《经济学人》这样看C919

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跟Simon精读

我是Simon，本联盟号在每周都会推送一段外文期刊的精读文章。学英语，懂文化，每周推送的内容够你一周内慢慢消化，在周三会重复推送一次提醒你温习。摈弃浮躁，回归本心，踏踏实实学习。

昨天国产大飞机C919在上海首飞成功，引发了全球关注。《经济学人》也在昨天发表 The C919: ready for take off ? 报道，发表在The Economist Espresso上，这是由经济学人推出的新闻早报，定位是用最短小的篇幅告诉读者最多的信息。这篇报道对C919持悲观消极的态度，但确没有任何论证，实在是无法令人信服。文章主要从几点来否定C919的成绩：1. 配件全都是国外进口；2. 商用化还有很长的路要走，会被空客和波音远远甩在身后；3. 只能靠着爱国主义勉强发展。现在，我们来学习一下这篇短文报道。

难度指数  ★

通读

先将以下精选内容进行通读，本文行文非常简单，阅读的时候可以关注一下粗体部分。

China’s first home-made large passenger jet took off in Shanghai today. China’s leaders will trumpet the test flight for the narrow-body passenger plane, made by state-run Comac, as a triumph of “indigenous innovation”, challenging the global duopoly of America’s Boeing and Europe’s Airbus. But the celebrations are premature. For a start most of the complicated bits of kit, ranging from the engines and electronics to the fuel systems and landing gear, are made by foreign firms. Even though the trial flight was successful, many safety and regulatory challenges lie ahead. If the C919 manages to overcome those and come to market, it will still be years behind schedule. Boeing and Airbus are, meanwhile, leapfrogging ahead to the next generation of big jets with safety, efficiency and other advances. Chinese airlines, constrained by patriotism, may buy the new aircraft. Those able to choose freely probably won’t.
开始阅读

第一部分精读

China’s first home-made large passenger jet took off in Shanghai today. China’s leaders will trumpet the test flight for the narrow-body passenger plane, made by state-run Comac, as a triumph of “indigenous innovation”, challenging the global duopoly of America’s Boeing and Europe’s Airbus.

开篇用两句话，极其高效地介绍了C919的基本情况，以及所被赋予的战略意义和目标。

精选词
take off

看第一句话：

China’s first home-made large passenger jet took off in Shanghai today.

took off 就是起飞的意思。off是介词，我在帖子为啥英语里的介词辣么难学？中讲过，介词本质上是表明对象在空间关系的一种词类。在空间上，off 是动态的，表明「离开」的状态。所以飞机起飞叫做 take off，其中的off表明飞机离开地面的状态。削水果皮叫做peel off，其中的off同样表明果皮离开果肉的状态。再深一点，如果我们把一个苹果放到桌子上，会说put an apple on the table，其中的介词on表明的就是「在……表面上」的空间状态，如果我们要把苹果从桌上拿走，就会说take the apple off the table，其中的off就是离开的状态了。

继续引申，我们看上图的大洲岛，它离开海南岛的海岸线一段距离，我们就可以说Dazhou Island is off the east coast of Hainan Province.

这里的off虽然用作形容词，但是它的本质依然是介词的空间意义。万变不离其宗，以后你看到off，无论出现在什么场合，都可以想想它是如何和其介词意义联系在一起。

精选词
trumpet；Comac；indigenous innovation；duopoly

China’s leaders will trumpet the test flight for the narrow-body passenger plane, made by state-run Comac, as a triumph of “indigenous innovation”, challenging the global duopoly of America’s Boeing and Europe’s Airbus.

这句话极其精炼高效，如果让有些中国学生来写，可能就变成了

China’s leaders will trumpet the test flight for the narrow-body passenger plane, which is made by state-run Comac. It is a triumph of “indigenous innovation” and challenges the global duopoly of America's Boeing and Europe's Airbus.

首先，第一句里的定语从句完全没有必要。再者，将一句话变成了两句，两句主语不同，阅读起来不够流畅。不妨仔细体会一下。



trumpet 就是上图的小号。大家应该清楚它的音色，作动词的时候为吹嘘 ，大肆宣扬的意思，带有贬义，英文释义为 To tell everyone about something that you are proud of, especially in an annoying way，所以这一个用词就体现了作者对C919首秀的消极态度。

They are proudly trumpeting the fact that they are creating more jobs.

他们自豪地吹嘘他们是在创造更多的工作岗位。

Comac 是一个缩写，全程是Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China，即中国商用飞机有限责任公司，是C919的制造商。

indigenous 是土生土长的，本地的。indigenous innovation是自主创新。注意，这里作者刻意打了引号，暗含作者的反讽，下文作者将要表达反对观点。indigenous常常和介词to连用，比如the plant is indigenous to Canada / feelings indigenous to human beings。

The many indigenous cultures which existed in Siberia

存在于西伯利亚的许多当地文化



duopoly of America’s Boeing and Europe’s Airbus

duo是一个前缀，意思是两个，couple。陈奕迅曾以DUO为主题举办演唱会，中文译为「双面」。像这种和数字有关的前缀叫做numeric prefix，例如mono-表示一个，monogamy为一夫一妻制，而ploy-表示多个，polygamy就是一夫多妻或者一妻多夫制。

同理，monopoly指一家卖主的垄断市场，这里把mono换成duo，就是指波音和空客造成的双头垄断市场。

参考译文

China’s first home-made large passenger jet took off in Shanghai today. China’s leaders will trumpet the test flight for the narrow-body passenger plane, made by state-run Comac, as a triumph of “indigenous innovation”, challenging the global duopoly of America’s Boeing and Europe’s Airbus.

中国第一次架国产大型客机今天在上海试飞。中国领导人高调庆祝这款由国企中国商飞制造的窄体客机的试飞，将其视为自主创新的胜利，挑战美国波音和欧洲空客在商用客机的双垄断局面。

第二部分精读

But the celebrations are premature. For a start most of the complicated bits of kit, ranging from the engines and electronics to the fuel systems and landing gear, are made by foreign firms. Even though the trial flight was successful, many safety and regulatory challenges lie ahead. If the C919 manages to overcome those and come to market, it will still be years behind schedule. Boeing and Airbus are, meanwhile, leapfrogging ahead to the next generation of big jets with safety, efficiency and other advances. Chinese airlines, constrained by patriotism, may buy the new aircraft. Those able to choose freely probably won’t.

第一部分简要介绍C919，这部分画风一转，直接开始消极否定C919的发展。作者主要从三个点来表达观点。

But the celebrations are premature.

这句话并无难度，但体现了英文句子注重逻辑的特性，第一个词but很清晰地表明了转折，我们在输出英文的时候也一定要注意coherence。

For a start most of the complicated bits of kit, ranging from the engines and electronics to the fuel systems and landing gear, are made by foreign firms.

ranging from the engines and electronics to the fuel systems and landing gear 是短语range from …… to ……的用法，是对前面complicated bits of kit的解释。这里的kit其实就是指飞机的核心部件，complicated bits of kits是说复杂部件都是由外国公司制造的，暗示这并不是真正的「indigenous innovation」，这也是前文打引号的原因。

Even though the trial flight was successful, many safety and regulatory challenges lie ahead.

trial flight 是试飞，和前文的test flight是一个意思，也可以说maiden flight，都是一个意思。

这里的safety and regulatory challenges，是指即便通过了首飞，C919还面临着很多安全和法规方面的挑战。

If the C919 manages toovercome those and come to market, it will still be years behind schedule. Boeing and Airbus are, meanwhile, leapfrogging ahead to the next generation of big jets with safety, efficiency and other advances.

manage to do是一个使用频率非常高的短语，它和 try to do something 的含义不同，try to do是指「试图做某事」，但是不清楚这件事情是不是能够成功。manage to do是指「付出做成某事」，暗示成功的含义。

We managed to stop him from doing that. —> 成功了

We tried to stop him from doing that but we would do it again. —> 尝试了，但是失败了

前面说了英语极其强调句子的逻辑性，这里的meanwhile就是相对于前面的years behind schedule而言的。在C919解决困难，努力进入市场的时候，波音和空客就已经大踏步地跨入下一代飞机了，这一代飞机更加安全，高效和先进。

leapfrog 字面意思是青蛙跳，引申意义就是超越，to suddenly become better, more advanced that people or organizations that were previously better than you.

The company leapfrogged its rivals into a leading position.

公司超越竞争对手，处于领先地位。

Chinese airlines, constrained by patriotism, may buy the new aircraft. Those able to choose freely probably won’t.

作者也真是不闲着，又开始吐槽中国的爱国主义，constraine是说C919的发展会被爱国主义制约，即中国的航空公司才会去买，而别的自由航空公司可能不去购买。

参考译文

But the celebrations are premature. For a start most of the complicated bits of kit, ranging from the engines and electronics to the fuel systems and landing gear, are made by foreign firms. Even though the trial flight was successful, many safety and regulatory challenges lie ahead. If the C919 manages toovercome those and come to market, it will still be years behind schedule. Boeing and Airbus are, meanwhile, leapfrogging ahead to the next generation of big jets with safety, efficiency and other advances. Chinese airlines, constrained by patriotism, may buy the new aircraft. Those able to choose freely probably won’t.

但是，这样的庆祝未免为时过早。C919上大多数精密复杂的部件，包括从引擎，电子器件到燃油和着陆系统，都是由国外公司制造的。即便这次试飞成功，未来前方还有很多安全和法规方面的挑战。如果C919成功克服了这些困难并且进入了市场，它也会有些落后了。因为与此同时，波音和空客将会大跨步地进入到下一代大客机，这一代飞机将会更加安全，高效和先进。由于中国航空公司受爱国主义的掣肘，可能会采购国产飞机，而别的自由的航空公司可能不会购买。

完
能读到这里的人，就是幸福的少数人！





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