2008年11月22日

消費券 【Shopping Coupons】

政府宣佈,將發放3600台幣消費券給國民,以刺激經濟成長。消費券的英文該怎麼說呢?簡言之:Shopping Coupons;Coupon(s)是減價/免費優待券的意思。

對於消費券的發放,人人有不同的意見;華爾街日報近來發出一則社評,標題為【﹩100 for All - Taiwan's misdirected stimulus effort】。光看到mis-字首開頭的字,就可以猜到這篇文章對消費券的觀點是從較負面的角度切進。Nicole藉此文章,擇數佳句來解釋分析,讓你透過商用英語輕鬆學英語!

1. The global financial crisis has given rise to many harebrained (輕率的) schemes around Asia (see: Japan, stimulus plan of), and to that list add Taiwan's latest policy outing: shopping coupons worth $ 100 for every man, woman and child.

眼尖的讀者,看到harebrained這字,從-ed的字尾可推出這是一個形容詞。字彙能力稍微高一點的讀者,又可能會將harebrain一拆為二:hare+brain。不錯,這字的確是來自於hare和brain。不過,hare這字在十六至十八世紀時,常被人和hair錯亂混用,以致於harebrained的字義來源可能有二。一為:having a hair-sized brain:像頭髮般尺寸的腦容量,想必思路必定不清晰,做事輕率也是想當然爾。二為:“with no more sense than a hare“:反應跟一隻野兔差不多。想想野兔橫衝直撞的模樣,如果人的行為舉止也跟野兔一樣,是不是很輕率呢?

2. The giveaway (贈品) is slated to (預定.../安排...) start in time for the Chinese New Year holidays early next year and will set the government back some $83 billion Taiwan dollars ($ 2.5 billion).

giveaway的字義很好猜:把東西送(give)走(away),不是贈品的意思嗎?giveaway尤指額外不收費的補助、津貼。所以,這字和shopping coupons一起用真是妙極了。

又slate的意思很多,做被動式和不定詞使用為:某物被選來作...之意。特指有規劃、計畫的安排。例:Our English teacher has slated writing class for Tuesday afternoon. (我們英文老師已經安排星期二下午為寫作課。) 

3. Mr. Ma will have to look elsewhere for meaningful stimulus.  Rather than saddling future taxpayers with debt for what will be at best a slight temporary relief, better to boost the economy by butting taxes and reforming inefficient regulatory structures.

Rather than (A), better to (B)...這句型的意思是:與其做A,不如做B。此段原文大概的意思是:與其增加未來納稅人的負擔,倒不如靠減稅和重整低效率的經濟結構來提升經濟。

5. A policy that may be politically popular today won't be smart economics tomorrow.

文章寫到最後,若能有一短而有力的句子來作結論,無疑有點龍畫眼之效,Nicole很喜歡這對比的句子。多唸它幾回,把句型記在心裡面,也許哪一天派的上用場!

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