2021年经济学人 亚马逊在美遭反垄断诉讼

Turkey’s president sacked a deputy governor at the country’s central bank, the third defenestration of a senior official within two months. Recep Tayyip Erdogan has whittled¹ away at the central bank’s independence over the years in his attempt to suppress interest rates, replacing the governor with a supporter in March. Since then the lira has slid by 15%.

土耳其总统解雇了该国央行的一名副行长，这是两个月内第三次有高级官员遭解职。埃尔多安多年来试图压制利率，削弱了央行的独立性，在3月份任命一位支持者取代了央行行长。自那以后，里拉下跌了15%。

Uber said it would allow its drivers in Britain to join a union, the first time that the ride-hailing company has given official recognition to a union in any country. In February Britain’s Supreme² Court ruled that Uber must extend employee rights, such as a minimum wage, to its drivers.

优步(Uber)表示，将允许英国的司机加入工会，这是这家叫车公司首次在其他国家正式承认工会。今年2月，英国最高法院裁定，优步必须扩大司机享有的员工权利，比如最低工资。

The fallout from the collapse³ of Greensill Capital, a financing firm, spread to Italy, where the central bank pushed Aigis Banca, a specialist lender based in Milan, into liquidation⁴. A basket of Aigis’s assets, were sold to another Italian bank for 1 euro ($1.20).

金融服务公司Greensill Capital倒闭的余波波及到了意大利，意大利央行迫使总部位于米兰的专业贷款机构Aigis Banca进入清算阶段。Aigis Banca的一篮子的资产以1欧元(1.20美元)的价格卖给了另一家意大利银行。

The city of Washington, dc, sued Amazon, claiming that the retailer⁵ forced third-party sellers to agree not to sell their wares⁶ at lower prices anywhere else on the internet. Amazon, which also faces investigations⁷ in Europe and India, said it would fight the lawsuit⁸. Meanwhile, Amazon secured its deal to buy mgm, paying $8.45bn for the film studio.

华盛顿特区起诉亚马逊，声称该零售商禁止第三方卖家以更低的价格在互联网上的其他平台销售他们的商品。亚马逊在欧洲和印度也面临调查，该公司表示将会打这场官司。与此同时，亚马逊以84.5亿美元收购了米高梅电影公司(mgm)。

WhatsApp, a popular encrypted-messaging service owned by Facebook, said it was suing the government of India over new rules requiring it to be able to trace messages sent on its platform. WhatsApp has long used privacy as a selling-point; it the most popular messaging-app in India.

脸书旗下流行的加密消息服务WhatsApp表示，它正在起诉印度政府，原因是印度新规要求WhatsApp能够追踪其平台上发送的信息。WhatsApp长期以来一直把隐私作为服务优势;这款应用是印度最受欢迎的即时通讯应用。

The first private licence to operate mobile services in Ethiopia was awarded to a consortium that includes Vodafone. The bid for a second licence from MTN, a South African company, was rejected as too low. The liberalisation of Ethiopia’s telecoms is a proxy⁹ in the tech war between America and China. The winning bid is supported by Washington through low-cost foreign-aid loans; MTN’s proposal was backed in part by a Chinese state investor¹⁰.

埃塞俄比亚将第一张私人移动服务牌照颁发给包括沃达丰在内的一个财团。南非移动公司（MTN）因对第二张牌照的出价太低而被拒。埃塞俄比亚电信的自由化是中美科技交锋的一个代表。华盛顿通过低成本的外国援助贷款支持中标；而南非移动公司的竞标得到了中国一家国有投资者的部分支持。

Following an aborted¹¹ launch in December, Virgin¹² Galactic conducted a successful test flight of its VSS Unity¹³ spacecraft, which touched down in New Mexico after reaching an altitude of 55.45 miles (89.2km). The company hopes to put paying passengers into orbit next year. Blue Origin, a space-tourism venture backed by Jeff Bezos, will send its first paying passenger into space on July 20th. The current bid for the tourist seat to be occupied by the lucky (and brave) person on that mission is $2.8m.

继去年12月发射失败后，维珍银河公司成功试飞了其VSS Unity航天器，它在到达55.45英里(89.2公里)的高度后在新墨西哥州着陆。该公司希望明年将付费乘客送入轨道。由杰夫·贝佐斯支持的太空旅游公司“蓝色起源”将于7月20日将首位付费乘客送入太空。目前，这个幸运(勇气十足)的游客名额的出价是280万美元。

1 whittled   

v.切，削（木头），使逐渐变小( whittle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He whittled a simple toy from the piece of wood. 他把那块木头削成了一个简易的玩具。
• The government's majority has been whittled down to eight. 政府多数票减少到了八票。

2 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

3 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

4 liquidation   

n.清算，停止营业

参考例句：

• The bankrupt company went into liquidation.这家破产公司停业清盘。
• He lost all he possessed when his company was put into liquidation.当公司被清算结业时他失去了拥有的一切。

5 retailer   

n.零售商(人)

参考例句：

• What are the retailer requirements?零售商会有哪些要求呢？
• The retailer has assembled a team in Shanghai to examine the question.这家零售商在上海组建了一支团队研究这个问题。

6 wares   

n. 货物, 商品

参考例句：

• They sold their wares at half-price. 他们的货品是半价出售的。
• The peddler was crying up his wares. 小贩极力夸耀自己的货物。

7 investigations   

（正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究

参考例句：

• His investigations were intensive and thorough but revealed nothing. 他进行了深入彻底的调查，但没有发现什么。
• He often sent them out to make investigations. 他常常派他们出去作调查。

8 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

9 proxy   

n.代理权，代表权；（对代理人的）委托书；代理人

参考例句：

• You may appoint a proxy to vote for you.你可以委托他人代你投票。
• We enclose a form of proxy for use at the Annual General Meeting.我们附上委任年度大会代表的表格。

10 investor   

n.投资者，投资人

参考例句：

• My nephew is a cautious investor.我侄子是个小心谨慎的投资者。
• The investor believes that his investment will pay off handsomely soon.这个投资者相信他的投资不久会有相当大的收益。

11 aborted   

adj.流产的，失败的v.（使）流产( abort的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）（某事物）中止；（因故障等而）（使）（飞机、宇宙飞船、导弹等）中断飞行；（使）（飞行任务等）中途失败

参考例句：

• The rocket flight had to be aborted because of difficulties with computer. 因电脑出故障，这次火箭飞行只好中辍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• They aborted the space flight finally. 他们最后中止了这次宇航飞行。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

13 unity   

n.团结，联合，统一；和睦，协调

参考例句：

• When we speak of unity,we do not mean unprincipled peace.所谓团结，并非一团和气。
• We must strengthen our unity in the face of powerful enemies.大敌当前，我们必须加强团结。