2005年NPR美国国家公共电台十二月-American vs. Chinese Manufacturing: Whic

Many people in this country believe the United States and China are just beginning an epic¹ economic battle. They argue that Chinese producers are so efficient and so cheap that they'll work their way up the manufacturing ladder until there aren't any more US factory jobs.

But in China, many argue just the opposite that the United States is so dominant² in certain types of manufacturing that China will never catch up. NPR's Adam Davidson visited a factory in both countries to see how each side is competing.

Both China and US have lots of auto³ parts makers⁴, and that makes it easy to compare how factories in the two countries compete in the global market.

We'll start in China. Wanxiang is a major Chinese car parts firm. It is in Zhejiang, two hours south of Shanghai. Huang Yuhong stands at a large machine.

"I am polishing the part. " She says.

The plant is clean. There are long rows of machines. At each one, a worker, almost all of them young women, wears a blue smock and white cap.

Things are different, when we move to McHenry, Illinois. , where the Affinia Group makes brakes under the brand name Raybestos. The factory is clean, but doesn't sparkle like Wanxiang's. The machines are older, the workers more casually⁵ dressed. Richard Lopez, shows off his Chicago Bears number 44 shirt.

"Sure, I watch the Bears."
"Who is 44, Curtis Enis ' 一个橄榄球运动员 the Chicago Bears' unsigned No. 1 draft pick . "

Workers wear heavy metal shirts, some have tattoos⁶ and piercings. So far, China seems to be winning, who would't trust uniformed cleanness over free-spirited chaos⁷? But then you ask the workers what they know about their jobs. Take Huang, who is polishing that two-inch diameter round silver part. "w25064n1l. . . ." She reads the code number, but when I ask her what kind of part it is, she doesn't know. She doesn't even know if it goes in a car. Huang is from Anhui, a poor inland province. Most factory workers like her live in dormitories and see their families rarely.

"I don't want to spend my whole life here and I want to set up my own business in the future. "

She dreams of opening a store that sells maternity⁸ clothes. She knows little about the machine she uses every day . She was trained to push the right buttons to start the polishing process and little else. Back in MacHenry, which Lopez does not operate one machine, he works on four simultaneously⁹. They call it a cell.

"I can do anything in the cell. Um, like this. Right now, you can run it at minus one, but if you were to want me to show you how to offset¹⁰ it, you know, to put it at zero, I'll come in here. "

Lopez came here just out of high school. In eleven years, he's become fluent in the machine tool program . He can go up to just about any machine in the factory, program it from scratch, and operate it. In addition to four machines, he also does quality control. It would take at least six workers at Wanxiang to do what Lopez does alone.

1 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

2 dominant   

adj.支配的，统治的；占优势的；显性的；n.主因，要素，主要的人(或物)；显性基因

参考例句：

• The British were formerly dominant in India.英国人从前统治印度。
• She was a dominant figure in the French film industry.她在法国电影界是个举足轻重的人物。

3 auto   

n.(=automobile)(口语)汽车

参考例句：

• Don't park your auto here.别把你的汽车停在这儿。
• The auto industry has brought many people to Detroit.汽车工业把许多人吸引到了底特律。

4 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 casually   

adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地

参考例句：

• She remarked casually that she was changing her job.她当时漫不经心地说要换工作。
• I casually mentioned that I might be interested in working abroad.我不经意地提到我可能会对出国工作感兴趣。

6 tattoos   

n.文身( tattoo的名词复数 )；归营鼓；军队夜间表演操；连续有节奏的敲击声v.刺青，文身( tattoo的第三人称单数 )；连续有节奏地敲击；作连续有节奏的敲击

参考例句：

• His arms were covered in tattoos. 他的胳膊上刺满了花纹。
• His arms were covered in tattoos. 他的双臂刺满了纹身。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 chaos   

n.混乱，无秩序

参考例句：

• After the failure of electricity supply the city was in chaos.停电后，城市一片混乱。
• The typhoon left chaos behind it.台风后一片混乱。

8 maternity   

n.母性，母道，妇产科病房；adj.孕妇的，母性的

参考例句：

• Women workers are entitled to maternity leave with full pay.女工产假期间工资照发。
• Trainee nurses have to work for some weeks in maternity.受训的护士必须在产科病房工作数周。

9 simultaneously   

adv.同时发生地，同时进行地

参考例句：

• The radar beam can track a number of targets almost simultaneously.雷达波几乎可以同时追着多个目标。
• The Windows allow a computer user to execute multiple programs simultaneously.Windows允许计算机用户同时运行多个程序。

10 offset   

n.分支，补偿；v.抵消，补偿

参考例句：

• Their wage increases would be offset by higher prices.他们增加的工资会被物价上涨所抵消。
• He put up his prices to offset the increased cost of materials.他提高了售价以补偿材料成本的增加。