2020年经济学人 一周要闻 中国4月汽车销量同比增长4.4% 腾讯疫情中迎机遇 英国工资补贴延长至10月

The British government extended its pay-protection plan until October, through which furloughed workers receive 80% of their wages subject to a salary cap. But the government said that in the summer it would ask companies to start sharing the scheme’s cost in order to ease the strain on public finances.

英国政府将薪资保障计划延长到10月份，通过该计划，休假员工可获得工资的80%，但是有薪资上限。不过政府表示，将在今年夏季要求企业开始分担该计划的成本来缓解公共财政压力。

Kristalina Georgieva, the head of the IMF, warned that the outlook for the global economy had worsened since the fund published a gloomy scenario¹ just last month. PNC Financial, America’s ninth-largest bank, announced the sale of its 22% stake in BlackRock. The stake is worth around $17bn.

国际货币基金组织总裁克里斯塔利娜·格奥尔基耶娃警告称，自该组织上月发布悲观预测以来，全球经济前景已经恶化。全美第九大银行PNC金融集团宣布出售其持有的贝莱德22%的股份。这些股份价值约170亿美元。

PNC was BlackRock’s biggest shareholder², but as a regional bank it is potentially exposed to souring loans in the energy and hospitality industries during the pandemic. Selling its holding bolsters³ its capital defences.

PNC曾是贝莱德最大的股东，但作为一家地区性银行，它在这次疫情期间可能面临能源和酒店行业的不良贷款。出售所持股份增强了其资本防御能力。

Turkey’s financial regulator lifted a brief ban on BNP Paribas, Citigroup and UBS from trading in its currency market. According to the regulator the banks were barred because they had not settled with their Turkish counterparts. But the ban coincided with the lira falling to another record low, suggesting that the government was trying to prop⁴ it up.

土耳其金融监管机构解除了对法国巴黎银行(BNP Paribas)、花旗集团(Citigroup)和瑞银集团(UBS)在其外汇市场交易的短暂禁令。根据监管机构的说法，这些银行之所以被禁，是因为没有与土耳其的同行达成和解。但禁令出台的同时，里拉汇率又跌至创纪录低点，这表明政府正试图提振里拉汇率。

Vehicle sales in China rose by 4.4% last month compared with April 2019, according to the China Association of Automobile⁵ Manufacturers. It is the first increase since mid-2018 (when a tax break on car purchases ended) and was driven by a surge in sales of commercial vehicles. Sales of passenger cars remain subdued⁶.

根据中国汽车工业协会(CAAM)的数据，上个月中国汽车销量同比增长4.4%。这是自2018年年中(汽车购置税优惠政策结束后)以来的首次增长，主要是受商用汽车销量激增的推动。乘用车的销售依然低迷。

Toyota said it expects operating profit for the current financial year to fall by 80%. The world’s second-biggest carmaker thinks its sales will drop to a nine-year low.

丰田表示，预计本财年的营业利润将下降80%。这家世界第二大汽车制造商认为其销量将跌至9年来的最低点。

While industries in the physical world bear the brunt of locked-down economies, those in the virtual realm continue to thrive. Tencent, one of the world’s biggest tech conglomerates⁷, reported a 26% rise, year on year, in quarterly sales, as the number of subscribers to its video service surged to 112m and that for its music service to 43m. It made a profit of 28.9bn yuan ($4.1bn) in the quarter.

随着实体世界的产业首当其冲地受到封锁经济的冲击时，虚拟世界的产业却继续蓬勃发展。全球最大的科技企业集团之一的腾讯(Tencent)报告季度销售额同比增长26%，其视频服务的用户数量飙升至1.12亿，音乐服务的用户数量飙升至4300万。该公司本季度实现利润289亿元(41亿美元)。

Uber was reportedly in talks to merge⁸ Uber Eats, its food delivery service, with Grubhub, a rival in that market. The combined operations would take a 55% slice of the food-delivery industry in America. That might be too much to swallow for trustbusters in Washington.

据报道，优步正在就旗下外卖服务“Uber Eats”与竞争对手Grubhub合并进行谈判。合并后的业务将占据美国食品快递业55%的份额。这对华盛顿的反垄断官员来说可能难以接受。

1 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

2 shareholder   

n.股东，股票持有人

参考例句：

• The account department have prepare a financial statement for the shareholder.财务部为股东准备了一份财务报表。
• A shareholder may transfer his shares in accordance with the law.股东持有的股份可以依法转让。

3 bolsters   

n.长枕( bolster的名词复数 )；垫子；衬垫；支持物v.支持( bolster的第三人称单数 )；支撑；给予必要的支持；援助

参考例句：

• He used a couple of bolsters to elevate his head. 他用两个垫枕垫头。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The double-row piles with both inclined and horizontal bolsters also analyzed in consideration of staged excavation. 本文亦分析了考虑开挖过程的安置斜撑与带支撑的双排桩支护结构。 来自互联网

4 prop   

vt.支撑；n.支柱，支撑物；支持者，靠山

参考例句：

• A worker put a prop against the wall of the tunnel to keep it from falling.一名工人用东西支撑住隧道壁好使它不会倒塌。
• The government does not intend to prop up declining industries.政府无意扶持不景气的企业。

5 automobile   

n.汽车，机动车

参考例句：

• He is repairing the brake lever of an automobile.他正在修理汽车的刹车杆。
• The automobile slowed down to go around the curves in the road.汽车在路上转弯时放慢了速度。

6 subdued   

adj. 屈服的，柔和的，减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• He seemed a bit subdued to me. 我觉得他当时有点闷闷不乐。
• I felt strangely subdued when it was all over. 一切都结束的时候，我却有一种奇怪的压抑感。

7 conglomerates   

n.（多种经营的）联合大企业( conglomerate的名词复数 )；砾岩；合成物；组合物

参考例句：

• At the surface, radioactivity of the conglomerates is locally as high as 30 X background. 在地表，砾岩的局部地段的放射性高达30倍本底值。 来自辞典例句
• The conglomerates failed to understand that books could not be sold like soap. 这些联合大企业不懂卖书不象卖肥皂那样。 来自辞典例句

8 merge   

v.(使)结合，(使)合并，(使)合为一体

参考例句：

• I can merge my two small businesses into a large one.我可以将我的两家小商店合并为一家大商行。
• The directors have decided to merge the two small firms together.董事们已决定把这两家小商号归并起来。