A lot of zeros

A lot of zeros

本文英文部分选自

经济学人Finance and economics板块

Buttonwood

A lot of zeros

Investors are piling into an illiquid asset. What can possibly go wrong?

投资者们开始争相投资非流动性资产。究竟是哪里出错了呢？

pile

[动词 + 名词短语] ~ sth (up) to put things one on top of another; to form a pile 堆放；摞起；叠放

She piled the boxes one on top of the other .

她把盒子一个个地摞起来。

[动词 + 名词短语 + 副词或介词短语] ~ A in(to)/on(to) B | ~ B with A to put sth on/into sth; to load sth with sth 放置；装入

The sofa was piled high with cushions.

沙发上高高地堆着一些垫子。

[动词 + 副词或介词短语](informal) (of a number of people 许多人) to go somewhere quickly without order or control 蜂拥；拥挤

The coach finally arrived and we all piled on.

长途汽车终于开来了，我们一拥而上。

【名词】

[可数名词] a number of things that have been placed on top of each other 摞；垛；沓

a pile of books/clothes/bricks  一摞书籍 / 衣物 / 砖块

He arranged the documents in neat piles.

他把文件一摞摞地码得整整齐齐。

She looked in horror at the mounting pile of letters on her desk.

她惶恐地望着桌子上堆积如山的信函。

[可数名词] a mass of sth that is high in the middle and wider at the bottom than at the top 堆；成堆的东西

同义词heap

a pile of sand  一堆沙

piles of dirty washing  成堆待洗的脏衣物

[可数名词, 常用复数] ~ of sth (informal) a lot of sth 大量；许多

I have got piles of work to do.

我有大量工作要做。

He walked out leaving a pile of debts behind him.

他出走了，留下累累债务。

[不可数名词, 单数] the short threads, pieces of wool, etc. that form the soft surface of carpets and some types of cloth such as velvet 绒头；绒毛

a deep-pile carpet 一块厚绒地毯

[可数名词] a large wooden, metal or stone post that is fixed into the ground and used to support a building, bridge, etc. 桩；桩柱

[可数名词] (humorous) a large impressive building 宏伟建筑物

MOST money these days is electronic—a series of ones and zeros on a computer. So it is rather neat that bitcoin, a privately created electronic currency, has lurched from $1,000 to above $10,000 this year (see chart), an epic journey to add an extra zero.

现如今大多数金钱都已电子化——变成了电脑里一长串的1和0。因此，比特币正好完美的印证了这一点，它作为一种人为创造的电子货币，从今年年初的1000美元涨到10000美元以上（见图表），其过程如史诗一般。

neat

tidy and in order; carefully done or arranged 整洁的；整齐的；有序的

a neat desk  整洁的课桌

neat handwriting  工整的笔迹

neat rows of books  一排排整齐的书

She was wearing a neat black suit.

她穿着整洁的黑色礼服。

They sat in her neat and tidy kitchen.

他们坐在她那干净整齐的厨房里。

(of people 人) liking to keep things tidy and in order; looking tidy or doing things in a tidy way 有条理的；爱整洁的

Try and be neater!  干净利落点！

small, with a pleasing shape or appearance 小巧优雅的

同义词 trim

her neat figure

她那娇小玲珑的身材

simple but clever 简洁的；睿智的；灵巧的

a neat explanation  简明的解释

a neat solution to the problem

解决这个问题的捷径

(North Amercian English,informal) good; excellent 好的；极好的

It's a really neat movie.

这真是一部极好的电影。

We had a great time─it was pretty neat.

我们玩得很痛快——棒极了。

(British English) (North Amercian English straight) (especially of alcoholic drinks 尤指酒) not mixed with water or anything else 未掺水的；纯的

neat whisky  纯威士忌酒

Bitcoin

比特币;

lurch

to make a sudden, unsteady movement forward or sideways 突然前倾（或向一侧倾斜）

同义词 stagger, sway

Suddenly the horse lurched to one side and the child fell off.

马突然歪向一边，小孩就摔了下来。

The man lurched drunkenly out of the pub.

那男人醉醺醺地踉跄着走出了酒吧。

(figurative)Their relationship seems to lurch from one crisis to the next.

他们的关系好像坎坷不平，危机不断。

if your heart or stomach lurches , you have a sudden feeling of fear or excitement （突然感到恐怖或激动时心或胃）猛地一跳（或动）

epic

having the features of an epic 具有史诗性质的；史诗般的

an epic poem史诗般的诗

taking place over a long period of time and involving a lot of difficulties 漫长而艰难的；艰苦卓绝的

an epic journey/struggle

漫长而艰难的旅程；艰苦卓绝的斗争

very great and impressive 宏大的；壮丽的；给人深刻印象的

a tragedy of epic proportions巨大的不幸

[可数名词, 不可数名词] a long poem about the actions of great men and women or about a nation's history; this style of poetry 叙事诗；史诗

one of the great Hindu epics

伟大的印度教史诗之一

the creative genius of Greek epic

富有创造力的希腊史诗天才

[可数名词] a long film/movie or book that contains a lot of action, usually about a historical subject 史诗般的电影（或书籍）

[可数名词](sometimes humorous) a long and difficult job or activity that you think people should admire 壮举；惊人之举

Their four-hour match on Centre Court was an epic.

他们在中心球场历时四个小时的比赛是一个壮举。

On the way, the currency has been controversial. Jamie Dimon, the boss of JPMorgan Chase, has called it a fraud.Nouriel Roubini, an economist,plumped for“gigantic speculative bubble”. Ordinary investors are being tempted into bitcoin by its rapid rise—a phenomenon dubbed FOMO (fear of missing out). Both the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, America’s largest futures market, and the NASDAQ stock exchange have seemingly added their imprimaturs by planning to offer bitcoin-futures contracts.

一路走来，比特币一直备受争议。摩根大通（JPMorgan Chase）的老板杰米·戴蒙（Jamie Dimon）称之为骗局。经济学家努里尔·鲁比尼（Nouriel Roubini）则坚定地认为它是一个“巨大的投机泡沫”。普通投资者正受到比特币快速上涨的诱惑，这种现象被称为“错失恐惧症（FOMO）”。芝加哥商品交易所（美国最大的期货市场），以及纳斯达克证券交易所计划新增比特币期货合约，似乎表明了两大交易所对比特币的认可。

controversial

causing a lot of angry public discussion and disagreement 引起争论的；有争议的

a highly controversial topic

颇有争议的话题

a controversial plan to build a new road

有争议的筑路计划

Winston Churchill and Richard Nixon were both controversial figures.

温斯顿·邱吉尔和理查德·尼克松都是有争议的人物。

fraud

[不可数名词, 可数名词] the crime of cheating sb in order to get money or goods illegally 欺诈罪；欺骗罪

She was charged with credit card fraud.

她被控告信用卡欺骗罪。

property that has been obtained by fraud

欺诈所得的财产

a $100 million fraud

1亿元数额的诈骗罪

[可数名词] a person who pretends to have qualities, abilities, etc. that they do not really have in order to cheat other people 骗子；行骗的人

He's nothing but a liar and a fraud.

他只不过是个撒谎者和骗子。

She felt a fraud accepting their sympathy (= because she was not really sad) .

她接受他们的同情时感到自己是在骗人。

[可数名词] something that is not as good, useful, etc. as people claim it is 伪劣品；冒牌货

speculative

based on guessing or on opinions that have been formed without knowing all the facts 推测的；猜测的；推断的

showing that you are trying to guess sth 揣摩的；忖度的；试探的

She cast a speculative look at Kate.

她带着疑问的眼神看了凯特一眼。

(of business activity 商业活动) done in the hope of making a profit but involving the risk of losing money 投机性的；风险性的

tempt

~ sb (into sth/into doing sth)

to attract sb or make sb want to do or have sth, even if they know it is wrong 引诱；诱惑

[动词 + 名词短语]

I was tempted by the dessert menu.

甜食菜单馋得我垂涎欲滴。

Don't tempt thieves by leaving valuables clearly visible.

别把贵重物品放在显眼处招贼。

[动词 + 名词短语 + 带to的不定式]

I was tempted to take the day off.

我动了心，想那一天休假。

to persuade or try to persuade sb to do sth that you want them to do, for example by offering them sth 劝诱；鼓动；怂恿；利诱

[动词 + 名词短语]

How can we tempt young people into engineering?

我们怎么才能吸引年轻人学习工程学呢？

[动词 + 名词短语 + 带to的不定式]

Nothing would tempt me to live here.

什么也吸引不了我到这里居住。

It is easy to muddle two separate issues. One is whether the “blockchain” technology that underpins bitcoin becomes more widely adopted. Block chains, distributed ledgers that record transactions securely, may prove very useful in some areas of finance, and beyond. The second is whether bitcoin will become a widely adopted currency in everyday life. Here the evidence is weak.

人们很容易混淆两个不同的问题。一个是支撑比特币的区块链技术是否会被广泛运用。区块链可以将账簿分布于不同节点并安全地记录交易，这在金融和其他领域都可能非常实用。第二个问题是比特币是否会成为人们日常生活中广泛采用的货币。然而现有证据还很单薄（不能充分证明以上两点）。

muddle

[动词 + 名词短语](especially British English)

~ sth (up) to put things in the wrong order or mix them up 弄乱；搅混

Don't do that─you're muddling my papers.

别动——你会弄乱我的文件的。

Their letters were all muddled up together in a drawer.

他们的信都乱七八糟地放在一个抽屉里。

~ sb (up) to confuse sb 使困惑；使糊涂

Slow down a little─you're muddling me.

说慢点儿——你都把我搞糊涂了。

~ sb/sth (up) | ~ A (up) with B to confuse one person or thing with another 混淆；搅混；分不清

同义词 mix up

I muddled the dates and arrived a week early.

我搞错了日期，早到了一个星期。

He got all muddled up about what went where.

他对什么东西放在哪里全然记不清了。

They look so alike, I always get them muddled up .

他们看上去那么像，我总是把他们给搞混了。

[可数名词, 常用单数形式] a state of mental confusion 糊涂；困惑；茫然

Can you start from the beginning again─I'm in a muddle .

请你从头再来一遍吧——我还是搞不清楚。

[可数名词, 常用单数形式][不可数名词] ~ (about/over sth) a situation in which there is confusion about arrangements, etc. and things are done wrong （局面）一团糟，混乱

There was a muddle over the theatre tickets.

戏票的管理问题一团糟。

There followed a long period of confusion and muddle.

接下来是很长一段时间的困惑和混乱。

[可数名词, 常用单数形式][不可数名词] a state of confusion in which things are untidy 混乱；乱七八糟

同义词mess

My papers are all in a muddle .

我的文件混乱不堪。

underpin

[动词 + 名词短语]

(formal) to support or form the basis of an argument, a claim, etc. 加强，巩固，构成（…的基础等）

The report is underpinned by extensive research.

这份报告以广泛的研究为基础。

(technical 术语) to support a wall by putting metal, concrete, etc. under it 加固（墙）基

ledger

a book in which a bank, a business, etc. records the money it has paid and received 收支总账；分类账簿；分户账簿

to enter figures in the purchase/sales ledger

把金额登入购货 / 销售分类账

Bitcoin can be used to buy a few things. But a currency has three main functions: store of value; means of exchange; and unit of account. Bitcoin’s volatility, seen when it fell 20% within minutes on November 29th before rebounding, makes it both a nerve-racking store of value and a poor means of exchange. Imagine buying an iPhone X with bitcoin in January. You would by now be cursing as the same coin could buy ten phones— Christmas gifts for the whole family.

一些商品可以用比特币来支付。但是货币具备三大主要职能：价值储藏、流通手段和价值尺度。然而 ，11月29日比特币价格在几分钟内骤跌20%，随后又反弹回升，可见，这种波动性让比特币既不具备良好的价值储藏职能，又是一种糟糕交易方式。试想一下，你在一月份时用比特币购买了一台iPhone X，然而同等比特币现在可以购买到10台iPhone，作为全家人的圣诞礼物，那么你一定会破口大骂。

volatility

noun， 挥发性; 挥发度; 反复无常;

nerve-racking

伤脑筋的，令人不安的，令人紧张的

curse

[单独使用的动词] to swear 诅咒

He hit his head as he stood up and cursed loudly.

他站起来时撞了头，便破口大骂。

[动词 + 名词短语] ~ (sb/sth) (for sth) to say rude things to sb or think rude things about sb/sth 咒骂；诅咒；在心里诅咒

She cursed her bad luck.

她骂自己运气不好。

He cursed himself for his stupidity.

他咒骂自己愚蠢。

[动词 + 名词短语] to use a magic word or phrase against sb in order to harm them 念咒语诅咒

Legend has it that the whole village had been cursed by a witch.

传说整座村庄遭到了巫婆的诅咒

A currency is also a unit of account for debt. Paul Mortimer-Lee of BNP Paribas, a French bank, tartly remarks: “Imagine if you had financed your house with a bitcoin mortgage.” This year your debt would have risen tenfold. Your salary, paid in dollars, euros or whatever, would not have kept pace.Put another way, had bitcoin been widely used, the last year might have been massively deflationary.

货币也可以用来清偿债务。法国巴黎银行（BNP Paribas）高管莫提魔里（Mortimer-Lee）尖锐地指出：“如果你用比特币抵押贷款为你的房子融资的话，想象一下这将会发生什么？”今年你的负债可能将会增加十倍。但你的工资，不论是以美元、欧元还是其他货币支付，其涨幅都无法赶上你的负债。换言之，如果比特币被广泛使用，去年可能已经遭受大规模的通货紧缩。

tartly

辛辣地，刻薄地;

mortgage

( also informal home loan) a legal agreement by which a bank or similar organization lends you money to buy a house, etc., and you pay the money back over a particular number of years; the sum of money that you borrow 按揭（由银行等提供房产抵押借款）；按揭贷款

to apply for/take out/pay off a mortgage

申请 / 取得 / 还清抵押贷款

mortgage rates (= of interest)按揭贷款利率

a mortgage on the house一项房产按揭

a mortgage of £60 0006万英镑的按揭贷款

monthly mortgage repayments

每月偿还的按揭贷款

[动词 + 名词短语] to give a bank, etc. the legal right to own your house, land, etc. if you do not pay the money back that you have borrowed from the bank to buy the house or land （向银行等）抵押（房产）

He had to mortgage his house to pay his legal costs.

他不得不把房子抵押出去来付诉讼费。

deflationary

adj.  放出空气的，通货紧缩的，物价低廉（尤指成本不降低时的反常情形）的;

Such issues will be of minor concern to those who managed to buy bitcoin earlier in the year. They will just be delighted with the profits. But why has the price risen so fast? One justification for the existence of bitcoin is that central banks, via quantitative easing (QE), are debasing fiat money and laying the path to hyperinflation. But this seems a very odd moment for that view to gain adherents. Inflation remains low and the Federal Reserve is pushing up interest rates and unwinding QE.

对于那些今年年初买入比特币的投资者来说，这类问题并不是那么重要。他们只会为丰厚的利润而感到欣喜。可是，比特币的价格为什么会上涨地如此之快呢？一个合理的解释是因为央行实行“量化宽松”政策，导致法定货币贬值，为恶性通货膨胀铺平了道路。但是这个观点的支持者来说，这似乎是一个非常奇怪的时刻。如今通货膨胀维持在低位，美联储正在推高利率并收紧“量化宽松”政策。

debase

[动词 + 名词短语] to make sb/sth less valuable or respected 降低…的价值；败坏…的名誉

同义词 devalue

Sport is being debased by commercial sponsorship.

体育运动因受商业赞助而降低了声誉。

fiat

[可数名词, 不可数名词](formal) an official order given by sb in authority （当权者的）法令，命令，谕

hyperinflation

[不可数名词] a situation in which prices rise very fast, causing damage to a country's economy 恶性通货膨胀；超通货膨胀；过度通货膨胀

unwind

(unwound, unwound |ˌʌnˈwaʊnd|)

to undo sth that has been wrapped into a ball or around sth 解开，打开，松开（卷绕之物）

[动词 + 名词短语]

to unwind a ball of string解开一团绳

He unwound his scarf from his neck.

他从脖子上解下围巾。

[单独使用的动词]

The bandage gradually unwound and fell off.

绷带逐渐松开脱落了。

[单独使用的动词] to stop worrying or thinking about problems and start to relax 放松；轻松

同义词 relax, wind down

Music helps me unwind after a busy day.

音乐使我在忙碌一天后得以放松。

A more likely explanation is that as new and easier ways to trade in bitcoin become available, more investors are willing to take the plunge. As the supply of bitcoin is limited by design, that drives up the price.

另一更具说服力的原因是，随着越来越多新颖又便捷的比特币交易形式出现，越来越多的投资者都想尝尝鲜，冒险一试。由于比特币设计之初就限定了数量，导致价格上涨。

drive sth↔up/down

to make sth such as prices rise or fall quickly 抬高（或压低）；使上升（或下跌）

Take the plunge: 冒险一试

But it is worth remembering that the cost of using bitcoin is going up.Each transaction has to be verified by“miners”who need a lot of computing power to do so,and a lot of energy:275kWh for every transaction,according to Digiconomist,a website.In total,bitcoin uses as much electricity a year as Morocco,or enough to power 2.8m American households.All this costs much than processing creditcard transactions via Visa or MasterCard.

不过，值得一提的是，比特币流通成本不断攀升。Digiconomist网站数据现实，比特币的每笔交易必须经“矿工”确认，它不仅需要大量运算能力，而且每笔教交易需要消耗巨大的电量：275kWh。总的来说，比特币每年使用的电量和摩洛哥一样多，足以为280万美国家庭提供电力。所有这些都远高于通过Visa或MasterCard来进行交易所需的成本。

The miners are rewarded for their efforts by being paid in bitcoin; they are delighted by the rise in the currency’s price.But some are finding ingenious ways to cut back on their energy costs; one even put computers in his Tesla car so he could mine bitcoins using its free charging stations.Much mining is done in parts of China where electricity is cheap.

矿工的酬劳是通过比特币支付的。比特币价格上涨，他们肯定是喜上眉梢。但为了降低电力成本，一些人正在寻找巧妙的方式来削减成本。比如：人们把电脑放在特斯拉汽车里从而利用特拉斯免费充电站。还有很多“挖矿”是在中国部分电价便宜的地区完成的。（中国西部，水电相对便宜）。

ingenious

(of an object, a plan, an idea, etc. 物体、计划、思想等) very suitable for a particular purpose and resulting from clever new ideas 精巧的；新颖独特的；巧妙的

an ingenious device  精巧的装置

ingenious ways of saving energy

节约能源的巧妙方法

(of a person 人) having a lot of clever new ideas and good at inventing things 心灵手巧的；机敏的；善于创造发明的

an ingenious cook  心灵手巧的厨师

She's very ingenious when it comes to finding excuses.

她很善于找借口。

There are two ways of thinking about this. One is that the eventual price of bitcoin will equal the marginal cost of mining, which may be rising but is well below the current price. The second is that institutions will not want to use the technology if it relies on such a “Wild West” process; banks are already looking at cheaper forms of blockchain technology.

针对这一问题有两种思考方式。其一，“挖矿”成本可能会一直上涨，比特币的最终价格会和“挖矿”的边际成本相当，但是会远远低于现行价格。其二，假如区块链技术需要依托“西部荒野”式的数据处理，金融机构不会想要使用这项技术。银行已经在为区块链技术寻求成本更为低廉的应用形式。

Whether the investors driving the price higher are pondering all this is open to doubt. It looks like a re-run of the dotcom craze. Adverts for trading digital currencies are appearing on the London tube and celebrities have piled onto the bandwagon. As seen many times before, when lots of investors buy an illiquid asset, the price can rise exponentially.

推高价格的投资者是否思考过以上两点，这一点值得怀疑。看起来就像dotcom互联网泡沫事件的重演。数字货币交易的广告在伦敦地铁随处可见，知名人士们也随波逐流。正如之前许多时期出现过的景象，一旦投资者蜂拥购入非现金资产，价格便会呈指数级攀升。

ponder

~ (about/on/over sth) (formal) to think about sth carefully for a period of time 沉思；考虑；琢磨

同义词 consider

[单独使用的动词]

She pondered over his words.

她反复琢磨他的话。

They were left to ponder on the implications of the announcement.

他们被留下来琢磨这项宣告的含义。

[动词 + 名词短语]

The senator pondered the question for a moment.

这位参议员考虑了一下这个问题。

[动词 + wh-从句]

They are pondering whether the money could be better used elsewhere.

他们正在斟酌能否把钱花到其他更适当的地方。

craze

~ (for sth) an enthusiastic interest in sth that is shared by many people but that usually does not last very long; a thing that people have a craze for （通常为一时的）狂热，疯狂；风行一时的东西

the latest fitness craze to sweep the country

最近风靡全国的健身热

bandwagon

[常用单数形式] an activity that more and more people are becoming involved in 风靡的活动；时尚

The World Cup bandwagon is starting to roll.

世界杯足球赛热潮即将涌起。

exponentially

(mathematics 数) of or shown by an exponent 指数的；幂的；由指数表示的

2 ^4 is an exponential expression.

2^4是个指数式。

an exponential curve/function

指数曲线 / 函数

(formal) (of a rate of increase 增长率) becoming faster and faster 越来越快的

exponential growth/increase

越来越快的增长

The top is hard to call. At some point, the urge to turn all those digital zeros into cars and iPhones will prove too great.Getting out of an illiquid asset—as this week, when exchanges struggled to cope with trading volumes—can be harder than getting into it.Some remember Nathan Rothschild’s remark about the secret of his wealth: “I always sold too soon.”

然而，比特币价格很难在巅峰停留。当价格达到某一点时，人们就会迫切的想把那堆数字兑换成汽车和iPhone。本周交易所奋力处理证券交易量正说明了一点：非流动资产的抛出要比买入更难。一些人应该还记得罗思柴尔德（Nathan Rothschild）在谈及财富秘诀时说过：“我总是很早就抛售了。”