. Employers have a duty of care and so can be sued if staff have not been adequately prepared or properly informed about dangerous situations they might find themselves in. One more reason why ISOS and its ilk need not worry too much about falling demand.盡管一旦緊急事件發(fā)生,給客戶提供幫助可以讓他們放心,但是國際SOS救援中心和它較弱的競爭對手,比如美國安納波利斯的iJet 和 英國的Anvil Group,都強調(diào)說只有了解了危險發(fā)生地點和原因,并且弄清楚如何避免或處理的時候,危險才能有所緩解。這不光指實際原因還包括法律方面的原因。雇主們有照管其雇員的責任。所以如果雇員面對所處的處境,沒有得到雇主給予的充足或恰當?shù)臏蕚?,又或是雇主沒有告知雇員所處險境,雇員是可以起訴雇主的。這就又給雇員親屬們一個不用擔心他們得不到必要的支持的理由。
【第二篇:消費品】
Consumer products消費品His and hers男性的和女性的Companies hungry for profits are playing the gender card公司通過產(chǎn)品上的性別標識來渴求實現(xiàn)盈利。Jul 23rd 2016 | From the print edition
“GENTLEMEN, it’s time for us to be done with women’s cleaning products,” suggests the website for Hero Clean, a line of American products aimed at men that Elizabeth Sweet, a professor at the University of California, Davis, came upon while shopping in California.“No more pastel bottles with puppies, babies and dewy meadows.”他發(fā)現(xiàn),“缺少帶有小狗,嬰兒和露水草地的色彩繽紛的小瓶?!?BR> Only a tiny group of products merit distinction by gender. “Anything meant for your genitals,” says another gender expert, Lisa Wade of Occidental College. Yet needlessly gendered items are proliferating. Q-TIPS now offers “men’s ultimate” cotton swabs for men whose earwax would overwhelm ladylike swabs. A firm in California called Daisy Rock hawks hot pink sparkle-coated “girl guitars” to women. Banana Boat, a sunscreen brand, sells black bottles of sun lotion to men who can’t touch its less masculine orange packaging.只有一小部分商品是依據(jù)性別分類。另一位來自韋德西方學院的性別專家麗莎提出'一切事物都可以體現(xiàn)出你的性別'。但市場上許多沒必要按性別分類的產(chǎn)品正在大量產(chǎn)生。現(xiàn)在,相比女性專用棉簽,Q-TIPS為男性提供'男士專利'的棉簽,由于男性耳垢不便使用女用棉簽去除。在加利佛尼亞,一家叫做丹斯洛克的公司專為為女性提供染亮粉顏色的'女式吉他'。一家防曬品牌香蕉船,為不想購買橙色包裝的男士提供黑色瓶裝的防曬產(chǎn)品。
gendered items: 按性別分類的商品Proliferating : 增加,大量產(chǎn)生
There has been a huge shift towards gendered marketing since the 1950s when even beauty products were often gender-neutral, says Ms Sweet. One is that because men and women are increasingly doing the same things, such as attending the same universities, doing the same jobs and household duties, marketers see a chance to appeal to an older instinct, for differentiation.在20世紀50年代,甚至連美容產(chǎn)品也經(jīng)常是不區(qū)分性別的,而之后,按性別分類的市場已經(jīng)發(fā)生了重大的轉(zhuǎn)變, Ms Sweet這樣說道。有一種理論認為發(fā)生這種轉(zhuǎn)變的原因是,越來越多的男性和女性正在做著同樣的事情,比如,同樣上大學,同樣做工作和家務(wù)。市場營銷人員發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種能夠利用男女差異化這種古老天性的機會。
Some firms are even trying to charge women more for the same products. A 2015 study in New York city found that women’s products cost more two-fifths of the time. But many of the new gendered products are for men. Powerful Yogurt, a food company, has begun producing high-protein yogurt in black tubs. Mammoth Supply, a New Zealand-based producer of bottled iced-coffee, urges men to embrace their new domesticised reality. “Don’t just clear the leaves: eliminate them. Don’t just do the chores: annihilate them.” Bulldog Skincare peddles moisturisers “built for men”.某些公司甚至還試圖在同一產(chǎn)品上對女性索要高價。一項2015年在紐約進行的調(diào)研發(fā)現(xiàn),當時購買女性產(chǎn)品要花費比原價高五分之二的價格。而且許多按性別分類的新型產(chǎn)品專為男性設(shè)計。Powerful Yogurt,一家食品公司,已經(jīng)開始生產(chǎn)黑色桶裝的高蛋白酸奶了。Mammoth Supply, 一家生產(chǎn)瓶裝冰咖啡的新西蘭公司,鼓勵男性接受他們新型家庭現(xiàn)實生活。“不只是簡單地清掃樹葉,要根除它們。不要只是簡單地做雜務(wù),要消滅它們”。Bulldog Skincare公司售賣專為男性定制的潤膚膏。
Other firms are treading more carefully. Following complaints about gender-based signs last year, Target, an American retailer, removed mentions of it from the kids’ bedding and toy sections. Some firms, such as Johnson & Johnson, a health-care firm, via its Clean & Clear brand, are even embracing transgender themes in their marketing.其他公司的行事相對更謹慎一些。去年,隨著人們對商品上性別標志的投訴,Target,一家美國零售商,取消了孩童寢具和玩具部分上的性別標志。某些公司,如Johnson & Johnson公司——一家衛(wèi)生保健公司,通過其旗下 Clean & Clear品牌,甚至在市場營銷中提出了跨性別主題。
Treading: 步行,行事health-care: 醫(yī)療保健
Many consumers are resisting the gender card. Reviews on the Amazon page of Bic for Her pens, which are like any other pen except pink and purple, are sarcastic. One reviewer told how his wife, attempting to use his man-keyboard, faints until he revives her with smelling salts. Men may be from Mars and women from Venus, but both seem to agree that when it comes to pens, everyone can share.許多消費者正在抵制性別標識?;叵肫鹪趤嗰R遜網(wǎng)站上的Bic 女性用筆,除了顏色是粉色和紫色,這些筆和其他的一模一樣,真是一種諷刺。一位評論員說,他的妻子嘗試使用他的男性專用鍵盤,結(jié)果暈倒了,最后他用嗅鹽喚醒了妻子。男人可能來自火星,女人可能來自金星,但所有人應當對此達成一致,即在筆這一事物上,人人都可以共享。
【第三篇:殖民火星】
Colonising Mars: For life, not for an afterlife殖民火星:為了現(xiàn)在而非后世
Seeking to make Earth expendable is not a good reason to settle other planets想方設(shè)法用盡地球資源不是人類移民到別的星球的好借口
MARS has been much possessed by death. In the late 19th century Percival Lowell, an American astronomer, persuaded much of the public that the red planet was dying of desertification. H.G. Wells, in “The War of the Worlds”, imagined Martian invaders bringing death to Earth; in “The Martian Chronicles” Ray Bradbury pictured humans living among Martian ghosts seeing Earth destroyed in a nuclear spasm. Science was not much cheerier than science fiction: space probes revealed that having once been warmer and wetter, Mars is now cold, cratered and all-but-airless.火星一直被死亡所籠罩。19世紀末期,美國天文學家PercivalLowell曾告訴大多數(shù)媒體說,由于荒漠化,這個紅色的星球已經(jīng)瀕臨垂死的邊緣了。H.G. Wells在《星際戰(zhàn)爭》中設(shè)想了火星入侵者將死亡帶向地球的故事;在《火星編年史》中,Ray Bradbury描繪了活在火星人鬼魂下的人們眼睜睜看著地球毀于核爆的畫面??茖W現(xiàn)實并不比這些科幻小說要樂觀多少:航天探測器顯示,火星曾經(jīng)溫暖而濕潤,但現(xiàn)如今一片冷寂,到處都坑坑洼洼,空氣少得可憐。
Persuade:v. 說服,勸說Invader:n. 侵略者Chronicle:n. 編年史,年代記;記錄spasm:n. 一陣發(fā)作
Perhaps that is why the dream of taking new life to Mars is such a stirring one. Elon Musk, an entrepreneur, has built a rocket company, SpaceX, from scratch in order to make this dream come true. On September 27th he outlined new plans for rockets that dwarf the Apollo programme’s Saturn V, and for spaceships with room for around 100 passengers that can be refuelled both in orbit and on Mars. Such infrastructure, he says, would eventually allow thousands of settlers to get there for $200,000 each—roughly the median cost of an American house. To deliver such marvels in a decade or so is an order tall enough to reach halfway to orbit itself (see article). But as a vision, its ambition enthralls.也許這就是為什么將新生命帶到火星上的夢想會如此的激動人心的原因吧。一位名為Elon Musk的企業(yè)家白手起家創(chuàng)辦了火箭公司SpaceX。他創(chuàng)建這家公司的目的就是為了實現(xiàn)這個夢想。九月二十七日,Elon Musk簡述了火箭公司的新計劃。此計劃準備建造一些比阿波羅探月計劃下土星-5號運載火箭還要高級的火箭和一個載客量為100名,并且能夠在軌道和火星上補充燃料的宇宙飛船。他表示,最終這些設(shè)施將可以把上千名移民送上火星。每名乘客只需花費二十萬美元——大概相當于美國人買一套中等房子的價錢。如果能在大概十年內(nèi)完成這樣的奇跡,那么接近離火星軌道的路程就相當于走了一半了(見文章)。不過就一種愿景而言,它的目標還是很吸引人的。
Stirring:adj. 激動人心的entrepreneur:n. 企業(yè)家outline:vt. 概述Apollo:n. 阿波羅(太陽神);美男子Orbit:n. 軌道infrastructure:n. 基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施;
How odd, then, that Mr Musk’s motivation is born in part of a fear as misplaced as it is striking. He portrays a Mars colony as a hedge against Earth-bound extinction. Science-fiction fans have long been familiar with this sort of angst about existential risks—in the 1950s Arthur C. Clarke told them that, confined to Earth “humanity had too many eggs in one rather fragile basket.” Others agree. Stephen Hawking, a noted physicist, is one of those given to such fits of the collywobbles. If humans stick to a single planet, he warns, they will be sitting ducks for a supervirus, a malevolent artificial intelligence or a nuclear war that could finish off the whole lot of them at any time.然而奇怪的是起初Musk先生的這一動機一半源自于恐懼,這即放錯了地方又顯得不同尋常。他把火星描繪成了地球滅絕的殖民地。 科幻迷們早已了解了這種生存的擔憂——早在從20世紀五十年代的Arthur C. Clarke就告訴他們?nèi)祟惏炎约航d在地球上,就是把“人類的雞蛋都放在同一個易碎的籃子里”。其他人也同意這個說法。的物理學家史蒂芬霍金也是這種說法的支持者。他警告說,要是人類堅持在一個星球上生存的話,就會很容易成為一種超級病毒、一個險惡用心的人工智能,或是核戰(zhàn)的攻擊目標,隨時可能全軍覆沒。
collywobbles :n. 肚子疼;急性腹瀉malevolent:adj. 惡毒的;有惡意的;壞心腸的
Claptrap. It is true that, in the long run, Earth will become uninhabitable. But that long run is about a billion years. To concern oneself with such eventualities is to take an aversion to short-termism beyond the salutary.(讀者試譯) (For comparison, a billion years ago the most complex creature on the planet was a very simple seaweed.) Yes, a natural or maliciously designed pandemic might kill billions. So might a nuclear war; at a pinch climate change might wreak similar havoc. But extinction is more than just unprecedented mass mortality; it requires getting rid of everyone. Neither diseases nor wars do that.聽起來這都是嘩眾取寵。但是長遠來看,事實的真相是,終有一天地球會變得不適合人類居住,但這幾億年后才會發(fā)生。(期待您的翻譯。)(十億年前這個星球上最復雜的生物也僅是那些結(jié)構(gòu)非常單一的海藻而已)。是的,自然或用心險惡的瘟疫可能會導致數(shù)十億人死亡。不光是這,一場核戰(zhàn)和輕微的氣候變化也有可能造成同樣的后果。但是前所未有的大規(guī)模死亡并不意味著人類的滅絕,滅絕人類的話需要殺光所有的人。這不是疾病或戰(zhàn)爭就能辦到的。
Claptrap:n. 嘩眾取寵的話Aversion:n. 厭惡Salutary:adj. 有益的,有用的;有益健康的Maliciously:adv. 有敵意地,惡意地Pinch:n. 匱乏;少量;夾痛Havoc:n. 大破壞;浩劫;蹂躪
Otherworldly concerns來世的煩惱
An asteroid as big as the one that dispatched the dinosaurs might take out the whole species, but humans have had the foresight to catalogue the asteroids up to the task and none is coming close in the foreseeable future. So the chance of earthly extinction from any known cause in the next few centuries is remarkably low. As for the unknown—an evil AI, or predatory aliens with intellects as “vast and cool and unsympathetic” as those of Wells’s Martians, or the good old-fashioned wrath of God—why would they wipe humans from the face of one planet while leaving those on the rock next door in peace?一個和當年致使恐龍滅絕的同樣大小的小行星,就有可能導致人類滅絕。但是人類是有遠見的。我們已經(jīng)特意把小行星編輯造冊,并且在可預見的未來沒有一顆小行星會駛近地球。所以在接下來幾個世紀中,地球由于已知原因滅絕的可能性微乎其微。說回那些未知的因素——邪惡的人工智能,或是如同威爾斯的火星人一樣“龐大、冷酷、無情”的智能外星侵略者,或者是舊時說的上帝的憤怒——為什么他們要將人類從地球上抹去,而不去動相鄰巖石星球上的人呢?
Asteroid:n. [天] 小行星
If worrying about imminent extinction is unrealistic, trying to hide from it is ignoble. At the margins, it is better that the best and brightest share Earth’s risks than have a way to run away from them. Dream of Mars, by all means, but do so in a spirit of hope for new life, not fear of death.如果說擔心即將來臨的滅頂之災是不切實際的想法,那么嘗試去掩蓋這一事實就是不光彩的行為。與逃避這一事實相比,最上乘的做法是想辦法分擔地球的風險。無論如何,火星之夢當然可以有,但是請從創(chuàng)造美好新生活的精神出發(fā),而不是畏懼死亡。
Imminent:adj. 即將來臨的;Hide:vi. 隱藏ignoble:adj. 不光彩的;卑鄙的;卑賤的
【第一篇:旅行安全】
Travel security旅行安全Risky business高風險生意International SOS is the biggest player in a fast-growing industry國際SOS救援中心是旅游安全——這個快速增長的行業(yè)的參與者
AT THE centre of a large office in west London sits a raised circular platform with several seats. Screens in front carry international news superimposed on a huge atlas. From here rescue missions are co-ordinated by International SOS (ISOS), the world’s largest travel-security firm, which counts nearly two-thirds of the Fortune Global 500 companies as clients. It operates 26 other centres across the world. The firm says they have never been busier.在倫敦西部一個大型的寫字樓的中間,擺放著一張大圓桌,幾把椅子。前方的屏幕滾動的國際新聞疊加在一個巨型地圖冊上,世界上的旅行安全保障公司國際SOS救援中心(ISOS)就是從這里策劃營救活動的,全球財富500強公司里接近2/3都是它的客戶。它經(jīng)營者橫跨全球的其他26處中心,該公司表示它從來沒有這么忙碌過。
ISOS has responded to emergencies large and small. They range from giving timely advice to the parents of a child in Nigeria who had swallowed a coin to evacuating corporate and NGO clients from Burundi during last year’s coup attempt. Torn between a medical airlift and potentially risky surgery in a local hospital, the child’s parents were counselled by ISOS doctors to let nature take its course, which it duly did. The Burundi operation was trickier.國際SOS救援中心對大大小小的緊急情況做出了回應。從他們給尼日尼亞的一位吞了一枚硬幣的小孩的父母提供了及時的建議,到去年布隆迪政變期間組織撤離企業(yè)和非政府組織成員。期待您的翻譯,您可以將翻譯留言到文章底部,第二天會有答案解析哦。
“When the president [Pierre Nkurunziza] started talking about serving an unconstitutional third term,” explains Tim Willis, a former army officer who is the firm’s European security director, “we thought ‘look out’ and began sending alerts to our members. When the balloon went up in May, their families had got out and they were prepared.” A nurse was embedded with one client, a local security provider was told to stand by with vehicles and an ISOS manager flew to neighbouring Rwanda to co-ordinate the operation.前陸軍軍官蒂姆·威利斯,現(xiàn)任國際SOS救援中心歐洲安全主管說:“當布隆迪總統(tǒng)(皮埃爾·恩庫倫齊扎)違反憲法,表示自己會在第三個任期的繼續(xù)擔任總統(tǒng)時,我們就開始留意并提醒其他成員警戒起來。等到5月份局勢變糟的時候,本公司成員和其家庭成員都已經(jīng)做好準備了?!闭儼l(fā)生期間,一個護士照顧一個客戶,當?shù)匾粋€備有車輛的安全機構(gòu)隨時待命,還有一位國際救援中心經(jīng)理還跑到鄰國盧旺達去指揮調(diào)配救助工作。
Next a handful of people were moved into a secure hotel. Then, once the road to the border was declared viable, they made their way out. A plane was being chartered in Nairobi meanwhile to collect another 73 employees of a client from the airport at Bujumbura, the capital, and fly them to Rwanda’s capital, Kigali. For Mr Willis it showed how managing efforts close to the action results in a “boring evacuation, which is what we want”. 隨后一群人被轉(zhuǎn)移到安全賓館里。一旦邊界道路宣布可以通行,就可以出去了。與此同時,國際SOS救援中心在內(nèi)羅比租一架飛機,將布隆迪首都布瓊布拉機場的另外73名客戶接去了盧旺達首都基加利。對威利斯來說,這次行動表明指揮管理中所下的功夫的得到了回報。他說“撤離行動有驚無險,這正是我們想要的。”
Viable:可行的,能行的
Globalisation (ever-increasing business travel and tourism), political instability (spreading in an arc from the Gulf to sub-Saharan Africa) and fear of terrorism in places previously thought safe (such as Istanbul, Jakarta, Paris and Brussels) are all drivers of the business. So too is China’s expanding international footprint. This year China will overtake America as the biggest spender on business travel. Last year ISOS saw its “outbound” China business grow by 46%, thanks in part to Beijing’s commitment to building a “new silk road” from Central Asia to the Mediterranean.全球一體化(持續(xù)推動商務(wù)出行和觀光旅游的發(fā)展),政治局勢的不穩(wěn)定性(從海灣一路延伸到撒哈拉以南非洲)和有些之前人們認為是安全的地區(qū)(如伊斯坦布爾、雅加達、巴黎和布魯塞爾)現(xiàn)在卻籠罩在恐怖陰影下還有中國對外貿(mào)易的擴展,這些因素都推進了旅游安全服務(wù)的增長。還有中國國際擴張的腳步加快也是另一個因素。今年中國將取代美國,商務(wù)出行的花費達到全球第一位。去年國際SOS救援中心“出口”到中國的貿(mào)易增長增長了46%,這在一定程度上歸功于中國政府決心要建成從亞洲中部到地中海的“新絲綢之路”。
Founded over 30 years ago to provide emergency medical care for Europeans working in South-East Asia, ISOS has become a global business. When the Arab Spring got going in 2011, it had the resources to carry out large-scale evacuations from Egypt (1,250 people) and then Libya (1,500).國際SOS救援中心成立于三十多年前,成立之初是給工作在東南亞的歐洲人提供緊急醫(yī)療護理?,F(xiàn)在它的服務(wù)已經(jīng)擴展到全球了。2011年阿拉伯之春運動開始之時,國際SOS救援中心斥資先后在埃及(1250人)和利比亞(1500人)開展了大規(guī)模的撤離行動進行了大規(guī)模的人員撤離行動。
The Arab Spring: 所謂“阿拉伯之春”,就是自2010年最早發(fā)生在突尼斯的阿拉伯世界爭取民主、平等的運動。對應的是:The Arab Winter。
Since 2001 ISOS has grown from revenues of $250m a year and 2,500 employees to $1.5 billion and a staff of 11,000, which includes over 5,000 medical professionals and 200 security specialists. Operating from around 1,000 locations in 90 countries, it takes nearly 5m assistance calls every year. However, while it is large-scale evacuations at times of crisis that grab attention, the biggest risks that business travellers face are more prosaic. According to a survey of its European customers in 2015, 11% said they had experienced terrorism as a threat to their safety compared with 34% who cited petty crime and 33% traffic accidents.2001年國際SOS救援中心的年收益為二萬五千美元,擁有員工兩千五百人。如今其年收益已經(jīng)達到一百五十億美金,擁有員工一萬一千人,其中包括五千多醫(yī)學專業(yè)人員和兩百個安全方面的專家。國際SOS救援中心平均每年收到近五百萬個求助電話,來自全球九十個國家的一千個地方。盡管危機時刻大規(guī)模的人員撤離比較能吸引大家的注意,但是相比之下,商務(wù)出差人士所能面臨的危險就顯得平淡無奇了。2015年一份針對國際SOS救援中心歐洲客戶的調(diào)查表明,只有11%的人表示自己的人身安全曾受到恐怖主義的威脅。相比之下受到輕微犯罪威脅的和遭受交通事故的人所占的比例分別高達34%和33%。
Prosaic: 乏味的,平淡無奇的
Whatever the emergency, knowing exactly where your people are when something bad happens is the first part of any plan to help them. After the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001, ISOS introduced travel-tracking technology that provides real-time data about employee movements. Now, apps on phones using GPS can establish virtual secure areas—so called “geo-fencing”. A panic button on the phone sends SMS and e-mail alerts with location information if someone leaves or enters designated perimeters.無論是什么緊急情況,一旦發(fā)生,第一件事就是先弄清楚人在哪里。無論何種救援方案,這都是幫助他們的第一步。2001年9月11日恐怖襲擊事件發(fā)生后,國際SOS救援中心就引進了一種旅游追蹤技術(shù)。它可以提供員工的實時地理移動數(shù)據(jù)?,F(xiàn)在,有些手機APP可以利用GPS定位系統(tǒng),構(gòu)建虛擬安全領(lǐng)域——這就是所謂的“地理圍欄”。如果某人踏入或離開指定周界,手機上的緊急按鈕可以發(fā)送帶有位置信息的短信和郵件提醒。
Geo-fencing:地理圍欄是LBS的一種應用,就是用一個虛擬的柵欄圍出一個虛擬地理邊界,當手機進入、離開某個特定地理區(qū)域,或在該區(qū)域內(nèi)活動時,手機可以接收自動通知和警告。Perimeter:周界
Although support when an emergency strikes is what gives clients reassurance, ISOS and its smaller rivals, such as Annapolis-based iJet and Anvil Group, a British firm, emphasise that risk mitigation starts with understanding where and how threats arise and knowing how to avoid or deal with them. That matters not just for practical reasons but for legal ones too. Employers have a duty of care and so can be sued if staff have not been adequately prepared or properly informed about dangerous situations they might find themselves in. One more reason why ISOS and its ilk need not worry too much about falling demand.盡管一旦緊急事件發(fā)生,給客戶提供幫助可以讓他們放心,但是國際SOS救援中心和它較弱的競爭對手,比如美國安納波利斯的iJet 和 英國的Anvil Group,都強調(diào)說只有了解了危險發(fā)生地點和原因,并且弄清楚如何避免或處理的時候,危險才能有所緩解。這不光指實際原因還包括法律方面的原因。雇主們有照管其雇員的責任。所以如果雇員面對所處的處境,沒有得到雇主給予的充足或恰當?shù)臏蕚?,又或是雇主沒有告知雇員所處險境,雇員是可以起訴雇主的。這就又給雇員親屬們一個不用擔心他們得不到必要的支持的理由。
【第二篇:消費品】
Consumer products消費品His and hers男性的和女性的Companies hungry for profits are playing the gender card公司通過產(chǎn)品上的性別標識來渴求實現(xiàn)盈利。Jul 23rd 2016 | From the print edition
“GENTLEMEN, it’s time for us to be done with women’s cleaning products,” suggests the website for Hero Clean, a line of American products aimed at men that Elizabeth Sweet, a professor at the University of California, Davis, came upon while shopping in California.“No more pastel bottles with puppies, babies and dewy meadows.”他發(fā)現(xiàn),“缺少帶有小狗,嬰兒和露水草地的色彩繽紛的小瓶?!?BR> Only a tiny group of products merit distinction by gender. “Anything meant for your genitals,” says another gender expert, Lisa Wade of Occidental College. Yet needlessly gendered items are proliferating. Q-TIPS now offers “men’s ultimate” cotton swabs for men whose earwax would overwhelm ladylike swabs. A firm in California called Daisy Rock hawks hot pink sparkle-coated “girl guitars” to women. Banana Boat, a sunscreen brand, sells black bottles of sun lotion to men who can’t touch its less masculine orange packaging.只有一小部分商品是依據(jù)性別分類。另一位來自韋德西方學院的性別專家麗莎提出'一切事物都可以體現(xiàn)出你的性別'。但市場上許多沒必要按性別分類的產(chǎn)品正在大量產(chǎn)生。現(xiàn)在,相比女性專用棉簽,Q-TIPS為男性提供'男士專利'的棉簽,由于男性耳垢不便使用女用棉簽去除。在加利佛尼亞,一家叫做丹斯洛克的公司專為為女性提供染亮粉顏色的'女式吉他'。一家防曬品牌香蕉船,為不想購買橙色包裝的男士提供黑色瓶裝的防曬產(chǎn)品。
gendered items: 按性別分類的商品Proliferating : 增加,大量產(chǎn)生
There has been a huge shift towards gendered marketing since the 1950s when even beauty products were often gender-neutral, says Ms Sweet. One is that because men and women are increasingly doing the same things, such as attending the same universities, doing the same jobs and household duties, marketers see a chance to appeal to an older instinct, for differentiation.在20世紀50年代,甚至連美容產(chǎn)品也經(jīng)常是不區(qū)分性別的,而之后,按性別分類的市場已經(jīng)發(fā)生了重大的轉(zhuǎn)變, Ms Sweet這樣說道。有一種理論認為發(fā)生這種轉(zhuǎn)變的原因是,越來越多的男性和女性正在做著同樣的事情,比如,同樣上大學,同樣做工作和家務(wù)。市場營銷人員發(fā)現(xiàn)了一種能夠利用男女差異化這種古老天性的機會。
Some firms are even trying to charge women more for the same products. A 2015 study in New York city found that women’s products cost more two-fifths of the time. But many of the new gendered products are for men. Powerful Yogurt, a food company, has begun producing high-protein yogurt in black tubs. Mammoth Supply, a New Zealand-based producer of bottled iced-coffee, urges men to embrace their new domesticised reality. “Don’t just clear the leaves: eliminate them. Don’t just do the chores: annihilate them.” Bulldog Skincare peddles moisturisers “built for men”.某些公司甚至還試圖在同一產(chǎn)品上對女性索要高價。一項2015年在紐約進行的調(diào)研發(fā)現(xiàn),當時購買女性產(chǎn)品要花費比原價高五分之二的價格。而且許多按性別分類的新型產(chǎn)品專為男性設(shè)計。Powerful Yogurt,一家食品公司,已經(jīng)開始生產(chǎn)黑色桶裝的高蛋白酸奶了。Mammoth Supply, 一家生產(chǎn)瓶裝冰咖啡的新西蘭公司,鼓勵男性接受他們新型家庭現(xiàn)實生活。“不只是簡單地清掃樹葉,要根除它們。不要只是簡單地做雜務(wù),要消滅它們”。Bulldog Skincare公司售賣專為男性定制的潤膚膏。
Other firms are treading more carefully. Following complaints about gender-based signs last year, Target, an American retailer, removed mentions of it from the kids’ bedding and toy sections. Some firms, such as Johnson & Johnson, a health-care firm, via its Clean & Clear brand, are even embracing transgender themes in their marketing.其他公司的行事相對更謹慎一些。去年,隨著人們對商品上性別標志的投訴,Target,一家美國零售商,取消了孩童寢具和玩具部分上的性別標志。某些公司,如Johnson & Johnson公司——一家衛(wèi)生保健公司,通過其旗下 Clean & Clear品牌,甚至在市場營銷中提出了跨性別主題。
Treading: 步行,行事health-care: 醫(yī)療保健
Many consumers are resisting the gender card. Reviews on the Amazon page of Bic for Her pens, which are like any other pen except pink and purple, are sarcastic. One reviewer told how his wife, attempting to use his man-keyboard, faints until he revives her with smelling salts. Men may be from Mars and women from Venus, but both seem to agree that when it comes to pens, everyone can share.許多消費者正在抵制性別標識?;叵肫鹪趤嗰R遜網(wǎng)站上的Bic 女性用筆,除了顏色是粉色和紫色,這些筆和其他的一模一樣,真是一種諷刺。一位評論員說,他的妻子嘗試使用他的男性專用鍵盤,結(jié)果暈倒了,最后他用嗅鹽喚醒了妻子。男人可能來自火星,女人可能來自金星,但所有人應當對此達成一致,即在筆這一事物上,人人都可以共享。
【第三篇:殖民火星】
Colonising Mars: For life, not for an afterlife殖民火星:為了現(xiàn)在而非后世
Seeking to make Earth expendable is not a good reason to settle other planets想方設(shè)法用盡地球資源不是人類移民到別的星球的好借口
MARS has been much possessed by death. In the late 19th century Percival Lowell, an American astronomer, persuaded much of the public that the red planet was dying of desertification. H.G. Wells, in “The War of the Worlds”, imagined Martian invaders bringing death to Earth; in “The Martian Chronicles” Ray Bradbury pictured humans living among Martian ghosts seeing Earth destroyed in a nuclear spasm. Science was not much cheerier than science fiction: space probes revealed that having once been warmer and wetter, Mars is now cold, cratered and all-but-airless.火星一直被死亡所籠罩。19世紀末期,美國天文學家PercivalLowell曾告訴大多數(shù)媒體說,由于荒漠化,這個紅色的星球已經(jīng)瀕臨垂死的邊緣了。H.G. Wells在《星際戰(zhàn)爭》中設(shè)想了火星入侵者將死亡帶向地球的故事;在《火星編年史》中,Ray Bradbury描繪了活在火星人鬼魂下的人們眼睜睜看著地球毀于核爆的畫面??茖W現(xiàn)實并不比這些科幻小說要樂觀多少:航天探測器顯示,火星曾經(jīng)溫暖而濕潤,但現(xiàn)如今一片冷寂,到處都坑坑洼洼,空氣少得可憐。
Persuade:v. 說服,勸說Invader:n. 侵略者Chronicle:n. 編年史,年代記;記錄spasm:n. 一陣發(fā)作
Perhaps that is why the dream of taking new life to Mars is such a stirring one. Elon Musk, an entrepreneur, has built a rocket company, SpaceX, from scratch in order to make this dream come true. On September 27th he outlined new plans for rockets that dwarf the Apollo programme’s Saturn V, and for spaceships with room for around 100 passengers that can be refuelled both in orbit and on Mars. Such infrastructure, he says, would eventually allow thousands of settlers to get there for $200,000 each—roughly the median cost of an American house. To deliver such marvels in a decade or so is an order tall enough to reach halfway to orbit itself (see article). But as a vision, its ambition enthralls.也許這就是為什么將新生命帶到火星上的夢想會如此的激動人心的原因吧。一位名為Elon Musk的企業(yè)家白手起家創(chuàng)辦了火箭公司SpaceX。他創(chuàng)建這家公司的目的就是為了實現(xiàn)這個夢想。九月二十七日,Elon Musk簡述了火箭公司的新計劃。此計劃準備建造一些比阿波羅探月計劃下土星-5號運載火箭還要高級的火箭和一個載客量為100名,并且能夠在軌道和火星上補充燃料的宇宙飛船。他表示,最終這些設(shè)施將可以把上千名移民送上火星。每名乘客只需花費二十萬美元——大概相當于美國人買一套中等房子的價錢。如果能在大概十年內(nèi)完成這樣的奇跡,那么接近離火星軌道的路程就相當于走了一半了(見文章)。不過就一種愿景而言,它的目標還是很吸引人的。
Stirring:adj. 激動人心的entrepreneur:n. 企業(yè)家outline:vt. 概述Apollo:n. 阿波羅(太陽神);美男子Orbit:n. 軌道infrastructure:n. 基礎(chǔ)設(shè)施;
How odd, then, that Mr Musk’s motivation is born in part of a fear as misplaced as it is striking. He portrays a Mars colony as a hedge against Earth-bound extinction. Science-fiction fans have long been familiar with this sort of angst about existential risks—in the 1950s Arthur C. Clarke told them that, confined to Earth “humanity had too many eggs in one rather fragile basket.” Others agree. Stephen Hawking, a noted physicist, is one of those given to such fits of the collywobbles. If humans stick to a single planet, he warns, they will be sitting ducks for a supervirus, a malevolent artificial intelligence or a nuclear war that could finish off the whole lot of them at any time.然而奇怪的是起初Musk先生的這一動機一半源自于恐懼,這即放錯了地方又顯得不同尋常。他把火星描繪成了地球滅絕的殖民地。 科幻迷們早已了解了這種生存的擔憂——早在從20世紀五十年代的Arthur C. Clarke就告訴他們?nèi)祟惏炎约航d在地球上,就是把“人類的雞蛋都放在同一個易碎的籃子里”。其他人也同意這個說法。的物理學家史蒂芬霍金也是這種說法的支持者。他警告說,要是人類堅持在一個星球上生存的話,就會很容易成為一種超級病毒、一個險惡用心的人工智能,或是核戰(zhàn)的攻擊目標,隨時可能全軍覆沒。
collywobbles :n. 肚子疼;急性腹瀉malevolent:adj. 惡毒的;有惡意的;壞心腸的
Claptrap. It is true that, in the long run, Earth will become uninhabitable. But that long run is about a billion years. To concern oneself with such eventualities is to take an aversion to short-termism beyond the salutary.(讀者試譯) (For comparison, a billion years ago the most complex creature on the planet was a very simple seaweed.) Yes, a natural or maliciously designed pandemic might kill billions. So might a nuclear war; at a pinch climate change might wreak similar havoc. But extinction is more than just unprecedented mass mortality; it requires getting rid of everyone. Neither diseases nor wars do that.聽起來這都是嘩眾取寵。但是長遠來看,事實的真相是,終有一天地球會變得不適合人類居住,但這幾億年后才會發(fā)生。(期待您的翻譯。)(十億年前這個星球上最復雜的生物也僅是那些結(jié)構(gòu)非常單一的海藻而已)。是的,自然或用心險惡的瘟疫可能會導致數(shù)十億人死亡。不光是這,一場核戰(zhàn)和輕微的氣候變化也有可能造成同樣的后果。但是前所未有的大規(guī)模死亡并不意味著人類的滅絕,滅絕人類的話需要殺光所有的人。這不是疾病或戰(zhàn)爭就能辦到的。
Claptrap:n. 嘩眾取寵的話Aversion:n. 厭惡Salutary:adj. 有益的,有用的;有益健康的Maliciously:adv. 有敵意地,惡意地Pinch:n. 匱乏;少量;夾痛Havoc:n. 大破壞;浩劫;蹂躪
Otherworldly concerns來世的煩惱
An asteroid as big as the one that dispatched the dinosaurs might take out the whole species, but humans have had the foresight to catalogue the asteroids up to the task and none is coming close in the foreseeable future. So the chance of earthly extinction from any known cause in the next few centuries is remarkably low. As for the unknown—an evil AI, or predatory aliens with intellects as “vast and cool and unsympathetic” as those of Wells’s Martians, or the good old-fashioned wrath of God—why would they wipe humans from the face of one planet while leaving those on the rock next door in peace?一個和當年致使恐龍滅絕的同樣大小的小行星,就有可能導致人類滅絕。但是人類是有遠見的。我們已經(jīng)特意把小行星編輯造冊,并且在可預見的未來沒有一顆小行星會駛近地球。所以在接下來幾個世紀中,地球由于已知原因滅絕的可能性微乎其微。說回那些未知的因素——邪惡的人工智能,或是如同威爾斯的火星人一樣“龐大、冷酷、無情”的智能外星侵略者,或者是舊時說的上帝的憤怒——為什么他們要將人類從地球上抹去,而不去動相鄰巖石星球上的人呢?
Asteroid:n. [天] 小行星
If worrying about imminent extinction is unrealistic, trying to hide from it is ignoble. At the margins, it is better that the best and brightest share Earth’s risks than have a way to run away from them. Dream of Mars, by all means, but do so in a spirit of hope for new life, not fear of death.如果說擔心即將來臨的滅頂之災是不切實際的想法,那么嘗試去掩蓋這一事實就是不光彩的行為。與逃避這一事實相比,最上乘的做法是想辦法分擔地球的風險。無論如何,火星之夢當然可以有,但是請從創(chuàng)造美好新生活的精神出發(fā),而不是畏懼死亡。
Imminent:adj. 即將來臨的;Hide:vi. 隱藏ignoble:adj. 不光彩的;卑鄙的;卑賤的