美国有线新闻 CNN 新西兰因疫情再现推迟议会选举 日本二季度GDP环比下降7.8%（在线收听）

And the two stories leading off today's show have one thing in common, coronavirus. In New Zealand, concerns about the spread of the disease have led to the postponement of a parliamentary election. It was originally scheduled for September 19, now it's set for October 17. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made the announcement after the number of COVID-19 patients jumped last week. The country had gone more than 100 days without the disease spreading through its communities. But this month an outbreak of dozens of cases took place in Auckland, New Zealand's largest city.

今天前两则消息都与冠状病毒有关。在新西兰，对该疾病扩散的担忧导致议会选举推迟。新西兰原定于9月19日举行议会选举，现在选举日期已推迟至10月17日。在新冠肺炎病例数上周出现激增后，新西兰总理杰辛达·阿德恩宣布了这一消息。此前，新西兰已连续100余天未出现社区传播病例。但本月，新西兰最大城市奥克兰出现了数十例病例。

So a strict lockdown was put in place there on August 12 and the election was delayed. It's not the first time New Zealand has seen a lockdown like this. It went under one of the strictest in the world starting on March 25 and that lasted five weeks. But life had been getting back to normal before the most recent outbreak.

因此，新西兰于8月12日开始实施严格的封锁措施，并将选举推后。这并不是新西兰第一次实施这种封锁措施。该国曾于3月25日开始采取全球最严格的封锁措施之一，当时封锁持续了5周。但在这次疫情爆发之前，新西兰的生活已经恢复正常。

Moving from the South Pacific to the North Pacific, Japan just reported the economic hit it took because of coronavirus. The Asian country has the world's third largest economy behind the United States and China and Japan says its gross domestic product dropped by 7.8 percent from the first quarter of this year to the second one.

现在从南太平洋前往北太平洋，日本刚刚报告称，其经济因冠状病毒遭受打击。这个亚洲国家是全球第三大经济体，仅次于美国和中国，日本表示，其二季度国内生产总值（简称GDP）环比萎缩7.8%。

That's not the worst in the world. America's drop in GDP between April and June was 9.5 percent. Germany's was more than 10 percent. Britain's was more than 20 percent. Reasons for the decrease in Japan's GDP included falling exports and less consumer spending because of coronavirus-related restrictions. But economic activity did pick up again in June and July.

放眼全球，这并不是最糟的数据。美国第二季度GDP下滑9.5%。德国二季度GDP下降幅度超过10%。英国二季度GDP暴跌超过20%。日本GDP下滑的原因包括出口下降以及因冠状病毒相关的限制措施而导致的消费支出减少。但日本的经济活动在6月和7月再次回升。