关乎生存的问题，难搞 | 经济学人早报精选

文 / 王不留（微信公众号：考研英语笔记）

Bitter taste: food-price inflation

The UN Food Systems Summit, held on Thursday, has an ambitious goal for a one-day event—“trigger the transformation of food systems the world over”. It hopes to make the global food supply chain fairer, greener and healthier.

Ambition is needed. Food prices have risen in 13 of the past 15 months, approaching the peak they reached in 2011. Rising costs have been driven in part by transitory factors, such as China buying up corn and soyabeans as feed to help replenish its stock of pigs after a swine-flu outbreak in 2018. Covid-19 is playing havoc with global shipping, and droughts have caused poor harvests.

But there is little prospect of imminent relief. None of these problems can be resolved immediately and all might strike again. Global warming also puts supply chains at risk and attempts to limit exposure may make markets less efficient, raising costs. That’s a lot to chew over.

Bitter taste: food-price inflation

苦味：食品价格上涨

The UN Food Systems Summit, held on Thursday, has an ambitious goal for a one-day event—“trigger the transformation of food systems the world over”. It hopes to make the global food supply chain fairer, greener and healthier.

周四举行的联合国粮食系统峰会为期一天，有个雄伟目标 — “触发全世界粮食系统的变革”。它希望让全球食品供应链更加公平、绿色和健康。

held on 拉住 ; 继续 ; 坚持下去 ; 不挂断

trigger 触发 ; 引起 ; 发动 ; 开动 ; 起动 ; 触发器 ; 扳机 ; 起因，诱因 ; 引爆器

transformation 转型 ; 变化，改观，转变，改革 ; 民主改革

fairer 按照规则 ; 公正地 ; 公平合理地 ; 合理的 ; 恰当的 ; 适当的 ; 平等待人的，秉公办事的，公正的 ; 相当大的 ; fair的比较级

greener 绿色的 ; 草绿色的 ; 长满青草的 ; 绿油油的 ; 青葱的 ; 未成熟的 ; 青的 ; 生的 ; green的比较级

healthier 健康的 ; 健壮的 ; 有益于健康的 ; 反映健康的 ; healthy的比较级

Ambition is needed. Food prices have risen in 13 of the past 15 months, approaching the peak they reached in 2011. Rising costs have been driven in part by transitory factors, such as China buying up corn and soyabeans as feed to help replenish its stock of pigs after a swine-flu outbreak in 2018. Covid-19 is playing havoc with global shipping, and droughts have caused poor harvests.

我们需要这种雄心壮志。食品价格在过去的15个月里有13个月在上涨，接近2011年的峰值。成本上涨部分原因来自短暂因素，比如2018年猪流感爆发后，我们购买玉米和大豆作为饲料，以帮助补充猪的库存。新冠疫情正对全球航运造成严重破坏，干旱导致庄稼欠收。

in part 在某种程度上 ; 部分地

transitory 短暂的 ; 暂时的 ; 转瞬即逝的 ; 片刻的

such as 例如 ; 像 ; 象…这样 ; 诸如…之类

replenish 补充 ; 重新装满

droughts 久旱 ; 旱灾 ; drought的复数

harvests 收获季节 ; 收割 ; 收获 ; 收成 ; 收获量 ; 捕猎 ; 采集 ; harvest的第三人称单数和复数

But there is little prospect of imminent relief. None of these problems can be resolved immediately and all might strike again. Global warming also puts supply chains at risk and attempts to limit exposure may make markets less efficient, raising costs. That’s a lot to chew over.

可是，这些问题几乎没有希望马上缓解。它们没有一个能立即解决，而且都可能再次出现。全球变暖也使供应链面临风险，而控制风险的尝试又可能会降低市场效率，提高成本。这里有许多值得探讨的地方。

王不留(wbliu85)注：根据句意，limit exposure应为 limit exposure to risk. 降低风险/控制风险。

imminent 迫在眉睫的 ; 即将发生的 ; 临近的

resolved 下定决心 ; 坚定 ; 解决 ; 决心 ; 决定 ; 作出决定 ; 作出决议 ; 表决 ; resolve的过去分词和过去式

at risk 处境危险;有风险的;在危险中

attempts 企图 ; 试图 ; 尝试 ; 杀人企图 ; 尝试，努力 ; 努力 ; attempt的第三人称单数和复数

chew over 仔细考虑 ; 充分讨论