今天上午，海南大学禁止外卖入校上了热搜。中午，外卖员和浙大保安发生冲突，保安被捅。外卖小哥的那些事儿，再次引起了网友的热议。

借着这个话题，我们来看看《华尔街日报》（The Wall Street Journal）2017年的一篇文章：Olympic Athletes Have Nothing on China's Lunch-Delivery Guys （和中国的外卖小哥比，奥运选手算不了什么）。

Olympic Athletes Have Nothing on China's Lunch-Delivery Guys

It is lunchtime in Beijing, and Guo Ziyang is on a mission: deliver seven hot meal orders in an hour.

He sprints into a downtown high-riselugging a plastic container of steaming hot beef noodles. There is no time to wait for the right elevator; he hops into the first one that opens, jumps out at the last stop and begins sprinting up the stairs.

After a quick handoff to the customer, he races down 20 flights. One order down, six to go.

上面几段话描述外卖小哥非常有画面感，值得细细品味。

have nothing on sb or sth

表示“不如…，没有…好”，英文解释为“to not be as good as someone or something”举个🌰：

He's a good player, but he's got nothing on his brother.

他是个不错的运动员，但是没有他弟弟优秀。

sprint

sprint /sprɪnt,sprɪnt/两种含义，注意第二段中再次出现。

1) 表示“（骑车、游泳等短距离）（全速）冲刺”，英文解释为“to ride, swim etc very fast for a short distance”；

2) 表示“（短距离）快速奔跑，冲刺”，英文解释为“to run very fast for a short distance”举个🌰：

Tom sprinted up the steps.

汤姆飞奔着跑上台阶。

high-rise

可以作形容词表示“（建筑物）高层的，高耸的”，如：high-rise office buildings 高层办公楼。此处直接作名词，表示“高层建筑”，英文解释为“A high-rise is a high-rise building.”举个🌰：

That big high-rise above us is where Tom lives.

我们头顶上那幢巨型高层建筑就是汤姆的住处所在。

lug

表示“（吃力地/费力地）拖/拉/提（重物）”，英文解释为“If you lug a heavy or awkward object somewhere, you carry it there with difficulty.”举个🌰：

Nobody wants to lug around huge suitcases full of clothes.

没有人愿意拖着装满衣服的大箱子到处转。

hop

1) 表示“（人）单足蹦跳”，英文解释为“to move by jumping on one foot”，如：a little girl hopping and skipping 一个蹦蹦跳跳的小女孩。

2) 表示“快速或突然去某处”，英文解释为“to move somewhere quickly or suddenly”，举个🌰：

Hop in – I'll drive you home.

上车吧，我送你回家。

Across China's biggest cities, the scene has become as familiar asgrimy skies and crowded subways.

Helmeted, scooter-riding delivery people barrel through business districts at noontime ferryingbowls of noodles and skewers of lamb to hungry wage earners. Office tower lobbies are thick with drivers schlepping food bags.

grimy

表示“满是污垢的，蒙上灰尘的；肮脏的”，英文解释为“covered with dirt”，如：grimy windows 落满灰尘的窗子。

近义词：filthy/ dirty/ squalid ...

scooter

可以指“小型摩托车”英文解释为“A scooter is a small light motorcycle which has a low seat.”也可以指“踏板车，滑板车”（A scooter is a type of child's bicycle which has two wheels joined by a wooden board and a handle on a long pole attached to the front wheel. The child stands on the board with one foot, and uses the other foot to move forward.）

此前经济学人一篇讲述电动滑板车的文章就用的“e-scooters”来表达。

「经济学人」电动滑板车的兴起

barrel

barrel /'bærəl/表示“高速行驶，飞奔；（尤指失控地）飞驰”，英文解释为“to move very fast, especially in an uncontrolled way”举个🌰：

A vehicle barreled out of a shopping center and crashed into the side of my car.

一辆汽车从购物中心飞也似地冲出来，一头撞到了我车子的一侧。

barrel作名词还有“桶”的意思，不过是“中间鼓起”的那种桶，如：barrels of beer 一桶桶啤酒。

skewer

表示“（金属或木质的）串肉扦，烤肉扦”，英文解释为“a long metal or wooden stick that is put through pieces of meat to hold them together while they are cooked”，和上面的例子，barrels of beer 一桶桶啤酒，类似的结构，skewers of lamb 一串串的羊肉串，bowls of noodles 一碗碗面。

wage earner

表示“工薪族；为工资而工作的人，尤其与领薪水的人有区别”，英文解释为“a person who works for wages, esp as distinguished from one paid a salary”。

thick

thick可以表示“厚的，浓密的，稠的”，此处指“大量的”，英文解释为“containing a lot of people or things”举个🌰：

The roads were thick with holiday traffic.

路上密密麻麻都是外出度假的车辆。

schlep

上文用的lug，此处用schlep /ʃlep/替换，表示“搬，抬，拖，拉（重物）”，英文解释为“to carry or pull sth heavy”举个🌰：

I'm not schlepping these suitcases all over town.

我可不会提着这几个箱子满城跑。

In China, cheap labor and the advent of smartphone food-delivery apps have combined to transform office lunchtime culture. Meals appear with a few swipes on a smartphone, and customers get up to 30 deliveries for as little as $3 a month.

swipe

此处指手机上的“滑屏”操作，也可以作动词，英文解释为“to move your finger over the screen of a mobile phone or tablet in order to move onto the next page, choose something, etc.”举个🌰：

Swipe left to see more search results.

向左滑动查看更多搜索结果。

With the three major delivery services offering similar pricing schemes and food choices across China, the burden of competition has fallen largely on the speed of the delivery people—mostly young men popularly known as Waimai Xiaoge, or “Brother Takeaway.”

Young women smile and say the delivery men are better than boyfriends; unlike their male beaus, the Waimai Xiaoge always deliver.

beau

beau /bəʊ/表示“（女性的）男友；情郎”，英文解释为“（old-fashioned）A woman's beau is her boyfriend or lover. ”

Their day starts a little before 10 a.m., as the drivers glide their electric scooters onto city plazas and huddle for pep talks, like fighter pilots gathering on the tarmac. The teams are distinguished by their uniforms: Ele.me in blue, Meituan Dianping in yellow and black, and Baidu-Waimai in red.

glide

表示“滑行，滑动”，英文解释为“to move smoothly and quietly, as if without effort”举个🌰：

Waiters glide between tightly packed tables bearing trays of pasta.

侍者们托着一盘盘的意大利面食在拥挤的餐桌间自如穿行。

huddle

1) 表示“（尤因寒冷或恐惧而）（使）挤作一团，（使）聚成一堆”，英文解释为“if a group of people huddle together, they stay very close to each other, especially because they are cold or frightened”举个🌰：

People huddled around the radio, waiting for news.

人们聚集在收音机旁，等候消息。

2) 表示“（一小群人）聚集（私下讨论某事）”，英文解释为“to sit or stand with a small group of people in order to discuss something privately”举个🌰：

The executive board huddled to discuss the issue.

管理层聚在一起讨论那个问题。

pep talk

表示“鼓舞士气的讲话”，英文解释为“A pep talk is a speech intended to encourage someone to make more effort or feel more confident.”

tarmac

本义是指“（铺路用的）柏油碎石”，可以指“柏油碎石地面”，也特指“铺有柏油碎石的飞机跑道/停机坪”，英文解释为“an area covered in tarmac, especially the area in an airport where aircraft land and take off”举个🌰：

Journalists waited on the tarmac to question him.

新闻记者们在停机坪上等候着向他提问。

Drivers earn between $700 and $900 a month, some of that in bonuses tied to hitting delivery quotas. So they hustle.

hustle

本义指“推搡，硬挤”（to make someone move quickly, especially by pushing them roughly），此处表示“拼命干，努力干”，英文解释为“to do something with a lot of energy and determination”举个🌰：

She's not a great student, but she really hustles.

她不能算是一位很优秀的学生，但是她非常努力。

They get their pickup and delivery orders via smartphone, with each new order heralded by a distinctive ding. Like Uber drivers, the workers can be reviewed by customers after deliveries. Subpar service ratings can cost them their job.

Wu Yue, a 31-year-old driver for Meituan in Shanghai, said he wolfs down four or five steamed bread buns or a bowl of noodles before starting work each morning.

herald

表示“预示…的来临/发生”，英文解释为“Something that heralds a future event or situation is a sign that it is going to happen or appear.”举个🌰：

A flash of lightning heralded torrential rain.

一道闪电预示着暴雨即将来临。

wolf

熟词僻义，名词表示“狼”，作动词表示“狼吞虎咽地吃”，英文解释为“to eat something very quickly, swallowing it in big pieces”举个🌰：

Hotels were full of rich people wolfing expensive meals.

酒店满是狼吞虎咽昂贵饭菜的有钱人。

- END -

「才思汇：持续行动第五年，LR是怎么做到的？」

LearnAndRecord

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第1550天

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