经济学人精读笔记7：动乱当道，你还想买LV吗？

2020/2/24

经济学人精读笔记7：动乱当道，你还想买LV吗？

标签（空格分隔）： 经济学人

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Part 1

Luxury goods

A tale of two handbags

Purveyors of bling ought to be in a bit of a funk these days. Chinese economic prospects are mixed and American retail sales fell unexpectedly in September for the first time in months. Hong Kong, the spiritual home of luxury in Asia, is rocked by a hailstorm of rubber bullets. Economic crystal-ball gazers are slashing their forecasts: on October 15th the IMF warned global GDP growth would fall to its lowest level since the financial crisis (see Finance section). Who would shell out on a new gold-studded designer handbag now?

奢侈品
双包记
如今，奢侈品供应商应该有些焦虑。中国经济前景喜忧参半，9月美国零售额意外遭受几个月来首次下降。香港，奢侈品在亚洲的精神家园，经历着**。经济学家们大幅降低他们的经济预测：10月15日国际货币基金组织IMF警告称，全球GDP增长将会跌到2008年金融危机以来的最低水平。现在谁会去花一大笔钱买一个镶金的新款名牌手包呢？

• 【标题解读】A tale of two handbags，这个小标题是源于英国作家查尔斯·狄更斯的长篇历史小说A tale of two cities《双城记》，这个长篇小说以法国大革命为背景，讲述了发生在巴黎和伦敦两个城市的故事。本文的A tale of two handbags 则讲的是大牌奢侈品和小牌奢侈品的发展和境遇。

• purvey v. [pərˈveɪ] (formal) to supply food, services or information to people 提供，供应（食物、服务或信息）

purveyor n.提供者；供应商

• spiritual adj. 精神上的; 心灵的

• bling或者bling-bling指昂贵的珠宝；高档首饰

Big-name jewellers are battling it out to get celebrities to wear their bling. 大牌珠宝商竞相邀约名人佩戴其名贵首饰。

• be in a funk恐慌，惊恐 He was in a blue funk! Worse than me! 他神经极为紧张！比我还糟！

• rock vt. 使震惊; 使受震动

• hailstorm n. 雹暴

• bullet n. 子弹

• 【原文理解】Economic crystal-ball gazers 经济学家们

Crystal-ball名词，指（可预言未来的）水晶球，crystal-ball gazer盯着水晶球看的人，指利用水晶球来占卜之人，引申义可以用来指“预测家”，Economic crystal-ball gazer指经济预测家

look into the crystal ball预测未来，可以与forecast, predict替换

Looking into the crystal ball, it's safe to say that interest rates will rise next year.预测一下未来，可以很明确地说明年利率会上升。

• slash v.[slæʃ] 这个词本身意为“劈，砍”，比如He slashed at her, aiming carefully. 他仔细地瞄准她劈了过去。也引申为“大幅度削减”的意思，比如：The workforce has been slashed by half. 职工人数裁减了一半。

【记忆方法】斜线号“/ ”就叫slash，这个符号的外形可以让人联想到“削，砍，劈”这三个动作

• crisis n. 危机

• shell out 付（一大笔钱）【写作推荐】

比如《纽约时报》一篇讨论钱能不能买来幸福的文章提到：A team of researchers finds that shelling out for services that save time can bring greater feelings of life satisfaction than, say, simply buying more stuff. The results appear in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.一组研究人员发现，与简单地花钱买更多东西相比，购买能节省时间的服务更能提高人们的生活满意度。这项研究结果发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。

Part 2

Some shoppers seem to have missed the gloomy headlines. On October 9th LVMH, the world’s biggest luxury group, unveiled stellar results. Sales at its Dior, Louis Vuitton and myriad other brands went up by 11% year on year (excluding acquisitions). That is nearly double the 6% trend rate of growth in personal luxury goods, which includes everything from watches to ties and posh heels. Its high-end rivals, Kering, which owns Gucci, and Hermès, are expected to follow suit. Their share prices all rose by give or take a third in the past year.

一些购物者似乎并没有注意到这些令人沮丧的头条新闻。10月9日，全球最大的奢侈品集团路威酩轩LVMH公布了其辉煌的业绩。旗下的迪奥、路易威登和无数其他品牌的销售额同比增长11%(不包括收购)。这一增幅几乎是个人奢侈品增幅6%的两倍（从手表到领带和奢华高跟鞋）。它的高端竞争对手开云集团(旗下有古驰(Gucci)和爱马仕(Hermes))的业绩预计同样的辉煌。它们的股价在过去一年里都上涨了三分之一左右。

• gloomy本义是“黑暗的，阴暗的”，相当于dark，比如a gloomy room昏暗的房间，其引申义主要有两个：一是形容人悲观、闷闷不乐，相当于pessimistic，如本文，二是用于形容形势不容乐观，比如“前景黯淡”可以说The future looks gloomy.

gloom是gloomy对应的名词形式，指“忧郁；愁闷；沮丧”等悲观情绪。

• unveiled v.公布；推出；出台

Companies from across Europe are here to unveil their latest models. 全欧洲的公司都来到这里展示其最新款产品。

• stellar adj. [ˈstɛlɚ] excellent 优秀的；精彩的；杰出的

a stellar performance精彩的演出

• excluding prep. 除…外, 不包括

• myriad n. (literary) an extremely large number of sth 无数；大量

Designs are available in a myriad of colours.各种色彩的款式应有尽有。

• posh adj.used about hotels, restaurants, or cars that look expensive and are used by rich or high-class people豪华的 往往用于形容有钱人或上流人士使用的酒店、餐馆或汽车

【类似表达】fancy adj.used about restaurants, cars, or clothes that look expensive昂贵的〔用于形容看上去昂贵的餐馆、汽车或衣服〕

• heel 名词指“鞋跟”也可以指“高跟鞋”，high-heel也指“高跟鞋”

【辨析】well-heeled having a lot of money 有钱的；富有的 =rich, wealthy 前面加上定冠词，the well-heeled 表示“有钱人，富人”The shop attracted a loyal following among the well-heeled.这家商店吸引了一批有钱的忠实顾客。

• high-end adj.高端的

【类似表达】premium end n.高端 比如“华为准备在高端智能手机市场挑战苹果”，我们就可以说Huawei is preparing to challenge Apple in a premium-end smartphone market.

• up-market [ˌʌpˈmɑːkɪt]指“高端市场的，高档的” (designed for or used by people who have a lot of money)，为英式的说法，对应的美式英语为upscale比如an up-market restaurant高档餐厅

up-market还可以作为副词来使用，惯用搭配为move / go up-market，表示“进军高端市场”，比如Japanese firms have moved steadily up-market. 日本公司已向高端产品市场稳步迈进。

• follow suit v. to act or behave in the way that sb else has just done 跟着某人做；仿效某人；照着做

  In the wake of his success, other filmmakers began to follow suit. 随着他的成功, 其他电影制片人纷纷开始效仿.【写作推荐】

Part 3

Other brands have not been so lucky. A day after LVMH’s shiny earnings Hugo Boss, a German fashion house, issued a second profit warning in as many months. In America Tiffany & Co. and Tapestry, which owns Coach and Kate Spade, have struggled. So too have medium-sized Italian firms like Prada and Tod’s. The shares of those smaller companies are now priced like last season’s accessory, gathering dust in an out-of-town “factory store”.

其他品牌就没这么幸运了。在路威酩轩(LVMH)耀眼的利润报告发布一天后，德国时尚品牌雨果波士(Hugo Boss)发布了同期的第二次盈利预警。在美国，蒂凡尼(Tiffany & Co.)和Tapestry集团（旗下有蔻驰（Coach）和凯特·丝蓓（Kate Spade））举步维艰。像普拉达（Prada）和托德斯（Tod’s）这样的中型意大利公司也是如此。现在这些规模较小的公司的股票定价就像过季的配件一样，在城郊的“工厂店”积尘。

• issue [ˈɪʃu]v. to make sth known formally宣布；公布；发出They issued a joint statement denying the charges.他们发表联合声明否认指控。【熟词僻义】

• shiny adj. 有光泽的，擦亮的；晴朗的；闪耀的

issue作动词通常翻译为“使书等出版、发表”或“发行，发放”可用issue sth to sb或issue sb sth。The authorities issued clothes and shoes to them.当权者发给他们衣服和鞋。

issue作名词除了常见的“问题”以外，还有“子嗣，子女”的意思He died without issue.他死后无子嗣。

那么杂志或者书刊的发行量怎么说呢？a daily circulation of more than one million日发行量超过一百万份

• accessory n. Accessories are articles such as belts and scarves which you wear or carry but which are not part of your main clothing.配饰（如腰带、围巾等）

• shares n. 股份

Part 4

Luxury has always been a cyclical industry: even those with plenty of cash to spare tend to spend more of it when times are good. Overall growth rates have slowed since 2018, when sales rose by over 10%. But the impact has not been felt evenly. “What you see is the luxury pie expanding at a slower pace—and the biggest players are grabbing a bigger slice,” says Rogerio Fujimori of RBC, a bank.

奢侈品一直是一个周期性的行业：即使是那些拥有大量现金的人，往往也会在经济形势好的时候花更多的钱。自2018年(销售额增长超过10％)以来，奢侈品行业总体增长率已经放缓。但是影响并不均衡。加拿大皇家银行RBC的Rogerio Fujimori说：“您看到的是奢侈市场增长速度放慢，但是奢侈品巨头正在极力抢占更大的份额。”

• cyclical adj.循环的;周期的

...the cyclical nature of the airline business. 航空业的周期性

• evenly adv. 平坦地；均匀地；平等地；平衡地

• those with plenty of cash to spare 现金充裕的有钱人

n. + to spareif you have time, money, etc. to spare, you have more than you need 多余；富余
I've got absolutely no money to spare this month. 我这个月一点儿富余钱都没有。We arrived at the airport with five minutes to spare. 我们赶到机场时还剩五分钟。

这里名词+to spare中的to spare 其实意义相当于形容词spare，但不是有意备用的。比如a spare tire 是有意准备好的轮胎，a tire to spare 是临时多出的一个轮胎

• pace本身是“步伐”以下是它的相关短语，它们在外刊中极高频地出现，推进大家在写作中套用进去。

-the pace of某事发生的速度/节奏
I prefer the relaxed pace of life in the country.我喜爱乡间那悠闲的生活节奏。

-at one’s own pace按照自己的节奏
We encourage all students to work at their own pace (= as fast or as slow as they can) .我们鼓励学生都按自己的节奏学习。

-set the pace确立标准；领先The company is no longer setting the pace in the home computer market.这家公司再也不能在国内计算机市场上独领风骚了。

-keep pace with sb/sth与...并驾齐驱；与...步调一致When education fails to keep pace with technology, the result is inequality. 当教育跟不上技术进步时，就会造成不平等。It is difficult to keep up with the rapid pace of change.跟上迅速的变化是很困难的。

-at a …pace 以…速度Public spending continues to rise at a steady pace.公共开支继续稳步上升。

• slice n. 薄片；部分；

Part 5

Take Hong Kong. Sales in the Chinese territory have slumped by 50% in recent months, analysts reckon, largely as visitors from mainland China have stopped shopping there. With continued anti-government unrest in the streets, few think the situation will improve soon. The city represents 5-10% of sales for luxury groups. Smaller rivals with only a foothold in Hong Kong, which has traditionally served as a gateway to Asia, will have lost most sales as a result. In contrast, bigger ones like Gucci have built vast networks of stores on the mainland, through which they will recoup some of those losses.

以香港为例。分析师认为，近几个月来中国大陆的销售额下降了50％，主要是因为来自中国大陆的游客已经不愿意在香港购物。随着***的持续，大部分人不认为情况会很快好转。香港占奢侈品集团销售额的5-10％。传统上,香港就是奢侈品进入亚洲的门户，有些小品牌仅在香港开店将因此失去大部分销售额。相比之下，像古驰（Gucci）这样的大公司在大陆建立了庞大的商店网络，他们将通过这些销售网络来弥补部分损失。

• Take Hong Kong. 以香港为例。

take sb / sth. 以sb/sth为例，这里take sth 相当于take sth as an example

比如People love British cars. Take the Mini. In Japan, it still sells more than all the other cars put together. 人们喜欢英国车。就拿“迷你”汽车来说，在日本它的销量仍然比其他所有汽车加起来还要高。

• territory n. 领土, 版图

• consider sb / sth. 以sb/sth为例，consider的用法和take类似，也可以用于举例

• to slump / plunge / plummet / drop, etc. 均为不及物动词，指突然而大幅地减少、暴跌，也可作可数名词。Stock markets plummeted at the news of the coup. 政变的消息一传来，股票市场便暴跌。an unexpected plunge in profits 意料之外的利润锐减。

• unrest n. 动乱, 骚乱, 不安宁

• foothold n. A foothold is a strong or favourable position from which further advances or progress may be made. 立足点；稳固地位【写作推荐】

• gain a foothold 在...站稳脚跟，立足，有一席之地
  The company is eager to gain a foothold in Europe. 这家公司急于在欧洲取得一席之地。

• have/establish a solid/strong/firm foothold 打下坚实基础，站稳了脚跟
  If British business is to have a successful future, companies must establish a firm foothold in Europe. 如果英国公司想在未来成功发展，就必须在欧洲建立稳固的基础。

• gateway n. 大门口

• In contrast adj. 与此相反(相比之下)

• recoup vt. 重获(所失的东西);补偿, 偿还