2018年经济学人 一周要闻 特朗普怒斥天价药 脸书被罚50万英镑 星巴克淘汰一次性吸管

 

The bidding escalated¹ in the battle for Sky, Britain’s premier² subscription-TV broadcaster. A day after 21st Century Fox submitted a proposal that valued Sky at 24.5bn pounds ($32.5bn), Comcast upped its offer, to 26bn pounds. Fox is bidding for the 61% of shares in Sky it doesn’t already own in order to sell the lot to Disney, along with Fox’s other entertainment assets. Comcast has muddied the waters with a rival offer for Fox’s assets.

争夺英国最大的付费电视运营商——天空广播公司(Sky)的竞标升级。在21世纪福克斯公司提交了一份245亿英镑(合325亿美元)的报价后，第二天康卡斯特上调报价至260亿英镑。福克斯正在竞购尚未到手的天空广播公司的61%股份，以便将这部分股份与福克斯其他娱乐资产一起出售给迪斯尼。康卡斯特(Comcast)对福克斯(Fox)的资产提出了竞争性收购要约，让局面变得扑朔迷离。

The bully³ pulpit

天字第一号讲坛(白宫)

After a stern dressing-down from Donald Trump⁴, Pfizer said it would reverse the recent price rises it introduced on about 40 drugs and wait for the president’s plan to reduce the cost of medicines. The company also reorganised itself along three business lines: innovative⁵ medicines, established brands and consumer health care.

在遭到唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)的严厉斥责后，美国制药公司辉瑞(Pfizer)表示，将扭转新推出的约40种药品价格上涨的趋势，静待总统出台降低药物成本的计划。该公司还根据创新药品、知名品牌和消费者医疗保健三大业务线进行了重组。

Norwegian, a low-cost airline that wants to disrupt the market for transatlantic travel, made a net profit of NKr296m ($37m) in the second quarter, confounding analysts’ forecasts that it would report a big loss. The carrier’s sales rose by 32% compared with the same three months last year.

低成本航空公司——挪威航空(Norwegian)想要扰乱跨大西洋旅行市场，该公司第二季度实现净利润2.96亿挪威克朗(约3700万美元)，这打乱了分析师的预测——即该公司将出现巨额亏损。这家航空公司的销售额较去年同期增长了32%。

After completing the first leg of a fundraising round, Juul, which dominates the e-cigarette market in America, was valued at $15bn. That is half the market capitalisation of Imperial Brands, which counts Golden Virginia tobacco among its assets, and makes Juul one of America’s most valuable startups. Once promoted as an aid to quit smoking, vaping has become trendy. Juul’s sales have risen by 800% over the past year.

在完成一轮融资的第一回合后，占据美国电子烟市场主导地位的Juul公司估值为150亿美元。这相当于帝国烟草公司市值的一半。而帝国烟草公司的资产包括Golden Virginia tobacco，这让Juul公司一跃成为美国最具价值的创业公司之一。作为戒烟的辅助手段，电子烟一度成为一种时尚。Juul公司的销售额在过去一年增长了800%。

Britain’s information commissioner⁶ handed Facebook a 500,000 pounds ($660,000) fine for failing to protect users and for a lack of transparency over the data obtained via the social network by Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm. It was the biggest penalty allowed under British data-protection laws. The regulator also slapped a fine on an advice site for new parents, which shared personal data with the Labour Party.

英国信息专员对脸书处以50万英镑的罚款，原因是脸谱网未能保护用户，且没有对剑桥分析公司如何在其平台上获取用户信息保持透明。这是英国数据保护法范围内的最高一笔罚款。该监管机构还对一家为新父母提供咨询服务的网站开出了罚款，该网站与工党共享个人数据。

The last straw

最后一根稻草

Starbucks announced that it will phase out disposable plastic straws by 2020, the biggest development so far in a campaign to ban single-use plastic utensils⁷ in the fast-food industry. The coffee chain is also trying to reduce the number of disposable cups (six billion) it issues to the chai-latte-sipping classes each year.

星巴克宣布，将在2020年前逐步淘汰一次性塑料吸管，这是目前快餐业禁止一次性塑料餐具最大的一次进展。这家咖啡连锁企业还试图减少每年向chai-latte-sipping课程发放的一次性杯子的数量（60亿）。

1 escalated   

v.（使）逐步升级( escalate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）逐步扩大；（使）更高；（使）更大

参考例句：

• The fighting escalated into a full-scale war. 这场交战逐步扩大为全面战争。
• The demonstration escalated into a pitched battle with the police. 示威逐步升级，演变成了一场同警察的混战。

2 premier   

adj.首要的；n.总理，首相

参考例句：

• The Irish Premier is paying an official visit to Britain.爱尔兰总理正在对英国进行正式访问。
• He requested that the premier grant him an internview.他要求那位总理接见他一次。

3 bully   

n.恃强欺弱者，小流氓；vt.威胁，欺侮

参考例句：

• A bully is always a coward.暴汉常是懦夫。
• The boy gave the bully a pelt on the back with a pebble.那男孩用石子掷击小流氓的背脊。

4 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

5 innovative   

adj.革新的，新颖的，富有革新精神的

参考例句：

• Discover an innovative way of marketing.发现一个创新的营销方式。
• He was one of the most creative and innovative engineers of his generation.他是他那代人当中最富创造性与革新精神的工程师之一。

6 commissioner   

n.（政府厅、局、处等部门）专员，长官，委员

参考例句：

• The commissioner has issued a warrant for her arrest.专员发出了对她的逮捕令。
• He was tapped for police commissioner.他被任命为警务处长。

7 utensils   

器具，用具，器皿( utensil的名词复数 )； 器物

参考例句：

• Formerly most of our household utensils were made of brass. 以前我们家庭用的器皿多数是用黄铜做的。
• Some utensils were in a state of decay when they were unearthed. 有些器皿在出土时已经残破。