经济学人01:亚马逊全球畅销书

 　　Books and Arts;Amazon worldwide bestsellers

　　文艺；亚马逊全球畅销书

　　Peddling¹ wisdom

　　营销智慧

　　Making money out of the crisis

　　在金融危机中赚钱

　　A marthian landing on Earth could learn a lot about the current state of the world mind simply by reading some of the book titles that appear on the bestseller tables.

　　一个登陆地球的火星人，只要浏览一下畅销书榜上的一些书名，就足以知道如今地球在关注哪些事情。

　　Judging by those listed below, the most popular writing on the financial crisis is about ambition, greed, corruption², debt, lean times, saving money and protecting yourself against financial folly³ and economic Armageddon. Some of the books are new; “Reckless Endangerment” by Gretchen Morgenson and Joshua Rosner (see article) shot to the top of the heap when it was published earlier this year. Others are older, and some are much older; Cassandra, remember, was an ancient Greek.

　　从下表可以得知，与经济危机有关的最受欢迎的题材是野心、贪婪、腐败、债务、低迷期、储蓄以及在经济低迷期与经济大战期间如何自卫等。其中有些书比较新：今年早期出版的由Gretchen Morgenson以及Joshua Rosner所合著的《Reckless Endangerment》（见文章）跃居畅销榜榜首。有些书比较旧，还有一些更旧——印象中Cassandra好像是一名古希腊人。

　　“The Richest Man in Babylon”, now ranked tenth, began in 1926 as a series of pamphlets distributed by banks and insurance companies. They used parables⁴ to illustrate⁵ such financial axioms as “Live on less than you earn” or “Make your gold work for you” and were updated in 2004, with modern English instead of the old-fashioned King James kind. How about this one, Mr Martian: better a little caution than a great regret.

　　1926由银行和保险公司联合发型的一系列名为《巴比伦王国最富有的人》（“The Richest Man in Babylon”）的小册子如今排行第十。他们以寓言的形式阐述了类似“挣得多，花得少”或者“为自己找一份黄金工作”等金融定理。该系列书籍在2004年得到更新出版，用现代英语代替了国王詹姆斯的古英语。下面这本如何：《火星人：一步谨慎，百步不悔》

1 peddling   

忙于琐事的，无关紧要的

参考例句：

• He worked as a door-to-door salesman peddling cloths and brushes. 他的工作是上门推销抹布和刷子。
• "If he doesn't like peddling, why doesn't he practice law? "要是他不高兴卖柴火，干吗不当律师呢？

2 corruption   

n.腐败，堕落，贪污

参考例句：

• The people asked the government to hit out against corruption and theft.人民要求政府严惩贪污盗窃。
• The old man reviled against corruption.那老人痛斥了贪污舞弊。

3 folly   

n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话

参考例句：

• Learn wisdom by the folly of others.从别人的愚蠢行动中学到智慧。
• Events proved the folly of such calculations.事情的进展证明了这种估计是愚蠢的。

4 parables   

n.（圣经中的）寓言故事( parable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Jesus taught in parables. 耶酥以比喻讲道。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• In the New Testament are the parables and miracles. 《新约》则由寓言利奇闻趣事构成。 来自辞典例句

5 illustrate   

v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图

参考例句：

• The company's bank statements illustrate its success.这家公司的银行报表说明了它的成功。
• This diagram will illustrate what I mean.这个图表可说明我的意思。