经济学人：武汉新型肺炎VS非典，谁更难防控？|外刊精读

新年伊始，武汉新型肺炎的扩散令我们所有人都悬着一颗心。还记得大年三十那一天，我眼睛几乎都没有离开过手机，不停地刷着疫情实时动态，不断地更新疫情地图，淹没在微博微信群里各种各样的信息里，也不停地把重要通知转发给父母亲人，用他们熟悉的咆哮体提醒他们带上口罩。但最令人牵挂的还是处在一线的医护人员和湖北的人民。

我想了很久能为他们做些什么，捐了款，帮忙筹集了物资，但我能做的好像仅限于此，依然为自己的无能为力感到十分焦虑。这两天心情稍微平缓一些，也想明白在这次战役中我们普通人能做的就是：戴好口罩，勤洗手，保护好自己和家人朋友，不信谣不传谣，做好自己份内的事情。 于是我在《经济学人》上找到一篇报道武汉肺炎的文章，和大家一起学习。 也祝愿我的读者朋友们，尤其是身处湖北疫区的朋友能够平平安安，渡过难关。

这篇文章选自 《经济学人》2020年1月23日中国专栏的报道。 文章通过与03年的SARS对比，分析控制这次武汉疫情的优势与劣势， 以及此次事件对中国经济可能的影响。

原文比较长，我挑选了中间第六到八段进行分析。想阅读全文的朋友，可以在后台回复“武汉肺炎”，便可收到这篇文章的全文 。在 后台回复 “外刊”，也可获得2019到2020年经济学人原版PDF&音频的获取方式，链接会一直更新 ，永久有效。

大家先边听音频边阅读原文，有读不懂的地方不要紧，后面会有详细的讲解。

In the case of the Wuhan virus, there are some grounds for optimism. Most hopefully, the government’s faster response could mean that it takes less time to contain it. If experts conclude that the virus is not as dangerous as the one that caused SARS , China might also be able to relax its controls on travel to and from Wuhan before big economic damage is done. Efforts to ensure transparency could reduce panic.

However, Chinese people are far more mobile than they were in the early 2000s. About 450,000 of them travel daily by train in Hubei, the province of which Wuhan is the capital. That is more than double the daily passenger volume in Guangdong in 2002 when that province became a hotspot of SARS. Helped by a vast bullet-train network built over the past decade, passengers from Wuhan will have gone farther and faster than those in Guangdong back then. China is also far more connected to the rest of the world. ⑤In 2018 some 205,000 people took flights into and out of China each day, six times as many as on the eve of SARS .

The timing of the new outbreak compounds the difficulty of containing the virus. It has come just ahead of the spring festival, a public holiday which this year runs from January 24th to 30th. In recent days millions have travelled across the country to celebrate with relatives. At transport hubs, travellers’ temperatures are being checked to detect fever. But it may take a week or more for the virus to incubate, so some infected people may not be spotted.

• grounds for sth 表示说、做或者相信某事的“充分理由，根据”，比如 ◇You have no grounds for complaint. 你没有理由抱怨。我们可以把 There are some grounds for optimism (about sth). 背下来，用于引出对于好的方面的论述。再比如《经济学人》一篇关于埃及民主的文章也用到了这一句型：
  
  
  

• 短语 on grounds of sth 也是外刊高频词，表示“因为，根据”，比如 ◇Employers cannot discriminate on grounds of age. 雇主不 得有年龄歧视。再比如《经济学人》一篇关于中国地域歧视的文章有这样一句话： China's employment law prohibits discrimination on grounds of ethnicity, sex, religion, disability, social background and health. Regional origin, however, is not mentioned. 中国的《劳动法》禁止基于种族、性别、宗教、残疾、社会背景和健康等原因的歧视。但却没有提到地域。

• conclude 表示“断定，做出结论”，名词形式为 conclusion 。我们可以用 draw/come to/lead to conclusions 表示“得出结论”。短语 jump to conclusions 表示“匆忙下结论”。形容词 conclusive ，指”结论性的，确凿的“。
  
• transparency 指“透明度，清晰度” (the quality of being easy to understand or know about) ，形容词形式为 transparent 。
  
• do/cause damage 表示“造成损失”，比如 ◇The storm didn't do much damage. 暴风雨并未造成严重损失。

• far 作副词，表示“非常，远远，大大”，是外刊的高频词。比如 ◇That's a far better idea. 那个主意好得多。 [熟词僻义]

• volume 指“量，额” (the amount of sth) ，比如 ◇New roads are being built to cope with the increased volume of traffic. 正在修建新的道路以应付增加了的交通量。

• became a hotspot of sth 表示“成为…的热点”。

• bullet-train 指“动车”。

• back then 指“以前那个时候”。类似的表达还有 back in the day ，指“过去，从前”，相当于in the past，比如 ◇My dad's always talking about how great everything was back in the day. 我爸爸总是讲过去的一切如何如何的好。

  

• some 在这里不是“一些”的意思，而是表示“大概，大约”，是外刊的高频词，大家要牢记。比如《经济⛄人》一篇关于澳大利亚大火的文章提到： Some 11m hectares of the Lucky Country have gone up in smoke since September, almost the same area as Bulgaria. 9月份以来，在这个“幸运之国”，大约有1100万公顷（几乎相当于保加利亚的国土面积）处于浓烟缭绕之中。

• flight 表示“航班，班机”。 flight 有两个不同的动词来源，一个是我们熟悉的 fly （飞行），另一个则是 flee （逃走），比如 ◇When the alarm sounded, the whole gang took flight. 警报响起，一帮人全逃跑了。

• on the eve of sth 指“在…前夕”， 比如 ◇on the eve of the election 在选举前夕

• timing 既可以指时间，比如《经济学人》中的一句话： Death comes to all, but some are more sure of its timing, and can make plans. 每个人都会死，但是有些人却更加清楚自己何时会死，且可以提前做好计划。 timing 也可以指时机，口语中也经常出现比如“你来得正是时候。我刚想要给你打电话”，我们可以说 Your timing is perfect. I was just about to call you. 惯用搭配为 perfect/good/ bad timing 。

  

• compound [kəm ˈ pa ʊ nd] 义为“使加重，使恶化” (to make a problem or difficult situation worse) ，比如《经济学人》一篇关于亚马逊雨林的文章有这样一句话： Now droughts, wildfires and other human-induced changes are compounding the damage from chainsaws. 现在，干旱、山火和其他人为的变化正在加重砍伐林木所造成的损害。再比如 ◇ The problems were compounded by severe food shortages. 严重的食物短缺使问题进一步恶化。 [写作推荐]

• compound 作名词可表示“建筑群，化合物”，比如《经济学人》一篇关于联合利华的文章提到： In a compound in Shanghai two rising stars in the marketing world used to share a beer together. 两位营销界新星曾在上海一座大楼内一起喝啤酒。

• run 表示“持续，延续” (to continue for a particular period of time without stopping) ，是一个熟词僻义，比如 ◇ Her last musical ran for one months on Broadway. 她最后的音乐剧在百老汇连续上演了一个月。 [熟词僻义]

• detect 指 “发现，查明” (to discover or notice sth, especially sth that is not easy to see, hear, etc.) ，比如 ◇The tests are designed to detect the disease early. 这些检查旨在早期查出疾病。

• incubate [ˈɪŋkjʊbeɪt] 基本含义为“孵化，孵卵”，在这里指“潜伏”，比如 ◇The virus can incubate for up to ten days after the initial infection. 病毒在初次感染以后可以潜伏长达 10 天。

• infected 指“受感染的” (containing harmful bacteria) 。

这周的讲解就到这里了，感谢阅读