2016年经济学人 德国偷金属的贼

 

Metal thieves in Germany

德国偷金属的贼

Stealing steel

金属窃贼偷窃钢材

Why the trains are late

火车晚点的原因

In the wee hours of a recent morning a young man with a rucksack was sauntering along the railway line near Grossbeeren. When stopped by two policemen he told them he had missed his train. Being of a suspicious nature, they asked him to open his rucksack. And, behold¹, they found clippers,gloves, a torch and 24kg (53lbs) of copper² cable. “Ah,” said the young man,“you seem to have caught me.”

最近一个早上，一名青年男子身背帆布包，在凌晨时分沿着大贝伦附近的铁路线鬼祟前行。在被两名巡警拦下时，他告诉警察自己没赶上火车。秉着警察多疑的职业直觉，他们要求男子打开帆布包。您瞧！警察在包里发现了剪刀，手套，手电，还有重达24千克（53磅）的铜电缆。“啊哦，看来我被你们抓到了。”年轻人说。

Such incidents happen almost daily somewhere along Deutsche Bahn’s 33,500km (21,000 miles) of track. And the thieves are not always unambitious amateurs. Last month some rather more organised criminals lifted 2km of copper wire and cable between Hanover and Hamburg. The line had to be closed for eight hours and 100 trains had to be diverted. The cost hits not only Deutsche Bahn’s bottom line but also its tattered³ reputation.

在德国联邦铁路33,500千米（21，000英里）的轨道沿线上，这类事件几乎每天都会上演。但小偷们不总是这么胸无大志，手法业余。上月，一些更有组织的罪犯团伙盗走了汉诺威到汉堡路段间2千米的铜丝和铜电缆，该路段不得不关闭8小时，100列火车被迫作出调整。该事件不仅令联邦铁路公司蒙受巨大损失，还损害了公司本已不佳的声誉。

Last year was a good one for metal thievery (in Germanyand beyond) because the copper price was so high. Robbers were getting 6 ($7) a kilo. Deutsche Bahn suffered more than 3,000 thefts affecting 11,000 trains and causing 150,000 minutes of delays. Most of the booty is shipped to neighbouring countries. But the odds⁴ of being caught are about one in five. And there are plans to collar even more coppersnatchers.

去年对德国境内以及周边国家的金属小偷们而言是个好年头，因为铜价高居不下，盗贼们偷来的铜制品能卖到每公斤6欧元（7美元）。联邦铁路公司共遭受盗窃事件3,000余起，导致11,000列火车受到影响，造成延误共计150,000分钟。大部分赃物被运往德国周边国家。可是被抓住的几率约为五分之一。政府现已制定抓捕计划，欲缉拿更多的盗铜贼归案。

On July 10th Deutsche Bahn and fellow sufferers Deutsche Telekom and RWE, an electricity company, announced an alliance with the Association of German Metal Traders (VDM). They are taking steps to make it harder to unload the loot from railways, telephone wires and power lines.

今年7月10日，德国联邦铁路携手难兄难弟——德国电信，以及电力公司莱茵集团——宣布与德国金属交易协会（VDM）结盟。他们将采取措施，使小偷更难脱手从铁路，电话线，输电线上偷得的赃物。

Since last year Deutsche Bahn has been spraying its cables with “liquid DNA”. Tiny metal DB logos and numbers that cling to the kitand to felons’ tools and fingers, show up under ultraviolet scanners, revealing not only that the goods are hot but also which bit of track they come from.

自去年开始，德国联邦铁路开始向自家电缆上喷洒“液体DNA”。在行窃时，电缆中微小的金属DB标志以及号码会附着在工具箱、作案工具以及罪犯的指头上。在紫外线扫描仪的扫描下，金属标志显现出来，既能表明该货物刚刚被盗，又能揭示遭窃的铁路段。

Problem solved? Not quite. There is still the question of communication across European borders, though Ralf Schmitz of the VDM reckons his bush telegraph will alert traders in German-speaking countries to a new heist within an hour of its discovery. Maybe so, but amazing numbers of trucks laden⁵ with copper contraband⁶ still seem to rumble⁷ unchallenged across Schengen frontiers to lands where German is not spoken.

问题就此迎刃而解？并不完全如此。欧洲各边境间的沟通依旧是个问题，尽管VDM的拉尔夫·施密茨认为，协会的消息传播系统可以在新盗窃案案发一小时内，通知德语国家的交易商们提高警惕，这或切实可行。但是，大量满载违禁铜品的货车似乎正畅通无阻的隆隆地越过申根边界，驶向非德语国度。

1 behold   

v.看，注视，看到

参考例句：

• The industry of these little ants is wonderful to behold.这些小蚂蚁辛勤劳动的样子看上去真令人惊叹。
• The sunrise at the seaside was quite a sight to behold.海滨日出真是个奇景。

2 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。

3 tattered   

adj.破旧的，衣衫破的

参考例句：

• Her tattered clothes in no way detracted from her beauty.她的破衣烂衫丝毫没有影响她的美貌。
• Their tattered clothing and broken furniture indicated their poverty.他们褴褛的衣服和破烂的家具显出他们的贫穷。

4 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？

5 laden   

adj.装满了的；充满了的；负了重担的；苦恼的

参考例句：

• He is laden with heavy responsibility.他肩负重任。
• Dragging the fully laden boat across the sand dunes was no mean feat.将满载货物的船拖过沙丘是一件了不起的事。

6 contraband   

n.违禁品，走私品

参考例句：

• Most of the city markets were flooded with contraband goods.大多数的城市市场上都充斥着走私货。
• The customs officers rummaged the ship suspected to have contraband goods.海关人员仔细搜查了一艘有走私嫌疑的海轮。

7 rumble   

n.隆隆声；吵嚷；v.隆隆响；低沉地说

参考例句：

• I hear the rumble of thunder in the distance.我听到远处雷声隆隆。
• We could tell from the rumble of the thunder that rain was coming.我们根据雷的轰隆声可断定，天要下雨了。