Food delivery is a booming business. Waste is piling up, too
[1] THREE couriers in hard helmets cram into an office lift in Beijing—one clad in red, one in yellow and one in blue. The trio are dispatching food that was purchased online through China’s most popular meal-ordering firms, which fill urban roads every midday with their colourful delivery people on electric bicycles. Delivery fees as low as three yuan ($0.46) have helped to transform urban lunch-hours. But the booming business is also fuelling concerns about everything from waste to the abuse of workers.
[2] Such services—which enable users of a single site to order food from a swathe of local restaurants—are expanding around the world. But in China the industry is on a tear. By the end of June, the number of registered users had risen to 295m, 40% more than at the end of last year, according to government analysts. The value of meals bought online was about $25bn in 2016 and could rise to around $36bn by the end of next year, says iiMedia, a research firm. The market leaders are Meituan and Ele.me. Both still make losses in food delivery, but they have backing from Tencent and Alibaba respectively—tech giants eager to find ways of pushing customers to their dueling online payment systems.
单词注解
helmet ['helmɪt,'helmət] 头盔，钢盔，安全帽
safety helment 安全帽
Instead, he was told the last time that she loved him, got a hug from her, put his helmet on her so that she can live, and die himself
相反，他叫女孩最后一次说她爱他，最后一次拥抱他，并让她戴上自己的头盔，因而，女孩可以幸免于难，而他自己却离开了人世。
cram / kræm /
1 [T always + adv/prep] to force something into a small space 把…塞入〔小空间〕，硬塞
cram sth into/onto etc sth
Jill crammed her clothes into the bag.
吉尔把自己的衣服塞进袋子里。
A lot of information has been crammed into this book.
这本书包含大量的信息。
2 [I always + adv/prep] if a lot of people cram into a place or vehicle, they go into it so it is then full 〔人〕挤进，挤满
[+ in/into ]
We all crammed in and Pete started the car.
我们都挤进去后皮特发动了汽车。
36,000 spectators crammed into the stadium to see the game.
36,000名观众涌进体育场观看这场比赛。
3 [T] if a lot of people cram a place, they fill itespecially AmE 〔人〕挤进，挤满 【尤美】
Thousands of people crammed the mall Sunday.
星期天成千上万的人挤进了这家大型购物中心。
4 [I] to prepare yourself for an examination by learning a lot of information quickly BrE 〔为考试而〕死记硬背，临时抱佛脚 【英】
She’s been cramming hard all week.
她整个星期都在拼命准备应付考试。
[+ for ]
I have to cram for my chemistry test tomorrow.
我得为明天的化学测验临时抱佛脚
dispatch [dɪ'spætʃ]
1.to send someone or something somewhere for a particular purpose派遣；发送
Goods are normally dispatched within 24 hours. 货物一般在24小时内派送。
dispatch sb/sth to sb/sth
A reporter was dispatched to Naples to cover the riot. 一名记者被派往那不勒斯报道这场骚乱。
2.to deal with someone or to finish a job quickly and effectively
迅速处理，快速办妥
She dispatched (= beat ) her opponent 6-2, 6-1. 她以6比2、6比1的比分迅速拿下了对手。
3.old-fashioned to deliberately kill a person or animal
故意杀死〔人或动物〕
giant ['dʒaɪənt]
n. 巨人；伟人；[动] 巨大的动物 adj. 巨大的；巨人般的
翻译
外卖是一个蓬勃发展的行业，垃圾也堆积如山。
【1】在三个戴着头盔的快递员挤进了北京的一个办公室电梯里，一个戴着红色的钢盔,一个戴着黄色的钢盔，一个戴着蓝色的钢盔。这三个人是送人们在中国最受欢迎的外卖公司上订的食物。每天中午道路都被这些公司的快递员填满，他们穿着五颜六色的衣服，并且骑着电动车。低至三块钱（0.46美元）的运送费改变了城市午餐的时间。但是蓬勃发展的商业也加剧了人们对从浪费到虐待工人等各种问题的担忧。
【2】这些服务使人们在一个网站上可以订购一大片餐馆的食物，而且它正在向全世界扩张。但是这个行业在中国取得了很大的成功。据政府部门分析，到七月底，注册用户的数量上升到了2.95亿，去年年底超过40%的用户。研究公司iiMedia表示，2016年网上购买的餐点价值约为250亿美元，到明年年底可能升至360亿美元左右。美团和饿了么是市场的领导者。然而，他们在外卖上一直是亏损状态，但是他们分别有腾讯和阿里巴巴的支持。科技巨头们急于想办法将客户推向他们的在线支付系统。
