美国有线新闻 CNN 新冠疫情致美国食品价格上涨

We're starting at the grocery store and we're going to need some extra cash. In the month of April, the price of groceries grew 2.6% according to the U.S. Labor¹ Department. So if a family spent $1,000 on groceries in March, they would have needed an extra $26 for those same groceries in April. The 2.6% increase was the biggest jump from one month to the next since 1974. You can guess why this happened. It's another side effect, really a series of them, to the ongoing² coronavirus pandemic.

今天首先来关注杂货店，我们需要一些额外的现金。根据美国劳工部的数据，4月份食品杂货价格上涨了2.6%。因此，如果一个家庭3月份花1000美元购买杂货，那他们在4月购买这些杂货时需要多花26美元。2.6%的增幅是自1974年以来最大的月度增幅。大家可以想到发生这种情况的原因。冠状病毒疫情产生了一系列副作用，这只是其中之一。

When restaurants shutdown and businesses closed, more Americans started cooking at home. So demand for groceries went up but then many food producers and farmers had trouble quickly shifting³ their deliveries⁴ from those restaurants to grocery stores. It's a very complex process. And there've been outbreaks of COVID-19 in some food processing plants forcing some of them to shut down. So there's this perfect storm of increase demand, jarring changes in delivery⁵ and reduced supply. But on top of all that some shoppers started panic buying, picking up lots of food that they didn't plan to eat right away.

当餐厅和商店停业时，越来越多的美国人开始在家做饭。这导致食品杂货的需求上升，但许多食品生产商和农民很难迅速将货物从餐厅转移到杂货店。这是一个非常复杂的过程。一些食品加工厂爆发了新冠肺炎疫情，其中一些工厂不得不关闭。这就形成了一场完美的风暴：需求增加、交货变化、供应减少。但除此之外，一些购物者开始恐慌性购买，抢购了很多他们不打算马上食用的食物。

So to keep certain groceries in stock⁶, stores put limits on the amounts people could buy. They've also raised prices to discourage people from buying so much and to recover some of the extra money they've had to pay to suppliers. Meat, eggs, bread, cereal⁷, soup, soda⁸, fruit and coffee, all went up in April. Some prices went down though. Ham, breakfast sausage, butter, prepared salads and cupcakes got cheaper.

因此，为了保持某些杂货的库存，商店对人们的购买量进行了限制。他们还提高了价格，阻止人们购买过多商品，并收回他们不得不支付给供应商的一些额外资金。肉类、鸡蛋、面包、麦片、汤、苏打水、水果和咖啡的价格均在4月出现上涨。但也有一些商品的价格出现下降。火腿、早餐香肠、黄油、预制沙拉和纸杯蛋糕的价格都有所回落。

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

3 shifting   

n.移位；转移，偏移；狡猾v.改变(shift的现在分词)adj.移动的；多变的；狡诈的

参考例句：

• It's impossible to prove him wrong because he keeps shifting his ground. 要证明他错是不可能的，因为他不断地改变立场。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These tree belts effectively protect the farmland against shifting sand. 这些防护林带有效地保护了农田，使之免受流沙侵袭。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 deliveries   

投递( delivery的名词复数 )； [法律]（正式）交付； 分娩； 表演

参考例句：

• Deliveries of mail could be delayed because of cost-cutting. 由于削减成本，邮件的递送可能会延迟。
• We have developed rapid order processing to expedite deliveries to customers. 我们已创造了快速处理订单的方法以便迅速将货物送达顾客。

5 delivery   

n.交付；投递；分娩；解救者；演讲的风格

参考例句：

• The strike caused a great delay in the delivery of the mail.这次罢工严重地延误了邮件的投递。
• He was employed at the local grocery store as a delivery boy.他受雇于当地杂货店当送货员。

6 stock   

n.存货，储备；树干；血统；股份；家畜；adj.存货的；平凡的，惯用的；股票的；畜牧的；vt.进货，采购；储存；供给；vi.出新芽；进货

参考例句：

• The shop takes stock every week on Friday mornings.这家商店每星期五早晨盘点存货。
• Experts have forecast an upturn in the stock market.专家已预测股票市场价格有上升趋势。

7 cereal   

n.谷类，五谷，禾谷

参考例句：

• I have hot cereal every day for breakfast.我每天早餐吃热麦片粥。
• Soybeans are handled differently from cereal grains.大豆的加工处理与谷类的加工处理不同。

8 soda   

n.苏打水；汽水

参考例句：

• She doesn't enjoy drinking chocolate soda.她不喜欢喝巧克力汽水。
• I will freshen your drink with more soda and ice cubes.我给你的饮料重加一些苏打水和冰块。