今天讀經濟學人讀到一篇特別好的文章，感覺自己腦子里像在放煙花（很激動的意思）。迫不及待想分享給大家。沒事兒一起來學英語??！

講的是外賣小哥。

During the recent peak of covid-19 cases in China, large metal shelving-units appeared at entrances to residential compounds across Shanghai. Outsiders were not allowed in. But somewhere was needed to hold the myriad packages ordered online by the millions of residents who were staying at home. The shelves groaned under the weight of disinfectant and vitamin tablets, sacks of rice and flour, cooking oil and vegetables.

這段講的是在疫情的爆發期，整個上海的住宅區入口處都出現了大型的金屬貨架。 外來者不允許進入。但是數百萬住在家里的居民在網上訂購的無數包裹需要一個地方來存放。 架子在消毒劑和維生素片劑，大袋米粉，食用油和蔬菜的重量下吱嘎作響。（很真實吧哈哈）

單詞：

myriad adj.?無數的；種種的

groan /gr??n/??vi.?呻吟；抱怨；發吱嘎聲 vt.?呻吟；抱怨 n.?呻吟；嘆息；吱嘎聲

disinfectant /d?s?n'fekt(?)nt/ n.?消毒劑,?殺菌劑

Food-delivery firms played a crucial role in helping people in China endure the lockdown that began in Hubei province in late January, and the less stringent forms of quarantine that were subsequently implemented in cities across the country. Since early March there have been very few newly detected cases of covid-19 except among travellers from abroad. So controls have eased, allowing shops and restaurants to reopen. But many people are playing safe and staying largely housebound. State media have been calling home-delivery workers “heroes”. Few would disagree.

（懶得翻譯了，開始意譯）這段講食品運送公司在人們自我隔離的期間扮演了很重要的角色。三月初的時候很少有新的確診病例出現了（除了那些回國的）。盡管現在控制已經放松了，但是人們大部分時間還是非常謹慎地在家待著。媒體把外賣小哥叫做“英雄”，很少有人會不同意吧。

單詞：

stringent /'str?n(d)?(?)nt/?adj.?嚴格的;嚴厲的

housebound/‘ha?sba?nd/ adj.?居家不外出的,不能離家的

Even before the crisis they were belovedof urbanites. The combination of an abundant supply of cheap labour, a large middle class and near-universal access to smart-phones had fostered the growth of online food-delivery services to a degree unmatched in the rich world. People could have everything from coffee to congee whisked to them in under 30 minutes on the back of a scooter, typically by one of the sector’s two titans, Ele.me and Meituan-Dianping. More than 400m people, or about half of the country’s internet users, had encountered awaimai xiaoge, or “takeaway lad” (more than nine in ten are men) at their door. Residents had become so used to receiving hot meals from them that they jokingly compared them to parents.

甚至在疫情之前，外賣小哥就深受城市居民的喜愛。 廉價勞動力的大量供應，大量中產階級以及幾乎普及的智能手機的結合，促進了在線食品配送服務的增長，達到了富裕國家無法比擬的程度。 人們可以在不到30分鐘的時間內拿到從咖啡到粥的所有東西。這些通常是由該部門的兩個巨頭之一餓了么（看看是怎么翻譯的，Ele.me哈哈哈有意思）和美團點評來完成的。 超過4億人，約占該國互聯網用戶的一半，在門口“偶遇”waimai xiaoge（外賣小哥）。 居民已經習慣了從他們那里拿到熱騰騰的飯，因此開玩笑地將它們與父母進行了比較（大概就是把外賣小哥比作衣食父母哈哈）。

單詞：

urbanite/'??b(?)na?t/n.?都市人

near-universal普遍性

congee/‘k?nd?i?/n.?粥

whisk/w?sk/?verb匆匆帶走；迅速送走

scooter/‘sku?t?/n.?小輪摩托車；速可達；單腳滑行車；小孩滑板車

After the novel coronavirus hit, their services became a lifeline. When officials told firms to stay shut, they allowed exceptions for “essential” services, includingthose delivering cooked food and groceries. Wary of eating meals prepared by others, many people turned to online supermarkets. Sales of dumpling wrappers and sauces grew more than sevenfold on Meituan’s grocery service—even as takeout orders more than halved, as the giant reported in a downbeat first-quarter forecast. The new joke is that the covid-19 epidemic has turned China into a nation of chefs.

疫情期間，外賣小哥的服務成為了生命線。 除了“基本”服務，包括提供熟食和雜貨的服務，其他的公司都要求關閉了。因為 比較擔心別人準備的飯菜（帶病毒），很多人轉向了網上超市。盡管外賣訂單減少了一半以上，美團的雜貨店的餃子皮和調味醬的銷售額增長了七倍以上。 一個新的玩笑：covid-19使中國變成了廚師大國（這句話真的有意思哈，愛了愛了）。

單詞：

lifeline?/‘la?fla?n/n.?生命線；救生索

downbeat?/‘da?nbi?t/adj.?悲觀的；不強烈的

The lives of the xiaoge have changed, too. Zhang Shuai, a 24-year-old from the central city of Zhengzhou who delivers for Meituan in Shanghai, has to wear a mask while working. The firm takes his temperature twice a day, notes it on a card pinned to his jacket and uploads it to the app for users to see. He undergoes many more checks when he picks up orders and carries them into residential compounds, most of which are now open again to outsiders.

這段講的是外賣小哥的生活也發生了變化。以一個叫做張帥的24歲小伙子為例，他每天要量兩次體溫，并將其記錄在固定在夾克上的卡片上，然后將其上傳到應用程序中，以供用戶查看。 當他拿起訂單并將其帶入住宅區時，他將經受更多的檢查。

（自認為沒啥生詞）

Yet the job is still alluring to people like Mr Zhang. Indeed, he signed up with Meituan when infections were mounting. It was just too hard to find any other job, he says. And, at 10,000 yuan ($1,400) a month, his earnings are higher than the average urban wage in Shanghai, partly thanks to subsidies from Meituan and tips from grateful customers. He will quit only when the disease ends. Another migrant worker says he shares his single-room accommodation with five other riders. Is he anxious about living cheek-by-jowl with them? “I’m not afraid of death,” he grins, speeding off.

然而，這項工作仍然吸引著像張先生這樣的人。 當感染的人增加時，他與美團簽約。 他說很難找到其他工作。 他每月的收入為人民幣10,000元（合1,400美元），高于上海市的平均工資，這在一定程度上要歸功于美團的補貼和客戶給的小費。 只有在疫情過去后他才會辭職。 另一名外來務工人員說，他與其他五個騎手住一間屋子。 與舍友這么擁擠地住著，他會有所擔心嗎？ “我不怕死，”他咧嘴一笑，飛馳而去。

單詞：

allure?vt.?吸引；引誘，誘惑?n.?誘惑力?vi.?誘人，吸引人

cheek-by-jowl?adv.?緊挨著（如果直譯，就是臉貼下巴，是不是很擁擠，這個詞很靈魂了）

The gig economy has transformed Chinese cities. Young workers from villages?were once largely invisible to urban residents as they toiled on production lines.?Now many of them eschew regimented factory work in favour of less structured lives.?They have become omnipresent, clad in?their firms’ coloured jackets and weaving?perilously through traffic. Millions also?work for other kinds of app-based transport services, for example as couriers or?drivers for ride-hailing companies.

零工經濟改變了中國的城市。村莊的年輕工人在生產線上勞碌時，城市居民在很大程度上是看不見的。 現在，他們（外賣小哥）中的許多人避開生活刻板的工廠工作，而傾向于結構化程度較低的生活。 他們無所不在，穿著公司的彩色外套，在交通中危險地穿梭著。 數以百萬計的人還為其他類型的基于app的運輸服務工作，例如作為快遞員或者作為網約車的司機。

單詞：

gig?economy?零工經濟

eschew?/?s’t?u?/vt.?避開；遠避；避免

regimented?/?red??ment?d/ ?adj.?非常嚴格的；死板的；嚴格規劃的；排列整齊的

omnipresent?/?mn?'prez(?)nt/?adj.?無所不在的

clad?/kl?d/?adj.?穿衣的；覆蓋的?v.?穿衣（clothe的過去式和過去分詞）

weave?/wi?v/ v.?迂回行進，穿行（以避開障礙）

perilously?/‘peril?sli/adv.?充滿危險地,危機四伏地

ride-hailing?網約車

vouch?/va?t?/?vt.?擔保；證明；傳出庭作證?vi.?保證；證明；確定

The xiaoge have helped build food delivery in China into a $46bn business, the world’s largest and twice the size of Ameri- ca’s. In 2018 Meituan and Ele.me had about 6m riders between them. Demand for workers is growing fast. Sanford C. Bernstein, a research firm, reckons Meituan will need more than 1m delivery people a day next year, 200,000 more than last year. On average last summer, its yellow-jacketed army handled 20,000 orders a minute.

這些小伙子幫助中國的外賣食品業發展成為全球最大的規模達460億美元的業務，規模是美國的兩倍。 在2018年，美團和餓了么之間有大約600萬騎手。 對工人的需求正在迅速增長。 研究公司桑福德·伯恩斯坦（Sanford C. Bernstein）認為，明年美團每天將需要超過100萬運送人員，比去年增加了20萬。 平均而言，去年夏天，黃色夾克大軍每分鐘處理2萬份訂單。

For migrants from the countryside, the job is an unusually easy ticket to city life. Factory workers must have a skill, and often a home-town peer to vouch for them. But some riders are hired as soon as they upload copies of an identity card and health certificate to an app. The pay is usually better than on an assembly line.

對于來自農村的人來說，這份工作是進入城市生活的捷徑。 工廠工人必須具備一定的技能，并且必須有個同鄉為他們提供擔保。 但是，只要將身份證和健康證明上傳到應用程序，騎手就會被雇用。 薪水通常比裝配線上要好。

單詞：

vouch?/va?t?/?vt.?擔保；證明；傳出庭作證?vi.?保證；證明；確定

Nearly one-third of Meituan’s riders were once factory hands. Their switch reflects a nationwide trend. In 2018, for the first time, more migrant workers took up jobs in services than in manufacturing.

The epidemic could result in even more of them doing gig work. Many of China’s battered companies are shedding staff, but not food-delivery firms. Freshippo, Alibaba’s e-grocer, has engaged 2,000 staff from 30 idled restaurant chains. Since the start of the epidemic Meituan has hired more than 450,000 new riders, most of them for work in their home provinces because of virus-related travel restrictions.

美團的騎手中有近三分之一曾經是工廠的工人（hand這里是工人的意思）。 他們的轉變反映了全國趨勢。 2018年，從事服務業的工人數量首次超過了制造業。

新冠可能導致更多的人去做零工。 中國許多遭受重創的公司正在裁員，但食品配送公司卻不然。 阿里巴巴的電子雜貨商Freshippo（這個是盒馬生鮮的意思哦?。┮呀洀?0家閑置的飯店連鎖店雇用了2,000名員工。 自從流行病爆發以來，美團已經招募了超過450,000名新騎手，由于出行限制，他們中的大多數在本省工作。

單詞：

Battered/‘b?t?d/-?adj.?磨損的；弄垮的；破舊的；受到虐待的?-?v.?連續猛擊；磨損（batter的過去分詞）

shed?/?ed/?v.?去除；擺脫 ?【例句：The?factory?is?shedding?a?large?number?of?jobs.?這家工廠正大批裁員。】

In recent years gig jobs have given workers a cushion, says Ji Wenwen of the China University of Labour Relations. In Hegang, a coal town by the Amur river on the Russian border, a tenth of takeaway riders were once miners. One of them is Luo Qiong, who makes twice as much with Ele.me as he did down the pit. “I earn more than local civil servants,” he says proudly.

中國勞動關系學院的Ji Wenwen說，近年來，零工的工作給工人提供了緩沖。 在俄羅斯邊境阿穆爾河旁的煤炭小鎮鶴崗，十分之一的外賣車手曾經是礦工。 其中之一就是羅瓊，他在餓了么上賺的錢是他做礦工時的兩倍。 他自豪地說：“我的收入比當地公務員還多?！?/p>

單詞：

civil servant 公務員

The dreams of today’s migrants are often different from those of factory workers in the earlier years of China’s industrial boom. Many have never worked the land and have no intention of returning to it. They are better educated. A fifth of delivery workers have been to university or vocational college. And they want respect. In surveys, nearly half of riders at Meituan express anxiety about their status. Fewer than one in three at Ele.me feel they are respected enough by customers.

當今流動工人的夢想通常不同于中國工業繁榮的早期工廠工人的夢想。 許多人從未耕作過土地，也無意回去耕作。 他們受過良好的教育。 五分之一的運送工人上過大學或職業學院。 他們希望得到尊重。 在調查中，近一半的美團騎手對自己的狀況感到焦慮。 在餓了么中，只有不到三分之一的人感到客戶對他們足夠尊敬（我的廢話：不管是什么行業都應該受到尊敬啊，看到這里心涼涼）。

Such frustrations may grow. During the epidemic, firms rolled out contactless delivery systems, with packages being hung on door knobs or, in some big-city office and apartment blocks, placed in dedicated lockers installed by the companies. Face- to-face interaction with waimai xiaoge, once a near-daily feature of city life, ceased. It may never be fully restored.

Food delivery allows migrant workers to choose their own work hours, but the stress is still immense. Many riders are hired by middlemen who impose tough requirements for the job. The pressure is evident: heavily burdened delivery people often run the final distance to drop-off points. The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions, a pro-democracy labour group, describes gig workers as an “immense army of precariats”.

這種挫敗感可能會加劇。 在疫情期間，公司推出了（roll out是正式推出（新產品）的意思，經濟學人用的非常多）非接觸式交付系統，將包裹掛在門把手上，或者在一些大城市的辦公室和公寓樓中，將其放在公司安裝的專用儲物柜中。與外賣小哥的面對面交流曾經是城市生活的日常，現在已經停止了。 它可能永遠不會完全恢復。

外賣小哥可以選擇自己的工作時間，但壓力仍然很大。 中間人雇用了許多騎手，他們對此工作提出了苛刻的要求。 壓力是顯而易見的：負擔沉重的騎手為了（準時）到下車點通常會跑最后一段路（我覺得哈，這個drop-off point說成下車點有點奇怪，我覺得作者是不是想表達外賣要送到的地方，就是小哥大聲喊出手機尾號的地方，另外這個現象真的隨處可見了，之前校園里都是跑步前進的外賣小哥…）。某個聯合會將零工工人形容為一支“龐大的不穩定無產者軍隊”。

單詞：

frustration?/fr?’stre??n/n.?挫折；失敗；挫?。皇б?；沮喪

dedicated?/?ded??ke?t?d/?adj.?專用的

locker/?l?k?/?n.?寄物柜

drop-off?point?下車處，下車點

confederation?/k?nfed?'re??(?)n/?n.?聯盟；同盟；邦聯

precariat?/pr??kerē?t/?people?whose?employment?and?income?are?insecure,?especially?when?considered?as?a?class不穩定性無產者，朝不保夕族

Among the army’s recruits is a lanky 22- year-old in a baggy Ele.me jacket who prefers to be identified only by his surname, Liu. He says that, in his distant home-town near the eastern city of Suqian, he would need to “work as long as the machines” in order to earn as much as he does in Shanghai. He now puts aside 5,000 yuan a month. But he works six days a week, ten hours a day, even in the grimmest weather.

Mr Liu says he jumps red lights every day to avoid late-delivery penalties. In the first half of 2019, Shanghai recorded 12 road accidents a week involving food-delivery riders. Many go unreported.

一個身材瘦長的22歲的不愿透漏姓名的劉姓男子穿著寬松的餓了么夾克說，在他遙遠的家鄉東部城市宿遷附近，他需要“像機器一樣長時間工作”，才能賺到與在上海一樣多的收入。 現在，他每個月存下5000元。 即使在最惡劣的天氣下，他也每周工作六天，每天工作十小時。

劉先生說，他每天都會闖紅燈，以免訂單超時。 在2019年上半年，上海每周記錄有12起涉及送餐騎手的道路交通事故。 還有許多未報道。

單詞：

lanky?/‘l??k?/adj.?過分瘦長,瘦長得難看

baggy?/‘b?g?/adj.?袋狀的，膨脹的；寬松而下垂的

put?aside?v.?撇開；儲存…備用

Over the years, factory workers have used their collective power to press for better pay and conditions. It is harder for dispersed delivery workers to do this, says Geoffrey Crothall of China Labour Bulletin (CLB), an NGO in Hong Kong. If some riders go on strike, algorithms can redirect orders to others still working.

Still, riders use social media to their advantage. They have large chat groups on messaging services such as WeChat and QQ, in which they discuss delivery routes but also employment terms and grievances. Meituan says that two in five of its riders were recommended for the job by home-town friends—recreating, to some extent, the solidarity of the factory. Mr Liu has found a WeChat group filled only with riders from his town. Delivery workers also forge bonds when they congregate, as they often do in areas with good internet con- nections or near busy food courts.

Such networking enables them to coordinate strikes. CLB says the food-delivery industry has become “a major source of worker unrest”. The NGO recorded the first strike by waimai xiaoge in 2016. The tally is now 121.??Protests have been about wage arrears, pay cuts and fines.

多年來，工廠工人利用自己的團結的力量來爭取更好的工資和條件。香港非政府組織CLB的杰弗里·克洛索（Geoffrey Crothall）表示，分散的送貨員很難做到這一點。如果某些騎手罷工，算法可以將訂單重定向到其他仍在工作的騎手。

盡管如此，騎手們還是利用社交媒體來獲得優勢。他們在微信和QQ上創建了群聊，在其中討論送快遞路線以及雇傭條件和申訴。美團表示，五分之二的騎手是由他們自己的老鄉推薦來工作的，這在一定程度上恢復了像工廠一樣的團結。劉先生找到了一個微信群，里面只有來自他鎮上的騎手?？爝f小哥聚集的時候也會結成紐帶，就像他們經常在互聯網連接良好的地方或繁忙的美食廣場附近（聚集那樣）。

這種網絡（意思是外賣小哥自己的團體）使他們能夠協調罷工。 CLB說，食品配送行業已成為“工人動亂的主要來源”。該非政府組織記錄了外賣小哥在2016年的第一次罷工?，F在的總數為121?？棺h活動涉及拖欠工資，減薪和罰款。

單詞：

press?for?不斷要求

grievance?/'gri?v(?)ns/?n.?委屈,?苦衷,?不滿,?怨恨

recreate?/ri?kr?’e?t/vt.?再創造;再現

solidarity?/?s?l?’d?r?t?/n.?團結

court?/k??t/?n.?建筑物的開闊部分（常有玻璃房頂）；大廳；館 【例子the?food?court?at?the?shopping?mall?大型購物中心的食品區】

unrest?/?n’rest/n.?動亂,?騷亂,?不安寧?

tally?/‘t?l?/n.?標簽；記賬；計數器?vt.?計算；記錄；使符合vi.?一致；記分

arrears?/?’r??z/n.?待完成的事；拖欠；應付欠款

Because workers are not formal employees, companies can usually ignore their complaints. In 2018 a rider was banned from Ele.me’s platform for going on strike for two days about low wages. Still, the two biggest firms know well the public’s sympathy for takeaway riders, who formed one section of a national-day parade through Tiananmen Square in October. They would also rather avoid lots of churn in their workforce.

To boost loyalty, Meituan has created a category call lepao, or happy runners, who get paid more for accepting orders in faraway places. It has also helped set up a mental-health hotline for delivery workers. During the epidemic the firm has offered free online counselling to riders. It will pay up to 300,000 yuan in medical fees to those with covid-19.

In the long run, riders are unlikely to be satisfied. Pun Ngai of the University of Hong Kong says they risk becoming “trapped in the middle”—unable to move forward in urban life and unwilling to retreat to a rural one. Asked, pre-covid, why he had recently travelled 1,700km from his home in the western province of Gansu to Shanghai, a newly arrived waimai xiaoge replied, beaming: “Everyone likes a big city.” He paused. “But you can’t do this for ever. You need to do something that gives you a way up.” Contacted recently, he said he had quit. “Too tiring,” he grumbled.

由于工人不是正式員工，因此公司通?？梢院雎运麄兊耐对V。在2018年，餓了么的平臺禁止一名騎手就低工資進行為期兩天的罷工。盡管如此，兩家最大的公司還是很清楚公眾對外賣小哥的同情，（外賣小哥組成了國慶節群眾游行方陣的一部分通過天安門廣場），他們也避免勞動力的大量流失。

為了提高忠誠度，美團創造了一個叫lepao（樂跑？）的類別，即快樂跑步者，接遠距離訂單的騎手會獲得更高的收入。它還為外賣小哥建立了心理健康熱線。在疫情期間，該公司為騎手提供了免費的在線咨詢。它將為患上新冠的人支付最高30萬元的醫療費。

從長遠來看，車手不太可能會感到滿意。香港大學的潘毅（Pun Ngai）表示，他們有被“困在中間”的風險，他們無法在城市生活中前進，也不愿退居農村。有人問一個新來的小哥為什么他要從甘肅跑到上海，他笑著說：“每個人都喜歡大城市?！彼D了頓。 “但是你不能永遠做這個。你需要做一些讓你有所收獲的事情。”最近再聯系他時，他說他已經辭職了。 “太累了。”他抱怨道。

單詞：

churn ?/t???n/?n.?奶桶，攪拌桶；攪乳器?vt.?攪動,擾亂某物?vi. ?大量生產；?大量炮制?n.?攪拌

in?the?long?run?長遠；終究

beam/bi?m/ ?v. 笑容滿面；眉開眼笑

grumble?/'gr?mb(?)l/?vi.?抱怨；嘟囔