Porters1 in Chongqing

Bang bang, I hit the ground2

單詞解析：

1、porters: a person employed to carry luggage and supplies? n.心理搬運工；門房；守門人；服務員；

2、hit the ground: 接觸地面

The decline of a great urban institution

Apr 16th 2016 | CHONGQING | From the print edition

YU XIAOYAN waits for work in the rain, sitting on a bamboo pole near the centre of Chongqing, a large city in the south-west. A wiry1 60-year-old with pepper-and-salt hair, a wispy beard2 and an air of resignation3, he muses4: “I’ve been here 20 years, and it’s never been so tough.” He is what locals call a bangbang man.

單詞解釋：

1.wiry: adj. 瘦長結實的，金屬絲的,金屬線制的,鐵絲似的,,(嗓音)尖細的

比較級: wirier, wiriest? 副 詞: wirily? 名 詞: wiriness

近義詞：[adj.] thin, lean, wire, hairy, haired, hirsute

反義詞：[n.] fat, hairless

Someone who is wiry is rather thin but is also strong.

He had a wiry build.

2.beard: n. 胡須；頜毛? vt. 公然反對；抓…的胡須

vi. [美俚]充當掩護；充當男隨員

the hair growing on the lower part of a man's face

3.an air of resignation? :

“an air of” means surrondings or environment

Resignation: n. 辭職,辭職書,順從, 聽從

1.Resignation is the acceptance of an unpleasant situation or fact because you realize that you cannot change it.

There was no grief in his expression, only deep resignation...

He sighed with profound resignation.

2.[uncountable] when someone calmly accepts a situation that cannot be changed, even though it is bad:

She gave a sigh of resignation.

He accepted her decision with resignation.

4.muse:

n. 沉思；冥想? vt. 沉思；沉思地說? vi. 沉思；凝望

近義詞：

[n.] Greek deity, source, seed, germ

[v.] think, cogitate, cerebrate

1. [transitive] to say something in a way that shows you are thinking about it carefully:

‘Somewhere,’ he mused, ‘I’ve heard your name before.’

2. [intransitive] to think about something for a long time

SYN? ponder

muse on/over/about/upon

He mused on how different his life would have been, had he not met Louisa.

—musing noun [uncountable and countable]:

her gloomy musings

—musingly adverb

Bang means stick. Mr Yu is one of the porters who for generations have hauled1 the worldly goods of Chongqing from the Yangzi and Jialing rivers on which the city sits, and up its precipitous2 slopes3, using only bamboo and string. Everything from wide-screen televisions and blocks of ice to bricks and car tyres4 is tied to a short pole and hoisted5 onto willing shoulders. The bangbang brigade is unique to Chongqing and an emblem6 of the city (also once distinguished for the rarity of bicycles; as China gets richer, they are becoming rarer everywhere). In 2014 when Li Keqiang, the prime minister, paid a visit, he called the bangbang men “a symbol of the Chinese people’s hard-working spirit”.

1.haul: vt. 拖運；拖拉? the act of drawing or hauling something

近義詞：

[n.] pull, pulling, indefinite quantity

[v.] pull, draw, force, transport, carry

Trains haul freight.

2.precipitous? adj. 險峻的, 陡峭的

副 詞: precipitously? 名 詞: precipitousness

3.slope : n. 傾斜；斜率；斜坡；扛槍姿勢? ? 名 詞: sloper

vi. 傾斜；逃走

vt. 扛；傾斜；使傾斜

副 詞: slopingly

近義詞：

[n.] geological formation, formation, position, spatial relation

[v.] lean, tilt, tip, slant, angle

4.tyre : vt. 裝輪胎于 n. 輪胎；輪箍

近義詞：

[n.] city, metropolis, urban center, port, hoop, ring

A tyre is a thick piece of rubber which is fitted onto the wheels of vehicles such as cars, buses, and bicycles.

5.hoist : vt. 把…吊起, 升起? n. 吊起; 舉起; 提升? 起重器械 hoister n.

近義詞：

[n.] lifting device

[v.] raise, lift, elevate, get up, bring up

move from one place to another by lifting

They hoisted the patient onto the operating table

6.emblem : n. 象征；符號；徽章? vt. 象征；用符號表示；用紋章裝飾

近義詞：

[n.] design, pattern, figure, symbol, symbolization, symbolisation, symbolic representation

national emblem 國徽

But the trade is dying. “When I first came,” says Mr Yu, “there were thousands of bangbang men and plenty of work, but not any more.” According to a documentary made in 2015 for state television, the city had over 300,000 stick men in the late 1990s. Now there are only 3,000. “No one with any education would become a bangbang man,” says Mr Yu. “It’s all old people.”

He is right. A study in 2015 of 400 porters by Chen Hong, Liu Dapei and Du Zhongbo of Chongqing Normal University found that two-thirds of them were over 50. “The decline in the profession symbolises the ageing of Chinese society,” says Zhou Xuexin, dean1 of the Chongqing Economic and Social Development Institute.

1.dean : an administrator in charge of a division of a university or college

近義詞：

[n.] academic administrator, actor, histrion, player, thespian, role player, elder

A dean is an important official at a university or college.

She is currently Dean of the faculty of International Studies at Sophia University.

It also reflects improvements in urban1 infrastructure. When roads were unpaved2 and buildings lacked lifts, brawn3 was the only way to move goods up and down the steep hills and into tower blocks. But with better roads and more modern buildings, that is no longer true. Delivery companies with young men on motorcycles have taken over, and the remaining bangbang men are coming to terms with modern technology. They have set up an instant-messaging4 group to parcel5 out the available jobs.

1.urban : adj. 城市的；住在都市的

近義詞：

[adj.] city, metropolis, urban center, citified, cityfied, city-bred, city-born

反義詞：

[n.] rural

2.unpaved : adj. 未鋪砌的；沒有鋪柏油的；沒有鋪石磚的

(of a road) not covered with a hard, smooth surface; not paved

3.brawn : n. 發達的肌肉；膂力；腌制好的野豬肉

physical strength, especially when compared with intelligence:

4. instant-messaging：is a form of written communication that allows you to send messages from one computer to another. The message appears immediately on the screen of the computer you send it to, provided the computer is using the service. The abbreviation IM is also used.

a system on the Internet that allows people to exchange written messages with each other very quickly

5.parcel: n. 包裹,一塊地;? vt. 給…打成包裹 分成若干部分

近義詞：

[n.] container, allotment, apportionment, apportioning, allocation, parceling, parcelling

[v.] divide, split, split up, separate, dissever, carve up, cover

Parcel out : 分配，把…分成幾份 divide into parts

For Mr Yu, it is too late. “Most people are going back to their villages,” he says. He turns to write his name, using a finger to draw characters on the wet marble where he sits; the rain soon washes them away.

好句子：

1.A wiry 60-year- old with pepper-and-salt hair,a wispy beard and an air of resignation.

It can be used to describe someone who is old but healthy

2. Everything from (wide-screen televisions and blocks of ice) to

(bricks and car tyres) is tied to a short pole and hoisted onto willing shoulders.

Everything from …to