英语外刊阅读精讲：美式幽默(原声音频)

2018-10-04 09:26:00来源：新东方在线

　　参考译文

　　Indiana’s Thomas R. Marshal, who was America’s vice president 100 years ago, voiced---he plucked it from a Hoosier humorist---one of the few long-remembered utterances to issue from that office: “What this country needs is a good five-percent cigar.” A century later, what the country needs is a $12 12-ounce cup of coffee.

　　印第安达州的托马斯.R.马歇尔是美国一百年前的副总统，他的声音至今没有消失，他的言论选自一名印第安纳本地的幽默作家，这段话从那间办公室发出，至今令人难以遗忘：“这个国家需要一根制作精良，含量为百分之五的雪茄烟。”一百年后，这个国家需要价值12美元，装在12盎司杯子内的咖啡。

　　Today, you cannot swing a dead cat without hitting a Starbuck store. There are 25,000 in 75 countries, with another 12,000 due by 2021, so Starbucks is not an elusive or exclusive experience. This poses a problem, and an opportunity. Seattle, where the original Starbuck was opened in 1971, now has a Starbucks Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room where customers can turn a cup of “small-batch” coffee into an experience---Starbuck sells experiences as much as coffee---of both conspicuous consumption and conspicuous connoisseurship. Bloomberg reports that for a pittance, a.k.a, $10, a skinflint will be able to buy a cold-brew coffee, which presumably is an excellent thing, infused with nitrogen gas, which sounds like an acquired taste.

　　现在扔一只死猫，也能砸到一家星巴克咖啡店。25，000家咖啡店遍布在75个国家，到2021年为止，还有12，000家，因此星巴克不再是一种难以捉摸而且特立独行的经历。这是个问题，也是个机遇。1971年第一家星巴克在西雅图营业，现在这里开设了一家星巴克烘焙坊及鉴赏馆。，在这里顾客们可以将一小杯咖啡变成一种体验---星巴克像销售咖啡一样销售体验---既可以是一种引人注目的消费行为，也可以是一种引人注目的鉴赏行为。据彭博报道，对于一个吝啬鬼而言，只要花上一点点钱，或者说区区十块钱，就能购买一杯冰酿咖啡，注入氮气，想必也应该算是一种极品，听起来也像是一种品味。

　　Very pricey coffee is just a fresh-brewed variation on the familiar phenomenon of positional goods. They are necessarily, inherently enjoyments for the few. They exist because, particularly in the upper reaches of affluent societies, it is not love that makes the world go round.

　　将商品与地位关联，这已经是司空见惯的现象，而价值不菲的咖啡不过是一种新鲜酿制出的变形产品。他们必然会变成为少数人特制的享受饮品。它们之所以存在，是因为在富有阶层的顶端，并不是依靠爱心来玩儿转世界的。

本文关键字: 英语阅读英语外刊