一年一度的中秋佳节到了，LR在这里祝大家中秋快乐，阖家团圆！大家应该都吃了月饼吧？今天就和大家一起学习经济学人是怎么聊月饼的~

MOONCAKES are among the most divisive treats. For somethe chewy pastries are delicacies on which to gorge for the Mid-Autumn Festival, a Chinese holiday that falls this year on September 24th. For others they are dry, dense and full of calories. But for economists they are something else entirely: an indicator of important trends in consumption, innovation, corruption and grey-market trading.

treat

treat一词在前几天

网红"故宫黄酒雪糕"  你心动了吗？

举个🌰：

The cafe serves an assortment of gourmet treats.

这家小餐馆供应各种美味佳肴。

这里用divisive（造成不和的；引起纷争的）一词来形容月饼很贴切，因为下文紧接着提到争论的双方（For some...For others...）

月饼

the chewy pastry 耐嚼的油酥糕点

gorge on

表示“狼吞虎咽”，英文解释为：If you gorge on something or gorge yourself on it, you eat lots of it in a very greedy way.

举个🌰：

I could spend each day gorging on chocolate. 

我可以将每一天都花在狂吃巧克力上。

中秋节

文中写到the Mid-Autumn Festival后，还补充了一句 a Chinese holiday that falls this year on September 24th.

grey-market

字面意思就是“灰市” ，指经非正式渠道购卖商品再以低于市价的价格售出，英文解释为：Grey-market goods are bought unofficially and then sold to customers at lower prices than usual.

举个🌰：

Grey-market perfumes and toiletries are now commonly sold by mail. 

灰市的香水和化妆品现在常以邮购方式售出。

写作

经济学人是很好的学习英文写作的素材，比如这里的经典开头。首句提出论点... are among the most divisive ...，然后用For some...For others...结构引出双方论据，最后再用一个But引出新的观点——经济学家的观点，也就是文章主旨。

Mooncakes play this role because of their status as gifts. Ahead of the mid-autumn holiday, companies give them to employees; business contacts exchange them. Consumption of mooncakes is thus less a reflection of whether people enjoy the pastries, likened by some to edible hockey pucks, and more a measure of the health of the economy.

edible hockey pucks

hockey pucks指“冰球”，这里是说因为月饼和冰球很像，人们把它比作“可食用的冰球”。

OF ALL the dread-provoking Christmas gifts—all the reindeer sweaters and buzzing children’s toys—perhaps none is as feared as the fruitcake: a football-sized dessert, wrapped in lurid red foil. It will often lurk reprovingly on sideboards and in refrigerators for months before being finally, furtively, chucked out.

dread-provoking

合成词，dread表示“畏惧，害怕”，provoke表示“激怒，惹起，煽动”，所以dread-provoking表示“令人害怕的”。从这个词可以看出来作者对fruitcake作为“圣诞礼物“的态度是消极的，而破折后的”as feared as“进一步体现了这种态度。

lurid

表示“艳丽的”，英文解释为“If you describe something as lurid, you do not like it because it is very brightly coloured. ”

举个🌰：

She took care to paint her toe nails a lurid red or orange. 

她小心翼翼地把脚趾甲涂成艳丽的红色或桔色。

fruitcake

fruitcake意思是“水果[果脯，果子]蛋糕，掺有干果的糕饼”，它还有另一个意思表示“疯子，怪人”，文中对前者的解释：a football-sized dessert, wrapped in lurid red foil

图片来源维基百科

It will often lurk reprovingly on sideboards and in refrigerators for months before being finally, furtively, chucked out.

这个句子用了大量的介词，而且是采用it这种无灵主语，将fruitcake拟人化，所以直译的话个人觉得怪怪的，试着采用了意译（欢迎指正哦）：

人们经常刻意把水果蛋糕放在餐具柜上或冰箱里不显眼的地方，数月之后又偷偷扔掉。

reprovingly 挑剔地

lurk on 潜伏

sideboard 餐具柜

furtively 偷偷地

chuck out 扔掉

For the Chinese and Vietnamese, the equivalent is the mooncake: a dense, round pastry that—based on your correspondent’s highly informal survey—people seem much fonder of giving than eating. The cakes are stuffed with a variety of high-calorie fillings, often based on lotus seeds, nuts or sweet bean-paste. As with much of Chinese cuisine, mooncakes vary by region: in Shanghai and eastern China the filling often includes pork and tends to be savoury; Henan mooncakes are crisp and almost biscuit; Teochew mooncakes are often yam.

stuff

表示“把...装满”，常与with搭配，英文解释为“If you stuff a container or space with something, you fill it with something or with a quantity of things until it is full. ”

举个🌰：

He grabbed my purse, opened it and stuffed it full, then gave it back to me. 

他抢走我的钱包，打开并把它装得满满的，然后还给了我。

月饼

上文出现的：the chewy pastry 耐嚼的油酥糕点

此处用了：a dense, round pastry

The cakes are stuffed with a variety of high-calorie fillings 馅, often based on lotus seeds, nuts or sweet bean-paste 豆沙

In Shanghai and eastern China the filling often includes pork and tends to be savoury 咸的; Henan mooncakes are crisp 脆的 and almost biscuit    淡褐色的; Teochew mooncakes are often yam 山药 or 红薯？馅.

来来来，上海、河南、潮汕以及

五湖四海的朋友们，

说说自己家乡月饼的味道