沪江小编:对于商界精英们来说,阅读《金融时报》(Financial Times)几乎成了每天的必修课。FT文章以分析为主,逻辑严密,经常被各类考试用作考题。非常适合学习BEC、TOEIC、GRE、GMAT的考生来阅读、练习。沪江小编精选FT上的双语文章,配上独家的学习指南,从词汇、短语、句式、文化、翻译等多方面来解读,长期坚持,相信会对英语学习有所帮助。

原文阅读:京东商城能否一鸣惊人?

When Warren Buffett spends $12bn on Heinz, a $125m stake by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in Chinese online retailer 360 Buy looks trivial. But it is a sign that while the most famous value investor is plumping for quality, if not value exactly, his rival is still backing shoot-for-the-stars propositions. And they don’t get much starrier, or riskier, than China’s cut-throat retail world.

Based on sheer size, ecommerce in the world’s second-largest economy has enormous potential. Only about two-fifths of China’s population is online, half the proportion of the US or South Korea. At 200m, there are already 25 per cent more online shoppers in China than the US, yet this still only constitutes a third of all Chinese netizens. Three quarters of web-savvy Americans are regular online spenders. China has far fewer retailers who can call themselves national too, so the web offers huge brand value potential to the outfit that can make it big online.

The trick is profiting from this market. Prince Alwaleed’s target, 360 Buy, is the second-largest online retailer, accounting for about a sixth of transaction value. Its sales have been rising at a compound 150 per cent. But so has the online market overall, according to Macquarie, suggesting little share gain in spite of extreme, and expensive, price war stunts that have hurt everyone. Gome, which competes in electronics, recently said its online unit was one factor in its first full-year loss last year. Macquarie expects market growth to slow to about 50 per cent by 2015. Most businesses would die for that, but there are as yet no signs of profits at 360 Buy as it builds a delivery network.

Prince Alwaleed’s stake is part of a $400m injection for 360 Buy. Forget that last year the company said it was fully funded until 2015. Kingdom Holdings, the prince’s vehicle, says it invests in groups that seek to list in three years. That could be optimistic.

学习指南:

1.Word of the day

stunt:anything spectacular or unusual done to gain publicity 噱头,花招
ex: Climbing up the church tower is a fine publicity stunt.
例句:攀登教堂钟楼是绝妙的宣传性噱头。

2.Phrase of the day

to die for: (informal) if something is to die for, it is extremely good 渴望
ex: The weather's fantastic, the people are warm and friendly and the food is to die for.
例句:这里气候宜人,人民友好,食物也棒极了。

3.Sentence of the day

Prince Alwaleed’s stake is part of a $400m injection for 360 Buy.
阿尔瓦利德王子的持股,是京东商城此轮4亿美元注资的一部分。

小编注:这句话中injection的用法值得学习和借鉴。以往我们熟知的injection是注射的意思,比如I'm going to give you a pain-killing injection. 而在商务语境下,injection更多地表示资金和人才的注入。比如,
ex1: This liquidity injection was designed to ensure that money markets continued to function and did not succumb to a credit freeze.
例1:欧洲央行此次向市场注入流动性,目的是确保货币市场的正常运转,不会出现信贷冻结的情况。
ex2: With management insight from Ceibs and the injection of new personnel talent, the company started to move out of the red.
例2:依靠从中欧获得的管理洞见,加上引入了新的人才,全时开始逐渐走出亏损状态。

4.Cultural point of the day

shoot for the stars:means to aim high, set a big target, have big goals, dream big dreams.抱负远大、一鸣惊人
ex: When it comes to pursuing professional goals, Miss Brown likes to shoot for the stars, which is why she became an intern at the White House.
例句:在事业方面,布朗小姐是有远大抱负的人,这也是她为什么在白宫实习的原因。

小编注:美剧《老友记》中有这样一句话“There are people, like Ross, who need to shoot for the stars.”这里shoot for the stars的意思就是一鸣惊人。这是一种形象的用法,stars必须是复数。同样的用法还有shoot for the moon。

5.Translation of the day  

When Warren Buffett spends $12bn on Heinz, a $125m stake by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in Chinese online retailer 360 Buy looks trivial.
相比沃伦·巴菲特投资亨氏(Heinz)的120亿美元,阿尔瓦利德·本·塔拉尔王子(Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal)投资中国网络零售商京东商城(360 Buy)所花的1.25亿美元看起来微不足道。

小编注:从中文翻译上来看,主句和从句存在着比较的关系,而英语原文中并没有用comparing或compared这样的词,而是简单地用了when的句式,加上looks trivial就把比较关系给点出来了。句式灵活多变,值得学习,尤其是汉译英的时候,可以考虑借鉴此句式。 

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