实战口语情景对话 第308期:Cuba and Japan 古巴和日本

 　　OK, I'd like to talk about consumerism in capitalist and communist countries. I don't know if anyone has actually noticed but Japan is very, what's the word, "consumerized." Everything is built for the consumer. You've got huge adverts¹, you've got talking trees, you've got people with microphones outside the shop screaming "Ireshaimase" at everybody as they go past. Everything is built for advertising², for consuming, for buying, for competing, for constantly making newer and better goods so people buy them. A complete reverse³ of this is somewhere like Cuba, which is one of the last sort of communist states around, and probably the only place where communism has actually worked. In Cuba everything is owned by the government so there's no companies competing with each other for advertising space, sort of trying to out do each other, and driving prices up, everything's done by the government, any adverts are for the same products owned by the same people. When I was living in Cuba we tried to explain how in a capitalist society, how consumerism would work, so I'd like to give you a quick example.

　　好，我想谈谈资本主义国家和社会主义国家的消费主义。我不知道是不是所有人都意识到了，但是日本是一个非常“消费化”的国家。所有的东西都是为消费者建造的。你会看到巨型广告，会说话的树，你会看到在商场外面用麦克风对所有过路人说“欢迎光临”的人。所有的东西都是为广告、消费、购买、竞争、不断制造更新、更好的物品而建造的，这样民众才会购买这些商品。与日本完全相反的地方就是古巴，那是一个绝对的社会主义国家，可能是唯一一个真正实行社会主义制度的地方。古巴的所有东西都归国家所有，所以没有互相竞争广告版面的公司，没有这种试图把竞争对手赶出去，并竞相抬价的行为，所有的东西都是由政府完成的，同类产品的广告都由一个人来掌控。我在古巴生活期间曾经试图解释消费主义在资本主义社会的运作，现在我想举一个简短的例子来说明。

　　In Cuba there are many people selling really cheap orange juice on the street. Um, they make it from like a, like a cordial⁴, like a powder which they add water to and they dilute⁵ it and keep it cold and they sell it for the equivalent⁶ of about 10 yen⁷ a glass. Many people sell this. I tried to explain to my host family, OK, if this was, if we wanted to sell this orange juice in the street, we would find out the supplier, buy all of it, and then open up shop charging three times the price as anyone else. No one would be able to sell any because they couldn't naturally get hold of it. The Cubans have no idea this would be a good idea. We received questions such as, "Why would you do that? But that would mean no one else could sell any. That would mean you would get all the money and no one else. We were like, "exactly!" 古巴有许多人在街头卖极便宜的橙汁。嗯，这是他们用一种甜果汁饮料，一种冲剂做成的，他们会在里面加水进行稀释并冷藏，他们出售的价格大概是一杯10日元。许多人会卖这种饮料。我试图对我的接待家庭解释，如果在我们那里，要在街头卖这种橙汁，那我们要找到供应商，从他们那里买来所有的货，然后开家店铺，价格定为其他人的三倍。这样就没有别人能再卖了，因为他们根本无法得到货源。古巴人并不认为这是个好主意。他们通常会问我们这样的问题，“你们为什么要那样做？那样的话其他人都不能卖了。那样你会得到所有的钱，而其他人就得不到了。”我们会回答，“就是这样啊！”

1 adverts   

advertisements 广告，做广告

参考例句：

• the adverts on television 电视广告
• The adverts are not very informative. 这些广告并没有包含太多有用信息。

2 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

3 reverse   

v.推翻，颠倒，反向；n.反面，逆境；adj.反向的

参考例句：

• His answer was just the reverse of what I expected.他的回答正好与我期望的相反。
• Please reverse the positions of two pictures.请把两张图片的位置倒转过来。

4 cordial   

adj.（指感情或行为上）热忱的，诚恳的

参考例句：

• The conversation was carried on in a cordial and friendly atmosphere.会谈是在亲切友好的气氛中进行的。
• The meeting of the old classmates was extremely cordial.老同学聚会在一起,分外亲热。

5 dilute   

vt.稀释，冲淡；adj.稀释的，冲淡的

参考例句：

• The water will dilute the wine.水能使酒变淡。
• Zinc displaces the hydrogen of dilute acids.锌置换了稀酸中的氢。

6 equivalent   

adj.（to）相等的，等价的；n.相等物，等值物

参考例句：

• Nodding your head is equivalent to saying "yes".点头就等于说“赞同”。
• You will receive the full equivalent of your money.你将收到与你的款项价值完全同等的物品。

7 yen   

n. 日元；热望

参考例句：

• He wanted to convert his dollars into Japanese yen.他想将美元换成日币。
• He has a yen to be alone in a boat.他渴望独自呆在一条船上。