2021年经济学人 一周要闻 马云风波后首现身谈教育

Supported by a group of British business leaders, Eurostar reiterated¹ its request to the British government for a bail-out. Operating trains through the tunnel linking Britain and France, Eurostar’s passenger numbers have plummeted² by 95% since March. The British government sold its stake in 2015. Eurostar is majority owned by sncf, the French state-owned railway company.

在一群英国商界领袖的支持下，欧洲之星再次向英国政府提出了紧急援助的请求。欧洲之星运营着连接英国和法国的隧道列车，自3月以来，乘客数量已经暴跌了95%。2015年，英国政府出售了其所持股份。欧洲之星的多数股权由法国国营铁路公司（SNCF）持有。

London’s transport authority, Tfl, abandoned plans to make payments on the network completely cashless, after an experiment prompted by COVID concerns last summer was criticised by the official watchdog. COVID is causing problems in other ways. Tfl’s finances are floundering as passengers avoid travel, and the mayor is reluctant to increase fares. Despite securing a 1.8bn pounds ($2.5bn) bail-out last year, Tfl’s financial plans recently submitted to the government forecast more than 3bn pounds in shortfalls in each of the next two years.

去年夏天，出于对新冠肺炎的担忧，伦敦交通局(Tfl)进行了一项网络售票的无现金支付试验，结果遭到官方监管机构的批评，该机构放弃这一计划。新冠肺炎疫情也给其他方面带来了麻烦。由于乘客不愿出行，伦敦交通局的财政状况也陷入困境，而市长也不愿提高票价。尽管去年获得了18亿英镑(合25亿美元)的救助，但伦敦交通局最近提交给政府的财政计划预测，未来两年每年的缺口将超过30亿英镑。

United Airlines said it would need to make further cost-cutting measures, after the rate at which it was burning cash to keep flying during the pandemic rose sharply. Its annual loss last year was $7.1bn.

联合航空公司(United Airlines)表示，该公司需要采取进一步的成本削减措施，因为在疫情期间，该公司为维持航班运行而烧钱的速度大幅上升。该公司去年的年度亏损为71亿美元。

General Motors announced a partnership³ with Microsoft in which vehicles being developed by Cruise, its autonomous-car startup, will be plugged in to Microsoft’s Azure⁴ cloud-computing platform.

通用汽车(General Motors)宣布与微软建立合作关系，旗下自动驾驶汽车初创公司Cruise正在开发的汽车将接入微软Azure云计算平台。

Netflix added another 8.5m subscribers in the final months of last year, taking the total to almost 204m. The video-streaming service said it no longer required external financing to fund day-to-day operations and was looking at buying back stock. Its share price soared by 17%.

去年最后几个月，Netflix新增用户850万，用户总数接近2.04亿。这家视频流媒体服务公司表示，不再需要外部融资来为日常运营提供资金，并正在考虑回购股票。其股价飙升了17%。

Jack⁵ Ma surfaced in public for the first time since Chinese regulators scotched⁶ the IPO of his Ant Group and announced an antitrust investigation⁷ that in effect targets his business interests. According to state-backed TV, the founder⁸ of Alibaba said that after “studying and thinking” he and his colleagues are “more determined⁹ to devote ourselves to education and public welfare”.

自中国监管机构叫停蚂蚁集团上市并宣布针对其商业利益展开反垄断调查以来，马云首次公开露面。据国家电视台报道，阿里巴巴创始人马云表示，经过“学习和思考”，他将和同事们“更决心投身于教育和公益事业”。

After a failed attempt last May, Virgin¹⁰ Orbit at last put its first satellites in space. The company launched the payload on a rocket that is carried under the wing of an old Virgin Atlantic 747 plane, making it theoretically possible to send satellites into space from anywhere in the world.

在去年5月一次失败的尝试后，维珍轨道公司终于将其第一颗卫星送入太空。该公司用一枚火箭发射了有效载荷，该火箭由维珍航空一架老式747飞机的机翼携带，从理论上讲，这项技术使得卫星可以从世界各地发射升空。

1 reiterated   

反复地说，重申( reiterate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• "Well, I want to know about it,'she reiterated. “嗯，我一定要知道你的休假日期，"她重复说。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• Some twenty-two years later President Polk reiterated and elaborated upon these principles. 大约二十二年之后，波尔克总统重申这些原则并且刻意阐释一番。

2 plummeted   

v.垂直落下，骤然跌落( plummet的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Share prices plummeted to an all-time low. 股票价格暴跌到历史最低点。
• A plane plummeted to earth. 一架飞机一头栽向地面。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 partnership   

n.合作关系，伙伴关系

参考例句：

• The company has gone into partnership with Swiss Bank Corporation.这家公司已经和瑞士银行公司建立合作关系。
• Martin has taken him into general partnership in his company.马丁已让他成为公司的普通合伙人。

4 azure   

adj.天蓝色的，蔚蓝色的

参考例句：

• His eyes are azure.他的眼睛是天蓝色的。
• The sun shone out of a clear azure sky.清朗蔚蓝的天空中阳光明媚。

5 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

6 scotched   

v.阻止( scotch的过去式和过去分词 )；制止（车轮）转动；弄伤；镇压

参考例句：

• Plans for a merger have been scotched. 合并计划停止实行。
• The rebellion was scotched by government forces. 政府军已把叛乱镇压下去。 来自辞典例句

7 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

8 Founder   

n.创始者，缔造者

参考例句：

• He was extolled as the founder of their Florentine school.他被称颂为佛罗伦萨画派的鼻祖。
• According to the old tradition,Romulus was the founder of Rome.按照古老的传说，罗穆卢斯是古罗马的建国者。

9 determined   

adj.坚定的；有决心的

参考例句：

• I have determined on going to Tibet after graduation.我已决定毕业后去西藏。
• He determined to view the rooms behind the office.他决定查看一下办公室后面的房间。

10 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。