美国国家公共电台 NPR--Many Sri Lankans have switched to cycling due to fuel shortages

Many Sri Lankans have switched to cycling due to fuel shortages

Transcript¹

Fuel shortages have forced many Sri Lankans to ditch their cars and cycle instead. Colombo's mayor even opened new bike paths. Doctors and environmentalists call it a silver lining². But will it last?

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We have a story of adaptation next, adaptation to an economic crisis in Sri Lanka. The country has run short of electricity and food and fuel, the last of which makes it hard to get to work. So some people are pedaling. NPR's Lauren Frayer reports from Colombo.

LAUREN FRAYER, BYLINE³: M. Fernando (ph) used to catch a bus to his job as a security guard at a luxury hotel. But this spring, Sri Lanka ran out of U.S. dollars, struggled to buy fuel on international markets and basically ran out of gasoline. Inflation spiked⁴. And suddenly, even public transit⁵ became a stretch for Fernando's budget.

M FERNANDO: Train and bus, they're very expensive. Yeah.

FRAYER: Bicycle is free.

FERNANDO: Yeah, free. My feet - I go.

FRAYER: Yeah. Good for you.

FERNANDO: Yeah.

FRAYER: So now 61-year-old Fernando cycles to work. His hotel actually gave him a bike.

FERNANDO: My office, they help.

FRAYER: Your office helped you acquire a bicycle?

FERNANDO: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Every day, you come to work.

FRAYER: It allows you to get to work?

FERNANDO: Yes, madam.

FRAYER: It's unclear just how many Sri Lankans like Fernando have switched to cycling in recent months. Bike salesman Asanka Prabath (ph) says his phone is ringing off the hook.

(SOUNDBITE OF PHONE RINGING)

FRAYER: There it goes again.

Which would be good for business, except there's a problem.

No bicycles?

ASANKA PRABATH: No.

FRAYER: You've run out?

PRABATH: (Non-English language spoken). No stock.

FRAYER: He's out of stock.

PRABATH: (Non-English language spoken).

FRAYER: Sri Lanka's foreign currency crunch⁶, well, it affects bicycles, too, because most of the fancy mountain bikes Prabath sells come from abroad. And these days, it's much more expensive, if not impossible, to import anything to Sri Lanka. Now, there is one place where a shortage of imported bikes looks like an opportunity.

AAZIM MIFLAL: With the power cuts, we have the generator⁷ running at the moment.

FRAYER: Oh, that's what this noise is?

MIFLAL: Yes.

FRAYER: This is a massive place.

Sri Lanka's biggest domestic bike factory. Manager Aazim Miflal says his third-generation family business had almost gone bust⁸, laid off almost all of its staff. But now he's hiring them back to try to double production to almost half a million bikes this year. He shows me his bestseller, a simple gearless cruiser with fenders.

Oh, I like the purple ones.

MIFLAL: Yeah, more of a city bike.

FRAYER: OK.

MIFLAL: And then we're looking at the traditional bike.

FRAYER: Miflal says Shimano gears and disc brakes are out. Simple, easy-to-repair bikes are in. Now, all of this is great news to Asela Abeydeera, a Sri Lankan doctor who's been preaching the health benefits of cycling to his countrymen for years. But he had trouble convincing them.

ASELA ABEYDEERA: There's this famous song - bicyclist, the vehicle of poor man. That song affected⁹ the society not to cycle. Now it's changed.

FRAYER: So much so that Colombo's mayor recently inaugurated new bike paths across the city because it's not the most bike-friendly place, Dr. Abeydeera acknowledges.

ABEYDEERA: Those who are starting cycling, this is very challenging.

FRAYER: Yeah, I mean, there's a train right here, passing on one side. There's a bus on the other. You know, it's not a beginner cyclist's city.

And yet that same Colombo coastal¹⁰ highway is where I met M. Fernando, the first-time cyclist riding his bike to the hotel where he works. He has had what he calls a few incidents with motorists.

FERNANDO: Two incident.

FRAYER: You fell? Oh, you have a scar on your arm.

FERNANDO: Small damage.

FRAYER: But he keeps pedaling to get to work, to keep his job, to just keep going, which is what all Sri Lankans are trying to do right now. Lauren Frayer, NPR News, in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

(SOUNDBITE OF AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR'S "THE VOICELESS")

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 lining   

n.衬里，衬料

参考例句：

• The lining of my coat is torn.我的外套衬里破了。
• Moss makes an attractive lining to wire baskets.用苔藓垫在铁丝篮里很漂亮。

3 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

4 spiked   

adj.有穗的；成锥形的；有尖顶的

参考例句：

• The editor spiked the story. 编辑删去了这篇报道。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They wondered whether their drinks had been spiked. 他们有些疑惑自己的饮料里是否被偷偷搀了烈性酒。 来自辞典例句

5 transit   

n.经过，运输；vt.穿越，旋转；vi.越过

参考例句：

• His luggage was lost in transit.他的行李在运送中丢失。
• The canal can transit a total of 50 ships daily.这条运河每天能通过50条船。

6 crunch   

n.关键时刻；艰难局面；v.发出碎裂声

参考例句：

• If it comes to the crunch they'll support us.关键时刻他们是会支持我们的。
• People who crunch nuts at the movies can be very annoying.看电影时嘎吱作声地嚼干果的人会使人十分讨厌。

7 generator   

n.发电机，发生器

参考例句：

• All the while the giant generator poured out its power.巨大的发电机一刻不停地发出电力。
• This is an alternating current generator.这是一台交流发电机。

8 bust   

vt.打破；vi.爆裂；n.半身像；胸部

参考例句：

• I dropped my camera on the pavement and bust it. 我把照相机掉在人行道上摔坏了。
• She has worked up a lump of clay into a bust.她把一块黏土精心制作成一个半身像。

9 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

10 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。