考试辅导《经济学家》读译参考:还算公道一 经济学家, 公道, 考试, 辅导

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Fair enough（还算公道）

MAKING good coffee is not a simple business. Coffee bushes must be grown in shade—neither too much, nor too little. A hillside is best—but it mustn’t be too s______①. After three years, the bushes will start to produce bright-red coffee “cherries”, which are picked, processed to remove the pulp, and spread out to dry for days, ideally on concrete. They are m_______② again to separate the bean, which needs to rest, preferably for a few months. （1）Only then can it be roasted, ground and brewed into the stuff that dreams are ★quelled with 280px">
In Mexico and parts of Central America, as in Colombia and Peru further south but not in Brazil, most coffee farmers are smallholders. （2）They found it especially hard to deal with the recent ★slump[2] in the coffee price. The price has since recovered: the benchmark price applied to m________③ coffee now ranges from $1.11 to $1.14 per pound. That is roughly double its ★rock-bottom[3] level of August 2002.  

But the v_________④ of their income makes it hard for farmers to invest to sustain their crop, says Fernando Celis of the Mexican National Organisation of Coffee Growers. The slump forced many small farmers to switch to other crops, or migrate to cities. Mexico’s exports of coffee are less than half of what they were six years ago.

（3）For farmers, one way out of this dilemma is to decouple the price they are paid from the international commodities markets. This is the a_______⑤ of Fairtrade, a London-based organisation which certifies products as “responsibly” sourced. Fairtrade determines at what price farmers make what it considers a reasonable profit. Its current calculation is that the appropriate figure is 10% above the market price

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W________⑥, sales of Fairtrade-certified coffee have increased from $22.5m per year to $87m per year since 1998. This is still only a tiny fraction of the overall world coffee trade, worth $10 billion annually. But there are plenty of other ★niche markets[4] for high-quality coffee. Some small producers can c_________⑦ more by marketing their coffee as organic—a switch which takes five years or so—or “bird-friendly” （4）because, unlike large, mechanised plantations, they have retained shade trees.

Starbucks, the Seattle-based coffee-bar c________⑧, says it uses a similar formula to that of Fairtrade in buying its coffee. All is bought at a “fair price”, says Peter Torrebiarte, who manages Starbucks’ buying operation in Costa Rica.  

（5）Some niches can be large. Only 6% of world o________⑨ is of top quality, but in Costa Rica and Guatemala the figure rises to 60%, says Mr Torrebiarte. Starbucks bought 37% of Costa Rica’s entire coffee crop in the 2004-05 season, according to Adolfo Lizano of the country’s coffee institute.  

Mexico lags behind its neighbours in extracting higher prices. But 95% of the coffee in Mexico is arabica—the type of bean demanded by connoisseurs—rather than lower-grade robusta. Almost all of it is grown at a________⑩, which also improves quality. So Mexico, too, has the potential to compete on quality rather than price. Only by following the path forged by Costa Rica and Guatemala, says Mr Celis, can Mexico’s coffee growers survive in the world market. （6）For their part, discerning coffee drinkers can satisfy their palate and their conscience at the same time.

[QUIZ]

（下列2题任选其一即可，认真答题者即给予80沪元奖励。不答题仅提问者，亦可得到至少20沪元奖励）

1. 根据空白后括号里面的词性提示和英文释义以及首字母，填入合适的单词（注意单词形式变化）。

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①s______(adj. rising or falling at a sharp angle)

②m______（v. to crush grain, pepper, etc into flour）

③m_______（adj. not very strong or hot-tasting）

④v_________（n. likelihood to change suddenly and unexpectedly or suddenly become violent or angry）

⑤a_______（n. something you hope to achieve by doing something）

⑥W________（adj. everywhere in the world）

⑦c_________ （v. to ask someone for a particular amount of money for something you are selling）

⑧c________（n. a number of shops, hotels, cinemas etc owned or managed by the same company or  

person）

⑨o________（n. the amount of goods or work produced by a person, machine, factory etc；production）

⑩a________（n. the height of an object or place above the sea）

2. 将文中划线部分英语翻译成汉语

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a worldwide slump

3 especially American English a period when a player or team does not play well（运动员及队伍）状态低迷期  

in a slump  

The Dodgers have been in a slump for the last three weeks.

[3]rock-bottom [only before noun]

a rock-bottom price is as low as it can possibly be: 极低的（价格）

bargain holidays at rock-bottom prices

[4] niche markets 瞄准机会的市场

niche [only before noun]

relating to selling goods to a particular small group of people who have similar needs, interests etc:  

niche marketing

a niche market

a niche product

在国内，niche market被译为“利基市场”，其中niche即拾遗补缺或见缝插针的意思，因此所谓利基市场可以指空缺市场。在市场经济条件下，一些企业专注于市场的某一细分环节，他们不与强势企业正面竞争，“不拿鸡蛋碰石头”，而是通过专业化经营、见缝插针地占据有利的市场位置，这部分市场就可称为利基市场。而利基营销则是指企业通过整合各种营销要素，如开发产品、市场推广、客户服务等，集中力量于某一特定市场，从而形成独具特色的经营策略与经营方式，最终造就在这一领域的差异化优势。

[TIPS & BACKGROUND]

关于咖啡的产区、特性

咖啡豆是一种类似樱桃似的种子，它生长在海拔6000 英尺、狭长的亚热带区域。

　　咖啡树是常绿植物，生长高度可达20 英尺。为了收获简单，一般将树剪成8 到10 英尺高。咖啡果成熟期并不一致，所以主要靠手工采摘。需要大约2000 个阿拉比卡樱桃果才能制造出1 磅烤制咖啡。由于每个果实有2 个豆，所以1 磅咖啡来自于4000 颗豆。每株咖啡1 年平均产1 到2 磅烘烤咖啡。咖啡树苗需要4-5 年才能开始结果。

　　咖啡树开白色小花，呈簇状，外形和气味与茶树相似。花期只有几天，然后结出绿色的小咖啡果，成熟后呈黄色、红色，最后几乎变成黑色。成熟期6 到9 个月。咖啡果采摘后就送去加工。有两种脱去外皮的方法：自然法，也秤干法；即晒干或烘干后用机械方法分离。湿法稍微先进，又称为浸泡法；所制备的咖啡豆又称水洗豆。绿色咖啡豆干燥、按大小分类、分级挑选，通常全凭手工。装袋后运到世界各地的烘烤店。我们日常所用的物品，很少象咖啡这样，需要这么多人力劳动

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[TRANSLATION OF FULLTEXT]（附难点讲解，一己之见，仅供参考）

还算公道  

生产优质咖啡并不是一件简单的事情。咖啡树必须种在荫凉处——不宜太稠密，也不宜太稀疏，最好种在山坡上——但不能太陡。三年之后，咖啡树即可结出鲜红的咖啡“樱桃”。采摘后，经加工去除（外面的）果肉，（将里面的咖啡豆）铺开干燥数日（最好放在混凝土上），然后再次研磨，分离咖啡豆，然后最好静置数月。此后才可进行烘焙、碾磨、发酵，最后制成让人睡意全无的成品咖啡豆。（恰恰就是这些咖啡豆，压制了许多人的梦想。）。（这里的"quell dreams”，我思来想去也想不出最合适的译法，这里有两种译法，仅供参考：其一，强调的是咖啡主要功用，即“提神醒脑”、“打消睡意”。其二，如我译文中，“让梦想破灭”，一是根据quell一词本身的意义，二来我把文章的背景也考虑进去了——很多农民辛辛苦苦种植、养护、采摘、制作……，最后为我们送上了美味的咖啡，然而由于发达国家的资本家的剥削，他们得到的回报微乎其微，"指望卖咖啡来过上好日子的梦想"因此而“破灭”了。——想来想去，很是牵强。）

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从世界范围看，“公平贸易”认证的咖啡销量自1998年以来，已从每年2250万美元增加到8700万美元。放到全世界每年100亿美元的咖啡总贸易额中来看，这只占很小一部分。但是，对于品质上乘的咖啡来说，存在足够的市场空间。（比如）有些小生产者可通过开拓“有机咖啡”（实际上要5年左右时间才能转化成功）或者“鸟类友善咖啡”市场来争取更高价格，因为这类咖啡有别于大规模、机械化种植出来的咖啡，它们都属于树荫咖啡。（树荫对于咖啡生长的意义见附录）

总部位于西雅图的星巴克咖啡馆连锁店称，它在购买咖啡时所遵循的原则近似于“公平贸易”，星巴克负责在哥斯达黎加采购咖啡的彼特•托莱比阿尔特说，买来的咖啡都“价格公道”。

有时候，小市场还可以做大做强。托莱比阿尔特说，全球咖啡总产量中高品质咖啡仅占6％，其中哥斯达黎加和危地马拉这一比例则达到60%。据哥斯达黎加咖啡研究所的阿多尔佛•里扎诺称，2004至2005年度，星巴克购买了哥斯达黎加咖啡总产量的37％。

就抬高咖啡价格以谋求更多利润而言，墨西哥落在了其周边国家的后面。不过，墨西哥有95％的咖啡属“阿拉比卡”咖啡（内行人追求的咖啡豆品种），而不是品级相对较低的“罗布斯达”，并且几乎所有咖啡都产自有利于改善质量的高海拔地区。因此，墨西哥的竞争潜力在于质量而非价格。塞利斯说，墨西哥咖啡种植户要想在世界市场中生存，只有仿效哥斯达黎加和危地马拉的模式。对这些种植户来说，掌握喝咖啡人的不同特点，就能让他们既感到有滋有味，又能问心无愧。（译者注：我的理解是，文章后四段均讨论的是高品质咖啡市场空间问题。在倒数第四段中，作者首先提到作为高品质咖啡的代表的“有机咖啡”和“鸟类友善”咖啡，该句用“口味”和“良心”正好与其一一对应。“有机咖啡”使咖啡更好喝，当然是“满足了口味”，而“鸟类友善咖啡”则强调咖啡树属于自然生长，树荫茂密，鸟儿可以自由歌唱，生态得以维持良好，人们“良心上就过得去了”。反之，如若为了大规模机械化种植而大肆垦荒伐林，让倦鸟无以归巢，试问，谁不自责呢？——一点肤浅看法）  

[KEY TO QUIZ]

①steep 陡峭的；②mill 磨；③mild 口味清淡的；④volatility 易波动性；⑤aim 目标；⑥Worldwide，世界各地的；⑦charge 收费，要价；⑧chain 连锁店；⑨output 产量；⑩altitude 海拔高度