精讀金融時報：京東商城能否一鳴驚人
滬江小編：對于商界精英們來說，閱讀《金融時報》（Financial Times）幾乎成了每天的必修課。FT文章以分析為主，邏輯嚴密，經(jīng)常被各類考試用作考題。非常適合學(xué)習(xí)BEC、TOEIC、GRE、GMAT的考生來閱讀、練習(xí)。滬江小編精選FT上的雙語文章，配上獨家的學(xué)習(xí)指南，從詞匯、短語、句式、文化、翻譯等多方面來解讀，長期堅持，相信會對英語學(xué)習(xí)有所幫助。
原文閱讀：京東商城能否一鳴驚人？
When Warren Buffett spends $12bn on Heinz, a $125m stake by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in Chinese online retailer 360 Buy looks trivial. But it is a sign that while the most famous value investor is plumping for quality, if not value exactly, his rival is still backing shoot-for-the-stars propositions. And they don’t get much starrier, or riskier, than China’s cut-throat retail world.
Based on sheer size, ecommerce in the world’s second-largest economy has enormous potential. Only about two-fifths of China’s population is online, half the proportion of the US or South Korea. At 200m, there are already 25 per cent more online shoppers in China than the US, yet this still only constitutes a third of all Chinese netizens. Three quarters of web-savvy Americans are regular online spenders. China has far fewer retailers who can call themselves national too, so the web offers huge brand value potential to the outfit that can make it big online.
The trick is profiting from this market. Prince Alwaleed’s target, 360 Buy, is the second-largest online retailer, accounting for about a sixth of transaction value. Its sales have been rising at a compound 150 per cent. But so has the online market overall, according to Macquarie, suggesting little share gain in spite of extreme, and expensive, price war stunts that have hurt everyone. Gome, which competes in electronics, recently said its online unit was one factor in its first full-year loss last year. Macquarie expects market growth to slow to about 50 per cent by 2015. Most businesses would die for that, but there are as yet no signs of profits at 360 Buy as it builds a delivery network.
Prince Alwaleed’s stake is part of a $400m injection for 360 Buy. Forget that last year the company said it was fully funded until 2015. Kingdom Holdings, the prince’s vehicle, says it invests in groups that seek to list in three years. That could be optimistic.
學(xué)習(xí)指南：
1.Word of the day
stunt：anything spectacular or unusual done to gain publicity 噱頭，花招
ex: Climbing up the church tower is a fine publicity stunt.
例句：攀登教堂鐘樓是絕妙的宣傳性噱頭。
2.Phrase of the day
to die for： (informal) if something is to die for, it is extremely good 渴望
ex:?The weather's fantastic, the people are warm and friendly and the food is to die for.
例句：這里氣候宜人，人民友好，食物也棒極了。
3.Sentence of the day
Prince Alwaleed’s stake is part of a $400m injection for 360 Buy.
阿爾瓦利德王子的持股，是京東商城此輪4億美元注資的一部分。
小編注：這句話中injection的用法值得學(xué)習(xí)和借鑒。以往我們熟知的injection是注射的意思，比如I'm going to give you a pain-killing injection. 而在商務(wù)語境下，injection更多地表示資金和人才的注入。比如，
ex1:?This liquidity injection was designed to ensure that money markets continued to function and did not succumb to a credit freeze.
例1：歐洲央行此次向市場注入流動性，目的是確保貨幣市場的正常運轉(zhuǎn)，不會出現(xiàn)信貸凍結(jié)的情況。
ex2:?With management insight from Ceibs and the injection of new personnel talent, the company started to move out of the red.
例2：依靠從中歐獲得的管理洞見，加上引入了新的人才，全時開始逐漸走出虧損狀態(tài)。
4.Cultural point of the day
shoot for the stars：means to aim high, set a big target, have big goals, dream big dreams.抱負遠大、一鳴驚人
ex: When it comes to pursuing professional goals, Miss Brown likes to shoot for the stars, which is why she became an intern at the White House.
例句：在事業(yè)方面，布朗小姐是有遠大抱負的人，這也是她為什么在白宮實習(xí)的原因。
小編注：美劇《老友記》中有這樣一句話“There are people, like Ross, who need to shoot for the stars.”這里shoot for the stars的意思就是一鳴驚人。這是一種形象的用法，stars必須是復(fù)數(shù)。同樣的用法還有shoot for the moon。
5.Translation of the day ?
When Warren Buffett spends $12bn on Heinz, a $125m stake by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in Chinese online retailer 360 Buy looks trivial.
相比沃倫·巴菲特投資亨氏(Heinz)的120億美元，阿爾瓦利德·本·塔拉爾王子(Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal)投資中國網(wǎng)絡(luò)零售商京東商城(360 Buy)所花的1.25億美元看起來微不足道。
小編注：從中文翻譯上來看，主句和從句存在著比較的關(guān)系，而英語原文中并沒有用comparing或compared這樣的詞，而是簡單地用了when的句式，加上looks trivial就把比較關(guān)系給點出來了。句式靈活多變，值得學(xué)習(xí)，尤其是漢譯英的時候，可以考慮借鑒此句式。?
