金融时报：2020年，等我有钱了，我就能幸福吗？|双语精读

本期文章选自《金融时报》2020年1月3日。文章探讨了一个问题：如果英国经济在金融危机过后的表现更好，英国人会更幸福吗？我选了文章的1-5段来精读。文章的句式和篇章结构都比较简单，值得注意的是有许多地道的表达，我在原文基础上也进行了大量扩展，我们一起来学习。

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建议大家先独立阅读原文，有读不懂的地方不要紧，后面会有详细的讲解。

Consider the good fortune of a country far richer than the UK. Its economy is more than £300bn bigger and its workers are almost a quarter more productive than Britain’s, enjoying wages that are typically £7,000 higher. Households are flush enough to spend thousands more on consumption, just as public services are far better resourced. This economy still faces deep challenges — including entrenched inequality, regional imbalances and climate change — but prosperity generally makes life just that bit easier.

If this imaginary nation sounds both foreign and familiar, well, it should. It’s a sketch of the economy the UK might have today if it hadn’t just lost a decade of economic progress following the financial crisis.

As a dismal decade draws to a close, it’s worth conjuring up this counterfactual — not to torment ourselves with what might have been, nor to re-litigate the rights and wrongs of economic austerity. Rather, it is a timely moment to ponder how we would feel if things had turned out differently: would richer have meant happier?

This may sound like a fatuous question to many. Walk across any town or city in the UK and the human cost of economic stagnation is clear. Yet the link between national prosperity and personal wellbeing is complex. One ofthe most cited — and contested — findings in modern social science, the so-called Easterlin paradox, holds that as nations get richer they tend not to get happier, despite the fact that within a given society those with more money tend to be more satisf ied.

One reason for this may be that the pain of bad times greatly outweighs the gain from good ones. Just as studies show strong loss-aversion when it comes to individual incomes, the same applies to macroeconomic performance. Across advanced economies, estimates suggest it takes between 2 per cent and 6 per cent of economic growth to compensate for the harm to personal wellbeing arising from a 1 per cent fall in gross domestic product. The result? Over an economic cycle, nations may struggle to make much headway.

Consider the good fortune of a country far richer than the UK. Its economy is more than £300bn bigger and its workers are almost a quarter more productive than Britain’s, enjoying wages that are typically £7,000 higher. Households are flush enough to spend thousands more on consumption, just as public services are far better resourced . This economy still faces deep challenges — including entrenched inequality, regional imbalances and climate change — but prosperity generally makes life just that bit easier.

• good fortune 表示“好运”，比如 ◇ I have had the good fortune to work with some brilliant directors. 我有幸与一些卓越的主管人员共事。

• 再分享一些我最近遇到的相关表达：

• stroke of luck / fortune 表示“意外的好运 / 运气” (something lucky that happens to you unexpectedly) ，比如《经济学人》一篇关于扎克伯格室友的文章有这样一句话： There are strokes of outrageous luck and then there is the life of Chris Hughes. 克里斯 · 休斯（ Chris Hughes ）的人生是由一连串好得出奇的运气成就的。

• be on a lucky streak 表示“运气好的时候，手气正旺”，反义表达为 be on a losing/unlucky streak

• be on a roll 表示“连连获胜，连续交好运”，比如 ◇Don't stop me now—I'm on a roll! 现在别阻止我 —— 我正鸿运当头呢！

• hot 也可表示“很走运的，有手气的”。

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• consider sth 本义是“考虑”某事，常在外刊中引出具体例子。类似的表达还有 take sth 。比如《经济学人》一篇文章便是以 consider sth 引出例子的：

• typically 表示“通常，一般”，可以替换我们熟悉的 usually 。

• flush 作动词表示“脸红，发红”，作形容词指“暴富的，很有钱的”，尤其是指短期的，比如 ◇ At that time, many developing countries were flush with dollars earned from exports. 在那时，许多发展中国家都通过出口赚到了大量美元。 近义表达还有 well off, well-to-do, well-heeled, moneyed, loaded 。

• resourced 指“资源充足的” (If an organization is resourced, it has all the things, such as money and materials, that it needs to function properly) ，比如 ◇ The school is very well resourced—we have a language laboratory and use computers and videos. 我们学校设施完备 —— 我们有一个语言实验室，可以使用计算机和录像设备。

• deep 表示“极度的，严重的” (extreme or serious) ，比如 ◇ He's in deep trouble. 他陷入极度困境之中。 ◇ a deep economic recession 严重的经济衰退

• 我们也可以用 be up against sth 替换 face sth ，也可表示“面对...问题”，比如 ◇Teachers are up against some major problems these days. 老师们最近面临着一些重大问题。

• entrench 指“使 … 更加巩固，使 … 根深蒂固”，一般跟某种观念、习俗、权力，含有贬义。形容词 entrenched 更为常见，是外刊的高频词，可理解为中文中的“根深蒂固的”，比如性别歧视在我们这个社会根深蒂固： Sexism is deeply entrenched in our society .

• prosperity [prɑːˈsperəti] 指“兴旺，繁荣” (the state of being successful, especially in making money) ，是一个不可数名词，形容词形式为 prosperous ，指“繁荣的，兴旺的”，动词形式为 prosper 。

If this imaginary nation sounds both foreign and familiar, well, it should. It’s a sketch of the economy the UK might have today if it hadn’t just lost a decade of economic progress following the financial crisis.

• foreign 指“非典型的，陌生的” (not typical of sb / sth; not known to sb / sth and therefore seeming strange) ，比如 ◇ Dishonesty is foreign to his nature. 弄虚作假并非他的本性。

• sketch 本义是“素描，速写”，引申为“概述，简述”。

As a dismal decade draws to a close , it’s worth conjuring up this counterfactual — not to torment ourselves with what might have been, nor to re-litigate the rights and wrongs of economic austerity . Rather, it is a timely moment to ponder how we would feel if things had turned out differently: would richer have meant happier?

• dismal ['dɪzm(ə)l] 本义是“凄凉的，令人沮丧的”，引申为“差劲的，不成功的”， 比如 ◇Her scheme was a dismal failure. 她的方案乏善可陈，彻底失败了。再比如《经济学人》一篇关于印度污染的文章有这样一句话： In an index of countries’ environmental health from Yale and Columbia universities, India ranks a dismal 177th out of 180. 在 耶鲁大学和哥伦比亚大学的国家环境健康指数中，印度排名糟糕，在总共180个国家和地区中位列第 177 位。

• draw to a close/end 指“结束，终止” (to end) 。类似表达还有 grind to a halt ，表示“慢慢停下来” (to go slower gradually and then stop completely) ，比如 ◇Production ground to a halt during the strike. 罢工期间生产渐渐陷入瘫痪。

• conjure up 指“魔术般变出某物” (to make something appear when it is not expected, as if by magic) 比如《经济学人》一篇关于印度经济的文章提到： The Indian middle class conjured up by the marketers and consultants scarcely exists. 令生意人和顾问们想入非非的印度中产阶级几乎并不存在。

• counterfactual 指“虚拟的，反事实的” (connected with what did not happen or what is not the case) ，比如 ◇ counterfactual questions such as ‘What if the President had not been assassinated?’ “ 假如总统不曾遇刺会怎么样？ ” 之类的反事实问题

• 前缀 counter- 有两层含义： 1. 表示“反对，对立”，比如 ◇ counter-terrorism 反恐 ◇ counter-argument 相对立的论点 2. 表示“相对，对应”，比如 ◇ counterpart 对方职位相当的人

• torment [ˈtɔː.ment] 指“使 … 备受折磨，使 … 痛苦” (to make sb suffer very much) ，类似的表达还有 torture, plague, afflict, harass 。

• litigate [ˈlɪtɪgeɪt] 指“提起诉讼，打官司” (to take a claim or disagreement to court) ，形容词形式为 litigious ，指“好诉讼的，爱打官司的” (too ready to take disagreements to court) 。

• austerity [ɔːˈsterɪti] 指经济“紧缩，严格节制” (a situation when people do not have much money to spend because there are bad economic conditions) ，比如 ◇ War was followed by many years of austerity. 紧随战争的是多年的经济紧缩。形容词形式为 austere 表示“朴素的，简陋的” (simple and plain; without any decorations) ，比如 ◇ The church was austere and simple. 教堂的布置很简朴。

• fatuous [ˈfætjuəs] 指“愚蠢的，愚昧的”，相当于 stupid ，比如 ◇a fatuous comment / grin 愚蠢的话语；龇牙咧嘴的傻笑

• Easterlin paradox 指“伊斯特林悖论”，这是一个关于收入和幸福关系的著名论断，主要内容后文也有展开说明：通常在一个国家内，富人报告的平均幸福和快乐水平高于穷人，但如果进行跨国比较，穷国的幸福水平与富国几乎一样高。

• cite 指“引用”。

• contested 来源于动词 contest ，指“有争议的，有异议的”。

• many 相当于 many people ，指“许多人”。

• despite sth / despite the fact that… d espite 是一个表示 “ 让步 ” 的小词，简单易学非常好用。 despite 表示“即使，尽管”，是一 个介词，后面跟 sth 或者 doing sth ，如果想跟句子，可以用句型 despite the fact that... ， that... 是 the fact 的同位语从句。比如 Despite China's economic slowdown, consumption is resilient. 尽管中国经济放缓，消费仍旧具备活力 She was good at physics despite the fact that she found it boring. 尽管她认为物理枯燥无味，她却学得很好。

• given 作形容词指“指定的，特定的” (that you have stated and are discussing; particular) ，比如 ◇ Over a given period, the value of shares will rise and fall. 股票的价值在某一特定的时期内会有涨跌。