经济学人Espresso笔记- 2

2016年1月12日

用法：

• abound

• versatility in

• hit

Tributes abounded to David Bowie, who died aged 69. Known for versatility in musical and visual style, the rock star had his first hit in 1969 with “Space Oddity”, featuring an astronaut who abandons Earth. A Vatican official tweeted its lyrics: “Ground Control to Major Tom. Commencing countdown, engines on. Check ignition and may God’s love be with you.”

69岁的大卫鲍威去世后，四处都是对他的悼念。音乐上的多才多艺和视觉风格上的出众令这位摇滚明星出名，1969年， “Space Oddity”(太空怪人)这张专辑首次让他风靡一时，专辑表现了一个放弃地球的太空人的故事。一个梵蒂冈官员推特了他的歌词：“Ground Control to Major Tom. Commencing countdown, engines on. Check ignition and may God’s love be with you.”

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词汇：

• convoy

• strong population:？

• emaciated:憔悴的

• outcry:尖叫；强烈抗议

An aid convoy reached the rebel-held Syrian town of Madaya, where the 40,000strong populationwas facing death by starvation after a six-month siege. Harrowing pictures of its emaciated inhabitants had aroused an international outcry. Two other convoys were allowed into government-held villages which are under siege by rebels.

一个救助车队抵达了叛军控制的叙利亚城镇Madaya，在6个月的围城之后，这里4万人面临饥饿威胁。这里居民憔悴悲惨的样子被拍成照片并引起了国际上的抗议。另外两个车队已经被允许进入被叛军围攻的政府军控制村镇。

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Representatives of Afghanistan, America and China began talks in Pakistan on how the Taliban might be brought into peace negotiations. The Islamist group, which has lately made big, though usually temporary（？）, military gains in Afghanistan, insists it will talk only directly to America. Pakistan has ties to the Taliban but denies reports that it has a list of possible negotiators(?).

阿富汗、美国和中国的代表开始在巴基斯坦就如何将塔利班带上和平谈判进程展开对话。近期在阿富汗军事实力有所增长（尽管经常是暂时的）（？）的伊斯兰主义者组织，坚称他们只和美国直接对话。巴基斯坦和塔利班有联系，但是否认了他们有一份可能的塔利班谈判者名单的说法(?)。

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词汇：

• pharmaceutical 制药的

• merger:(公司、组织等的)合并，归并

-hemophilia 血友病

• spin off 剥离

• bid 出价

The merger boom in pharmaceuticals continues. Shire, a drugmaker based in Ireland (but with extensive operations in America) agreed to buy Baxalta, an American specialist in treatments for rare diseases, notably haemophilia, for $32 billion in cash and shares. Baxalta, which was spun off from Baxter International last year, had rejected a bid from Shire in August.

制药公司间的兼并潮继续着。Shire,一个爱尔兰（但是美国有广泛业务）的制药公司同意以320亿美元收购Baxalta，一家专精于治疗罕见病如血友病的美国公司。Baxalta去年从Baxter International剥离出来，八月份拒绝过Shire的出价。

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词汇：

• upmarket:高档的高端的

BMW announced that it sold 1.9m vehicles last year, keeping the German luxury-carmaker just ahead of its closest rival, Mercedes, which reported sales on Friday, and Audi, Volkswagen’s upmarket brand. Mercedes, which overtook Audi in 2015, is catching up. In China, the world’s biggest car market, its sales rose by one-third last year; BMW’s grew by just 1.7%.

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词汇

• crackdown 打击；取缔

• European Commission 欧委会

• scheme

• multinational 跨国公司

• state aid 国家补助/援助/补贴

Continuing its crackdown on corporate tax avoidance, the European Commission ordered Belgium to recoup around €700m ($760m) from at least 35 companies. most of them European. Margrethe Vestager, the competition commissioner, said that the country’s “excess profits” scheme benefited only multinationals, giving them an unfair advantage over smaller firms, and amounted to illegal state aid.

欧盟委员会继续打击企业避税，命令比利时补收来自至少35家企业（大部分是欧盟企业），合计约7亿欧元的税款。欧盟竞争专员Margrethe Vestager说，比利时的“超额收益”计划仅让跨国公司受益，给予他们相对其他企业的不公平优势和不合法的国家补贴。