英闻天下——569 Over-priced Meals on Trains Stir Controversy

 　　Have you ever bought a meal on the high-speed railway?

 

　　Reports say a package meal on the high-speed trains sell for about 45 yuan, roughly 7 dollars.

 

　　But what you get is only four slices of beef, an egg, a small, cold vegetable, and some rice.

 

　　Usually, a boxed meal like this will cost around 10 yuan.

 

　　Bloggers:

 

　　@ "You Ying Qian Yi":

 

　　China's high-speed trains can run faster than most trains in the world, yet their services lag far behind. As early as 2011, the Ministry¹ of Railways promised to provide passengers with meals costing less than 15 yuan. Apparently², the promise has not been kept.

 

　　@ Fan Zijun:

 

　　Whenever passengers ask for low-priced meals, they will be told the cheap ones are sold out, so people have no choice but to buy expensive ones. However, I don't believe the idea of only targeting huge profits is sustainable for the railways department.

 

　　@ Wei Zhimin:

 

　　One individual train is like a monopolistic market. The way to solve the problem of overpricing is to reinforce the supervision³ from the railways department. Furthermore, other government departments should also get involved and try to stop the illegal acts, or if necessary, even initiate⁴ an antimonopoly investigation⁵.

 

　　@ Ningbo girl:

 

　　I am confused by the fact that the ticket price of a high-speed train can be as expensive as a plane ticket, while the service on the train is much worse than that on the plane. I think all the high-speed trains should provide passengers with free lunches like the planes do.

1 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

2 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

3 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

4 initiate   

vt.开始，创始，发动；启蒙，使入门；引入

参考例句：

• A language teacher should initiate pupils into the elements of grammar.语言老师应该把基本语法教给学生。
• They wanted to initiate a discussion on economics.他们想启动一次经济学讨论。

5 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。