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经济学人:强强联合 快递公司前景大好

来源:经济学人 编辑:justxrh   可可英语APP下载 |  可可官方微信:ikekenet
  
  • Business
  • 商业
  • UPS buys TNT Express
  • UPS收购TNT快递
  • Strong deliverer
  • 强强联合
  • The future looks bright for the parcel business
  • 快递公司前景大好
  • THE "conveyor belt" for global commerce is how Scott Davis, the boss of UPS, describes his company, the world's biggest express-parcel shipper.
  • 世界最大的快递企业,美国联合包裹服务公司(UPS)被它的董事长兼首席执行官斯科特·戴维斯(Scott Davis)形容为全球贸易的"传送带"。
  • On March 19th UPS announced that it would buy TNT Express, a Dutch competitor, for €5.16 billion ($6.8 billion).
  • 三月十九号,该公司宣布以51.6亿欧元(68亿美元)的价格并其购荷兰竞争对手:TNT快递。
  • The deal adds TNT's hefty regional network to UPS's vast global one. The merged firm will be much larger than FedEx or DHL, its main rivals (though DHL is part of a larger group).
  • 并购以后,不仅TNT快递的大量运送网点将被划入UPS的全球版图,合并后的公司更将在规模上超越它的主要竞争对手联邦快递(FedEx)和DHL(但DHL隶属于另一个规模更大的组织)。
  • It is a good time to strike a deal.
  • 现在正是达成交易的最佳时机。
  • TNT Express, which split from TNT's mail-delivery firm last year, has wobbled as the world economy has faltered.
  • 受世界经济停滞不前影响,去年从TNT邮运企业分离的TNT快递发展受阻。
  • Its share price is depressed, but its prospects are not bad.
  • 目前该公司股价下跌,但未来展望却向好。
  • As the world economy revives, package-toters with global networks should thrive.
  • 随着世界经济复苏,具有全球网点的快递公司(指TNT快递)势必蓬勃发展。
  • The big three have the field to themselves.
  • 三大快递公司确有生财之道。
  • The huge capital costs of building a worldwide network of planes and trucks to ensure swift deliveries of parcels, documents and freight keeps smaller rivals at bay.
  • 为了保证迅速运送包裹、文档还有货物,巨额成本被用于建立全球范围内的飞机、货车运输网络,这让小型竞争者拍马难及。
  • And the more complete the network, the better customers are served.
  • 如果想要更好的服务顾客,进一步完善运输网络也是必经之路。
  • TNT Express's business fills a gap in Europe, where UPS lacks a road-freight operation.
  • TNT快递原有的运输业务弥补了UPS在欧洲缺少公路运力的不足。
  • It also has a struggling business in fast-growing Brazil that UPS reckons it can fix.
  • 同时,UPS则认为能够帮助TNT快递在快速增长的巴西改善目前举步维艰的经营状况。
  • Strong growth looks set to resume.
  • 往日的快速增长仿佛又将重现。
  • Express delivery is enabling smaller firms to run the long global supply chains favoured by big companies, helping everyone to save cash.
  • 快递业务的出现不仅使得原本只有大企业才能运营的全球长供应链也能为小企业所使用,更节省了全行业的运输成本。
  • UPS reckons technology and demography offer plenty more scope for shifting parcels.
  • 在UPS看来,人口结构的变化与技术的发展正为快递业务提供更广阔的平台。
  • First, technology. E-mail may have killed the letter, but online shopping is great for parcel-deliverers.
  • 首先是技术。电子邮件的出现几乎终结了信件运输业务,但是在线购物却为包裹运输提供了市场。
  • Shifting things bought on the internet is 30% of UPS's business in America.
  • 仅运送客户在线购买的商品就占了UPS在美国30%的业务量。
  • That jumps to 50% at Christmas and other peak times.
  • 圣诞节和其他业务高峰期间,这个比例甚至达到50%。
  • And as people everywhere discover the joy of shopping from the sofa, the business has excellent growth prospects.
  • 随着全球各地的购物者们发现"足不出户"(坐在沙发上)地购物的乐趣,未来运输业还有很大的增长空间。
  • Online shoppers don't care whether goods come from a few streets away or must be shipped, more profitably, from another continent.
  • 在线购物者们并不关心货物是来自几条街区之外还是需要从另一片大陆"跋山涉水"才能出现在他们面前,而后一种情况对快递公司来说利润更高。
  • Second, demography. Greying populations seem an unlikely source of profits.
  • 其次是人口。人口老龄化看起来课不能给快递公司带来利润。
  • Yet to contain spiralling health-care costs, older folk are increasingly receiving treatment at home rather than in hospital.
  • 但是为了降低螺旋式上升的医保费用,老年人们越来越愿意在家里而不是在医院接受治疗。
  • UPS already has a good business ensuring that organs and skin grafts get to hospitals in good time.
  • UPS已经建好健全的业务体系,足以确保器官和皮肤移植物在规定时间内送到医院。
  • (Transplant patients prefer not to wait.) The next bonanza, it reckons, will be delivering drugs and medical devices to patients' doors.
  • (等待接受移植手术的病患可不愿意等)下一个赢利点,UPS认为,将会是把药品与医药设备运送到患者家中。


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Science and Technolgy

科技
What dinosaurs ate
恐龙吃什么
The belly of the beast
腹中发现
A chance discovery from China suggests some dinosaurs lived in trees
在中国的一次偶然发现暗示着有些恐龙在树上生活
WHAT dinosaurs ate is, of course, a question as interesting and illuminating as what ate dinosaurs (see article).
恐龙吃什么?当然,这个问题与“什么吃恐龙?”一样有趣,一样具有启发性。
In the case of one particular dinosaur,Microraptor, the matter was addressed in a presentation to the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Palaeontology by Jingmai O'Connor of the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology, in Beijing.
但就“小盗龙吃什么”这一问题(见文章),北京中国科学院古脊椎动物和古人类研究所的Jingmai O'Connor在古脊椎动物学会年会上发表了演说。
Microraptor (see photograph) is one of many small, feathered dinosaurs found in what is now China that were alive during the Cretaceous period more than 66m years ago.
小盗龙(见图),生活在距今六千六百多万年前的白垩纪,是现今中国境内发现的众多体型娇小、长有羽毛的恐龙之一。
Being feathered, it and its kind were cousins to birds.
这一种恐龙身着羽毛,是鸟类的近亲。
The actual split between the two groups, though, had happened much earlier, during the Jurassic period (the first known bird is Archaeopteryx, from 150m years ago), and by the late Cretaceous there were many species of bird around.
尽管,这两种物种早在侏罗纪时期(已知的最早鸟类是始祖鸟,生活在一亿五千万年前)就已分道扬镳,而且,到了白垩纪后期,已出现了许多种的鸟类。
What Dr O'Connor and her colleagues have found is the remains of one of those birds, of an as-yet-unidentified species, in the stomach of a specimen of Microraptor.
O'Connor博士和她同事在小盗龙样本的胃中发现了那时期鸟类的残骸,但其种类还未得到鉴别。
That is interesting. Discovering direct evidence of what a fossil animal ate, rather than having to infer it from details such as the shape of its teeth, is always valuable.
比起根据其牙齿形状等细节来推测出结果,找出古生物吃什么的直接证据是有价值的。
But the find's true significance is a small detail of the prey's anatomy: the third toe of its foot.
但是,这个发现真正重要之处却是其骨骼的一个细微之处:它脚掌的第三个脚趾。那是非常有趣的。
The size of the prey's third toe is important because, among birds, long third toes are helpful for grasping branches and perching in trees.
捕食者第三个脚趾的大小是很重要的,因为,对于鸟来说,长长的第三趾可以帮助其抓紧树枝,在树上栖息。
Indeed, the trait is so useful for arboreal life that it is used by many avian palaeontologists to decide whether newly excavated species of fossil birds lived in trees or on the ground.
的确,对于树栖生物这一特点是相当有用的,而许多鸟类古生物学家也利用这一特点来确定新挖掘出的鸟类化石是栖息在树上还是生活在地面上。
And the last meal of this particular specimen of Microraptor did, indeed, have a long third toe.
而小盗龙的最后一餐显然长有长长的第三个脚趾。
That elongated toe suggests to Dr O'Connor that Microraptor, too, was arboreal, and hints that its feathers may have helped it to move through an environment where hops, jumps and flaps between branches were a regular part of its daily activity.
那细长的脚趾暗示着O'Connor博士小盗龙也是树栖的。在一个需在枝桠间跳跃、滑行的生活环境中,它的羽毛可能对它的日常活动有所帮助。
Whether the first birds evolved from arboreal or terrestrial ancestors is a matter of lively debate among palaeontologists.
关于第一只鸟是从树栖还是陆生的祖先进化而来,一直是古生物学家激烈争论的话题。
A fossil formed so long after birds emerged does not, in truth, shed much light on that debate.
事实上,一个在鸟类出现很久之后形成的化石并没有使得这一论战明朗化。
But it does suggest feathers may have helped promote life in the trees, even for creatures that could not actually fly.
但是,这的确说明对于居于树上、即使是那些根本不能飞的树栖生物来说,羽毛可能真的有助于它们的生活。

重点单词   查看全部解释    
infer [in'fə:]

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vt. 推断,推论,猜测,暗示
vi. 作出推

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debate [di'beit]

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n. 辩论,讨论
vt. 争论,思考

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lively ['laivli]

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活泼的,活跃的,栩栩如生的,真实的

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promote [prə'məut]

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vt. 促进,提升,升迁; 发起; 促销

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species ['spi:ʃiz]

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n. (单复同)物种,种类

 
prey [prei]

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n. 被掠食者,牺牲者
vi. 捕食,掠夺,使

 
shed [ʃed]

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n. 车棚,小屋,脱落物
vt. 使 ...

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grasping ['grɑ:spiŋ]

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adj. 贪心的,贪婪的 adj. 抓的,紧紧抓住的 动

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institute ['institju:t]

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n. 学会,学院,协会
vt. 创立,开始,制

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trait [treit]

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n. 特点,特征,特性,一笔,少量

 

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