各位好，这里是外刊赏析栏目的第二十五期，关于栏目的介绍可见栏目介绍
1.knife
我在之前的外刊中有哪些好的句子和表达？（17）里面分享过一个关于文章开头的例子：
Before Jack Dorsey helped found Twitter, the social-media firm known for snappy, rapid-fire updates, he worked briefly as a masseur. More recently, Mr Dorsey has been trying to massage away the aches and pains that afflict his creation.
在杰克·多西成立Twitter之前，他曾经做过短时间的按摩师（masseur），按摩师的职责是帮助人们缓解身上的酸痛。在他回归Twitter之后，他所进行的改革也类似于“按摩”：将目前困扰Twitter的诸多弊病都消除掉。
我最近又遇到了一个类似的例子（来自文章 Hard driving: Uber is facing the biggest crisis in its short history）：
AS A teenager, Travis Kalanick’s first job was to knock on strangers’ doors and sell them knives. Now he is trying to dodge the daggers aimed at him and at Uber, a ride-hailing firm that is the world’s most valuable startup.
作为近期快速崛起的科技公司之一，Uber 在享受了几年高速增长之后在最近遇到了一系列危机：在反川普运动中成为靶子，遭到用户抵制；员工性骚扰事件以及高管离职风波等。这对于Uber 的创始人 Travis Kalanick 来说，都是不小的挑战。怎样描写这种挑战呢？作者在开头先从一个地方切入：Travis Kalanick 的第一份工具是向人们销售刀具，而目前人们对于他和Uber 的攻击就像一把把投向他们的尖刀一样。
如果作者只是简单地把开头写成这样：
Uber, a ride-hailing firm that is the world’s most valuable startup, is now being attacked by its users the world over. Fingers have also been pointed at Uber's boss, Travis Kalanick.
这样的开头可读性和故事性显然没有原始版本强。
2.asked a confused tourist
这里还有另外一个关于开头的例子（来自文章 Terror in London: Britain suffers its worst terrorist attack since 2005）。英国伦敦在22号发生了自2005年以来最严重的恐怖袭击，导致5人遇难，数十人受伤。经济学人这次选择从一个侧面切入，对这起事件进行报道：
“IT’S a simulation, no?” asked a confused tourist, as the emergency services hurried into action and a helicopter flew low overhead. This time, it was not.
面对威斯敏斯特大桥上惊慌失措的人群，一名游客很疑惑地问：“这是一场灾难演习吗？”但很遗憾，这一次并不是。"This time, it was not." 这一句话彻底击碎了读者关于这场混乱可能是“灾难演习”的一丝期待，将他们拉回到冷冰冰的现实：
At 2.40pm on March 22nd—the anniversary of the terrorist assault on Brussels airport last year, which may or may not be a coincidence—a man using a car as a lethal weapon mowed down people on Westminster Bridge, crashed into gates outside Parliament and used a large kitchen knife to murder a policeman before being shot dead himself.
现实情况是，伦敦发生了恐怖袭击，而作者仅仅用一个长句就将这场袭击的要素都写出来了：
When: at 2.40pm on March 22nd
Who: a man
Where: Westminster Bridge
What: terrorist assault
How: used a car as a lethal weapon mowed down people on Westminster Bridge, crashed into gates outside Parliament and used a large kitchen knife to murder a policeman
读者在对“演习”的期待破灭后，迎来了这么一个信息密度极大的长句，这种感觉犹如当头棒喝，让人喘不过气来。这样也进一步加深了他们对这次恐怖袭击的感知。
3.sigh
要表达“……令某人感到遗憾”，我们一般说 somebody feels pity for somebody/something 或者是 somebody/something is an object of pity， 这里还有另外一种表达（选段来自文章 Less misérable）：
The most striking case of fresh growth is in Paris. Mention of France has long elicited sighs from venture capitalists. Its rigid labour laws and hefty taxes on wealth and on stock options have meant that Silicon Valley has more than its fair share of entrepreneurial French immigrants.
法国对员工的严格保护以及高额的税收让高科技产业发展受阻，导致人才外流到硅谷。这样的景象曾经让风险投资人为之扼腕叹息。这里用 Mention of France has long elicited sighs from venture capitalists 会比 France has long been treated as an object of pity by venture capitalists. 要更为形象。
类似的还有一个句子：
HERE are three pieces of conventional wisdom that trigger head-nodding and murmured assent wherever Brussels grandees gather. The first is that, as economic and political clout flows away from the West, Europe can be a driving force only if it learns to speak with one voice and to defend common European interests.
句子里面 head-nodding 以及 murmured assent 这两个词用得很传神：布鲁塞尔的政要们共聚一堂时总能带来三个让人点头同意、默声称赞的传统观点。head-nodding 以及 murmured assent 表现了人们对这些传统观点的广泛认同。
4.qualified
下面的选段来自 The Economist 文章 The Central African conundrum，文章对国际社会对非洲的援助政策进行了探讨：
The answer to the first question is a qualified yes. It is true that, as development economists have argued for years, the ideal recipients of foreign largesse are poor, well-governed countries.
句子中qualified 的意思并不是常见的“合格的，胜任的”，而是指“有限制的，有保留的”，the answer to ... question is a qualified yes. 即“对……问题并不能给出完全肯定的答案”。
当我们要说明某观点大体上是正确的，但并不完全正确时，可以使用该句型。比如：
1) Can money buy happiness? The answer is a qualified yes. People's sense of well-being increases when they get higher pay. But after a certain point, increasing amounts of money have no further effect on happiness.
2) Is a higher degree the key to higher pay? The answer is a qualified yes.
5.prodigious
下面的选段来自文章 George of all trades，文章讨论了目前英国议会很多议员“身兼多职”的情况，其中有不少单词用得让人会心一笑：
SINCE being sacked as chancellor of the exchequer last July, the Conservative MP for Tatton has accumulated jobs at a prodigious rate. BlackRock, an asset-management firm, pays him £650,000 ($810,000) a year for working one day a week.
accumulate 的含义是“积攒，积累”，后面的宾语一般是“财富、债务、知识”等抽象名词，但这里用 jobs 与之搭配，用法很新鲜，但很好体现了该议员“积攒”工作的行为。后面的单词 prodigious 通常是指事物非常巨大，达到了令人惊讶的程度（very large or great in a surprising or impressive way），作者在这里用该词带有夸张的意味，用来强调议员积累工作的速度令人吃惊。
在下面的句子中同样可以感受到作者的这种用词倾向：
On March 17th George Osborne announced that he would be adding yet another position to his bulging CV: editorship of the London Evening Standard, a daily newspaper with a circulation of 850,000.
bulging 一般是指鼓起的钱包、文件袋等，在这里说 bulging CV 用来指议员的履历过多。
Plenty of journalists and several politicians, including fellow Tories, wondered how a sitting MP could run a newspaper impartially. Nearly 200,000 people have signed an online petition urging the multi-tasking Mr Osborne to “pick a job”.
multi-tasking 本来是指电脑的多线程工作，这里用来讽刺 George Osborne 工作太多，一心多用。
Though Mr Osborne’s working life is particularly exotic, he is far from the only MP to supplement his wages.
exotic 是指事物很奇特，具有异国情调，这里用来说明该议员的职业生涯“不平凡”。
在文章的结尾，作者又黑了该议员一把：
Those with jobs on the side also devote less time than others to their legislative duties, the studies found. Mr Osborne, who enjoys an 18,000 majority, may be a case in point. He has taken part in just six debates since his ejection from the Treasury and has yet to submit a written question. The MP now faces pressure to leave Parliament. It feels as if he already has.
George Osborne 因为身兼多职，议会的工作参与并不多，正面临着被解除议员职务的危险，但现在他看起来跟离开议会已经没什么两样了，最后一句再一次讽刺了George Osborne这种一心多用的行为。
以上是这一期赏析的内容，如果你也发现了精彩的句子，欢迎在评论区留言或者发到后台给我，我接下来会整理出来进行分享。
点击“阅读原文”查看外刊赏析系列的往期文章。
