美国国家公共电台 NPR Wave Of Capitalist Optimism Sweeps Across Paris

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

When France elected a new president, Emmanuel Macron received the most attention for what he was not. He was not the far-right nativist candidate he defeated. Now that he is president, there's more room to ask who Macron is, or more important, how he wants to change France. He ran on a pro-business platform in a country that's often criticized for hardly seeming pro-business at all. Here's NPR's Eleanor Beardsley.

ELEANOR BEARDSLEY, BYLINE¹: A renovated² 1920s train station in the middle of Paris is now a modern hub for startups. Rachel Vanier, communications director of Station F, gives me a tour of the cavernous 110,000-square-foot space that houses a thousand startups.

RACHEL VANIER: Basically, we call ourselves a startup campus because we actually have 28 different incubators but also a ton of services. In a few months, we're going to have a housing extension. So entrepreneurs from everywhere in the world will be able to come, attend a startup program, live, eat, meet other entrepreneurs.

BEARDSLEY: Station F is funded by a French telecom millionaire. Microsoft and Facebook are just a few of the multinationals⁴ sponsoring incubators here. Briton Tom Pullen is one of Station F's 3,000 entrepreneurs. He says Paris is booming these days.

TOM PULLEN: I think within Europe at the moment, it's the place to be. Look at the amount of investment that's been raised over the last year, which has hit record levels. Look at the level of confidence for startups in France at the moment. I think what you see is a real wave of positivity, of optimism.

BEARDSLEY: Pullen says even a few years ago, he would have never imagined London in such difficulty with Paris enjoying a business renaissance⁵.

CHRISTIAN⁶ NOYER: Ah, (unintelligible).

BEARDSLEY: Christian Noyer was once head of the Banque de France and vice³ president of the European Central Bank. Since the Brexit vote, Noyer's been in charge of luring⁷ multinationals planning to leave London to Paris. The competition includes cities like Dublin, Frankfurt and Luxembourg. Noyer says Paris was a hard sell at first.

NOYER: At the beginning, they were afraid to come to Paris or they were saying, well, we'll increase a little bit, but we don't want to take the risk to make the hub there. Now it's changing.

BEARDSLEY: Noyer credits the election of Macron. The French president is quickly following through on his promise to transform France. He's overhauled⁸ the country's notoriously rigid⁹ labor¹⁰ code, making it easier to hire and fire. And his government is preparing a raft of pro-business laws. Noyer says France has the highest labor flexibility¹¹ in continental¹² Europe, and Paris is now an obvious destination.

NOYER: It's the only big, comprehensive city where you find all sorts of activities. It's the only place, apart from London, where you have the whole financial ecosystem¹³ - the banks, the insurance, the asset management, the fintech. There is no other place where you find that.

BEARDSLEY: Back at Station F, entrepreneur Karen Ko says she's raised a million euros in France for her startup. But she says being here is about more than business.

KAREN KO: I actually spent 13 years of my life working in New York City before deciding I needed a change in lifestyle and came to France - and no regret whatsoever¹⁴ in doing that. (Laughter) From a quality-of-life standpoint, it is huge.

BEARDSLEY: The appeal of Paris might best be summed up in a recent tweet by Lloyd Blankfein, the CEO of Goldman Sachs. After a recent visit, he tweeted, struck by the positive energy, and the food's good, too. Eleanor Beardsley, NPR News, Paris.

1 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

2 renovated   

翻新，修复，整修( renovate的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He renovated his house. 他翻修了房子。
• The house has been renovated three years earlier. 这所房子三年前就已翻新。

3 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

4 multinationals   

跨国公司( multinational的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• These local companies are only small fry compared with the huge multinationals. 同那些跨国公司比，这些当地的公司不过是小鱼小虾。
• Some people believe that the multinationals have too much power. 有人认为跨国公司的权力太大了。

5 renaissance   

n.复活，复兴，文艺复兴

参考例句：

• The Renaissance was an epoch of unparalleled cultural achievement.文艺复兴是一个文化上取得空前成就的时代。
• The theme of the conference is renaissance Europe.大会的主题是文艺复兴时期的欧洲。

6 Christian   

adj.基督教徒的；n.基督教徒

参考例句：

• They always addressed each other by their Christian name.他们总是以教名互相称呼。
• His mother is a sincere Christian.他母亲是个虔诚的基督教徒。

7 luring   

吸引，引诱（lure的现在分词形式）

参考例句：

• Cheese is very good for luring a mouse into a trap. 奶酪是引诱老鼠上钩的极好的东西。
• Her training warned her of peril and of the wrong, subtle, mysterious, luring. 她的教养警告她：有危险，要出错儿，这是微妙、神秘而又诱人的。

8 overhauled   

v.彻底检查( overhaul的过去式和过去分词 )；大修；赶上；超越

参考例句：

• Within a year the party had drastically overhauled its structure. 一年内这个政党已大刀阔斧地整顿了结构。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• A mechanic overhauled the car's motor with some new parts. 一个修理工对那辆汽车的发动机进行了彻底的检修，换了一些新部件。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 rigid   

adj.严格的，死板的；刚硬的，僵硬的

参考例句：

• She became as rigid as adamant.她变得如顽石般的固执。
• The examination was so rigid that nearly all aspirants were ruled out.考试很严，几乎所有的考生都被淘汰了。

10 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

11 flexibility   

n.柔韧性，弹性，（光的）折射性，灵活性

参考例句：

• Her great strength lies in her flexibility.她的优势在于她灵活变通。
• The flexibility of a man's muscles will lessen as he becomes old.人老了肌肉的柔韧性将降低。

12 continental   

adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的

参考例句：

• A continental climate is different from an insular one.大陆性气候不同于岛屿气候。
• The most ancient parts of the continental crust are 4000 million years old.大陆地壳最古老的部分有40亿年历史。

13 ecosystem   

n.生态系统

参考例句：

• This destroyed the ecosystem of the island.这样破坏了岛上的生态系统。
• We all have an interest in maintaining the integrity of the ecosystem.维持生态系统的完整是我们共同的利益。

14 whatsoever   

adv.（用于否定句中以加强语气）任何；pron.无论什么

参考例句：

• There's no reason whatsoever to turn down this suggestion.没有任何理由拒绝这个建议。
• All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,do ye even so to them.你想别人对你怎样，你就怎样对人。